Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Well, we have watched it twice now.. once with me and wife, and once with the kiddo..

Other than the regretable MacFarlane need for "off color for the sake of shock" .. we really liked it.

As HBMC said.. hearkened back to Encounter at Farpoint and was channeling Old Skool Trek pretty well.. we did not expect it to be "slapstick or gross out comedy" and were pleasantly suprised

Expecting Ted or esp. Galaxy Quest is a mistake - that's not what the show is.

I've been watching TOS episodes as they come up. When one considers the TOS Trilbles, Mudd, and MotW episodes, the Orville is very similar in tone and structure.

As a blue collar TOS show with TNG+ production values, it works.

It's kind of strange.... I liked it.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Expecting Ted or esp. Galaxy Quest is a mistake - that's not what the show is.

I disagree. I absolutely got a more crass but still quintessentially Galaxy Quest vibe from the first episode.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Expecting Ted or esp. Galaxy Quest is a mistake - that's not what the show is.

I've been watching TOS episodes as they come up. When one considers the TOS Trilbles, Mudd, and MotW episodes, the Orville is very similar in tone and structure.

As a blue collar TOS show with TNG+ production values, it works.

Well, whatever it is, it's on Fox so it'll get cancelled before anyone can figure it out.

 bbb wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Expecting Ted or esp. Galaxy Quest is a mistake - that's not what the show is.

I've been watching TOS episodes as they come up. When one considers the TOS Trilbles, Mudd, and MotW episodes, the Orville is very similar in tone and structure.

As a blue collar TOS show with TNG+ production values, it works.

Well, whatever it is, it's on Fox so it'll get cancelled before anyone can figure it out.

The only reason people won't figure it out is because they'll air the episodes in the wrong order.

Well I thought the second episode was an improvement over the first. Mild complaint about the kid being born female since a mere two episodes isn't really much time to invest in dad's race supposeing to be entirely male only.

I agree on both counts. It also felt definitely less satire/fart joke themed then the pilot.

 warboss wrote:
I agree on both counts. It also felt definitely less satire/fart joke themed then the pilot.

I'll give that a shot.

 AduroT wrote:
The only reason people won't figure it out is because they'll air the episodes in the wrong order.

Damn you for jinxing it! Fox aired E3 instead of E2 tonight.

That said, this was definitely a big improvement over the pilot. I guess if you don't have to spend half an hour on exposition, you actually have some time to tell a story. Imagine that!

Anyhow, the crew felt more natural, less awkward. Good stuff, and nice to comment on politics and zoos - that's very TOS-like, along with the actions of the acting Captain while the Captain and XO were away.

clink-clink-clink-clink-clink-clink-clink...

Also, of all the crew, that is not the butt I ever would have hoped to see.

I'm definitely watching Thursday's episode.

Holy gak did Fox actually air the episodes out of order? Does someone over there have some deep seated hatred for SciFi or something that forces them to try and ruin any SciFi show they air by airing them out of order?

MacFarlane did an AMA on reddit over the weekend (two, actually, the first one went sideways and then he came back, more prepared as to what a reddit AMA is expected to entail and rescued it IMO).
One of the questions asked was why he went with Fox and not a streaming service like Netflix and he said it's difficult to get a episodic series green lit now. Streaming services want a coherent story told over the season to encourage binge watching, Seth wanted to make a story of the week series like classic Trek.

Yup, this might actually be the one show Fox doesn't kill by airing it out of order because it's been purposefully designed to be an episodic show with fairly self-contained stories. No arcs, no grand storylines, no epic character evolution - frankly that's one of the things I found most appealing about it, what's great about Trek is you can go back and dip in to almost any season of any of the shows and pick out your favourite episodes or two-parters without feeling like you're missing anything, whereas a lot of more "modern" shows really require you to commit to rewatching at least a whole season. It's nice to see some folk in TV production are willing to put that benefit ahead of their vain desire to make "cinematic" television(for the record: I like serialised, high production value shows as much as anyone, I just dislike that it's completely supplanting episodic shows and that the process is being driven less by the style being objectively superior and more by the ingrained inferiority complex in the TV industry - there's room for both).

I'm quite enjoying it - TOS sensibilities with a TNG aesthetic is a good description, though TBH I think the more heavy-handed LOOK AT BAD THING IT IS BAD-style TOS approach worked a tad better with "big ticket" issues like racism, xenophobia, species-extinction etc compared to "zoos kinda suck huh".

@Yodhrin - we don't know that the Orville won't have storylines or character development. I expect that there will be callbacks and such, just as he does in his other work. Chicken Fight, for example. And I fully expect Flanderization to occur as the writers get a better feel for the characters; OTOH, when we look at TOS or VOY, how much character development did Ensign Harry Kim get? None, right?

Also, WRT Zoos - it wasn't that long ago that we had freakshows and such as human zoos. African pygmies and such were paraded around for the entertainment of others:
https://www.rt.com/news/336335-ota-benga-caged-pygmy/

Football supplemented the episode for me. Didn't really care.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Damn you for jinxing it! Fox aired E3 instead of E2 tonight.

I feel like the best TV show Fox could ever have is an Office style show about a bunch of television network executives who constantly mess up their programming, complete with the show itself being aired out of order and "canceled" at the end of every season

I enjoyed the opening episode. Seems fun and most of the cast seems likable. Starting the second episode later tonight.

I don't know. I can't get into it. Caught episode 2 3 on Hulu and while it was better than the first episode, the random injections of distracting attempts at humor just aren't resonating with me. I like the dramatic bits enough, but everytime I start getting invested into it there's some gag that gets thrown in my face that just pulls me right out

Sounds like you love the "extra dark & super gritty" Discovery then.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Sounds like you love the "extra dark & super gritty" Discovery then.

Nothing about Discovery has really peaked my interest but the amusing and predictably banal fan rage over tit for tat details. I don't know if I'll ever watch it. The Orville is just ruined for me every time there's an injection of goofy bits about an old banana or a discussion about colons. Giving me a look at some lizard guys plastic ass sitting on an egg and lecturing a junior about responsibility might be funny in a comedy, but its just jarring to me in a show that is light hearted drama until it decides to insert frat boy humor. I just can't get into it.

Of course people keep making comparisons between The Orville and TOS, and maybe that's part of it cause I was never that much into TOS either. I liked DS9 most, and TNG after that. The bright side though is that this thread got me to go watch Dark Matter which I enjoyed through season one quite a bit

 LordofHats wrote:
Nothing about Discovery has really peaked my interest but the amusing and predictably banal fan rage over tit for tat details. I don't know if I'll ever watch it. The Orville is just ruined for me every time there's an injection of goofy bits about an old banana or a discussion about colons. Giving me a look at some lizard guys plastic ass sitting on an egg and lecturing a junior about responsibility might be funny in a comedy, but its just jarring to me in a show that is light hearted drama until it decides to insert frat boy humor. I just can't get into it.

While I'm glad that they toned down the slapstick humor in the second episode (once it was clear that the advertising was misleading and that this wouldn't primarily be a comedy), I'm afraid that you'll probably never be happy with the show if you expect it to disappear almost or completely. It is after all a Seth McFarlane show. No harm, no foul though as not every show is for everyone.

I can not believe they actually aired episode three before two. Like all jokes aside, that's actually just so stupid.

Well like I said earlier in thread. Seth is hit and miss for me. I'll watch Family Guy, but only if there's nothing else to watch (same reason I watch Simpsons). I don't really like his movies. I do enjoy American Dad.

So yup. Guess it's just not working. Maybe take another stab after the full season is out and I can watch it back to back.

Too bad. Ted (1) is really good.

I'm watching the first episode now it's a bit... eh. A bit too on the nose, and the characters are all apparently rejects for no apparent reason.

Ship designs and effects are reasonably nice, though the interiors don't match (and so far, neither does the writing).

It really does feel like a TNG knockoff with the not-so-occasional penis joke.

It feels like the TNG books written by Peter David.

Watched the second episode. It had more cringe worthy moments from the little security officer than I expected but I really do like the interplay between Seth and the first officer. I think I'll give this it's initial run because I think it might start to really roll along and I want to support that chance. If it doesn't not big deal, not like Fox will let me get to invested

It's still very early in the series, but I'm enjoying it.

It feels a lot like TNG, but instead of the Enterprise, the show takes place on one of those schmo ships you see in one episode ineffectually patrolling the neutral zone or hauling scrap.

I read the thread first then watched it. Went in expecting little humor and more drama. I was very surprised, I liked it more than I expected.

Voss wrote:
I'm watching the first episode now it's a bit... eh. A bit too on the nose, and the characters are all apparently rejects for no apparent reason.

Well the main character was supposed to be one of the most promising captains they had seen in a long time, being fast tracked for a heavy combat cruiser. (I forget the name)

Then he found his wife cheating on him, so that seems like a good reason to have a bit of a breakdown.....