From what I’ve heard about Discovery, it seems like a good one to leave alone until it finishes its run, whenever that might be. Then I’ll watch it all and form my own opinions.
As for The Orville, watching it is like a flashback to my high school/college days of watching STTNG. Can’t help but love that. The stupid MacFarlane humor, I can put up with, and one time in ten it’s actually funny.
They have over the top Family Guy style humor in this, like the amputated laeg prank. But what I really enjoy is the Josh Whedonesque “flippant comments in a dangerous situation” style. Yeah, some aren’t as funny, but it keeps the whole tone of the show light. And tone is everything. Everything.
I sure am glad my sense of humor is compatible with McFarlanes, since it means majority of Orville jokes land for me. I also enjoyed both Teds and Thousand Ways to Die in the West. Never watched Family Guy though.
Subconsciously over time, I have come to this place as well.
Dude, I’m not a fan of stuff like Family Guy or American Dad (I find they get repetitive and puerile), but I love, LOVE The Orville. It has a bit too much humor at first, but they quickly find their stride, and within an episode or two, it becomes a great, character-driven sci-fi epic. So great.
I know, you keep telling me. Keep at it and one of these days you’ll wear me down. Maybe.
Brian, Seth McFarland is carved out of wood on that show. His acting reminds me of sheet rock repair.
Oh he’s clearly the weakest actor on the show, but he seems to know that, as later episodes focused nearly entirely on other crewmembers.
In about 2 more seasons it’s gonna be looked at as better than any Star Trek show. Star Trek is gonna look like the steppimg stone it took to make a real sci fi series - one that tackles and makes commentary on the real world issues we face. Not tachyon fields or whatever.
Orville might be really great. Really great.
Whoawhoawhoawhoa sloow your roll there McGillcutty, it has a long, LONG way to go before it gets even close to dethroning Deep Space Nine.
But it’s still great.
I know you meant “TOS” not “DS9” so I am correcting that for you , B.
I’m a good friend, like that.
Yeah, I keep trying to talk myself into giving the show a fair shake but you guys aren’t making it easy for me. For instance, Guap had to throw this little tidbit out there:
So you give me McFarlane’s humor and Whedon’s quippy dialogue? Are you guys trying to kill me? Next you’re gonna tell me Akiva Goldsman is writing the scripts.
Really looking forward to this coming back. It really does a better job of channeling TNG than it has any right to. As the first season went on, there certainly did a decent job of dialing in the the humor to a pretty good spot. McFarlane-style is generally annoying, but the leg prank was really fantastic.
This is the show that got me back to appointment TV. The Fox website made it so hard to view each week’s episode that the only really reliable, enjoyable way of catching each week’s episode for a cord-cutter was to actually watch it almost-Live on the night it aired. And I liked the show enough that I was willing to do that.
That looked like Putty in the elephant alien costume.
Also, this show is good, but some of the casting is bad. Some of the actors just aren’t any good. Macfarlane himself is good though.
I liked the first season so much I’m willing to give the actors time to get their legs.
It’s kinda hard though, the tone is in between serious and goofy. That requires an actor with comedic timing and some drama chops. It’s kind of a tall order. Comedy is hard, yo.
On the other hand, we will obviously never get another Patrick Stewart on this show. What a great actor, he made TNG what it was for me.
Incidentally, I’ve tried like 4 times to get into DS9. I’ve even tried using guides for the best episodes in order. For some reason I keep bouncing off it. Maybe it would be easier if I didn’t get so into B5 back in the day, I feel like the space station thing has been done. It might also be the aging of the shows. I tried to get back into B5 recently and just couldn’t. Nostalgia lenses.
I like most of the Orville cast. Hell, the only weaker link I can think of is J. Lee.
I love Peter Macon on Orville. And Halston Sage, Adriane Palicki…
Penny Johnson Jerald is the beeeeeest.
I am prejudiced against her because of her terrible character on 24 but she is pretty cool here :p
But she was AMAZING on Deep Space Nine!