Your thoughts on The Orville?
Your thoughts on The Orville?
When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.
To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.
What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.
It was/is the best modern "star trek" thats coming out. Loved that you could see all the writers and seth were just huge trekies. The moral dilemma's are almost always good. And the mostly episodic episodes are a huge bonus.
I would agree with you, until Star Trek Strange New Worlds. That show is fantastic.
I loved it. I thought the actors did a great job with some of the more sensitive content. It was pretty generic in general, but I didn't mind that. I like shows that don't take themselves too seriously.
I watched the first 2 seasons. The "sitcom in space" parts work quite OK, Kaylon's concept was somewhat interesting, space battles are well animated, particularly in the 2nd season which clearly got more budget, but...
Whenever the scripts stray away from "personal drama of the week" and dumb jokes about starships it becomes uninspired and shallow. It's clear to me that MacFarlane tries to "dunk on both sides". Sadly, his attempts at political/social critique look like "enlightened centrist" reddit rants which don't try to think about broader consequences and context of points being made. To the point of some stories being somewhat problematic when dissected.
I watched the first episode of the third season to see where does the series go. It took a highly sensitive topic, again reiterated high-school philosophy arguments and made this potentially hard and relatable for viewers subject into an awkward bedtime conversation. I decided the rest of the season is not worth my time.
Luckily Strange New Worlds premiered soon after and I never looked back. SNW beats Orville on all measures.
Strange New Worlds Season 1 was great. Haven’t yet had the time yet to watch Season 2 but it looks just as good so far. Still haven’t started the final season of Picard yet, but I’m assuming you liked that one too? I thought it was good for a limited run series.
Better Star Trek than actual Star Trek.
Modern Star Trek, right?
EDIT By “modern Star Trek” I mean every show from Discovery to Strange New Worlds.
I expected the Orville to be a funny homage to Star Trek. For a short time it was just that. Actually a randy one with too much toilet humor. But then suddenly they became serious SciFi. Which I consider a bold move and mostly but not utterly a successful one. And in hindsight, it would have been hard to deliver good SciFi-Humor for more than one Season except if they went the Futurama-Path.
The part of the funny homage to Star Trek nowadays has been taken by Lower Decks. Humorwise it beats everything Orville had ever offered.
Orville is good. Not great but worth watching. They had some AMAZING episodes with depth and ideas among the best ST-Episodes. But they also had a lot of mediocre episodes. Still Better than ST-Discovery for sure. Even surpassing ST-Picard. Which is something Seth can be proud of.
Orville started when there was no Startrek and no serious Soap-SiFi at all (The Expanse is something different).
For me it is "Startrek when Startrek wasn't" and basically revived the Franchise it wanted to make fun of.
I like it.
Excellent review
That actually sounds appealing when you describe it like that. I tried to watch it when it came out but it never delivered on the “funny”. It was just Star Trek but a little off.
Maybe I’ll try again or at least get past the first few episodes
I literally shed tears while watching the first episode because I didn't realize how badly I needed new star trek that doesn't suck. I just hit me right where I needed it to scratch that itch, and I was so overwhelmed. Also it made me hate even more what "real" trek has become. Huge fan, I didn't realize season 3 is already on, gotta check it out.
I really liked it.
The early seasons were less serious than later ones. But overall, it did well with serious social issues and addresses some very relevant topics.
The storyline with Topah was absolutely amazing. At every step, each character was portrayed well, and respectfully. It's rare that there is a story like that that still has conflict without having a clear villain.
The time travel episode with Gordon was also especially brutal with some great performances from everyone on screen.
There were a few misses. I found the Isaac / Doctor relationship... forced, even if it did bring us the best line in decades ("As I am incapable of stuttering, I must conclude that you heard me."). I also don't think I'm alone with disliking the Charlie character in season 3.
I loved how Klyden grew through that story line, realizing what his prejudice was costing him and growing!
The Klyden storyline has so many nuances to it. It's not just that Klyden is a bigot. "He" was also re-gendered so he knows what Topa is going through and feeling far better than anyone else. A big part of his intransigence comes from a place of, "If I had to deal with this trauma, so should everyone else." It helps explain his extreme position without letting him off the hook and I really liked that.
I agree on the doctor/Isaac arc (some spoilers), I thought it was all absolutely ridiculous. Isaac is only there to gather data about humanity and characterised as unfeeling and non-emotional. Then the doc pulls a fit about how he doesn't have feelings for her and everyone on the ship is behind her, ostrasising Isaac. It felt like there was no logic at all to the situation and everyone had gone bananas. The Isaac breakup scene was hands down my favourite in the show.
I think they screwed up the ending of the Gordon episode. If they'd cut from the captain and the team walking out of the door to Gordon being back on the ship packing away the phone and other things, it would have left it more to the viewers to decide if the decision was right or wrong.
Best part of season three is Charlie's death. Felt almost forced in a way, but not in a good way. Like Charlie is an ensign but is on the bridge because she's really smart at 4d maneuvering or something, and they bring her everywhere. Definitely great when she finally went.
The Gordon/Time travel episode was brutal. It's the episode I keep referring to when attempting to get my girlfriend to suspend her dislike of Seth McFarlane enough to give the show a shot. I will be very disappointed if there isn't a 4th episode.
All I could think with how forced Charly was as a character was like is this a producers wife or girlfriend or something? I never looked into it, but I've never seen a show introduce a new character and focus on them so hard, even to the detriment of OG cast members, before. Like they pivoted to the Charly show. Some of the plots were good like her prejudice towards Isaac's race but like why did she get introduced and become the main character in one season? Lol
It felt way more like Star Trek than the Star Trek being made at the time (primarily Discovery). Though I do like Strange New Worlds and think it's more in the right direction, The Orville still feels way more like TNG-era Trek.
Now we just need a Galaxy Quest / Orville crossover to really confuse everyone.
Now we just need a Galaxy Quest / Orville crossover to really confuse everyone.
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
The river in winter and temba his arms wide my money!
Always thought the whole parody aspect was just a means to get funding to just make a regular star trek series in disguise. If someone would just give the man money for exactly that we would have an awesome star trek series.
After the first season, which was an obligatory “Star Trek Type Show Finds Its Feet” season, it really hit its stride to become the best Star Trek since DS9. Not in name, but certainly in spirit. So earnest, with a great message throughout. Sure it had some mediocre jokes here and there but so did TNG, let’s not forget. I was sitting around just the other day thinking how I missed watching The Orville
I feel the same way. Hope it comes back for another season.
Pretty sure it's renewed. The writers strike is probably going to slow down the release though
It was the best Trek we had in ages. Held me over until we got SNW and Lower Deck.
I really hope we get another season because they REALLY hit their stride last season.
It was the best Trek we had in ages. Held me over until we got SNW and Lower Deck.
Ditto. A real return to form, even if that form involved a lot of Space Wizards and other silly bullshit.
I honestly think the whole diplomatic triangle between the Planetary Union, the Krill/Moclan, and the Kaylon played out better than anything TNG managed. The Orville is easily on par with DS9 as one of the best sci-fi dramas produced to date.
Yeah, the Kaylon stuff with Isaac caught me off guard and blew me away.
I appreciate that they gave our characters more personal stakes in Teleya's relationship with Ed and Isaac's relationship with Claire.
Pundits say there won't be another season because he's focusing on the Ted series. It's supposedly doing well so no time for Orville
Thanks for the info, but that's incredibly disappointing. Ted is probably my least favorite thing Seth has ever done...
The Orville is my favorite Star Trek franchise. It's canon - you can't deny it. The Orville revived the Star Trek Franchise and gave it a pulse. It's like blockchain. You can say it doesn't belong, but it will always be there and nothing can change that. It has great attention to detail and decent story writing with that original "there's a moral in this episode" that endeared ST in our hearts, something the newer ST franchises lack.
And Galaxy Quest is the best Star Trek movie since the Undiscovered Country.
I'm not sure how to answer without getting roasted, but including GQ in canon does complete the Star Trek good-then-bad movie pattern.
I was initially turned off from it too because of the awkward comedy early on. But I have it another go and ended up enjoying it as an extension of Star Trek.
The vibe I get is he wanted to make a Star Trek show, but since he’s that comedy guy he probably got it greenlit as a comedy and then just slowly morphed into just Star Trek while the producers weren’t looking. I’m basing this on nothing, it’s just a funny head cannon.
It’s not a stretch to say it’s the only thing of this era that picks up the legacy of TNG trek. Lower decks is fun but too short to really do what full episodes could and while Strange New Worlds is ok… it still doesn’t feel in the spirit that I’m looking for.
The vibe I get is he wanted to make a Star Trek show, but since he’s that comedy guy he probably got it greenlit as a comedy and then just slowly morphed into just Star Trek while the producers weren’t looking.
This is actual reality, so you nailed it. Seth approached Paramount with a pitch for a nostalgic reboot of the TNG era, they said no, so he went to Fox who he had a great relationship with due to Family Guy and created The Orville.
Whether the producers were unaware of the slow transition to actual speculative fiction or not is unclear for the first few seasons. I think the final season shows that it was overt, however, since after changing networks the whole tone, production quality, and even the actual time length of the episodes all changed.
A "head cannon" is a big gun on your head.
It seems like a lot of modern star trek doesn't appeal to OG trekkies, but as someone who didn't watch anything pre-Discovery, I think most of it is pretty great compared to a vast portion of current TV.
Fair enough. It’s hard to watch them objectively without thinking about what we’re missing. What confuses me though is they new shows lean HEAVILY on nostalgia, suggesting that they’d be trying to get the audience that has nostalgia for it, but the rest of what makes up the shows isn’t anything like what made people originally enjoy Star Trek.
It's the best Star Trek show since Next Generation.
Kidding. I actually liked DS9 and Voyager
It's on par though.
Yeah. The Orville absolutely deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with a typical season of licensed Star Trek.
And that's a pretty big deal, because aside from the show we won't mention right now*, most Star Trek is pretty great.
*I'm just trying to start an argument between DS9, Enterprise and Discovery fans. Sorry.
This was basically the way I would describe the show.
I loved it because it had all the eye candy and high concept stuff I'm looking for but they didn't take themselves too seriously.
I didn't mind the acting or the incongruent personality quirks. I actually found most of it pretty endearing in a little relaxing. He probably should have broken the fourth wall a little more often.
Overtime the formula got a little too predictable. With the exception of an episode here and there are the story arcs were getting tired.
I enjoyed watching it, I wouldn't mind seeing more, but I have no urge whatsoever to go back and do a rewatch.
Agree on all counts, definitely regarding the story arcs too.
I love it, the gags and semi-coherent plot in the first season pulled me in and I was hooked after that. I understand Seth's humour can put some people off, that's fine too but I think the show is strong enough and has matured enough to stand side by side with modern Trek and hold its own.
I still remember the bit where they had given a small piece of the blobby alien to that other one with the iron stomach. Gold.
I thought it was a parody at first, and it certainly treated itself as such in the beginning, but in the later seasons, it took itself more seriously, and I found it a more "realistic" take than star trek.
Star trek is awesome, don't get me wrong. But the captains were kind of "perfect", basically. Captain Mercer and his crew are all flawed people, in their own way. They make poor decisions sometimes, out of selfishness, pride, or whatever, and it's fun to see them deal with the consequences.
It's why I love snw's current pilot, I think starfleet is very racist, she might be the only actual human being accepted into starfleet, well, her and pike of course, and maybe the current immortal engineer.
I'd describe it as a more irreverent version of a Star Trek universe with more realistic interactions among peers on the ship. A place where instead of it being an idealistic utopian society where everyone is a driven, passionate genius in their field, they're just people with jobs, have normal messy social interactions, and also sometimes deal with really big important political and military situations. They're capable members of the crew, but they still fuck around with their buddies like real people do. I find it refreshing, compelling and endearing. I love the Orville 90% of the time.
I loved it. So much sci if these days focuses more on world building than character development. Orville felt like it struck the right balance between the two and gave us characters that are easier to empathize with.
A good point. I feel like everything I watch now I just cannot stand any of the main characters. They're either abrasive angry awful people that I want nothing to do with, or boring dull wooden textbook characters that are so cliche you already know what the plot will be before it happens. These days if I don't like the characters within a few episodes, and care about what happens to them, I'm out.
It was a breath of fresh air after the disappointment of Discovery and proof that there are people who still believe in Star Trek's optimistic vision of the future. I think for that reason I and many other fans gave it a pass for a lot of it's flaws.
My biggest problem is that I feel the social commentary is rather poorly done. I've gotten into some nasty fights on reddit for saying so.
I'll start by saying what I think it does well. It's good at humanizing people who live in an oppressive society and portraying their point of view.
But the ideas it discusses aren't especially original or insightful. The world building doesn't exist to support them. The Moclans might be a fine allegory for trans and intersex issues, but they only work as an allegory and make no sense at face value. And they're portrayed inconsistently to allow whatever kind of episodes the writers want.
I feel like one issue is that McFarlane does not share the ideals of Star Trek. I don't get the impression that he sees the value of non-interference, for example. But nevertheless, the Union believes in it because the Federation does. Politically, he's a more conventional thinker than the classic Star Trek writers.
I really agree with you. The story line are often way too literal and and not novel.
I feel like one issue is that McFarlane does not share the ideals of Star Trek. I don’t get the impression that he sees the value of non-interference, for example. But nevertheless, the Union believes in it because the Federation does.
Don't watch stargate then! Star Trek is all like no we can't interfere, the prime directive, oh no, we can't share our technology! Then Stargate rolls in, tells the primitive locals their gods are fake, by the way check out these automatic machine guns, want one? lol
I'm not necessarily saying that I agree with the ideals of Trek, just that they're something that the Orville writers are trying to imitate. When it comes to politics and social commentary, they're not as deep thinkers as some of the writers of classic Trek.
I enjoyed Stargate in highschool. It has to be acknowledged that Earth in that show is in a completely different position than the Federation/Union, so it's not really a good comparison.
Microwave reheated Star Trek. I feel like it started out being too humorous, hit the perfect balance, and then veered into trying too hard to be Star Trek. If your Star Trek parody isn’t a parody anymore I’ll just…watch actual Star Trek. Lower Decks filled the Star Trek comedy hole much better.
When Orville was brand new, Star Trek Discovery was the only other option. And Orville was amazing by comparison.
The Orville is absolutely more Trek than Discovery ever was
A-freaking-men. Orville held down the camp while Discovery was busy doing whatever it was trying to do, spitting out endless melodrama, crises, and crying. I definitely enjoyed some Orville episodes but the show as a whole just felt like a pale imitation of Star Trek. No doubt MacFarlane can write/produce a good Trek-style episode but I'm not convinced he can run a whole Star Trek show.
I love SNW and Lower Decks. Between those shows and Prodigy (which goes weirdly dark at times for a show aimed at kids), I won't miss Orville if the third season was its final one.
I loved the jar of pickles joke. It somehow got me every time. Then they seemed to just drop it out of nowhere. Well I guess once she left, but still.
Bingo. It was kinda cute at first when it was still trying to be funny, but as the parody pretense slowly fell away it just got boring.
The strangest part about it is how each episode is a remix of a Trek episode and yet the remix makes it very clear that the writers just don’t get it. For example, season 2’s “Blood of Patriots” is a rearrangement of “The Wounded,” but the subplot about Mercer and Malloy being best friends forever trivializes what TNG successfully depicted as a nuanced dilemma.
There’s no accounting for taste, but it genuinely surprises me that there seems to be so many Star Trek fans who think it’s any good. On the other hand, it seems pretty safe to say that season 3 was the last, so clearly the actual numbers were unremarkable.
It is the best Star trek show on right now even though it is not Star trek. Loved it. It reminds me of Firefly
Absolutely love this show. The bf and I still yell "PREPARE FOR THE SEXUAL EVENT" at each other when the moment calls for it.
I thought it was the best comedic Star Trek until Lower Decks dropped. It's still the best modern Trek show as a regular Trek show, albeit a lot more goofy than it needs to be since it's made as a comedy first. I watch it because it's actually about as good in the drama and set design as TNG was, but the humor, being driven by McFarlane, is just not my thing anymore. He's just got too much shit that's all over the place and I'm tired of it, not that it's bad in and of itself.
I feel like the humor has taken a massive backseat since like near the end of season 1. It definitely was a parady at first with some hit or miss jokes but the humor feels a lot more natural in recent seasons. Imo
Lower decks is a real hidden gem.
Is it that hidden, it's got a fourth series coming on soon. If anything Prodigy is ths hidden gem now.
The Orville is what would happen if the offspring of Star Trek and Galaxy Quest married Lexx and had a baby.
It actually has a lot of the same style social commentary that really Trek ToS and TNG had, combined with the absurdity and humor of GQ and periods of no-punches-pulled raunchy. I mean, go Yaphit and we all know kinky shit happened in holedecks too but it's something else to see on screen.
I am very much looking forward to the next season. It's actually one of the very few sci-fi movies I've gotten my wife to watch with me that she enjoyed
holedecks
Freudian slip, eh?
LoL. Yup, but still accurate
It was the Star Trek we needed before SNW and Lower Decks. Seth and the Orville are not universally appreciated but I doubt the Orville escaped the notice of the writers and producers at Paramount. The Orville charted a sometimes difficult and uneven course to the golden age of Start Trek we are currently enjoying and along the way made some excellent episodes and introduced some good lore and characters.
I enjoyed it at first, but I think season three was when the balance between comedy and seriousness made it fall apart a bit. Are we doing fart jokes or serious drama here?
Couple that with Seth driving off actors or elevating them to be main cast because he's sleeping with them, and my wife and I just couldn't get in to season 3. Thoroughly enjoyed the previous two light-hearted seasons with a touch of drama and trekiness.
I didn't think the Star Trek formula would work with silly jokes instead of everyone taking themselves super seriously.
I was wrong.
Love it, way better than Spores-are-actually-the-Force-now-all-of-a-sudden-Space-JesusI loved it. Reminded me of my beloved farscape
I haven't seen a single muppet in The Orville. 3/10^ /s
Oh man, The Orville would be a perfect series to do some kind of Farscape spoof episode. They need to visit a planet with a bunch of muppets where everybody speaks with an Austrailian accent, except for one guy played by Ben Browder.
I haven't caught up with the most recent season, but I really liked all adventures the crew went on. One thing I did remember wishing was for the show to drop the Ed and Kelly relationship subplot, since I liked the more friends and professional dynamic. And I miss Alara too, and wish she'd be part of the crew again.
Pretty sure Seth and the actress that played Alara (Halston Sage) dated IRL and broke up which is why I suspect she left the role.
I believe she left for a movie career... that started with X-Men Dark Phoenix, which lost over $100 million at the box office.
I think that’s my least favorite part about the show is that awkward relationship.
They should have written some other role for them.
Alara comes back, but just not as a crew member.
Seth McFarland fixing his lonliness in space. Or Seth McFarland and the girl of the week.
I liked it at first, but felt the constant story lines about Seth and his love life to be a bit much. Tone down on that, give me more space exploration and less broken heart lonely man stories, and I might enjoy it more.
Put me in the "like it don't love it" camp. It is very clearly Seth MacFarlane's love letter to 90s trek, pulled some good ideas from that era's writers, and has more heart than it seems in the first couple of episodes. Some of the character work is actually quite touching, and it seems like they're having fun with the show, so it's rarely a slog. Overall though, it is way too uneven to be great or even really good.
Seth is not a great actor, and several members of the cast are MUCH worse than him, like "low-end dinner theater" bad. The set design, costume, and prosthetics are pretty weak, and Seth's sense of humor just doesn't work for me, so in a context where he's trying to find the right balance with a Star Trek show, it hits even more awkwardly. It's also very specifically SETH MACFARLANE'S love letter to Star Trek, so there's way too much emphasis on 1980-2000 American pop culture, and I say that as someone who's only a few years younger than him. It's distracting how narrow the set of references are in a show that traffics in them so liberally.
There's also something just a bit off about the messaging of many of the more serious episodes, like Seth feels a need to come down on a definitive answer to the moral questions that come up. I dunno, I am having trouble recollecting specific scenes, but it's a lingering feeling I have. I almost imagine 20-something Seth in a dorm room at RISD screaming at Picard that he should have just shot that Romulan!
I definitely agree about the messaging. The Orville's idea of social commentary is: here's some aliens that built their society around a thing we don't like for no reason, they're total dicks for no reason, therefore the thing is bad.
The Moclan gender issue has been praised as an allegory for trans and intersex issues. But my problem with it is it ONLY works as an allegory. Their society makes no sense at all taken at face value, and has been portrayed inconsistently depending on what point the writers want to make. Why would a naturally hermaphroditic species adopt the human concepts of "male" and "female" in the first place?
I do like the show. It's entertaining, and a sincere attempt to recreate what worked about Star Trek in a way that Disc and Picard weren't. But the social commentary is just not well done. The Orville writers aren't visionaries or philosophers on the same level as the classic Trek writers.
For me after DS9, The Orville is (to me) the next canonical Start Trek series. Everything after is, from what I've seen is trash that exploits the name for an established fan base. Now I haven't seen everything, but like, how many times do you need to be kicked in the nuts to know that you don't like getting kicked in the nuts and you just stop!
I loved, FUCKING LOVED, TNG. Honestly, that show shaped a lot of who I am, especially since I didn't have a good father figure growing up.
The Orville isn't perfect. Seth for better or for worse tries some jokes and some of them really don't land. But to his credit he tries. And it felt like as the show went on it got more refined in what it wanted to be.
The people who are in charge of modern Star Trek can shove it up their ass. You can't tell me a single one of them ever sat down and ever actually watched Star Trek. TOS, TNG, VOY, and DS9 I'm here for it all. Everything after, Jesus Christ, just awful. I'd rather watch Dr Crusher get it on with a ghost repeatedly than sit and watch modern Star Trek.
But the Oroville like a breath of fresh air.
did you try stange new worlds?
No. Isn't that a spin off of Discovery? I survived the ride that was Enterprise, but Discovery said as the first time I noped the fuck out.
I did a quick look via Google, the uniforms look very TOS to me, is it good? Or is it just that much more of terrible writing and 0 acknowledgement of any established stories and lore or just generally Gene's vision for what Start Trek as a concept was.
It filled a hole when there was no good classic star trek being made.
Now we have Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks so there a bit more variety/competition in the arena
When Orville started and all we had was Discovery I'd agree, but Trek has pulled itself together of late with Pic S3, Strange New Worlds and Prodigy. The last few episodes of SNW have been amazing.
I might check out Strange New World, seems to get mentioned a few times.
But you ain't getting me to watch Picard, lol. A show that very clearly should have been a direct continuation of TNG... Unless season 3 is Picard waking up in his quarters and everything that happened before (in Star Trek: Picard) was just a terribly written nightmare... From perhaps drinking to much... Uh... Well it was green.
Modern Trek does have a few gems. Lower Decks is fun, Prodigy was nice (and will hopefully still get its next season soon) and Strange New Worlds has been pretty close to proper old Trek.
It's the best Star Trek series since DS9.
I miss Alara, too. Lieutenant Replacement Goldfish isn't nearly as good.
It's BS that Yaphit got a medal for that business with the Kaylons but Ty Finn didn't. He was the actual hero there!
Dolly Parton cameo had me friggin' dying.
I bet Dolly was just tickled pink that her song is a revolutionary anthem
I think she got a kick out of it, she was smiling like a school girl the entire cameo.
I stopped watching shortly after Alara left. I mostly couldn't stand the Captain and his ex, or any of their humor stuck in the year 2005, and the only other characters I really liked weren't part of the 'main team'.
Up until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, it was hands down the best modern Star Trek (like) show. It’s definitely a little clumsy early on, but after a few episodes it’s very clear that Seth is finally fulfilling his childhood dream of doing Star Trek even if it’s his own version of it. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope season 4 happens.
Orville season 3 has a few episodes that are easily up to par in the top 10-20 star trek episodes of all times.
I wanted to like it, but didn’t get through S1. I found the humor so uneven that it made the whole thing almost uncomfortable. Is it an irreverent parody, sci-fi, slightly crude comedy, or is it Star Trek? It’s all of those things, and I’m happy folks enjoyed it. I’ll try to revisit at some point, but for now I’m so happy that Strange New Worlds is as surprisingly excellent as it is. For me, it nails the mixture of lightheartedness, sci-fi adventure, and earnestness that I like in Star Trek.
It's a love letter to star trek. I strongly recommend you give it another try to get through the first season, because by season 2 they found their stride and it got way better.
probably quicker amd easier to just pick an early episode of S2 and see if you enjoy it more. Orville does a pretty good job of being fairly episodic, which is a highlight.
Huh, I also struggled to like SNW but really enjoyed Discovery. Maybe I’ll try that again too
Best show ever. I almost peed myself when Ed Mercer tried to eat those stones in the admiral's office in the first episode. Took me like 5minutes of the first episode to love it. And it has so many good episodes, etical dilemmas and thought provoking stories. And I like the Moclans. And i like the storytelling. Especially that most stories take one episode.
One of my favorite moments was when they were trying to teach Isaac about pranks and he removed Malloy’s leg.
When Alara throws the leg over her shoulder 🤣
The humor, humanizes it. TOS was great. But often a bit sterile and preachy. Still fascinating and a good watch. But nowhere near are relatable.
A lot of people were concerned that it was gonna be family guy in space. With all the toilet humor that involves. But honesty it was all tasteful, generally witty. And mostly seemed to genuinely add to the episodes.
But honesty it was all tasteful, generally witty. And mostly seemed to genuinely add to the episodes.
Ehh, having one of the main characters quote a Destiny's Child song in a scene set in the the year 2400, that aired in the year 2017 was pretty cringe.
I wish they chose their show's personality and stuck with it. I liked it when it leaned into the comedy, and I kind of liked it a bit more serious but willing to take on topics ST wasn't willing to. But It's really hard to accept the change mid way through the series.
Generally good though.
@Izzy true fact: Seth McFarlane developed the show after his friend and collaborator Ahmed Best (of Star Wars) pitched him the idea of a comedic Star Trek clone. It was called "The Nebula." I know because I was personally pitching the sizzle reel for the pilot to branded entertainment clients in 2009.
We owe the Orville to JarJar Binks?
"Jar Jar is the key to all this."
@masterairmagic in a word, yes.
As a long time Star Trek fan, I love this show. It really is better than a lot of modern Trek. Reading all these comments makes me want to engage in the watching event.
Edit: spelling
If you haven't checked it out yet, Strange New Worlds is definitely the best of modern Trek. This season especially has really reminded me of TNG.
Yeah, SNW is very good. I've not started the current season, but plan to soon :-)
I really disliked it. I thought it was a really poorly constructed clone of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and not a subtle one at that. The cut scenes, the sounds... It was all so incredibly "old" feeling.
The relationship between the robot and the doctor was excruciatingly cringy. It was so insanely contrived, and I can't conceive of why anyone tolerated it, let alone enjoyed it.
This said, it's not all bad. I enjoyed one or two episodes, I liked the comedy aspect, and I also enjoyed many of the CGI special effects.
Whatever you think of the show, it gave us one of, if not the most, epic CGI space battle. It was so damn long and intricate.
Wow, i don't know many people who dislike it. I think the TNG-clone feeling is deliberate. I think like science fiction holds up a mirror to our world... they chose to hold up another mirror and simultaneously copy The Next Generation. There is the doctor, a robot/android... you quickly catch many similarities... but further along things start to get skewed, sometimes your expectations get fulfilled or ruined and they play with the stereotypes. I think it's kind of genius and often times gives it one or two additional layers of depth. Especially when they simultaneously discuss philosophical stuff and simultaneously play with TNG storytelling tropes. Like when they introduced people on the orville are vegan. and star trek still struggles with that today and people far in the future are super advanced, but randomly kill cows to eat them.
I also think the relationship between the android and the doctor has a certain cringy-ness to it. We currently see AI slowly becoming reality. It is very up to date to discuss people having relationships with machines. But they somehow do it in a weird and strange way. And too dramatic. But remember, there's also Wesley Crusher. And Captain Proton and some weird robots on Voyager's holodeck.
I don't know why you associate that "old" feeling with something negative. It reminds me of good times, watching star trek series as a kid. And to this date i like those sounds more than the atmospheric sounds of recent Star Trek. And I also like the light and bright spaceships more than the recent tv shows that all happen at night and have dark and dimly lit sets. like Picard.
Like when they introduced people on the orville are vegan.
Malloy's line delivery in Season 3 when he confesses to killing and eating animals really goes a long way to show how far the ethical mores of future society have moved. He basically felt like a murderer because, to him at least, that's exactly what he felt like. Contrast that against his prior characterization as the goofy, prankster guy and you get so much more depth of character from him.
It's like Marty McFly admitting to Doc Brown that he killed and ate Biff because the Doc left the two on a desert island and timey wimey weirdness meant he showed back up two months later than he expected. Heavy stuff.
Great show in my opinion, liked season one and season two, while not so into season three until Charlie died. Definitely the highlight of that season.
I named my kid after one of the characters.
I had fun with it, and thought it had a pretty solid ending for the last season.
It's good
Love the coincidence, I am actually watching "Twice in a Lifetime" right now. I love the show so much. In many ways I see it as a more realistic Star Trek. The characters are flawed, they bicker and squabble and make bad decisions so often that they can't feel guilty for them or else it would crush them. I adore Star Trek, but the writing and characterizations in Orville are so relatable for me. The people are projections of my friends and family, for better or worse.
Also, at least the actress who played Alara got to date Seth Macfarlane.
I like it a lot. I hope there's a season 4.
Wanted to like it more than I did. Just didn't think it was all that funny.
Now I thought Avenue 5 (HBO) was absolutely hilarious. It's the funny I expected from Orville. Too bad it ended after 2 seasons.
This is a good show that is trying very hard not to be a great show. I would love to see it explode with popularity more than it already has.
It took me a few episodes. But now I think it’s entertaining and wholesome!
It’s my utopia of what humans could become in the future
Wait until you watch Star Trek!
In all seriousness, Star Trek does an amazing job at this. It's a fully fleshed futuristic utopia. The many episodes and movies that go back in time are hilarious, as they show the dichotomy of future utopia and the "dark age" present in a great way.
It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times
That's Seth humor in a nutshell.
Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough
Name a show that started off any other way though. Even SG1 is cringe in the first season. Lexx maybe, but even that one grew different after the first few episodes.
Good points. I'm was just unsure whether that was actually the case and I got used to it or it actually improved.
I was surprised by how good season one was. Season two was great fun. I hated season three.
I feel they tried too hard to make serious points and failed at telling good stories. They wanted to have big thoughts, but just weren't entertaining.
True. It changes quite a bit at that point. I'm optimistic they'll adjust that in season 4 and return to their former glory. maybe even more. i can't wait.
I loved The Orville when it was coming out, it scratched an itch that nothing else at the time did, but while it's been on hiatus/canceled we have gotten Star Trek Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks. One does the firm sci-fi with a relatable crew better, and the other does the comedy Star Trek better. I wouldn't be opposed to more episodes of the Orville, but I don't think that it is as needed as it was when it was coming out.
While I don't regret watching it—and I'd probably even throw on a new season if it gets one—I felt like it was missing any true classic episodes. I also kept having this strange sense of familiarity with episodes, as if it was just repurposing or rehashing older Star Trek plots.
I kept thinking, "Wasn't there a TNG/DS9/Whatever episode that explored this same general concept/idea, but better?". It felt like it was maybe borrowing just a bit too much from it's inspiration.
The spider episode with Alara is a classic imo.
When The Orville came out, I hadn't watched much Star Trek. Growing up, TNG was the one television show that my parents would break the "no TV at the dinner table" rule for, though it happened rarely enough that I really have no memory of it.
About 20 years ago I watched several episodes of TOS and liked it well enough.
I always wanted to like Star Trek, so ~10 years ago I tried season 1 of TNG, which I now realize is rather universally considered an error; and as a result, I didn't much care for TNG. But I still wanted to like it, and Star Trek in general! So when I saw The Orville, I decided to give it a shot. And while I agree that the early mix of comedy with more serious material was a bit off-putting, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. This was what TNG was trying to be (I mean, that's not really fair, but it was my initial sense).
Which then led me to season 3 of TNG, which I started watching last year. And I absolutely love it, and find it overall better than The Orville (which I still really like); but The Orville was basically my gateway to actually enjoying Star Trek.
So maybe I'm coming inside-out from most viewers, but I really like The Orville, and as a bonus, it got me "back" into Star Trek proper.
Entertainment wise, I find it to be very fun to watch and am always engaged while I have it on.
Thematically, I think it has either a bad or watered down argument sometimes, but other times I think it really hits. Either way though, I find the way it approaches certain ideas very interesting and compelling to discuss with my SO while we watch it, so even when I don't agree with the thematic intent of the episode, I find it worthwhile to interact with.
That said, it did make me cringe a little bit for the first 2 episodes. They're still worth watching for context instead of skipping them, but don't make any judgements on it until episode 3.
All in all, I give it a 8.5/10 personally but a 7/10 critically.
Cheesy but a different kind of cheesy than Star Trek.
Absolutely LOVE it. I've lost count of how many times I've watched the series and I am currently on another go thru of it. It's definitely a joke in the beginning and some jokes miss, but I love how they get into some good topics halfway through.
I wished I could have gotten past the awkward comedy you mention. Couldn’t get into it because of that.
It always felt so forced and artificial to me, like they were looking at a stopwatch with a bunch of entertainment lawyers going "okay, better do a dick joke now so we can still claim 'Trek parody' instead of getting sued for blatantly doing bootleg Trek."
I like a lot of fanfic but Seth MacFarlane's just failed to grab me, and given how much I adore "Lower Decks" I'm glad the official comedy Trek job was given to those folks and not the "Family Guy" contingent.
Later seasons of it are better. Less humor for comedy's sake, but still with some native humor and warmth. Much better than the first episodes.
I fully understand that, I was at times to much for me too. But some episodes of season one showed its potential and the awkward comedy declined episodes by episode. So I kept watching. Season 2 was great and humor was handled better and did not overstay it welcome. Season 3 is just great Sci-fy. (So far, I am just in the middle of it).
I might give the first few episodes a try and then go ahead and skip season 1 if I'm not liking it. I've done that before and then by the time I finish the series I "want more" so I go back and rewatch the seasons I didn't like as much and end up being grateful they exist.
I loved it and it's definitely on the list of shows that I'll rewatch sometime sooner or later
Blatant self insert early TNG fanfic. If you liked (or even wrote) that kind of thing in the 90s, you'll like Orville.
I did it backwards and started watching Star Trek shows because I love The Orville so much! Hoping it gets renewed for another season soon.
Season 3 was not good; it was heavy-handed writing and wasn't all that good drama.
It was surprisingly good. I enjoyed it a lot. Didn't think I would but it's much better than Picard, such a boring show.
Picard existed for one reason: To provide a vehicle for ending a bunch of TNG-era storylines so they wouldn't end up fucking the next Trek series as fans ask, "What happened to the Borg? Where is Q? Why doesn't Guinan show up? What about the Romulan homeworld?" and so on. (Okay, two reasons: The second is "money!")
In that, it did an acceptable job, presuming you look at it as a series of endings. And season 3 was an absolute blast full of nostalgia, while still giving the post-TNG era a relatively clean slate to start from.
In keeping an audience engaged with an exciting storyline, or a coherent plot... not so much.
The problem with that is the first two series just made things more complicated than they were. Series 3 smashed it though and wrapped things up nicely. If we don't see more of the Enterprise G crew in future we've been robbed.
Picard season 3 is a beautiful love letter to TNG
Best modern Star Trek show.
By "modern Star Trek" I mean every show from Discovery to Strange New Worlds.
I just started watching SNW and I like it so far. Sounds like you aren’t a fan?
I didn't see it yet. But I heard mix things about it.
The Orville is to Star Trek as Spaceballs was to Star Wars. A humorous parody, but I can appreciate the effort that they put in to have the show take itself a bit more seriously during dramatic scenes. I enjoyed it, although I only saw two seasons.
I don't agree with this assessment. The Orville is only a Star Trek parody for the first two episodes, after that it feels more accurate to me to call it an homage.
Excellent show. It took a little bit to get it's tone, but half way through the first season it really hit its stride.
The third season of the show is some of the best sci-fi ever made with political and social commentary that rivals things like ST:TNG's "Measure of a Man" and ST:DS9's "Siege of AR-558", but with a good mix of humor similar to ST:LD.
If you haven't watched Orville, you're missing out on some absolutely fantastic Sci-Fi. I'm only sad it's unlikely to get a fourth season, because it deserves it.
I hated the pilot, never went back
The pilot is 'awkward, predictable, dated humor in space, lolz!' but it does get better in season 2. Then it falls off again.
The pilot was a but rough but overall it honestly gets a lot better pretty quickly, with a few bumpy episodes. If you were at all a fan of earlier Trek you might come to enjoy it.
I liked that they weren't the most important ship... and then they became the most important ship. Near the end the fate of every species in the galaxy hinged on the love life of three couples on a minor starship.
It also felt like they had 2 or 3 seasons of stories and hulu said "you get one", so they rushed it.
I stopped after watching a few episodes. I guess it just wasn’t for me. Most people I know like it though.
It strikes me as a show that was only meant to be 1-2 series but due to popularity has kept going and now its trying to find the balance between comedy and seriousness.
I thought it would be a parody show at first but its good casual sci-fi entertainment. I liked the first two seasons better than S3.
Love the Orville. Glad to watch more if they make more.
It's better Trek than most Trek, IMO. Had some cool adventures and raised some interesting on sometimes difficult questions about morality and how it's shaped by our societies.
Recently binged the whole thing. Loved every minute.
Like others said, the humor started out really awkward and forced, but I feel like they hit their stride by season 2
I don't think it'll ever go down in the annals of the greatest scifi shows I history. But as you say, it's a really excellent "comfy" show
It was fine. Had a lot of good parts and interesting plots. Also was completely cringy and stupid in plot decisions at times. I'd watch another season if it came out, but Seth Macfarlane can't act his way into a middle school play. His heart-to-heart scenes are painfully awful.
I like it! It's a nice casual space show with a decent mix of humor and seriousness.
I find it to be more "star trek" than some of the new star trek shows.
By season 2, I was also hooked to this show. I wish they would make more seasons!
Actually I think much like Strange New Worlds, I think that it showed me how much of the recent issues I have with Star Trek is that it takes itself too seriously. (In fact also as for Star Wars, as blasphemous it is to mention here)
Wait which part is blasphemous? It's been like 25 years since criticizing star wars is blasphemy lol..
My problem with modern trek is that it's just really really shitty B or C rated generic action/dramas with a star trek "skin" on it. But if you changed a few characters names, the setting, and a few minor things, it would be indistinguishable from any other generic shitty forgettable show you've seen. It's like the writers have never actually seen star trek.
This show is very profound to me. It explores important issues, timeless and topical moral questions, and social/political dilemmas with such depth and thoughtful consideration. I really hope it gets a fourth season
I love the Orville, but the shift in format with the most recent season, to movie length episodes, made it largely inaccessible to me.
Just pause it and come back to it later, at least that's how we watch some movies during the week, 45 min segments and pick it up the next day
They tend to hit a break about halfway in that would allow the episode to be cut into serial two-parters.
Well, at least it's over, then.
I personally really enjoy it. It is more heartfelt than I expected.
This was my feeling on it, too. Way more depth than I first expected. It felt like a spiritual successor to TNG.
I'm sure this has been said in other comments but I would love to see Seth McFarlane given the Star Trek IP and free reign. I would actually pay Paramount Plus or whatever streaming service like $20 a month while this theoretical show was active. As an aside I think Garak is the best character in all of Star Trek.
So I respectfully disagree with this. I love the show, and it pre-dates the startrek revival, but its very much it's own thing. There's clearly a lot of love there, but it's not the same. Closest you get is lower decks, which ate a lot of Orvilles lunch but still toned down a ton of riff and grosser comedy.
It's weird, it's wonderful, it kept the flame burning when there wasn't much else there yet and probably played a role in showing there was a market for a lot of the newer trek we have now.
MacFarlene loves trek. I hope he's proud of the show, keeps some of the more serious and weird genuine sci-fi elements, but he shouldn't do trek. Trek is fine now. Seth can do his own damn thing. He's got the chops for it. He needs to work on making the gear shift from "real sci-fi" to "family guy in space" a little less abrupt and a bit more blended, but it's great to have out there and I'll never miss an episode.
I don't think Trek is fine now. I don't think there has been a Star Trek revival. I love the Orville. I 100% believe the show is a success on its own. Unfortunately I don't think we are going to see more Orville and I would rather see McFarlane in charge of Trek than anything SNW will put out. SNW is fine. Lower Decks is fine. Compared to Discovery and Picard they are friggin masterpieces. But judged on their own they are just fine. In my opinion. Some people love them and I don't understand but whatever. I just want more cerebral sci-fi in any form I can get it.
I liked it, it is pretty star trek the next generation(which i love) though sometimes it gets really up its own ass. I like more philosophical/ethical subject episodes than constant interpersonal relationship episodes.
That the first season/part of first season was awkward qualified it as part of the Star Trek tradition, they all stumbled around to figure out what they were doing at first. I would say that it is Star Trek just as much as Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek movie, and perhaps that's the issue with some not liking it fully...it's a parody/alternate take of the idea carried out a bit too long, whereas Galaxy Quest was the perfect amount.
As a Star Trek fan since the 70s, I can say that all versions have their highs and lows, there isn't a perfect one. And from the Vulcan philosophy of IDIC (Infinite Diversity In Infinite Combinations), this is how it should be. The more the better, even some of Discovery. I think the idea of Discovery was great, it just wasn't implemented well, but again, I could point out other Star Trek that shared that.
I like it, enjoy it for the most part and am glad it exists. But the politics comes off a bit weak and tips sometimes too far towards the self-congratulatory ethno-centrism of bad early 20th century anthropology.
Loved Series 1-3. When is Series 4 due? Seth Rocks!
The pure silliness is just too much for me. I know they are trying to hide something good under there, I can see glimpses of it, but I just can't get past the constant childish humor.
I hate the design of the ship, the shuttles in season 3 at least look cool. Other than that, it was great show until season 3 when I felt they took too much time for EEEEEEEVERYTHING. This is literally the first show ever where I started skipping through episodes.
What is it these days that series and movies maker seem to think quantity equals quality?
Can't agree with you there. Season 3 was when Orville was at its best IMHO.
I imagine they had to use that design as Star Trek probably wouldn't let them use nacelles in any configuration.
I rather like the design because it looks a lot like magnetic field lines, and if it's generating some kind of field it would probably have a similar geometry
Knowing Seth McFarlanes history, I always suspect a dirty joke behind everything he does, so I always feel like the ship design is also a dirty joke that I just haven't figured out jetzt.
My initial reaction was that it was likely to be Seth Macfarlane's "Galaxy Quest the TV Parody"...but then I watched it, and then it grew on me. I've grown to like it quite a bit.
It was the best trek on TV since Star Trek Enterprise.
But I now also love Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
Really loved it, after the first couple episodes it felt like Star Trek with average people, without the overhype of modern star trek.
I tried to get into it but ultimately it was too campy and borderline cringey (Norm's terribly animated and written blob character) for me.
I have yet to see this show. Is it on Paramount+? I may have to sub for this and Picard.
This is on Hulu, totally worth checking out.
It's on Disney + as it was part of the Fox slate.
Love it. It changed a bit, but still dig it.
It’s a good show and I like it.
Who's Orvile?
One of the Write brothers
I thought it was great. At the time there was a void, no true startrek was being aired. Then this show comes along, and yeah it has humor, but it had just as much heart as startek.
At first I thought it was full on satire but then it also discussed serious issues so I'm not sure. It's good but it feels like a Star Trek clone.
I liked it well enough to keep watching it while I had a service that showed it, but MacFarlane never stopped grating on me.
Hated the pilot because of the cheating + having to work with the person who cheated. Dropped it there.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really loved the first season. To me it felt like the good old optimistic utopia Trek but with real people. I tought the episodes had nice and creative topics, including the zoo critique, multigenerational space travel, upvote/downvote society, time-irregularity planet - it was mostly decent sci-fi with some well thought out and fun relationships (Cupid's danger) some outstanding social commentary (About a girl) and a rather weak time-travel episode, which is always a bummer, but never mind.
Then, by season 2, the characters started to transform into plastic figurines with soap opera dialogue and arches (which is a symptom many Trek shows suffer from, to be fair). For example the whole "Oh, captain and first commander cannot date, because the captain couldn't be objective then" (never mind him having feelings anyway). It felt to me like some of them'd been shoven a ruler up their asses. We get some average and some cringe ill-thought out episodes (like the porn-addiction one - the topic could have been a treasure trove if treated properly). It's old-school Trek with all the bad things along the good ones.
Season 3 involves much more action and shooting and it doesn't add any value to the stories. The good arch involves Topa and the Moclan society. The Kaylons (including Isaac) are overall a disappointment. They are supposed to be extremely intelligent but they are not written to really seem that way. They appeared to me to be very stupid and slow-learning. The main characters lost all appeal to me, because they often act in a cold and hostile fashion (like being jerks to time-traveling Gordon instead just leaving him with his familly and picking him up earlier without making the whole ugly drama).
I miss Alara too.
I just couldn't make it myself like it. Granted, I only watched the first couple episodes but it felt just too stretched for me.
Episode 1 & 2 are so rough me and my SO almost dropped it but after making it through to episode 3 we were hooked enough to practically binge watch all the way through the end of season 2 (where we're at currently).
Just watch episode 3 and see what you think at that point. I know it's cliché to say things like this but it really does pick up massively at that point. Season 2 especially is some of the most compelling TV I've watched.
Star trek with jokes!
Try Avenue 5 (It was on HBO)
IMO, it was much funnier than Orville. Space cruise ship goes off-course.
Yeah armando ianucci is a British comedy institution! Ave5 is more gag oriented than the orville and didn't have the more serious elements the orville incorporates. Both good for different reasons.
I've never seen it, but in that poster, Seth is one of the few actors who looks like he's got his head on correctly. Greenie on the left looks like her head might actually fall off. (I'd probably watch it if that was one of the plots)
I might give it a shot if it weren't for Seth McFarlane. The dude is the antithesis of comedy.
That's how I feel about him too, but while the show is a bit on the silly side, the McFarlane humor is toned down enough to work reasonably well.
It's not in the same league with Strange New Worlds, but it's a nice change from awful, gritty, nu-trek.
That was my feeling. But I actually like it It's kind of a weird combo of jokes and serious topics, kind of like mixing fart jokes with social issues.
I do not like Seth's humor... But I really like the Orville. Besides the first 3 episodes, the humor is a nice Ballance, and really feels like Star Trek.
Seth Rogan is the antithesis of comedy. I've never laughed at anything he's said.