It wasn't as bad as the critics made it sound, but not nearly as good as I was hoping. I doubt I'll be back for the second episode.
On my DVR, will probably be watching it tonight. But... HOUR LONG episodes? What the hell is he thinking? This screams half-hour sit-com type show to me. (Like Red Dwarf, but lampooning American Sc-Fi and action-adventure tropes) This'll do until Red Dwarf XII and the next season of Dirk Gently start up, though.
I don't find the runtime to be a problem. A one hour block on network TV in 2017 means about 44 minutes of show, doesn't it? Maybe even less. It's not like the hour long episodes of years past where commercial breaks were shorter. If this were a 30 minute block, and so there were only 19-22 minutes of show, I think that would be too short. Maybe perfect if this was intended to be slapstick, but that's not what they are going for.
It's not that kind of show. Red Dwarf is a scifi sitcom where the jokes come thick and fast (at least they used to before the series was revived after many years) . Orville is more akin to a conventional hour long Star Trek episode, but peppered with off-color comments/observations and situations, without taking over the overarching plot (at least that's how I see it, based on a sample size of one ep ).
I watched the pilot. Not bad. It brought a few smiles to my face and made me laugh out loud once. The plot was paper thin and paint by numbers. There's a super weapon. If it falls into the wrong hands, it could mean disaster for the good guys. Of course, this was the pilot episode, so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I could do without the bathroom humor. Some may like that kind of stuff, but it's not really my cup of tea. I agree with others that this show has some potential, so I'll stick around for a bit.
So we watched (or tried to watch) Seth MacFarlane's The Orville on Fox last night. Haaaaaarible... it's not funny as comedy, lame as drama, and derivative and stupid as science fiction. Unwatchable by humans. I'd be shocked if it's still on the air in December. The worst VFX in the show: MacFarlane's hair. Jesus...
Uh... Quark premiered in May of 1977, the month Star Wars was released. From Wikipedia: The pilot first aired on May 7, 1977, and the series followed as a mid-season replacement in February 1978. The series was cancelled in April 1978. Quark was created by Buck Henry, co-creator of the spy spoof Get Smart. Quark (TV series) - Wikipedia
"The Orville," new sci-fi comedy series from Seth MacFarlane. "The Orville," new sci-fi comedy series from Seth MacFarlane.
That's one of the problems for sure. The other is that the tone isn't quite right. I can see what they're aiming for but it's just...off somehow. The tendency toward cuteness and supposedly funny banter doesn't really work, although they land a few jokes here and there. Something like this takes a deft touch (like Galaxy Quest). The main problem may be that McFarlane is terminally smug, and that infects the entire vibe of the show. I find the supporting crew far more interesting, but not enough to compensate for him. But damn if it doesn't look good. They've spent a lot of money on this thing and have some big names attached (Jon Favreau, Brannon Braga).
I gather he edited and re-edited it over and over again - from what I heard - until he had to send something to the network - (sort of like Brian Wilson and the Heroes and Villains single - to tie in another popular Hoffman board theme) - all the episodes after 3 are still being tinkered with -look at all the various trailers and commercials that have been released .....how they have changed in tone.....the first concept was "The Office...in space".....but then it just happened to line up against the new Trek series...(which....might have changed the thinking)..personally....I think he should just be totally schizophrenic with the show.....do a totally madcap Looney Tunes episode.....then do a serious episode.....a tear-jerker....if anything - it will generate conversation....its that middle ground that is so hard to hit.......if you keep trying to hit the middle ground...you might make a mediocre product......I think he has watched enough Trek to pull it off......he should conference-call with the Rick and Morty guys and come up with a few odd plots.......that is all it would take.....
After watching the first episode, I now see this. It's an interesting take. I'm sure it'll grow and evolve over time into its own beast. But, from the previews and write-ups I saw it looked like a Red Dwarf type show. Oh well, just leaves that idiom open for MY show. When I develop it. Maybe. Someday. sigh.
I liked it. There were a few crude jokes, but not as many as I was led to expect. The characters all have potential (that little badass security chick is adorable), and the show looks good. It looks and feels like a more serious version of the space bits of GALAXY QUEST, which is okay by me.
It's a very big "ehhh." Like he's doing a faithful Star trek but had to add some of the "humor" from "A Million Ways To Die In The West." There was a point where The Orville was flying on screen and then just disappeared for like .75 seconds and then it cut to another angle with the ship in it - like they forgot to finish effects or made an edit at the right spot. (I rewound a few times to make sure I wasn't crazy.) I think he would have worked better as a straight space opera with him playing a Guinan (Whoopi goldberg) like character instead. That way he could add humor where necessary. A friend saw it and though it was fine - but more like a "Nick at Nite" original production and not a prime time TV production. but hey - its free to me and my DVR has the space.
yeah - Rick said as much in the first episode..which was probably one of the better ones....the most recent one was an interesting concept......it is getting sort of bleak though - I just hope it doesn't get too story-arc (which is my same complaint with Star Trek Discovery) - I used to watch the Venture Bros - but - the last couple seasons - you had to watch them all in a row....and....its like "Ill get around to it"....Im sure I have the whole last season DVRed ..but...I don't usually have the time to binge things - that is why The Orville (or reruns of Next Generation..even Voyager) is so great- adventure of the week - there can be a little continuity ..there has to be.......but when ...for example - Enterprise got into the whole "temporal wars" thing - it lost me......
I laughed for 10 solid seconds because it was the funniest thing in the entire show. I had to literally stop the DVR just to recover, because I laughed longer than the scene did. But I think it was the only time I laughed in the show. So, yeah -- it does mean exactly what I think it means. Please feel free to think differently.
The two funniest things for me was the corridor Jello-man run-through and the video feed of the admiral talking while his dog was performing...genital maintenance in the background. That I thought was hilarious!
Voiced by Norm MacDonald. Hopefully he'll be back in future episodes. What a waste to have him just do that one throw-away gag. I just finished watching it. Couple chuckles here and there. No big laugh-out-loud moments. I agree that I'm not sure what the "tone" is supposed to be. Parody? Homage? I do like Scott Grimes in this. He's the only one that got any consistent chuckles from me.
Not as funny as I thought it would be. Must say their not going cheap. Pretty big stars, very good music, decent effects.
I wasn't amused by that bit either, but to each his own. In rewatching Voyager lately, I keep wanting someone on the crew to react to the absurdity of some of the aliens they encounter. I think there's something to be mined in the bizarreness of experiencing aliens and their cultures and how humans cope with that. I think that's what this pilot is missing for me: funny human reactions to the realities of space travel, humor coming from characters and situations, rather than just what comes off as arbitrary schtick thrown in to get a laugh. One of Stanislaw Lem's main themes was the potential comic absurdity of certain situations we may face in the future. What I saw in this pilot was schoolboy humor that just happened to take place in space, very little of which worked. I did like what seemed like a tongue in cheek attitude toward the holodeck. That's a trope that's really ripe for dismantling. I'd also like to see an alien species that's more sarcastic than humans. Is everyone in space completely humorless? In spite of the above complaints, I do, oddly, find myself pulling for this show.
