The Orville - New Sci Fi Comedy from Seth MacFarlane and Director John Favreau


Television

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A double dip in tone is possible and often misjudged by critics initially. I think its twice as risky in general to use such an approach but can pay handsomely if executed well. If anyone but McFarlane pitched this show I cant imagine a green light.


It looks fun, I'll watch it with an open mind.


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Vidmaster7 wrote:
Space comedy has worked once before. not so much in the states but red dwarf had like 67 episodes.

There might be more than that. The show seems to come out with a new season every few years (I think they did one as recently as last year.).

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Kalshane wrote:
My only thought is that maybe they're trying to spoof the sometimes preachy nature of the Star Trek shows but it's unintentionally coming across as them being serious, but doing it badly.

That seems a bit needlessly complex (and a bit more than MacFarlane is normally willing to do). I think it's just bad Star Trek fanfic.


He did get his start as a red shirt on Next Generation, so makes sense.

Although, I'm a bit more optimistic on the quality.


David knott 242 wrote:
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Space comedy has worked once before. not so much in the states but red dwarf had like 67 episodes.

There might be more than that. The show seems to come out with a new season every few years (I think they did one as recently as last year.).

They did and another season is coming this year.

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Kalshane wrote:
My only thought is that maybe they're trying to spoof the sometimes preachy nature of the Star Trek shows but it's unintentionally coming across as them being serious, but doing it badly.

I have a hard time velieving that MacFarlane is capable of humor so subtle that people can't tell if he's joking or being serious.


Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:
David knott 242 wrote:
Vidmaster7 wrote:
Space comedy has worked once before. not so much in the states but red dwarf had like 67 episodes.

There might be more than that. The show seems to come out with a new season every few years (I think they did one as recently as last year.).

They did and another season is coming this year.

Yup, Season 12 is on this November. The revival has done really well and it's likely there'll be further seasons.


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Yeah, it sounds like my theory was wrong and he really is trying to be earnest and failing, rather than pulling off high-level satire: AV Club Review.

AV Club wrote:

At this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, Seth MacFarlane described the void he wants to fill with the new science-fiction series, The Orville:

“I kind of miss the forward thinking, aspirational, optimistic place in science fiction that Star Trek used to occupy […] [I]t can’t all be The Hunger Games. It can’t all be the nightmare scenario. I think there’s some space for the aspirational blueprint of what [humanity] could do if we get our [stuff] together, and that’s something that’s been missing for me for a while.”

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The problem I had is that the humor was sophomoric, and the acting was weak.

Still, it has potential, so I will continue watching.


Lord Fyre wrote:
The problem I had is that the humor was sophomoric, and the acting was weak.

Yeap. Also, it just felt so derivative without having its own identity.

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Orville Redenbacher wrote:
Lord Fyre wrote:
The problem I had is that the humor was sophomoric, and the acting was weak.
Yeap. Also, it just felt so derivative without having its own identity.

That didn't bother me, as it was clear it was intended to be either a satire or homage of Star Trek. I bigger problem was that I couldn't tell which the Orville was intended to be.


Seth's making great progress on his bucket list.

1. Get rich and famous.
2. Get paid pretending to be Frank Sinatra.
3. Get paid for playing Star Trek.


It wasn't too bad for a pilot. I imagine that once they have their feet under them things should get better. Assuming in this day and age that it can get more than a few shows.

These days, ST:TNG would have been gone before the first season was over.


I liked it.

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knightnday wrote:

It wasn't too bad for a pilot. I imagine that once they have their feet under them things should get better. Assuming in this day and age that it can get more than a few shows.

These days, ST:TNG would have been gone before the first season was over.

Especially on FOX, as any Browncoat could tell you.


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Lord Fyre wrote:
knightnday wrote:

It wasn't too bad for a pilot. I imagine that once they have their feet under them things should get better. Assuming in this day and age that it can get more than a few shows.

These days, ST:TNG would have been gone before the first season was over.

Especially on FOX, as any Browncoat could tell you.

Swims through Scrooge McDuckian vault filled with cash.

Yeah, i'm over it.


knightnday wrote:

It wasn't too bad for a pilot. I imagine that once they have their feet under them things should get better. Assuming in this day and age that it can get more than a few shows.

These days, ST:TNG would have been gone before the first season was over.

Even back in the day Next Generation was nearly canceled during the first seasons. It being so expensive saved it until the series got better. And especially the first season was not very good. But a series needs time to find its way. Problem is that not a lot of higher ups are willing to give a new series that time today. And especially Fox is not very good at giving a Series that chance.


I find often today we have the opposite. A well thought out and executed first season followed by week to week chaos so bad the show begs to be cancelled.


I liked it but didn't love it. The ads made it look a lot funnier than it turned out to be.


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Over all I liked it and look forward to further episodes, as to things I noticed, the music felt very similar to existing star treks series of the past, yet was it's own. Characters again could be mash ups of past characters, but while campy and quirky, show potential to develop into their own unique character as the show progresses. Research/Exploration ship vs Warship, out gunned and shields failing, but using exceptional agility to evade with shields down? That was a rather unique approach to combat.
We'll see how it is down the road a few episodes in, but it's looking good so far.


So...anyone want to take bets on how long this show will last?


I don't gamble.


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meh


Since when? I still recall that time you and I diced for the right to tie Cosmo's shoes together.


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Wasn't me, I've never gambled.


Well I already said I think it will get at least two seasons. That Sunday night slot can handle the worst shows.

Oh and I like the x-mas album :)

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The problem is that the show itself seems not to know what it's going for. A legitimate ST show? Or a legitimate ST spoof show. So it goes for being nothing.

Hard Pass


eh the CG was pretty good. some of the jokes were bad or too obvious but I would watch another episode.


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Hama wrote:

The problem is that the show itself seems not to know what it's going for. A legitimate ST show? Or a legitimate ST spoof show. So it goes for being nothing.

Hard Pass

I say, not being either of those but both at once is its greatest strength. They have good and experienced Sci-Fi writers in their staff, some of them from TNG, and gave them the chance to have fun with Roddenberry's concept in a unique way while also the chance to tell stories they couldn't tell in TNG because of the limitations of that format and the limitations of the characters presented in TNG.

On paper, this can be very promising and the pilot episode showed a little bit of that promises already. As far as pilots go it was solid. Better than the VOY or ENT pilots at least


And FOX has already done their best to kill it. Great football game I have on the DVR. No second airing.

I'm guessing that's why an episode (that will make no sense) is airing Thursday.


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My complaints with fox could loop the planet.


I don't think I've watched the network since Dollhouse ended.


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Oh I got that beat. Haven't watched it since the first time they cancelled futuramma.


That was before Firefly wasn't it? (Which I believe was the last thing I watched before Dollhouse.)


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I hear y'all Dollhouse was so bad I didn't want to watch Fox anymore either.

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I read somewhere that it seemed schizophrenic, unsure whether it wanted to be a comedy or not, and that's kind of how I felt about it. It had pretty great production values, for the venue (except the robot crewman, who was kind of terrible), but the humor kind of came and went, and seemed overly weak, as if someone in the writer's room was afraid of being funny, and yet had been directed to write a comedy, resulting in a strange tone.

I'm not loving it, but I'll probably watch one or two more episodes, just to see if it perks up.

I *am* eagerly awaiting the next season of iZombie, which I just binge-watched, and was all kinds of awesome.


Yeah im going to extend my usual 3 episode rock it before I knock it attitude and maybe try 4-5 episodes of Orville. Right now i'm leaning towards not worth watching.


Once more Fox tries its best to kill a show that MIGHT make its viewing audience less older than CBS.


I think It was I didn't watch firefly till years after it was cancelled. The movie was already out when I watched the series.


Firefly!

Derivative crap at it's worst!


I wouldn't say worst. their is far worse derivative crap out there. You probably haven't even watched the worse cause it never made it to tv or made it briefly for like 1 episode and was gone.


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THe orville answers the question: what would happen if real people, which is probably what we're doomed to be for the foreseeable future, had star trek technology and started roaming around the galaxy


the answer? free booze.


GreenDragon1133 wrote:

And FOX has already done their best to kill it. Great football game I have on the DVR. No second airing.

I'm guessing that's why an episode (that will make no sense) is airing Thursday.

Thursday is the regular timeslot going forward. I ended up having to catch Ep. 2 on demand. It was pretty self contained, with the spotlight mostly on Security Chief Alara, who had command of the ship for most of the episode.

For Ep. 3 I would guess all you need to know is that Cmdr. Bortus' species is all male, Bortus has laid an egg, and in the final scene of Ep. 2...

Spoiler:
The egg hatches a female, something Bortus regards as impossible.


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Vidmaster7 wrote:
the answer? free booze.

and pot brownies

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As Damon mentioned, I wound up watching on demand on the FoxNow app, which you can use without any type of cable subscription. Glad the show is off Sundays so Football won't interfere anymore though.


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weird that they started on a Sunday then shift to Thursday after two episodes. That seems like bad planning.


wait, it was a repeat after..2 episodes?

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Browman wrote:
weird that they started on a Sunday then shift to Thursday after two episodes. That seems like bad planning.

Seems similar to what FOX did to Firefly.

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