The Orville certainly has its flaws, but the “love letter to Star Trek:TNG” feel more than makes up for those for me. I’d love to see more if they manage to find a way to continue past season 3, but if not, at least we got this much.
Just finished third season and despite each episode being so long, completely enjoyed it. Yeah sometimes it is necessary to suspend disbelief, sometimes heavily, but it is so god damn earnest and funny and emotionally resonant.
Really want another season, but if this is it, then it ended on a high note.
One big nitpick, I really didn’t like the ending of the Gordon time travel episode. And the fact that it was never followed upon.
Yeah, same. My least favorite episode of the season.
I didn’t see much buzz about the show after it hit Disney+. Not a lot of articles, etc. that come along when there’s a buzzy show that captures the cultural imagination. So I’m guessing this will probably not get renewed.
Over here season 3 hasn’t shown up on Disney+ yet.
I have to say, the very worst thing about this show is that it thinks a white dude strumming an acoustic guitar at a party and forcing everyone to listen in rapt attention is endearing and moving, not cringe narcissism. I am willing to bet that McFarlane has done this on multiple occasions.
Apparently he sings and plays piano, but I don’t doubt you’re right. That said, I kinda enjoyed it despite the cringe.
Actually, having now watched it, the worst thing is that finale. Just a nothing episode, for an hour and a half, and the whole Isaac/Claire story made no sense. To be fair, it’s never really made sense, but this episode really brought it home. And another fucking acoustic guitar solo!
Somewhat relatedly, I find it fascinating that US shows so often do coda type episodes to end a season and especially the full show. It’s not really a thing in UK TV. And it’s not like it’s because they have to pad out a network TV 24 episodes. I’m talking 10-13 episode shows like this and The Wire. It more or less worked in The Wire, but I usually find them hard to engage with. And even when it’s not a full episode, they can often be grating - I hated the last few minutes of DS9.
I didn’t find anything really cringy about it, myself. I had the impression they egged him on into performing for them, it’s not he just started playing and everyone had no choice but to cease their conversations. Also, iirc, wasn’t it his birthday party?
It’s in three different episodes!
But even in that episode the fact that McFarlane thinks this is something people would egg him on to do is bad enough. Every single time he has this semi-circle of people just standing there with beatific smiles on their faces. It makes me want to throw up.
People who egg on acoustic guitar players at parties are inciting terrorism.
It’s what, 400 years in the future? It’s people encouraging the dude who plays the instrument that nobody plays anymore. :D
If I knew somebody who plays the Lute, I’d be all, yeah, play the Lute.
I think this might be just a pet peeve of yours, though I doubt you are alone in it. I guess it’s not something that bothered me, so I can offer no helpful thoughts on the matter.
It is a pet peeve of mine, but seriously, three different episodes in a three season show. WTF.
I just marked it down mentally as a science fiction thing, like @DarthMasta.
Like if someone still played a rare native american instrument nowadays that hardly anyone knows how to play anymore, I’d probably just stand there with a beatific smile on my face too and take it in.
That would be more believable if they didn’t have a near perfect recall of 20th/21st century pop culture, including a Dolly Parton hologram.
Would you have preferred in Bortus had done a Hamilton-like rap number? ie its about your taste in music?
I know McFarlane loves showtunes and there are even some Sondheim / musical references in the show overall, so it feels like this is just his version of “bringing people together”, ie like Captain Pike cooking stuff for his crew in Strange New Worlds (where there are bound to be crew members that prefer “proper replicated food”).
Personally I felt the Dolly Parton stuff was REALLY cringe-inducing, but then I also hate stuff like Hamilton (which EVERYONE appears to be enamoured with), so its really tough to cater to everyones tastes!
At least Grimes didn’t sing the theme song of Enterprise, though thematically it would have fit in with the Star Trek nostalgia permeating this show…
“Its been a long road, getting from there to here!” :)
I started watching this with my son. Having watched 2 episodes, I’m not sure if we should go on. They were a little stupid and somewhat iwierd, like they’re not sure if this is supposed to be sophisticated, adult humour or wacky. Does it find it’s footing later on?
First few episodes are wacky. I find it gets better from episode 4.
Takes awhile to figure it out but it does. It ends up a much more sincere love letter to TNG with some humor added in versus the goofy mess it starts out as.