Seth MacFarlane's THE ORVILLE (Season 3 Coming to Hulu)

JosephDredd said:
I've never liked anything McFarlane has done, even back to Johnny Bravo.

With the exception of A Million Ways To Die In The West -- I really liked that, even though it's pretty universally hated, even by actual fans of his. I am going to give The Orville a shot.
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the arabic death chant in a million ways to die in the west is funny AF
 
This last episode felt like such a classic Trek plotline. Totally could have seen this being used for a TNG episode.

The effects and makeup continue to be strong points, the humor...eh, not nearly so much. But I'll stick with it for a while longer and give some of the other characters time to develop some more.
 
I'm kinda enjoying fake Star Trek, but episode 2 was also way too early for that situation. No one is disobeying an order for someone they just met.

They also need more humor because they can't beat Star Trek at its own game. Isaac needs to start slipping in some racist/speciest/high life form digs at the crew. Especially when they screw up.
 
Holy crap it's a comedy??!


I totally missed that from watching some of it while stretching at the gym.
 
Just saw the first episode, and it had it's moments, but I'm skeptical about the success of the show for a couple of reasons:

- It's been a long time since Star Trek The Next Generation aired, and that seems to be the most direct source of inspiration for this show. As a parody/homage it doesn't really riff on recent Trek that much so a large part of the potential audience won't have the same feels as old time Trek fans

- It almost has too much respect for Trek. What I mean by this is that it sometimes has a very earnest tone and it doesn't really mock Trek very much. It feels almost like it's values align strongly with Trek and that hurts it as a parody or satire. But at the same time, although it has science fictional trappings it didn't tell a SFnal story or approach it with a SFnal mindset. So it ends up being in a kind of no man's land where it isn't committing enough to either side.
 
val_lixembeau said:
Just saw the first episode, and it had it's moments, but I'm skeptical about the success of the show for a couple of reasons:

- It's been a long time since Star Trek The Next Generation aired, and that seems to be the most direct source of inspiration for this show. As a parody/homage it doesn't really riff on recent Trek that much so a large part of the potential audience won't have the same feels as old time Trek fans

- It almost has too much respect for Trek. What I mean by this is that it sometimes has a very earnest tone and it doesn't really mock Trek very much. It feels almost like it's values align strongly with Trek and that hurts it as a parody or satire. But at the same time, although it has science fictional trappings it didn't tell a SFnal story or approach it with a SFnal mindset. So it ends up being in a kind of no man's land where it isn't committing enough to either side.
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It's not a parody or satire, it's an homage. Which, while not a problem by itself, may not be what people are expecting.
 
Checked out the first two episodes. It's okay I guess, but apart from the homage to(ripoff of) TNG, is there really much beneath the surface here?

The humor is hit and miss(mostly miss), and the drama is poorly written and cheesy(is that an homage too?). The characters are fine, but highly unoriginal(again, homage, or just lazy?).

I will say that the individual story lines were enjoyable, and somewhat creative, but apart from that, I don't know how much legs a half serious, half spoof of TNG has. I feel most of the effort has been relegated to producing the show exactly like TNG. From the awkward action scenes, to the commercial break cliffhangers, to the end credits. Take that away, and you don't have a whole hell of a lot. It's going to have to do a bit more to carve out it's own identity, but I don't even know if that's the intention, or if it's just supposed to be one big inside joke for Trekkies. What is the target audience for this, outside of people in on the joke? I don't know.

That all said, there is a certain charm to it. The production values are high, and the cast has some decent chemistry. If nothing else, it is a very well done ripoff of TNG. I just struggle with giving it too much praise, for simply just being that.
 
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Not much comedy in last night's episode. Still, it was pretty good. I don't know how the captain thought to look for the female on the mountain.
 
cuuuute
orville-s1e02-commandperformance-08-640x427.jpg
 
I watched an episode and didn't like it that much. But then I watched another episode and it was really good. I think I expected it to be a little more wacky than it is which is probably why I didn't enjoy it at first. But it actually has really good stories that pretty much parallel old episodes of Star Trek but are funnier.
 
Madmick said:
Same. The Cleveland Show is one of the worst shows in history, but barring that, the critics have shat on everything he has done. Originally they hated on Family Guy, too. They called it an ersatz and hackneyed Simpsons.

The bottom line is that the critics just don't get McFarland. Their sensibilities are all wrong when it comes to this guy. He has a natural gift for storytelling, and immersing his viewers in a suspension of disbelief. Somehow this eludes the critics again and again with him. I read this really compelling review about how the show was confused about what it wanted to be, comedic or serious, and that in its confusion, it didn't work.

Bollox. It isn't confused, and it worked. I'm going to keep tuning in.
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I came into this thread to say it was confused, didn't know what it wanted to be, and didn't seem to any good at anything. Three episodes in and I'm going to bail soon because it just isn't entertaining or interesting on any level. It's stunningly mediocre television.

Episode three was a Star Trek flavor morality play and almost got there. Problem is, the drama is two dimensional and predictable, the humor is oatmeal, and none of the characters are showing even the promise of chemistry. Episode three is why it doesn't feel like they know what the show to be, it feels like they're throwing crap at the wall and waiting to see what sticks.

I know this is a nerd nitpick, but I find the vernacular really off-putting. It's centuries in the future. Try and lose some of the 2017.
 
TheRuthlessOne said:
cuuuute
orville-s1e02-commandperformance-08-640x427.jpg
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It's what makes me conflicted about the uniforms.

On the one hand, they're considerably more realistic as uniforms than anything ST: TNG ever put on screen.

On the other hand... there's the visual of what Adrianne Palicki and Halston Sage would look like in tight form-fitting Starfleet uniforms.







 
I gotta admit, I burst out laughing at this scene
21617789_10156637912302892_2547103031468750931_n.jpg


Apparently Seth wants to have more scenes with Norm Mcdonald, but the green blob is very expensive to add in.
 
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