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First reviews for Seth McFarlane's scifi drama The Orville

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Idk, I think it might be something I'd enjoy. Never was too big into Family Guy but the Ted movies are among my all time favorite comedies.
 
Can't say I'm a fan of McFarlane, only thing of his I've enjoyed were the Family Guy Star Wars specials.

Family Guy - crap
American Dad - crapper
Cleveland Show - crappola
Ted - crappy
Ted 2 - crapistan
A Million Ways to Die in the West - crappy do too

for a guy that hates his stuff, you sure seem to watch a lot of it
 
While the other co-creators(Barker, Weitzman) had a much larger role in what American Dad became, I suppose you could chalk that up to being a McFarlane creation. It's the best thing he's had his hands in, in my opinion anyways.

People don't like to give credit Seth MacFarlane and while it's true that others writer fleshed out American Dad (this is actually true of most MacFarlane since he really doesn't write anything beyond the pilot for the shows he creates), but he voices the main characters, so I have no doubt he is or at least was involved in the production room.

BTW I gotta give MacFarlane credit for having a pretty consistent production staff in all of his productions animated & live-action, and he's the only person who gives Joel McNeely work these days which is great. People clearly like working with him, and I'm not even a huge fan myself.
 

Wag

Member
While MacFarlane might be a decent writer at times, he can't act. He comes off as a total douche.
 

Nachos

Member
So the guy who was at least partially responsible for the transgender episode of Family Guy, and, prior to release, thought the entire LGBT community would love it tried to tackle gender again?
 

berzeli

Banned
A couple more:
Collider (one star):
By playing it safe and showing a truly breathtaking lack of creativity, The Orville can’t even claim to be better than the myriad of Star Trek fan films that can currently be found on YouTube. If nothing else, at least those have a genuine sense of passion and adoration behind them, whereas MacFarlane’s xerox offers only empty veneer.

Since this seems to be the only positive review I might as well (aka a good reminder why you should never visit joblo):
The Orville is going to disappoint fans of McFarlane's trademark brand of humor but will likely make a ton of fans out of those looking for a smartly written voyage into the final frontier.
In the opening minutes of the debut episode, we get a glimpse at the Utopian future awaiting humanity in 400 years time. But, unlike Star Trek, The Orville doesn't skip over how actual people would talk or react. Mercer's first scene finds him returning to his apartment to find his wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), having sex with a blue-skinned alien.
The humor of The Orville is somewhat hit or miss. Sometimes the jokes fall flat and lack the bite that some of McFarlane's animated series have as their trademark.
The Orville often feels like a working class version of Star Trek which is at once refreshing and very nostalgaic.
Seth McFarlane does a good job playing the Captain even if he isn't quite as charismatic as Patrick Stewart or William Shatner
Over the first three episodes provided for us in advance of the series premiere, the tone varies pretty widly.
The second and third episodes venture more into Trek territory with a story centered on an alien zoo and another with a very timely story about gender and sex changes. Like many of the best episodes of The Next Generation, The Orville is able to tackle contemporary political issues in a unique lens of a future where humanity has tackled and solved many racial problems plaguing society.
The humor is all over the place
[9/10]
 
Yes, there are a few Family Guy-esque punchlines scattered throughout, but as bafflingly as this sounds, The Orville is mostly a straightforward drama… and not a very good one, at that.

Just like that shit western film he made.
 

Tobor

Member
Budgets I can see for Star Trek are close to one million per episode. Again, is The Orville that much more expensive?

What Star Trek show was a million per? Next generation 30 years ago?

Discovery, the new show, is $6 million an episode.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
LHev1tY.gif

Yes...?
 

Oppo

Member
wow what the hell

here I saw the promo and thought, man, dude's smart, Galaxy Quest is ripe and basically can't come back now

how wrong i was

that said -- if he is trying to take a decent run at sci fi contemporary commentary in the guise of old school SF, I can't get too mad at him. who knows what happens during production. shit is hard, fam
 
I had no knowledge of this show until I seen this thread a minute ago but I'm pleased it's not a goofy Star Trek parody.

I'll watch it as I'm a sucker for sci-fi TV shows(good or bad) even if the critics hate them.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
I had no knowledge of this show until I seen this thread a minute ago but I'm pleased it's not a goofy Star Trek parody.

I'll watch it as I'm a sucker for sci-fi TV shows(good or bad) even if the critics hate them.

If it becomes more "stargate" kind of light-drama it might not be too bad now that I think about it
 

Dehnus

Member
Can't say I'm a fan of McFarlane, only thing of his I've enjoyed were the Family Guy Star Wars specials.

Family Guy - crap
American Dad - crapper
Cleveland Show - crappola
Ted - crappy
Ted 2 - crapistan
A Million Ways to Die in the West - crappy do too
let me guess.. You like Friends and scrubs and other soap operas with a laugh track?
 

caliph95

Member
Nothing says working class like a captain coming home to see his wife cheating on him apparently.

(I have no idea wtf "working class Star Trek" is supposed to mean)
I guess from a less utopian society

I would say lower ranked but Seth plays a captain
 
TBF, even most real Trek series start as being bad. It's only later as the seasons go most of them became good. TNG was not even good until season 3. So, in that sense, Orville is following Trek lore.

However, that being said, probably will not last long enough to get past the awkward/bad stage. I doubt this show will make even a full season.

Shame.

A series in the vain of Galaxy Quest was/is a great idea.
 

berzeli

Banned
Two more:
Uproxx (Sepinwall): Seth MacFarlane’s ‘The Orville’ Isn’t A ‘Star Trek’ Spoof. It’s Just Bad ‘Star Trek’
Humor and drama can peacefully co-exist, even in this kind of setting — the aforementioned Galaxy Quest is both a Trek spoof and one of the better (unofficial) Star Trek movies — but that requires care and effort, where all of this feels slapped together at the last possible minute.

There’s a point in one episode where Captain Mercer tells an alien, “I’m just not gonna try comedy with you.” It’s a strategy that would serve The Orville well — or would if non-comic parts were worth the bother.

USA Today: Seth MacFarlane’s 'Star Trek'-inspired ‘The Orville’ flies off course [2/4]
The jokes are not specific enough to Star Trek, or even the sci-fi genre, to make the series a smart parody like the 1999 film Galaxy Quest. The Orville simply has no point of view, other than reverence for Star Trek. It was, and there are moments of The Orville that seem truly inspired, such as its third episode, which uses its sci-fi setting to (literally) put gender stereotypes on trial. But the episode doesn't follow through or say anything unique.

Instead, The Orville feels like a series that sounded good on paper — “Star Trek with Seth MacFarlane!” — but lost its way in the execution. The end result is more confusing than entertaining, and, with a genuine Star Trek series hitting CBS All Access later this month, feels unnecessary.
I guess from a less utopian society

I would say lower ranked but Seth plays a captain
It's a bad review from what seems to be a bad writer who can't convey their ideas effectively.
Update the OP you lazy bastard. The despair must be on full display.
 
Budgets I can see for Star Trek are close to one million per episode. Again, is The Orville that much more expensive?

lol what?

Yes. We know how much Discovery costs (~$8 mil) and just looking at Orville, it'sprobably north of $5-6 million an episode. Animated shows costs significantly less.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
Not surprised. It hasn't looked good from the first. I'm still a bit disappointed, though, because there's some real talent attached to this project (I'm of the opinion McFarlane isn't a part of that equation, but I respect that the man has impressed millions of my peers) and it would have been nice to have two decent Treks and Trek-esques at once.
 

Slayven

Member
Not surprised. It hasn't looked good from the first. I'm still s bit disappointed, though, because there's some real talent attached to this project (I'm of the opinion McFarlane isn't a part of that equation, but I respect that the man has impressed millions of my peers) and it would have been nice to have two decent Treks and Trek-esques at once.

Buy some Gargoyles dvds
 
So as a guy that actually enjoys Family Guy from time to time, but HATED all of his live action stuff, I was crossing my fingers that The Orville would be Seth's Galaxy Quest.
I had hope because Seth really is a sci-fi nut. You can see it all through Family Guy. He loves the material.

Sooooo maybe everyone expected Galaxy Quest, but now that I'm reading reviews and reactions, it's sounding a LOT closer tonally to Farscape, which is kind of exciting.

If it's anywhere near Farscape, I'll be happy. I'm so desperate for trek/sci-fi tv, that if this is good enough, I'm fine.

Now where's my FRINGE copycat??
 

Hesh

Member
I think they actually made a joke about that in Movie 43, where he is pitching garbage but the other people are still interested and he mixes up Family Guy and American Dad or something like that. I might be remembering wrong, since that movie almost gave me an aneurysm it's so fucking bad.

That was actually from a Robot Chicken sketch. Or maybe they copied it for Movie 43, too (I never saw it because it looked like a dreadful movie).
 
Variety. Ouch.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/reviews/orville-review-seth-macfarlane-star-trek-fox-1202544522/

When the dust settles, “The Orville” may emerge as the most inexplicable show of the new season. It certainly never makes a convincing case for its existence. The first impression — that it exists so that creator and star Seth MacFarlane can do elaborate “Star Trek” cosplay — is only reinforced over the course of the tepid trio of episodes that kick off the show.

That’s not the only issue. On small and large screens, one of “Star Trek’s” most consistent faults is casting good actresses in key roles yet treating their characters with condescending and even sexist attitudes at times. As it dutifully excavates the Federation legacy, “The Orville” imports that deflating habit as well.

Adrianne Palicki’s Kelly Grayson, the ship’s second-in-command, is defined almost completely by the resentment that Ed Mercer (MacFarlane) and his best bro, navigator Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes), display toward her. Ed and Kelly used to be married, but their relationship went sour: In the opening scene of “The Orville,” Ed finds Kelly cheating on him, and he never misses an opportunity to remind her of that.

And yet, even though her ex and his buddy frequently scold and try to shame her, “The Orville” would have viewers believe she may want to get back together with him. Kelly even says at one point she wants to “atone” for her actions, which is why she pulled strings to be assigned with her ex, who apparently wasn’t a very good husband. Perhaps an alien could find logic in that scenario, but it’s elusive to the human mind.

An air of self-congratulation hangs over the entire hour, as if MacFarlane, who wrote it, couldn’t get over his awe at his own bravery in engaging with a difficult, complex topic. Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that the show takes a big creative swing tackling issues of gender and identity, but it does not connect, and the end result is disastrous. If it’s challenging for “The Orville” to wring laughs from the audience, it’s all but impossible for it to earn the dramatic (and tone-deaf) conclusion it attempts in the third episode.

Also now has a 19 on Metacritic...
 

berzeli

Banned
Deadline didn't care for it either:
if your need for sci-fi is gnawing at you, hold your powder a couple more weeks and wait for Star Trek: Discovery, which premieres September 24. Even with the highly skilled likes of Norm Macdonald, Transparent's Jeffery Tambor, Holland Taylor, 24 vet Penny Johnson Jerald and Victor Garber making appearances alongside the Family Guy guy and the Friday Night Lights alum, The Orville's aspirations to find a new path to the final frontier in this age of Peak TV goes nowhere frat-boy fast.

In fact, with its urination gags and heavy-handedness on such topics as gender identity and racism, the only purpose of the lost-in-space The Orville seems to be to as a way for Fox to continue its lucrative relationship with MacFarlane and keep him happy.


Too slow:
Variety:
I'm starting to think that Scott Buck is soon to become Seth's #1 fan for taking the heat off him.
 
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