Current Events > Let's talk about The Orville (SPOILERS)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wow, this show blew me away. Seth MacFarlanes other works for me have always been filled with too much low-brow and mean potty humor.

This show is brilliant and has real heart. All the characters are interesting and likable, including Seths character.

Its basically a more comedic Star Trek. Many have compared it to TNG. @DuranOfForcena I know you were doing a TNG watchthrough, have you watched/heard of The Orville?

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i really enjoyed it. not sure when its back

It was a sci-fi show on Fox, so they had no idea what to do with it other than punting it to Hulu.

Poop2 posted...

i really enjoyed it. not sure when its back

COVID disrupted production but multiple people involved with the series have confirmed they are indeed still working on Season 3. Apparently they had about 5 episodes done before the pandemic hit.

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It was great. I skipped at first, assuming it would be some stupid slapstick thing. But not, it's really just a good sci-fi show that happens to have some comedy parts.
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Mysterio400 posted...

It was great. I skipped at first, assuming it would be some stupid slapstick thing. But not, it's really just a good sci-fi show that happens to have some comedy parts.

I had the same feeling going in. I was thinking it would be something more akin to Space Cases on Nickelodeon but raunchier.

I was very surprised how nuanced this show is. Isaac's plotline on particular hit me hard. But every character gets great development and you learn yo really care for them.

Can't wait till Season 3.

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It's so much better than the cynical mess that Star Trek has turned into.
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Not a fan of star trek/sci-fi space stuff, but I love the movie Galaxy Quest. Is it anything like that?
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saspa posted...

Not a fan of star trek/sci-fi space stuff, but I love the movie Galaxy Quest. Is it anything like that?

It's definitely less comedy then Galaxy Quest. I'd say maybe more like Firefly without the Western/Cowboy parts.
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So I guess it's a no, since that's the part of Firefly I liked...

Moot point since it isn't on netflix
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DuranOfForcena posted...

yeah, i have been watching it all as it airs. it's definitely one of my favorite new shows of the past few years. it's funny, i knew going in that there were several parallels and inspirations from Star Trek in it, and from TNG specifically, but i started my watchthrough of TNG just this year (so after having watched all of what's out so far of The Orville), so i wasn't really quite aware of the sheer amount and extent of stuff from TNG The Orville really gets into until i was knee deep into my TNG watchthrough and finding something every few episodes or so where i'm like "hey, they did something like in The Orville" lol. i mean, i had watched TNG before when i was a little kid with my older brother, but i remember almost none of it. so a lot of it i'm basically experiencing for the first time right now.

the one big criticism i have of The Orville is that it relies way too heavily on 20th-21st century pop culture references for humor. thankfully, they got away from this a little bit in the second season compared to the first, and i'm hoping that will be a trend that continues in the third season, because it almost always seems really forced and out of place. things like the whole bridge crew watching an episode of Friends on the main screen on the bridge, or what i consider the worst offender, the jokes about the Krill god being named "Avis" like the car rental company. that would be like someone from our time making jokes about something having the same name as a carriage service company from the 1600s or something. how many carriage services from the 1600s do you know the slogan of? how many would you get the urge to make jokes about in random conversations? it was really weird how much they focused on that.

the humor is always better when it's something that's derived naturally and appropriately from the time period and setting of the show. like Isaac not quite understanding the nuance and limits of "practical jokes" when he had Malloy's leg surgically removed in his sleep. or when Mercer was attempting to hail someone over the ship's comms but the comms officer hadn't flipped the switch yet.

actually, i do have one more criticism i would level at the show, but it's minor in comparison to my beef with some of the humor. i think in a couple of episodes, the show got a bit too heavy-handed with the preaching about cultural relativism. there was just a couple cases of that happening though, unlike the humor which was basically omnipresent, so i don't count it against the show as a whole that much.

Lacking any new Orville episodes to watch, I decided to launch my own watchthrough of TNG. Youre right, its exceptionally similar to the point that even just the Pilot of TNG contains aspects of The Orville from the entire duration of both its seasons.

The odd 21st century humor was jarring to me as well when it came up but I dont remember it being as frequent as you do. A lot of the comedy was situational and well-earned imo.

Zanzenburger posted...

I had the same feeling going in. I was thinking it would be something more akin to Space Cases on Nickelodeon but raunchier.

I was very surprised how nuanced this show is. Isaac's plotline on particular hit me hard. But every character gets great development and you learn yo really care for them.

Can't wait till Season 3.

All very well-said. I definitely cried during the first Claire-Isaac connection episode, most prominently at the ending.

Mysterio400 posted...

It's definitely less comedy then Galaxy Quest. I'd say maybe more like Firefly without the Western/Cowboy parts.

Its been years since I watched Galaxy Quest but tbh I laughed way more here than I did at that film.

saspa posted...

So I guess it's a no, since that's the part of Firefly I liked...

Moot point since it isn't on netflix

Could always do a Hulu trial. I know I watched all the episodes in less than 7 days.

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