The Orville Season 2

[MyriVerse]

Well, I really, really hope this episode wasn't indicative of what this season will be, or it will be the last... that I watch, anyway.

This episode was a real bore-fest. Bortus is such a horrible character at this point. He never does anything. This plot went nowhere. Of course, none of the B-plots in this episode went anywhere, and there was no A-plot. So, we were left with a complete waste of an episode. It might be impossible to spoil this episode because of the utter lack of meaningful plot.

Not a way to start a season.

[Tenzhi]

I didn't hate the episode, but it was all over the place with too many things going on.  And none of the things really amounted to anything.  Gordon's little story annoyed me the most.  It felt... contractually obligated. 

[GamingGlen]

It was still better sci-fi than no sci-fi.  And the more they show Grayson (Palicki) the better *sigh*.

I didn't mind all the sub-plots, but I do agree it needed an A-plot. Perhaps it could have been a link between episodes having a major involvement in a 3-episode A-plot, which this episode downplays a little (A-plot blows up to be a major crisis in episode 3).  But what do I know about writing TV shows?

[MyriVerse]

It was still better sci-fi than no sci-fi.

It was lucky to be on a holiday Sunday. It's now moving to Thursdays and tougher competition. In the future, I might even decide to watch reruns on H&I (TNG) or Comet (Bab5).

Grayson (Palicki)

I'm kind of irritated with her. Whether she and Mercer are together or not, she knew the feelings were still there before she ever stepped foot on the ship. Yet she wants to tease him with this "it'll hurt your decision making" nonsense. Whether they're together or not, it's going to hurt his decision making, and she knows making decisions isn't his strong point.

[GamingGlen]

I'm kind of irritated with her [Grayson]. Whether she and Mercer are together or not, she knew the feelings were still there before she ever stepped foot on the ship. Yet she wants to tease him with this "it'll hurt your decision making" nonsense. Whether they're together or not, it's going to hurt his decision making, and she knows making decisions isn't his strong point.

That has always bothered me, too.  I don't understand why high command would approve of it, unless they thought the ex would keep the on-shaky-ground captain in line.  Perhaps Seth sold the idea to Fox executives as a way to increase tension and drama in the show with hilarious results and now have to follow up on it. 

I felt that way about the whole pee once a year thing: a one-line joke they decided to follow up on.  It's probably meant to parody Amok Time from TOS (Spock's once per 7 year "itch") but I think it's a poor parody. 

[Tenzhi]

Personally, I was hoping the separation drama would've been resolved.  It seemed like an arc that should've been completed at the end of first season.  Evolve and move forward.

[Tenzhi]

Episode 2 seemed a lot better.  Although Kelly's "my god we're burning up" may have been the worst line delivery in the series.

[MyriVerse]

I was briefly like "oooh, something's happening with Bortus."

Aaand... it's gone.

Bortus is such a screwed up character that he even condones his own murder. WTH?! Maybe his husband should be a crew member.

And I really, really dislike these types of stories. I don't even like the "classic" pon farr Trek episode.  Surely, an alien species would be vetted and knowledge of such extreme cultural traits before they can even serve on board a starship. It completely breaks my suspension of disbelief to accept such illogic.

[Tenzhi]

Sometimes it's hard to remember this is a spoof.  In any case, the divorce/relationship plot seemed to be more of a catalyst for the ship-in-danger/rescue story.  It was a bit silly, though. 

[MyriVerse]

Well, thanks Seth and everyone else involved for making my decision easier. I'm done with the show now.

[Tenzhi]

That was an awesome episode.  A shame about the loss of probably my favourite character, but still it was great from start to finish.

[MyriVerse]

They can create artificial gravity, even to the point of protecting an individual in a suit from the planet she was from, but there isn't a more permanent solution? I just can't.

And her replacement? Ugh. I never wanted a live-action Futurama.

This series was already hanging by a thread for me before this season, but this makes 3 bad failures in a row for me. I don't think I've ever been more disgusted with a scifi series.

[Tenzhi]

They came up with a permanent, or at least long term, solution for Alara.  She chose not to take it.

Unless you're complaining about the time limit on the suit, but that one's too easy.  There are too many potential tech limitations to explain it away to remotely be bothered by it even if this was hard sci-fi.

The only thing that bothered me about Patrick Warburton's? alien was his mode of speech.  And yet he still was less annoying than Gordon.

[Tahquitz]

Possible RL issues with the actress.  Better job opportunities, starting a family, or the scriptwriters intended her to leave all along. 

In any case, The Orville can now try to "Tasha Yar" her back into the cast.  (Parallel Dimension, Evil Alara is the Union's Public Enemy #1 and chases Ed from galaxy to galaxy like a wounded rabbit.)

[MyriVerse]

The "solution" wasn't good enough, and there never should have been a problem in the first place. The crew really shouldn't be just figuring out how to cope with these different races. All of that stuff should be nailed down decades before they're even serving together. This is even a huge problem I had with Trek from the beginning. Technologically, generating this gravity field really should be no different than everything they already have.

Warburton's alien speech didn't bother me. It was just Warburton being Warburton.

And ultimately, her reason for leaving was just a wishy-washy excuse. The character, who was pretty much my third favourite on the show (actually the third of three that I even remotely like), lost almost all of my respect for that.

It did not help that the series was already hanging by a thread for me. I've disliked about 60% of the episodes before this episode. This was truly a straw breaking the proverbial camel.

[Tenzhi]

I think it's extremely unrealistic to expect humans to have everything worked out about themselves, and thus by extension certainly not everything about the aliens they're working with.  Moreover, in more serious sci-fi from a narrative perspective these sorts of stories allow the audience to learn about the alien cultures.  Of course, The Orville kinda pretends it wants to be serious sometimes, but it's somewhere between Red Dwarf and Star Trek.

I can't deny that part of the reason I loved the recent episode was due to Picardo and Billingsley, though.  If they ever do an episode with Jeffrey Combs as a key character, there's every chance it could be utterly daft and I'd love it.

[MyriVerse]

Humans do have everything worked out about themselves.

We, the audience, can learn about these cultures in ways that don't mean the characters are just learning about them. I think it's very lazy and poor writing to write the characters and society as such buffoons (even for a semi-comedy like this). They would be complete buffoons to have species like these serving without knowing completely what they are and how to deal with them for many years. Nothing like Bortus' episodes or this episode should be happening. It defies all reason.

[Tahquitz]

That's kind of the line they're traipsing over. 

Robin Williams knew it well.  Comics who try to do drama are mostly expected to stop doing comedies.  (Tom Hanks, Denis Leary, etc.)  And dramatic actors who do comedies have a hard time getting back into a drama (Jon Hamm, Robert Stack).  Those who dance between both have a hard time being what they want to be.  A dramatic actor who's funny, or a comedian who does dramas.  It doesn't matter where they're seen to lie, it's the same challenge.  (Bryan Cranston, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson.)  Yes, I know I'm ignoring the origins of most of who I've named.  Jon Hamm started out in stand-up, Denis Leary owes a lot of his success to others, Tom Hanks had no dramatic inclinations until Zemeckis challenged him to try out for Forrest Gump, etc.  Stay with me.

Comedy is for fun.  Drama is supposed to be good.  What's hard is making something that balances both (Scrubs).  Even harder than that, a show that does both elements and does it well.  It's taxing.  (Compare M.A.S.H. and House M.D., but not to each other.  Compare each show's first seasons to their later ones.  It's a difficult marathon to keep up.)

Williams spent his entire career with that fight.  And it seems MacFarland wants to do the same himself.  But I think he's aiming more towards Scrubs than House M.D. here.  The Orville isn't a straight parody since you're supposed to care about the characters past 'slapstick dismissal', but it isn't serious television, because it's looser than Star Trek.  (Except that Star Trek: Discovery let it's cast drop some F-Bombs in the first season out of "See? We can do something The Orville can't!  No bleeps!") I enjoyed the first season of The Orville, but that's mostly freshman luck.  If you do sufficient ground work and find an audience who wants what you're making, it's not terribly hard to succeed after your show is greenlit.  A newly established 'universe', a chance to see how a cast 'gels together' on screen, everything is new plot wise... (if the trope isn't new to the audience, it's new to the actors who can reinterpret it however they wish)

Unlike a franchise, they haven't painted themselves into a corner with established lore, retcons that didn't work, and climax resolutions to weary viewers like Star Trek has fought against with each season.  First Season is cake compared to Season 2, 3, 4... But when they do reach that point, will The Orville be able to hold it's own?  Does he stand true to what the show started as, does he point the ship towards one genre or the other (like MASH did... drop the laugh track and embrace the hell of a war), or does it sink altogether and stop being fun (doesn't matter what decision is made, if that point is reached, who cares if it's a comedy or drama at that point?)

That's why I'm still watching.  I want to see what MacFarland does when that point is reached... or in MyriVerse's case, if he'll keep his viewers around long enough to find that point in the first place.

[Tenzhi]

Humans do have everything worked out about themselves.

No.  Not even close.  We will always be discovering new things about our biology and the things that affect it.  And there will always be new things cropping up that affect us, particularly if we were able to effectively explore the galaxy.  And that's just biologically speaking.  There's also the cultural differences that would almost certainly become more divergent as we spread across the vast distances of space - and again, that's just among ourselves.  No, it's utterly daft to think we'd have everything worked out about various alien species.  Mind you, it might be even more ridiculous to think we'd be able to collectively get past our xenophobic tendencies to work with a variety of aliens in the first place.

[Tenzhi]

That episode was very predictable and familiar, but not bad.  It steered back towards sci-fi, not focusing nearly as much on the "comedy" elements.

[Tenzhi]

Back to bad.  I'm not even sure the credits made sense in that episode.

[GamingGlen]

The episode started out good, but went downhill after Kelly, at the state dinner, mentioned her and Bortus' birthdays are coming soon which coincided with the planet's society bad "thing".  There's so many things that could have been done better with very little effort.

Seth needs a technological consultant (or a new one), and a philosophy consultant especially concerning religion.  I know, he should borrow Henry from Madam Secretary.    

[Tenzhi]

The episode started out good, but went downhill after Kelly, at the state dinner, mentioned her and Bortus' birthdays are coming soon which coincided with the planet's society bad "thing". 

Yeah, that's where even my suspension of disbelief hit a wall.  Imprisoning aliens when you could just kick them off your planet and not risk starting a war made no sense.  And there was a more obvious and less ridiculous solution to the problem, too.

[MyriVerse]

Tried. Couldn't make it past 5 minutes. It's suspension breaking idiotic to "first contact" a civilization just because they can send a radio signal.

Back to ignoring this monstrosity of a series.

[Tahquitz]

The ending struck me as the laziest part.  Because a solar sail made a fake star appear, we're having birthday cake on the bridge.  Nevermind whatever philosophical coda could have been gained at the end concerning that planet.  Just "screw that place".

The care that went into the episode with Bortus's trial concerning his now son was far better thought out that this one.  This time, he's ripping off Voltaire.  And TOS, which had technical limitations to their storytelling that The Orville doesn't face.

[Tenzhi]

Coexistence is futile.  You will be annihilated.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Coexistence is futile.  You will be annihilated.

That was a great episode. However, it felt more of a season final then an episode in the beginning of a season.

[MyriVerse]

Well, it's sort of the mid-season start. There are 14 episodes this season.

[Tenzhi]

That was a great episode. However, it felt more of a season final then an episode in the beginning of a season.

It's the 8th episode of the season, so it's hardly the beginning in any case.

[Angel Phoenix77]

It's the 8th episode of the season, so it's hardly the beginning in any case.

I think you missed the important part, where I wrote "it felt like a season final." I admit that I miswrote the beginning season.

[eabrace]

This is the sort of episode I've really been waiting for.  Meanwhile, there's a Fox executive fuming in his office somewhere because he didn't get his weekly dose of fart jokes.

[Mandu]

And the solution will be that the boys will manage to trick the intellectually superior Issac and infect him with a virus which will spread through the entire race. It will be the three laws of robotics.

[Tenzhi]

And the solution will be that the boys will manage to trick the intellectually superior Issac and infect him with a virus which will spread through the entire race. It will be the three laws of robotics.

Or since they know they can't beat him, they'll make him play a game against himself until he comes to the conclusion that no one would win.

Or they'll change his mind with the power of love.

Or it'll turn out that all of this is just a final test for those unanswered questions.

[saipaman]

Or none of this is actually happening -- it could just be giant simulation.

[GamingGlen]

All the Kaylon ships will show up around Earth, tension builds the longer they wait to fire, then suddenly they all change to look like Mr. Potato Head.

Surprise!  It's a prank!

Then they'll hurry off and over the comms will be heard, "To the Krill home world and let's light up like a 1000 stars!".

[GamingGlen]

Okay, so it wasn't a prank.  I'm glad it wasn't.

But it was one awesome episode (Identity, pt 2).  It needed another 10 minutes, but perhaps that is on the cutting room floor and will make it into the director's cut on the DVD.

[Tenzhi]

I was surprised they didn't cop out on the Kaylon threat.  And this two parter was pretty good all around.

[eabrace]

I wonder how much they spent on the effects in the space battle.

[MyriVerse]

Surely the Krill are going to take advantage of the now decimated fleet by the end of the season? Avis demands it!

[Tenzhi]

I dunno, but during the episode I kept thinking the Krill looked familiar and it finally dawned on me that they reminded me of Scorpius from Farscape.

[Tahquitz]

Surely the Krill are going to take advantage of the now decimated fleet by the end of the season? Avis demands it!

Well, we try harder.

[Mandu]

Another completely serious and well done episode that reminded me a lot of classic Trek.  I stand solid in my belief that what Seth wanted to do from the beginning was create a STTOS type series but Hollywood which always wants the same thing over and over wanted another "Seth McFarlane" goofy series.  So he compromised until the ratings were strong and the reviews about it being the only good Trek on tv were in.  Now he's steering it in the direction he originally wanted.

And although I thought I would miss Alara, Talla makes a much better and more believable security officer.

[Tahquitz]

I'm liking Talla, but I miss Alara.  The off-note of a stick thin girl smashing an airlock open in one shot just doesn't get old with me.  I guess I have that in common with Joss Whedon.

[Tenzhi]

I miss Alara.  She added cute factor.

Gordon continues to have moments of awkwardness that make him the worst, with character moments that are just good enough to barely make him tolerable.  Other than those awkward moments, this latest episode was pretty good.

[Mandu]

I miss Alara.  She added cute factor.

Gordon continues to have moments of awkwardness that make him the worst, with character moments that are just good enough to barely make him tolerable.  Other than those awkward moments, this latest episode was pretty good.

Yeah Alara added a cute factor and I miss that, but I don't miss her as security.  I certainly would not object if they added her back to the show in a different position.

[Tenzhi]

Ye gods... the voice of the Moclazon revolution...

[HalcyonS]

I have to admit I loved that... But then again I'm apparently REALLY old.

[Tenzhi]

I have to admit I loved that... But then again I'm apparently REALLY old.

I'm old enough to almost have forgotten the movie every time I hear that song.  I laughed pretty hard.

[Mandu]

Might as well just rename the show the Moclans since every other episode is about them.  This was a decent episode but the show has taken the Worf obsession of TNG and turned it up to 11.  For me Bortus has always been a meh character at best.

[MyriVerse]

Still not watching, but...

The last Moclan episode was #7, with the Moclan who liked women.

The problem is there are not enough episodes per season to properly focus on the ensemble cast plus the universe. They've focused too much on Isaac and Bortus, and the rest of the cast doesn't get much love. Gordon and LaMarr almost may as well not be there. Ed and Kelly really don't do a whole lot either. They're also not delving into the setting like a typical Star Trek series would. Outside of the main cast aliens, only the Krill have gotten much focus.

[eabrace]

There have been at least a couple of Malloy-centric stories this season.  He's actually seemed to grow up a little.

I can't recall any stories that focused much on LaMarr, though.

[Tenzhi]

If anyone ever tells you that your Kaylon headcanon won't fly, just point them at that episode...