
“The Orville” is on a smoother trajectory, with just a bit of turbulence - curtis
https://musingsofamiddleagedgeek.blog/2017/11/27/the-orville-is-on-a-smoother-trajectory-with-just-a-bit-of-turbulence/
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andrew_wc_brown
I think the show has excellent character building which makes you invested in
the show.

Giving them backstories, intertwining their relationships. There's no waste is
this this show.

Dann who appears as a background character and brought in for one off jokes,
I'm expecting them to elevate round out his character.

The reviewer validates same thoughts I have. Seth McFarlene weakens his own
show being captain. The bet jokes are the ones not thrown in your face.

Sometimes the setup of the show feels forced, and they are playing star trek.

I'll take what I can get.

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jv22222
I really like this show. I think with TNG you also had to put up with a few
episodes that were not to your personal taste.

This feels like a revitalised version of TNG, with some humorus quirks, to me.

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daemonhunter
This seems to be one of the more negative opinions. Its in the top 4 or 5 Star
Trek series IMO. Individually, in my book, some of the episodes rank with the
best Science Fiction. Everyone will have their own opinion but here is what I
think the best episodes have been so far.

ep 4 - "If the Stars Should Appear"

ep 5 - "Pria"

ep 10 - "Firestorm"

ep 11 - "New Dimensions"

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orionblastar
While it is a comedy, if you don't get the jokes, it ends up more like a Star
Trek show.

I think it is the best Star Trek-like show since Stargate Unvierse.

I am watching Star Trek Discovery, and I am confused by the higher tech of the
Discovery over the tech used in the Star Trek movies that happen 10 years
later. Good fight scenes and battles, but Klingons keep being rebooted in
every Star Trek franchise? I am guessing there are like 4 or 5 different types
of Klingon races like TOS Klingon-Human fusions, Star Trek TMG/TNG Klingons
with bigger forehead ridges, Star Trek Nemesis Romulan-Klingon hybrids created
with cloning, Star Trek Reboot 2009 Klingons, and now Star Trek Discovery
Klingons with more ridges (Ruffles joke?) and in black or white skin colors? I
wonder what the Commander Worf reboot will look like?

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exodust
I love the balance of humour and story, and don't agree the jokes are
terrible. To say that is to not get it. The momentary comedy is subtle and
light without breaking the flow of drama.

It's only 400 years in the future, there's no "beam me up" tech yet, and
people are still flawed and "Earthy". I like this aspect, which is reflected
in the jokes...

" _Our last captain let us have soda on the bridge, and I just wanted to check
that was still okay "... "Sure, if you don't spill any on the equipment_".

The jokes come and go in the blink of an eye. They are not meant to be killer
jokes, it's just a nice unpretentious segway from the main action. This for
me, is a "maturity" in Macfarlane's style - not leaning too heavily on brute
force humour or scene-stealing punch lines.

There's an efficiency in the writing I appreciate. Each character has
individual expression, and each episode is quite unique - different directors
are behind each episode. Overall there's quite exciting action and suspense at
times, it's highly enjoyable and looks sharp.

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megy
> "Our last captain let us have soda on the bridge, and I just wanted to check
> that was still okay"... "Sure, if you don't spill any on the equipment".

I wouldn't even count that as a joke.

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exodust
In the context of formally meeting his senior officers for the first time, and
this being the only question raised by the officer, it is amusing. If you're
after "ba-dum-tssh" one-liners maybe it's not for you.

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jrnichols
Good write up. Some of the jokes are a little silly, but so far this has been
my favorite new show of the year.

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curtis
They spend some part of every episode hamming it up, so you have to allow for
that. On the other hand, this show is very much (Star Trek the Next
Generation) the Next Generation.

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ladberg
Am I the only one who likes Malloy? The Avis/Hertz thing was incredibly
anachronistic and hard to believe for someone who can't remember what the US
capital was, but I didn't mind because it was hilarious. However, the LeMarr
humping scene was too far and I wish they could have come up with some other
reason for him the get arrested.

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theluketaylor
I was annoyed by all of Malloy's current references until I saw a fan theory
he is a time traveller from the 21st century. Now I'm desperate for it to be
true.

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ocdtrekkie
The Orville and Star Trek Discovery are... both excellent, and both very
different types of television. The author is on point with most of his
criticisms here, the anachronistic jokes ruin the mood of the show.

Really weird seeing an opinion blog on a scifi show frontpaging on HN though.
Definitely the sort of thing you only really see here on a weekend.

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djroomba
Shockingly, It's a better Star Trek than STD. Im really enjoying it.

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Veratyr
It's definitely got more of a Star Trek feel now but early on it was pretty
bad. "About a Girl" just about made me drop it.

Without spoiling it too much, a crew member on the Orville had a family
dispute that boiled down to alien ethics/culture vs. human ethics/culture.
While I feel crews of the earlier actual Star Trek series would have
approached the problem with more empathy, understanding and logic, the (mostly
human) crew of the Orville were purely driven by emotion and tried to argue
their position in ways that made zero logical sense.

It's been much better since then though. These days it feels like Star Trek
with a little less philosophy and some poor jokes thrown in to appease the
network.

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fossuser
Maybe I should give it another try then?

I got through the first argument in About a Girl during the trial and it was
so bad I had to turn it off. It was like they were trying to have an
interesting episode that represents the best of Star Trek (The Drumhead, The
Measure of a Man, Dear Doctor), but their lack of empathy, self-righteousness,
terrible arguments, and no attempt to try and learn more about the other
culture represented the worst of it.

That and the alien had a sudden realization of how right the humans were
because he watched Santa Clause is Coming To Town.

Really frustrating to watch.

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Veratyr
You basically summed up my experience with episode 3 as well, but I finished
the episode and decided to give it one more chance.

Episode 4 is a better episode to judge it on I think so I'd encourage you to
give it one last chance.

3 has definitely been the worst so far and I'm not a fan of 9 (though it has
some character development) but I haven't regretted watching the rest.

At this point I feel like it's basically Star Trek made more accessible to the
kind of person who can't sit through Inner Light or "Shaka, where the walls
fell". Tone down the moralising and philosophy (it's not entirely gone but
it's definitely reduced), throw in some crude humour and you've got something
that much of the US TV audience could actually watch, while still being
somewhat like Star Trek to those who want it.

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fossuser
Good to know - a bit of a bummer though since the two episodes you mention are
some of the best.

Maybe this kind of thing is an easier introduction for people though, and that
might be a good thing.

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simcop2387
This article I doesn't take into the most recent episode which makes a good
attempt at addressing the concerns that the author has about lemarr and
yaphit. I'd be interesting in an update about how the author thinks it affects
the series. Imo it was possible that best episode of the series.

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pspeter3
Yeah, I really appreciated it as well.

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abritinthebay
So I take it that this show gets better?

I watched the first episode and it came across as trying WAY too hard. Very
patchy and uneven tone, and the best jokes weren’t the direct lines but the
asides or concept jokes (like the super nice Orc, vs the Dog Humping)

Worth me watching a few more?

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outworlder
Yes.

It is very rare that initial episodes of any new series are good. TNG was
atrocious.

In the case of The Orville, there was way too much humor, specially in the
first episode. Now it's trending more to a sporadic, comedic relief at times,
instead of a full blown comedy.

IMHO, they seem to be much closer to finding the sweet spot now. The latest
one was a great sci fi episode (even if the premise was nothing new), but
still managed to deliver a few good jokes.

Well, that assumes you are ok with shows that don't take themselves seriously
all the friggin time. The Orville is supposed to be crewed by a B team, they
are not the flagship.

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abritinthebay
Right, series take time to find their feet, I get that. My concern was more
than the fundamental direction was flawed.

Sounds like they worked out a balance (or it at least got better). Will
attempt some more episodes.

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pupppet
I’m enjoying The Orville but a series without an overarching storyline feels
pretty dated.

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ravenstine
The modern cliche of long story arcs and backstories is much worse than the
"dated" approach of episodic storytelling. I'd rather put up with some "meh"
episodes and see some really fantastic ones than binge watch some long-winded
drama that has little payoff.

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megy
I disagree, but different people like different things.

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ravenstine
I can't argue with that. I did used to prefer longer story arcs, at least in
concept, but over time I've realized it's become a facilitator of lazy story
writing. It takes a lot of tact to wrap on up an idea into an episode or two,
and I think that's a good constraint for writers to have, whereas a story arc
spanning multiple seasons can quickly turn into a bait and switch. I've seen
too many arcs start with interesting concepts that get dragged out to a point
where they completely trail off, leaving me wondering why I'm still watching.
Modern TV can be a lot like the ol' boiling a frog in a pot of water. Only
it's not so much people are getting hurt as their time is getting wasted. It's
not that I don't appreciate arcs, and I know why people want continuity, but
too much continuity over concrete ideas has lead me to leaving my TV mostly
off this last year.

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megy
Eh, I do not like this show. It is very similar to TNG, which might have
worked in the 90s, but I expect better story telling these days. And the
Captain isn't very likeable IMHO.

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bsparker
Its a really good show.

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gaspoweredcat
"trajectory" "turbulance" please tell me someone has already made an "i wish i
could fly" joke, if not im sure Keith Harris is turning in his grave

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sairamkunala
The 'Majority Rule' episode reminded me of Brexit vote.

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okonomiyaki3000
Gave up halfway through the second episode. Has so much changed since then?
Did they fire the entire writing staff? Was MacFarlane visited by magical
elves who bestowed upon him the ability to act just a little bit? Is there a
new joke other than "get this! the first officer is his ex-wife!" which they
apparently came up with while high and thought it was funny enough to carry an
entire series?

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foobarbecue
Me too. Well, I finished the second episode and vowed not to give it a third
chance unless someone I trusted put a lot of effort into convincing me. It
seemed like they set out to parody Star Trek but instead they just made an
inferior copy of it. In those two episodes I remember about five "ughs" and
one laugh.

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curtis
Despite the silly (terrible?) humor, it is clearly not intended to be a
parody. "Inferior copy" is more accurate, but having seen 11 episodes now, I'd
say that it's only a little bit inferior, not a lot. It seems that the people
involved really loved Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Keep in mind that Star
Trek TNG was pretty spotty the first season, itself.)

If the humor is just not your thing, then you made the right call to abandon
it in the second episode. On the other hand, the third episode seems to be the
first one that people really liked. That one really felt like a TNG episode
and the plot had a couple of surprises in it that I think made the story
better. It was also kind of heavy-handed, but then none of the Star Trek
series were known for subtlety.

