I really like Seth MacFarlane's The Orville. Am I wrong?

I thought I would last about five minutes! Nobody was more dubious than me! But I find it strangely soothing. I like the way it looks. And that third episode with the baby? WTF? It was really heavy. I wasn't expecting that. Haven't watched the fourth episode yet. But I already want to watch more.

I am so totally not a big Seth guy. I begrudgingly respect some of the more demented Family Guy episodes, but I don't need a lot of that in my life.

The third episode was pretty hamfisted but it's pretty good overall.

i just thought it was weird. the third episode. so serious! ha. and that ending. such a weird third episode choice...

some funny bits though. what was the capitol of the united states? "Nabisco?...The moon?"

It feels really comfortable in contrast to Discovery, which while looking amazing is very Galactica and doesn't feel like Trek to me. It's marketed as a comedy, but everybody on the Orville seems stoked to basically be doing straight TNG with the slight addition of characters periodically saying things you'd wish the original Trek cast would have said in response to plot events. Which I am totally down with and enjoying but I don't know what the studio thinks they're bankrolling.

Yea I've expressed my thoughts on this in another thread, it's just strange to see it ape TNG so closely despite centering around a hack whose comedic chops have been steadily declining since the first season of Family Guy. I found the humor to be kind of cringey but the show was quite alright, plus there's only like one joke per commercial break. If it was funny it could even be...IDK, pretty good? That said it was hard to get over MacFarlane very clearly coming across like a non-actor casting himself in a starring role, he can't do anything but deadpan

i haven't seen this and have no intention of doing so but nonetheless i feel certain scott is wrong

sorry dude

I really dont like McFarlane, and find Family Guy kinda crass, so I had both eyebrows up in cynicism going into this and... it is good! I dunno, I expected Spaceballs or something, but a few jokes aside, it isnt like that one bit. I dont know if he is purposefully NOT being funny but it works for me.

It feels really comfortable in contrast to Discovery

Yeah this. I actually like this MORE than the new actual Trek.

The "what's a dick" joke last night wasn't funny in itself but as the kind of interperson humor/shit-talking that otherwise doesn't exist in the Star Trek universe it was funny.

i'm not a charlize theron fan. she's boring. another weird episode. but i LOVE the space stuff. the dark matter storm. the asteroid going into the sun. i had no idea what they were talking about in the end though and how they could shoot a black hole. but i will continue to watch for the space stuff. seth is just a weird actor to watch. something inhuman about him. oh, and i did laugh at the leg prank and the leg falling from the ceiling! yeah, this show is still worth watching.

Scott you are wrong this is a painfully mediocre show with no soul. Glad it's giving talented special effects make up people work though.

Given that TNG and Patrick Stewart are probably as popular as they've ever been, and no one in the cast's dead yet, It's sort of weird that they don't just make another movie or a TV special or whatever.

I mean, I don't need it, but it seems like something that would get watched.

The show that needs this most is actually Babylon 5 but alas a massive number of the cast are dead.

Paramount seems to be locked into doing Star Wars lite with Star Trek now. I'd figure a modern Star Trek based around some of the NG cast 20+ years later would be a no-brainer but apparently people that cut the checks don't agree. I'd think with being able to play someone like Stewart as now a big wig and rare guest star, you would be able to get him to do it. Seems odd.

Frakes directed the Theron episode, which I thought was interesting. If a second season happens it wouldn't shock me if ST alumni showed up. I think they'd first have to work through the backlog of famous and semifamous actors who have always wanted to appear in Trek and now they never will, since Trek is essentially dead as we've known it.

The bits of comedy in the Krill episode were truly risible and it was deadly dull for half of it, but if the garbage was removed this would have been a great TNG or DS9 ep in terms of ethical dilemmas. The bit at the end stung hard knowing that we create new enemies every day in the process of eliminating others.

McFarlane seems to be really into having one short but jarring scene of torture or violence per episode, it's an interesting choice because the viewer's so, again, comfortable in this setting that stuff like that really leaps off the screen.

Thinking more about that last bit, it's got to be the influence of cartoons, where horrific things routinely happen for laughs and are immediately undone

Okay, the Black Mirror ripoff was genuinely terrible.

A bad take on the absolute worst Black Mirror episode.

Paramount seems to be locked into doing Star Wars lite with Star Trek now.

This has been going on for ... 35 years? Except if ST tries to ape SW, y'know, Star Wars is still the one that looks lite.

Watching more eps of this, the show has promise, but there’s some more learning to slog thru as the first season seems underwritten in the way early TNG now does

i stopped watching this. i guess i'd seen enough? i think i just got bugged that he is the lead. and that he cast charlize theron as a love interest. i dunno. he's not terrible i just keep hearing that family guy voice.

i just don't think of him as an actor. i wish they had used someone else. then i would probably still be watching it.

The ep where the blue ex showed up on the ship(and lol, it took me WAY too long to realise it was Rob Lowe under all the makeup even though he was doing EXACTLY his characrer from Parks n Rec) was just silly.

So, this weeks ep went full 2-part cliffhanger with a Borg-esque storyline wtf!

Bruce Boxleitner as the President on this week's ep was a nice hat tip to B5. He did a few things Ithink were intentional nods, in particular reciting the poem before they went down to Krill.

we've really been enjoying this show, but it spends just a bit too much time on the doctor storylines imho

Bortus is obv our favorite

also omg @ Rob Lowe, did not catch that

There was a hilarious bit in this last ep where for some reason they put on a performance of Annie for the Krill dignitaries, and then this ensues:

Halsey: Did you enjoy your evening on Broadway, Chancellor?
Chancellor: Indeed. However, the repeated prophecy of the orphan child was quite haunting. 'The SUN will come out TOMORROW!'
Ambassador: In our culture, the sun is a symbol of suffering and death.
Halsey: Yes, in retrospect, Oklahoma might have been a better choice.

so S2 starts with two absolute dogs and then episode 3 is okay but Alara's leaving for no good reason? Booooo

I was really confused thinking "who is Alara?" then realised you said S2 not S3. I barely recall the last season. 3 year gap not a good thing.

I don't know why they had to extend the runtime for all the episodes in S3. So many pointless stair climbing scenes.

Amazing latest episode (if a little sappy in parts). Without spoiling, it created a moral conundrum I dont think Ive seen in a sci fi show before.

agreed, i also really liked it!!

the Gordon ep I assume? yes, very good

also lol at Isaac's human costume, I assume that was the actual actor?

Yeah it was! I didnt actually realise that til you pointed it out.

S3 would be so much better if they trimmed each episode back to 45 minutes.