The Orville

Yggr of Asgard

The embedded social commentary (it can't be a female reaction of Lt. Cmdr. Bortus or the comments of the calvions about reality TV) is typical of Seth.

Overall Episode 2 served very much as helping us to further understand the dynamics and characters of the senior officers of the ship.

I'm going to watch Episode 3 and than make my final determination, so far, it's too unclear what this is.

Yes, it could be a great homage to Star Trek (including loads of small references to TOS) but with "real" Star Trek coming (even it's streaming only) is there really a need to watch this rather than the "real".

pixelburp

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

The embedded social commentary (it can't be a female reaction of Lt. Cmdr. Bortus or the comments of the calvions about reality TV) is typical of Seth.[...]

Given we're talking about an unabashed homage to Star Trek here, I don't think it'd be Trek either without embedded social commentary

Yggr of Asgard

pixelburp wrote: »

Given we're talking about an unabashed homage to Star Trek here, I don't think it'd be Trek either without embedded social commentary

Well there is the way TOS did it and there is the way Seth does it, so I'm giving it another episode.

So far this together with "Wisdom of the Crowd" is on my "pulled from schedule" list.

pixelburp

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Well there is the way TOS did it and there is the way Seth does it, so I'm giving it another episode.

So far this together with "Wisdom of the Crowd" is on my "pulled from schedule" list.

While Star Trek had noble intentions with its social conscience, its execution frequently let itself down - not least TOS, with instances like these guys about as subtle as a brick to the face:



The Orville, for all its faults, has yet to hit those kind of 'heights'. I thought the sting at the end was more a standard cliffhanger of the norm upended than any kind of commentary. If anything, the fault was probably in tipping this status quo so soon after only meeting the character.

Agent Coulson

The new season of Black Mirror has a Star Trek inspired episode I'll be looking forward to see Charlie Brooker's spin on it compared to MacFarlane's.

Slydice

That episode was more trekkie feeling than the first I thought

Slydice

OK, now it's starting to bed down a bit.

The story

felt like it was going the other direction and did bring out the real awkward feels inside

. Has the feel of a plot arc being developed.

The cast felt mixed in their performances. It's new though and it looks like they are putting the effort in to develop.

Guffy

I keep looking at the ship thinking, "it's seth, this is supposed to look like something", but i cant see it.

Its ok. I'll probably watch it but won't be waiting for it to come out each week. More a case of o a new episode, pass an hour or so.

Yggr of Asgard

Last nights episode was a roller coaster in both story line and performance.

Agent Coulson

Scott Grimes was on the p1ss in Dublin last night with Russell Crowe

https://twitter.com/russellcrowe/status/910935468329418753

Guffy

Christ ep 3 was preachy

MOH

Watched the first 3 eps last night after coming across a scathing review of the third one.
Think I was expecting live-action Family Guy in space, wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but it's really growing on me.
It's not really a comedy, more a standard Trek-like series with some jokes thrown in.

Not really getting the complaints about the visuals, in the the first five minutes I was surprised at how expensive it looked compared to what I was expecting.

I think it's suffering a lot of criticism for a few reasons:
- people who don't like Seth McFarlane. I'm probably one of them, and the show would probably be better if he wasn't in the main role, but a lot of people had it written off before it aired because of him
- ironically, people who do like Seth McFarlane, or at least his comedy. I'm one of those too. A lot of people were expecting all-out comedy, initially surprised it was classed as drama, and now slamming it for not being funny enough. In fairness, that's possibly down to bad marketing and expectation management
- there were quite a few negative reviews of the third episode, including at least a couple I read that criticised it based on the same misunderstanding of something clearly explained in the episode. So either none of those reviewers actually watched it, some just based the reviews off other reviews, or they went in with a predetermined view of the episode and weren't going to allow the actual content get in the way (in fairness, competent reviewers are hard to find these days).

Overall it's interesting, though I don't know if it's going to work long term. A stronger lead actor would have helped, and it needs to decide soon if it's a comedy or a drama. Still think it's worth sticking with for the moment though.

Guffy

Guffy wrote: »

Christ ep 3 was preachy

No more so than The Outcast fro TNG

TerrorFirmer

Though Ep3 was another good one. It's getting more trek like with each passing episode.

Slydice

The cameos in episode 4!

MOH

Slydice wrote: »

The cameos in episode 4!

I got to the last one and kept thinking "nah, that can't be him ... can it?"
Bah, just googled it and got a spoiler for next week's cameo - so don't do that.

Solid enough episode, despite a weird continuity error early on: "Isaac, go back to the shuttle and contact the ship". Next scene Isaac's still trudging along beside him.

jimmycrackcorm

Slydice wrote:

The cast felt mixed in their performances. It's new though and it looks like they are putting the effort in to develop.

I was caught out by episode two. Want electing the typical politically correct TV show lesson.

I'm getting very impressed with this series. Early days but I think already it will stand out. Kudos for first class visuals.

It is definitely better, but I seem to be the only one who thinks the mentioning of the marriage/divorce is just getting a bit annoying. It's classic MacFarlane shtick; take a joke that wasn't massively funny to begin with and keep doing it.

pah

Deleted User wrote: »

It is definitely better, but I seem to be the only one who thinks the mentioning of the marriage/divorce is just getting a bit annoying. It's classic MacFarlane shtick; take a joke that wasn't massively funny to begin with and keep doing it.

Well you seem to be the only one mentioning it (across multiple threads)

How could it not be regularly mentioned? It's an integral part of the show & the characters development

Bandana boy

Really confusing show
They are clearly playing for laughs when you see the like of Black pilot reaction to getting the kill shot or chats between the two pilots
But then you go large parts of the show with nothing even vaguely amusing happening.
FG works because while lots of jokes miss the mark they come every couple of seconds and enough land .
This tries so much fewer and most are terrible and miss

I can see them staying light hearted but dropping the overt comedy

MOH

Bandana boy wrote: »

Really confusing show
They are clearly playing for laughs when you see the like of Black pilot reaction to getting the kill shot or chats between the two pilots
But then you go large parts of the show with nothing even vaguely amusing happening.
FG works because while lots of jokes miss the mark they come every couple of seconds and enough land .
This tries so much fewer and most are terrible and miss

It's not trying to be Family Guy in space though. It's weird, but it's as if Seth McFarlane wanted to make a Trek show, knew he'd never be allowed to, so had to sell it as a comedy. It seems to has come out as some weird hybrid where it needs to lean on the jokes a bit too much but there's actually a surprisingly good show underneath.

Yggr of Asgard

So I'm sticking with it.

While it's some sort of mix of genres for me it's the best Star Trek that there is right now on the box.

I hear you say "Discovery" but the way "Discovery" feels right now is not really Star Trek.

Yes, I know Star Trek is about embracing change and differences and if I can't apply that to the TV shows as well as people, than am I really a Trekkie?

But in this case, I prefer Seth McFarlane's fan project over the official version.

silverharp

midnight's edge: spin through to 28:44 nice discussion of the orville with some contrast to discovery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIjwCLqdH-8

Yggr of Asgard

So last nights episode made it clear to me, The Orville is a very good version of Star Trek. I'm going to continue to have this on my DVR.

I don't know. It feels like it doesn't know exactly what it is.

connemara man

It's a space dramady I like it and look forward to seeing it every week

Basq

Probably second best new cable show this year for me anyways.. behind The Good Doctor.

Yggr of Asgard

Is The Good Doctor worth it? I just watched the Pilot and could not get behind it totally.

I re-watched STD to see if I'm missing something, but nope, can't get behind this totally, for me The Orville is the better version of Star Trek.

Basq

Yggr of Asgard wrote: »

Is The Good Doctor worth it? I just watched the Pilot and could not get behind it totally.

It's decent albeit essentially House without Hugh Laurie. It's solid enough week after week mainly thanks to Highmore's performance.