Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: K Frame on September 11, 2017, 11:03:15 AM
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Anyone watch it?
I thought it was amusing, and has potential.
There were times when I thought I was watching Star Trek - The Next Next Next Next Next Generational Iteration, but the difference was it was supposed to be campy and funny.
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My wife and I are kind of on the fence, but we will give it a few more episodes to see how it goes.
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My wife watched it. I saw a little of it; thought it was Galaxy Quest at first.
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My wife and I are kind of on the fence, but we will give it a few more episodes to see how it goes.
That is exactly how the wife and I feel about it. I am more of the climbing off the fence and shelving it more than she is. We will watch a few more before we place it on the shelf with other un-memorable shows. For me it tried to rely too much on sophomoric humor, but isn't that is what it is supposed to be about? IMO there is a time for irreverence and a time for professionalism, even in a fictional show that is supposed to have a quasi-military format. Maybe I am expecting too much, in fact I am sure I am expecting too much. :(
bob
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My wife watched it. I saw a little of it; thought it was Galaxy Quest at first.
YES! I meant to mention that it also had a very strong Galaxy Quest flavor to it.
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It was a bit too on the nose for me. I'll give it another episode or two, but I'm not going to go out of my way to watch it past that.
Chris
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Seth MacFarlane isn't as hard to watch as Seth Meyers. But he's uncomfortably close.
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Eh. SciFi on Fox. It’ll be gone in one season anyway even if turns out to be good.
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Eh. SciFi on Fox. It’ll be gone in one season anyway even especially if turns out to be good.
FTFY.
However, as fistful noted, with it starring Seth MacFarlane, the likelihood isn't all that high, anyway.
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I expected more. I know it's supposed to be a cross between Star Trek and Galaxy Quest but they could have put a little more effort into it. I think that would be great if they could pull it off but Seth is no Tim Allen or Bill Shatner. Maybe if they cut the commercial time back they would have enough time to write a decent script. I'll set it up on the DVR but I'm not going to sit around waiting for it to come on tv.
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I still hear Brian
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I still hear Brian
This Brian?
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/12/Brian_Griffin.png/195px-Brian_Griffin.png)
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"Family Guy" does "Star Wars" on their own show instead of an episode.
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I missed the first go. They are airing episode 1 again Tuesday so I'll catch it then.
I'd really like to see it be a good Sci-Fi show but my cynical prediction is that it will be a total rotter and Fox, in a braindead attempt to make up for killing Firefly will keep it going for 10 seasons.
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I was hoping for a Galaxy Quest quality parody, but I think The Orville fell short. Most of the funny bits were seen in the promo ads. At other times, it seemed as if they wanted it to be a serious drama, at which it also fell short.
I'll probably watch another episode or two, but the pilot wasn't very encouraging.
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"Most of the funny bits were seen in the promo ads."
Welcome to 99% of all TV shows and movies being made today.
It's going to be on again Tuesday, so I'm going to watch it again. See if it still resonates with me.
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I was hoping for something along the line of Space Balls. We watched the first show and I sort of thought it switched back and forth between a not very good serious space opera and a not very good comedy. I found I was forcing myself to laugh. That's an odd sensation. I'm gonna watch a couple more episodes and see what happens.
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Let's hope it's at least as good as this was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTo3BLuIQ-4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTo3BLuIQ-4)
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Face it, though...
The Orville is, in comparison to The Last Man on Earth, the funniest show to ever air.
I swear to god I have no idea who LMOE has stayed on the air, has been nominated for Emmys, or has actually won Emmys...
Given the choice between being forced to watch LMOE back to back to back, or getting a flaming gasoline enema, I'd take the flaming gasoline enema because I KNOW that would be over relatively quickly.
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I was hoping for something along the line of Space Balls. We watched the first show and I sort of thought it switched back and forth between a not very good serious space opera and a not very good comedy. I found I was forcing myself to laugh. That's an odd sensation. I'm gonna watch a couple more episodes and see what happens.
Isn't that sort of like just about any show Seth MacFarlane has actually appeared in that isn't a cartoon?
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I swear to god I have no idea who LMOE has stayed on the air, has been nominated for Emmys, or has actually won Emmys...
Same. Great premise that they totally screwed up. I gave up on it early in season 1. A couple of months ago, while browsing Hulu, I saw it listed there with multiple seasons and thought, "How did this not get canceled?" Thinking maybe it got better, I made the mistake of trying to watch later seasons. I tried three random episodes, and hit FF through all of them.
Just as, or more terrible than season 1. Yet somehow very popular with the average American viewer. Scary.
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it switched back and forth between a not very good serious space opera and a not very good comedy.
Even if it was good at both elements, the juxtaposition of the two made the show feel awkward.
Chris
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Same. Great premise that they totally screwed up. I gave up on it early in season 1. A couple of months ago, while browsing Hulu, I saw it listed there with multiple seasons and thought, "How did this not get canceled?" Thinking maybe it got better, I made the mistake of trying to watch later seasons. I tried three random episodes, and hit FF through all of them.
Just as, or more terrible than season 1. Yet somehow very popular with the average American viewer. Scary.
I gave up on it just before the final credits rolled in the first episode. I deleted the record schedule from my DVR.
It is the only show I have ever given 0 out of 10 stars it sucked that badly.
I've tried a couple of times to reconnect with it, but if anything it's even worse.
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Even if it was good at both elements, the juxtaposition of the two made the show feel awkward.
Chris
I think awkward is a good description. I felt that, too, but I just couldn't put a word to it.
Hopefully that will smooth out in the next couple of episodes. If it doesn't, though, it will fail quickly.
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Face it, though...
The Orville is, in comparison to The Last Man on Earth, the funniest show to ever air.
I swear to god I have no idea who LMOE has stayed on the air, has been nominated for Emmys, or has actually won Emmys...
Given the choice between being forced to watch LMOE back to back to back, or getting a flaming gasoline enema, I'd take the flaming gasoline enema because I KNOW that would be over relatively quickly.
Never heard of it. Looked it up on Wki; it seems to be a ripoff of Earth Abides.
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Never heard of it. Looked it up on Wki; it seems to be a ripoff of Earth Abides.
Not really. Unless you consider any apocalyptic story a ripoff of Earth Abides.
Chris
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Never heard of it. Looked it up on Wki; it seems to be a ripoff of Earth Abides.
Please don't ever again mention that show and "Earth Abides" in the same sentence.
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Never heard or seen either of them...
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Please don't ever again mention that show and "Earth Abides" in the same sentence.
Does it star Jeff Bridges?
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Never heard or seen either of them...
The book is on the APS "must read" list. :)
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Never even heard of Earth Abides.
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Reminds me a bit of The Jetsons...with ripoff Star Trek music, mixed in with a ghost of Galaxy Quest.
I was not overwhelmed. Fox will kill it and put us out of our misery.
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I'll keep the DVR going on it for now to see how it evolves.
I found it mildly entertaining but the characters are too forced.
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Awkward I can handle in a new show. Have you ever gone back to watch the first few episodes of Star Trek: TNG? Very awkward and stiff, but at least they were trying to be serious.
Are the special effects cheaper these days? I remember hearing about the costs in the 90's.
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Awkward I can handle in a new show. Have you ever gone back to watch the first few episodes of Star Trek: TNG? Very awkward and stiff, but at least they were trying to be serious.
Are the special effects cheaper these days? I remember hearing about the costs in the 90's.
Well, it IS supposed to be a comedy.
Watched it on Hulu yesterday. Went in not expecting much but did enjoy it for the most part. I did find the comedic banter while on duty a bit much, but who can say what social interaction will be like 400 years from now? If the comedy can be notched down a bit (say to the level exhibited in Firefly) it could be a good series.
The bit with the dog when Dr. Bashir's father the scientist was on screen was a hoot.
True about first episodes and even first seasons being awkward is true. The early seasons of most ST series are rather painful to watch now.
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Watched it on Hulu yesterday. Went in not expecting much but did enjoy it for the most part. I did find the comedic banter while on duty a bit much, but who can say what social interaction will be like 400 years from now? If the comedy can be notched down a bit (say to the level exhibited in Firefly) it could be a good series.
It did remind me a little of the control room crew on sub during the midwatch. I would imagine that in the new kinder and gentler, mixed gender environment of submarines the tone and language is likely a bit more PC today.
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It did remind me a little of the control room crew on sub during the midwatch. I would imagine that in the new kinder and gentler, mixed gender environment of submarines the tone and language is likely a bit more PC today.
Maybe, maybe not. When I worked in mixed gender teams in the 90s some of the female staff could make the males on the crew blush.
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Wow. They REALLY dialed the humor down in episode 2.
There were some humorous bits, but overall it was far more serious than the first episode.
And, I think it make it a bit better overall.
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Miserable, worthless *expletive deleted*ing *expletive deleted*it @%$#%@!! &^$^$@@**@! football *expletive deleted*ing game ran 45 *expletive deleted*ing minutes long and I only got 15 minutes of the episode on my DVR.
*expletive deleted*ck a bunch of football.
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Miserable, worthless *expletive deleted*ing *expletive deleted*it @%$#%@!! &^$^$@@**@! football *expletive deleted*ing game ran 45 *expletive deleted*ing minutes long and I only got 15 minutes of the episode on my DVR.
*expletive deleted*ck a bunch of football.
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
I just had the exact same conversation with a friend via e-mail!
I always figure that Fox sports is going to run anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes long on their sports programming. And, the Dallas-Denver game still wasn't over when NFL Sports HAD to cut away due to NFL rules (something about the afternoon games interfering with the Sunday evening game being a no-no.)
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Oh, you may be able to watch episode 2 through On Demand.
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FWIW, I watched Ep1 on the Fox website. Ep2 is probably available there as well.
Chris
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You can blame the lightning display for the game running long, I guess. (We had a couple of almost-no-delay-between flash and crack strokes over here, too.)
The Orville episode where the little chick takes over command :facepalm: suddenly appeared on an over-the-air Fox channel last night, but wasn't on their schedule.
It didn't take long for me to figure out it was supposed to be a comedy... of some kind. It seemed to be a little chopped-up, continuity wise, as well, although the over-the-air station might have been re-feeding it from their cable channel or something, which caused the continuity problem.
I started to realize it was a conglomeration of all the "bits" from "Star Trek Et Cetera" and the "Star Wars Et Cetera" franchises... even including a takeoff on Chewbaca. I thought the scene where she suddenly decides to disobey orders and rescue the captain and his exec and everybody whoops and cheers was ridiculously trite (Oh, Yaayyyyy!)... but was supposed to be.
Next thing you know, after penetrating the outer defenses of the antagonist species by a new cloaking and disguising device, she and that android are in the zoo, talking face to face with the captain and his ex-wife.*
Next thing you know after that, a deal is struck** and the captain and his ex-wife/exec are rescued, as in "Poof! You're rescued."
I felt as if a couple of panels had fallen off the story board and none of the writers noticed.
If it pops up again, I'll watch it just to see if the writer got his act together, but for now, it looked as if it were badly cobbled together and nobody could figure out what they really wanted to do.
Hey, I recognize parody. I wonder how many recognize lousy parody.
Terry
* And as with just about every episode of Star Whatevers, I hated the notion that the top echelon of officers went a-derring-do and a-transporting around into unknown situations, but, you know, there's the story, and what can you say? Somehow, it's like expecting Admiral Halsey (the real one, not the fake one in Orville) to hop into a PT Boat and zoom around, actually pulling triggers, shooting at enemy shipping. I can suspend reality only so much.
** I don't want to spoil the inane "hook" at the end. You'll just have to sit on the edge of your chair biting your nails and wringing your hands until then.
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Yea, second episode was better. I avoided football fumbles by taping the 7 to 9PM time. Then just played back the show.
Watched Fox's Next Revolution live....a pretty decent show.
But Orville was pretty good. Sometimes laying an egg is a good thing. [tinfoil] [popcorn]
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Miserable, worthless *expletive deleted*ing *expletive deleted*it @%$#%@!! &^$^$@@**@! football *expletive deleted*ing game ran 45 *expletive deleted*ing minutes long and I only got 15 minutes of the episode on my DVR.
*expletive deleted*ck a bunch of football.
Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel . . . I'm pretty sure I'll agree with you.
As for this episode - with the advanced aliens stocking a zoo - it was pretty much a ripoff of a 1966 ST:TOS episode ("The Menagerie") which someone obviously went through at the last minute and said "Hey, we need to make some changes so we don't get sued for copyright violations!"
I was not impressed.
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Well, I sorta get a "STARTREKY" feel from the whole Orville thing so I wouldn't be too surprised to see future episodes "ripping off " more Star Trek memes. They changed enough. Plus the sfx were better. I don't think I'll be taking The Orville too seriously even if I do watch it. [popcorn]
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"I wonder how many recognize lousy parody."
I wonder how many people actually sit down with a new TV show, recognize that yeah, it's something of a hash of a rehash (like just about everything else is, these days), and then get on with watching it on its own terms?
:rofl:
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The Dallas game went long. So we only got about 20 minutes of The Orville. Sort of a waste of 20 minutes, frankly. I like The Last Ship, so I switched it at 9PM and then caught the final episode of The Strain @ 10PM. If they have a late running football game every Sunday, missing The Orville will be no great loss. Too bad. I had high hopes. Oh...wait, maybe I should get high and it might be better. :P :angel:
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"I wonder how many recognize lousy parody."
I wonder how many people actually sit down with a new TV show, recognize that yeah, it's something of a hash of a rehash (like just about everything else is, these days), and then get on with watching it on its own terms?
:rofl:
Well, as I also said,
"If it pops up again, I'll watch it just to see if the writer got his act together, but for now, it looked as if it were badly cobbled together but and nobody could figure out what they really wanted to do."
(Slight edit there.)
So right now, "its own terms" are pretty darned low. Low enough that I would not deliberately seek out another episode.
Just as I would not deliberately seek out episodes of "The Howdy Doody Show."
(https://www.czechmarionettes.com/images/loutky/detail/Czech-Marionettes-woody_handcarved_czech_marionette_2.c692.jpg)
:rofl:
Terry
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If they have a late running football game every Sunday, missing The Orville will be no great loss. Too bad. I had high hopes.
Well, you are in luck, no more getting cut short by Sunday football games. They are moving it into its programming niche, which is Thursday nights at 9/8C.
https://www.fox.com/the-orville/?cmpid=org=fbc::ag=360i::mc=cpc::src=bing::cmp=the-orville::add=the_orville
bob
eta: I wonder how long it will be before we see a rendezvous with the Wilbur on the show. ;) And another, why does the Planetary Union use USS to ID this space ship? Shouldn't it be something along the lines of P.U.S.S. ? >:D
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Oh, good. I'm busy Thursday nights. >:D :rolleyes:
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"USS"
Union Space Ship
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"As for this episode - with the advanced aliens stocking a zoo - it was pretty much a ripoff of a 1966 ST:TOS episode ("The Menagerie") which someone obviously went through at the last minute and said "Hey, we need to make some changes so we don't get sued for copyright violations!""
Yeah.... no.
The Menagerie wasn't about aliens stockpiling a zoo. Not even close. Very UNrelated, except for the fact that both a male and female ended up on Talos. The aliens in that episode were benevolent. They didn't view Pike or Vina as inferior in the way that the aliens did in the episode on The Orville.
This episode is FAR more closely related to The Twilight Zone's "People are alike all over," in which Roddy McDowell's astronaut character finds himself in a Martian zoo.
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"As for this episode - with the advanced aliens stocking a zoo - it was pretty much a ripoff of a 1966 ST:TOS episode ("The Menagerie") which someone obviously went through at the last minute and said "Hey, we need to make some changes so we don't get sued for copyright violations!""
Yeah.... no.
The Menagerie wasn't about aliens stockpiling a zoo. Not even close. Very UNrelated, except for the fact that both a male and female ended up on Talos. The aliens in that episode were benevolent. They didn't view Pike or Vina as inferior in the way that the aliens did in the episode on The Orville.
This episode is FAR more closely related to The Twilight Zone's "People are alike all over," in which Roddy McDowell's astronaut character finds himself in a Martian zoo.
Good point, although I'm not sure I agree the Talosians were benevolent in the whole. They certainly were better than the aliens in the ORVILLE episode, but caging Christopher Pike and making him believe he was in hell was a bit on the mean side.
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And yet, when the Talosians found out that Pike was crippled and essentially active brain trapped in a vegetative body, they freely offered to allow him to live out his life on their planet in a engineered existence that would allow him to completely forget that only his brain worked.
Even after he thwarted their plans to repopulate the planet.
I'd say that that is pretty benevolent.
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And yet, when the Talosians found out that Pike was crippled and essentially active brain trapped in a vegetative body, they freely offered to allow him to live out his life on their planet in a engineered existence that would allow him to completely forget that only his brain worked.
Even after he thwarted their plans to repopulate the planet.
I'd say that that is pretty benevolent.
[tinfoil]
That's what they want you to believe...
[tinfoil]
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[tinfoil]
That's what they want you to believe...
[tinfoil]
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
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And yet, when the Talosians found out that Pike was crippled and essentially active brain trapped in a vegetative body, they freely offered to allow him to live out his life on their planet in a engineered existence that would allow him to completely forget that only his brain worked.
Even after he thwarted their plans to repopulate the planet.
I'd say that that is pretty benevolent.
I didn't say they were Klingons... [tinfoil]..
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I just read the description for the next episode... It keys off what Bortus said in the last scene of last week's episode. It's so *expletive deleted*ing new wave touchy feely "what is gender anyway" bullshit that I think this episode may make me cancel the series if it is anything like the preachy anti-everything but lefthink screed I suspect it's going to be.
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Me, previously:
If it pops up again, I'll watch it just to see if the writer got his act together, but for now, it looked as if it were badly cobbled together and nobody could figure out what they really wanted to do.
Mike Irwin, previously:
It's [description of next episode] so *expletive deleted*ing new wave touchy feely "what is gender anyway" bullshit that I think this episode may make me cancel the series if it is anything like the preachy anti-everything but lefthink screed I suspect it's going to be.
Me, presently:
Aha. That would explain a lot. The Propaganda Machine grinds on.
[barf]
Terry
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"As for this episode - with the advanced aliens stocking a zoo - it was pretty much a ripoff of a 1966 ST:TOS episode ("The Menagerie") which someone obviously went through at the last minute and said "Hey, we need to make some changes so we don't get sued for copyright violations!""
Yeah.... no.
The Menagerie wasn't about aliens stockpiling a zoo. Not even close. Very UNrelated, except for the fact that both a male and female ended up on Talos. The aliens in that episode were benevolent. They didn't view Pike or Vina as inferior in the way that the aliens did in the episode on The Orville.
This episode is FAR more closely related to The Twilight Zone's "People are alike all over," in which Roddy McDowell's astronaut character finds himself in a Martian zoo.
This episode was far closer to the TOS pilot, the Cage, than to the menagerie. If you watch the Cage, you'll see it's a pretty direct homage.
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When they run so many ads for a new show, almost constantly, I always figure it's not going over too well. Much like that stupid, inane, embarrassingly unfunny woman...what'hername's so called comedy show on one of the cable channels.
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Me ??
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Just as, or more terrible than season 1. Yet somehow very popular with the average American viewer. Scary.
Idiocracy...
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No, poor Amy, not you. You are funny rarely, but you are sometimes. The other no talent is not funny, ever. She is embarrassingly so not funny. I can't even remember her name, though the cable network that advertises her show ever 15 minutes says she's a riot and so good she's up for an Emmy. That figures.
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No, poor Amy, not you. You are funny rarely, but you are sometimes. The other no talent is not funny, ever. She is embarrassingly so not funny. I can't even remember her name, though the cable network that advertises her show ever 15 minutes says she's a riot and so good she's up for an Emmy. That figures.
Sarah Silverman? Kathy Griffin? Judy Tenuta? (there are so many) I thought you were talking about Scout/Amy.
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It did remind me a little of the control room crew on sub during the midwatch. I would imagine that in the new kinder and gentler, mixed gender environment of submarines the tone and language is likely a bit more PC today.
There's a bunch of women in the FB Navy Nukes group.
They're generally worse than the guys are.
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So, I watched the latest episode
The captain and most of the crew were of the opinion that allowing gender reassignment of a child was wrong, that her gender was female, and that she should be allowed to be the gender she was born as, regardless of what the parents or alien society thought. They then went before an alien court (aliens whose custom it was to reassign children) to argue that point in front of a judge.
They argued that ones gender wasn't a defect to be "corrected"
Yeah. Total leftist SJWs lol
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So, I watched the latest episode
The captain and most of the crew were of the opinion that allowing gender reassignment of a child was wrong, that her gender was female, and that she should be allowed to be the gender she was born as, regardless of what the parents or alien society thought. They then went before an alien court (aliens whose custom it was to reassign children) to argue that point in front of a judge.
They argued that ones gender wasn't a defect to be "corrected"
Yeah. Total leftist SJWs lol
Err... Your summation doesn't necessarily mean it isn't SJW.
They are convinced that if you think you are a female, even if you really are a male, you were "born as" a female.
All that matters is what you want. Your scenario still supports that belief. In fact, it's very Star Trek-esque to flip it:
But what if she IS biologicallly female and others don't want her to be? IT'S JUST THE SAME AS MAKING SOMEONE WHO FEELS LIKE A GIRL FOLLOW HIS OWN BIOLOGY!!!
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Err... Your summation doesn't necessarily mean it isn't SJW.
They are convinced that if you think you are a female, even if you really are a male, you were "born as" a female.
All that matters is what you want. Your scenario still supports that belief. In fact, it's very Star Trek-esque to flip it:
But what if she IS biologicallly female and others don't want her to be? IT'S JUST THE SAME AS MAKING SOMEONE WHO FEELS LIKE A GIRL FOLLOW HIS OWN BIOLOGY!!!
Did you watch it? Are you nuts? The kid was biologically female and her parents wanted to alter her surgically
That insinuation you just jumped to is completely unsupported
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Did you watch it? Are you nuts? The kid was biologically female and her parents wanted to alter her surgically
That insinuation you just jumped to is completely unsupported
I didn't jump to an insinuation, I was asking a question. I pointed out that "Star Trek" has pulled that switcheroo before. I recall the STTNG episode where an alien was heterosexual on a homosexual planet and received "Behavior modification" to turn her homosexual.
My response was that being opposed to changing some specific person's biology doesn't mean that they are opposed to changing any person's biology. Your summation didn't exclude that possibility.
Further, you haven't really excluded it yet. Were they opposed to changing her biology because that's wrong per se or were they opposed to changing her biology because she didn't want it?
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I didn't jump to an insinuation, I was asking a question. I pointed out that "Star Trek" has pulled that switcheroo before. I recall the STTNG episode where an alien was heterosexual on a homosexual planet and received "Behavior modification" to turn her homosexual.
My response was that being opposed to changing some specific person's biology doesn't mean that they are opposed to changing any person's biology. Your summation didn't exclude that possibility.
Further, you haven't really excluded it yet. Were they opposed to changing her biology because that's wrong per se or were they opposed to changing her biology because she didn't want it?
I'm sorry, I totally misread your post!
The jist I got from it was that they were opposed to parents changing her biology. So, while it could certainly be the second, I felt a parallel with all the SJWs foisting genderbending on children. The crewmember in the courtroom argued that just because their culture said that changing the baby's gender was ok, and that gender was (and I quote) a "defect to be corrected" didn't make it right. (This particular race was all male, reproduced via some sort of single gender egg laying)
They didn't come out and say that one shouldn't be allowed to change gender, but the insinuation that parents shouldn't force (or pressure) their children was strong
In fact I can't recall if they even commented on the first, and the show is decent but not good enough for me to watch a second time
I'm still on the fence. I like it. If they don't get any more than that episode on the "social commentary" scale I'll keep watching.
I still think it's better than discovery although discovery wasn't as bad as I expected
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I forgot to mention is that the one thing I like about the Orville is that not all races are bipedal analogs of humans.
Larry the yellow blob who has the hots for the Dr. is a refreshing change. Just wish we'd see more of him and his voice (Norm McDonald, I think).
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I thought Norm MacDonald was one of the Deplorables that got pushed out of the business.
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I didn't jump to an insinuation, I was asking a question. I pointed out that "Star Trek" has pulled that switcheroo before. I recall the STTNG episode where an alien was heterosexual on a homosexual planet and received "Behavior modification" to turn her homosexual.
Hmmm...I recall that the aliens did not support gender identity at all and the the person Riker fell for did identify as female until "fixed in the head". I will admit its been awhile since I've watched that episode.
They didn't come out and say that one shouldn't be allowed to change gender, but the insinuation that parents shouldn't force (or pressure) their children was strong.
This IMAO is a reasonable stance to take.
Good Science Fiction can make one think about one's views, and The Orville has the potential to be that kind of Science Fiction.
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I finally watched the whole third episode last night. I started watching it Saturday and fell asleep...
Anyway, I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it was handled. It wasn't nearly the in-your-face preachy anti-Cis Normal Bash Fest I expected it to be.
The whole thing was handled with the right amount of humor and gravitas.
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I forgot to mention is that the one thing I like about the Orville is that not all races are bipedal analogs of humans.
Larry the yellow blob who has the hots for the Dr. is a refreshing change. Just wish we'd see more of him and his voice (Norm McDonald, I think).
His "demonstration" of compatibility was funny as hell.
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His "demonstration" of compatibility was funny as hell.
I was taking a drink of juice when he did that.
Seren almost wore the juice. :lol:
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So as I have continued to watch the episodes, the show is growing on me. I read that they have been renewed for a second season.
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So as I have continued to watch the episodes, the show is growing on me. I read that they have been renewed for a second season.
I like it. It’s funny, but it seems to have a reverence for other sci fi that I like
Me and the wifey catch it every week
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I'm also in the camp of "it's growing on me" Kind of like a funny shaped, benign tumor.
=D
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I'm also in the camp of "it's growing on me" Kind of like a funny shaped, benign tumor.
=D
That's kinda where I am on it.
Some of the humor annoys the crap out of me, like I forget who is who of the helmsman and navigator, but the humor that annoys me is what the one guy did on the krill ship and what the other guy did to the statue. It's way too overboard and out of place for me for the situations they were supposed to be in. On the other hand, the banter on the ship and humor involving Isaac is growing on me a bit.
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Ditto on the "growing on me" camp. Some of these episodes have been darn good.
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I like it. It’s funny, but it seems to have a reverence for other sci fi that I like
Me and the wifey catch it every week
Does the "reverence" mean they will only go for two seasons and quit? =)
I have been recording the episodes, but haven't gotten around to watching them.
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While it seems to be growing on some people my wife and I decided after the episode that it seems to be wilting on the vine for us. =|
bob
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While it seems to be growing on some people my wife and I decided after the episode that it seems to be wilting on the vine for us. =|
bob
Wilting on the vine is what's happened for about 50% of my friends who are watching it, while the other 50% are liking it more and more.
I thought it was going to be a lot more slapstick than it was, especially after the first episode was so full of double entendres... the second and third episodes I was on the ropes whether I was going to stick with it or not, but then the fourth episode, the one where they found the enormous bioship? That one grabbed me BIG TIME.
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I thought it was going to be a lot more slapstick than it was, especially after the first episode was so full of double entendres... the second and third episodes I was on the ropes whether I was going to stick with it or not, but then the fourth episode, the one where they found the enormous bioship? That one grabbed me BIG TIME.
I liked that one too. I think their general problem is that they go too overboard on slapstick in the same episode where they also try to get way serious. If you want to get serious, then you need to be like Firefly and interject humor, but tone it down. Otherwise, hey, go full slapstick, but then don't interject overly serious subject matter.
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Was it just me, or was last week's "Blue Dude" episode REALLY freaking creepy?
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Anyone else know who the famous actor was who portrayed the Blue Dude? Coughroblowecough.
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Anyone else know who the famous actor was who portrayed the Blue Dude? Coughroblowecough.
Took me a couple of minutes to figure it out - I heard the voice and thought "I know that actor...", but I was working on something I couldn't just put down to pay more attention to the show right that second.
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I knew instantly who it was. Very distinctive eyes and voice.
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Was it just me, or was last week's "Blue Dude" episode REALLY freaking creepy?
:mad:
I missed that episode!!! Anyone want to give me a quick run-down? Please? :angel:
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Blue dude that caused the break up of Ed's marriage comes aboard as an expert to solve a generations old interspecies battle over a planet.
Only this time, instead of Kelly ending up in bed with the Blue Dude, Ed and Kelly BOTH end up in bed with the Blue Dude.
Because Blue Dude is in heat and is emitting some sort of super strong sex phermone that makes anyone who touches him fall in love with him.
Overall, and because of a number of related plot lines, it freaking PEGGED the creepy meter at a level I've not seen in a long, long time.
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I'm with Mike on the Blue Dude episode. Creepy. I'm sorta hooked on the dang show and I don't know why. It's like playing golf...you get a couple really great shots mixed in with a lot of not so much, but you keep coming back. The show has its moments. A couple episodes back they were pounding the libtard/political correct movement pretty good. I enjoyed that.
I really want my own personal Orville though. Nice boat.
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yeah the episode that inadvertently illustrated ALL the problems with direct democracy was pretty fun.
Last episode was funny, but definitely a bit creepy too.
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yeah the episode that inadvertently illustrated ALL the problems with direct democracy was pretty fun.
Last episode was funny, but definitely a bit creepy too.
I just watched it. To me, it's another example of them trying to be too over the top funny on the one side, while a serious event is going on on the other side. Plus yeah, the slipping the aliens the Spanish fly was a bit creepy, especially considering what an SJW McFarland is. Sexual assault!
The episode could have worked as funny if they didn't purposely dope the aliens and there wasn't a war about to break out. They could have just done some script about all the crew inadvertently hooking up because of the pheromones while the ship was just be-bopping around doing nothing important.
They could have even done it as funny/serious if they modeled it after the Star Trek episode where the crew gets "high" on some alien virus (the one where Sulu runs around with a sword) all while the ship is in a decaying orbit. Then have the subplot of figuring out how to get everyone back to normal and avoid the catastrophe.
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Humans - the hillbillies of the galaxy.
:rofl:
I actually thought this episode had the right, not over the top, humor component. It reminded me of how Firefly did humor/serious.
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I just watched it. To me, it's another example of them trying to be too over the top funny on the one side, while a serious event is going on on the other side. Plus yeah, the slipping the aliens the Spanish fly was a bit creepy, especially considering what an SJW McFarland is. Sexual assault!
The episode could have worked as funny if they didn't purposely dope the aliens and there wasn't a war about to break out. They could have just done some script about all the crew inadvertently hooking up because of the pheromones while the ship was just be-bopping around doing nothing important.
They could have even done it as funny/serious if they modeled it after the Star Trek episode where the crew gets "high" on some alien virus (the one where Sulu runs around with a sword) all while the ship is in a decaying orbit. Then have the subplot of figuring out how to get everyone back to normal and avoid the catastrophe.
The Naked Time. It's a good episode.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Time
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I just started watching Orville on Charter OnDemand last night. They only have it from episode 5, the one with the lady time traveler, and #5 expired last night. (seems awfully short) The same episodes that are available at fox.com. Anyway, the show is better than I expected.
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:rofl:
I actually thought this episode had the right, not over the top, humor component. It reminded me of how Firefly did humor/serious.
Robert Picardo played Alara's dad but I couldn't place the woman playing her mother.
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Robert Picardo played Alara's dad but I couldn't place the woman playing her mother.
That was the Vorta Eris in under deep cover to infiltrate The Union.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg1.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20081012160659%2Fscratchpad%2Fimages%2Fd%2Fd6%2FVorta_Female.jpg&hash=9d8b89129c30907cb34ad3143e89f00b26b0d156)
=D The actress is Molly Hagen, another Star Trek alumni.
I concur with Ben, this episode hit the comedy/drama balance right on the mark.
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I knew I'd seen her before.
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A little spider heavy for me...
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
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Molly Hagen played the empathetic part of the brain in the Fox sitcom Herman's Head.
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Watched the season's penultimate show last night.
Some of it was quite clumsy, but I REALLY liked the concept of the 2 dimensional space bubble how it tied into Flatland.
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The excursion into a 2D reality was interesting. The plot line of forcing John LaMarr from his post as Navigator to Chief Engineer left me rather flat. They guy was happy in his post, why muck with it? He also has ZERO experience as an engineer from what I could tell. Yaphit on the other hand HAS experience as an engineer, even if he is a bit of a jerk.
Some of it was well done. I did like Issac's comment about "Are we bonding?" after the cat conversation. As wall as is non-verbal take on LaMarr's defense of Yaphit after the other engineering staff dumped on the guy.
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"The plot line of forcing John LaMarr from his post as Navigator to Chief Engineer left me rather flat."
Yep. That's what I thought was really clumsy. They said he had really high engineering scores at Union Point (I guess their Star Fleet Academy), but that doesn't translate into practical experience.
"I did like Issac's comment about "Are we bonding?" after the cat conversation."
Yeah, I laughed hard at that. The look on the guy's face before they showed Issaic stroking his arm set that joke up REALLY well.
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I watched the episode again, and I picked up on something that I missed.
In all of the Star Trek series physical money has always been something that's not been used in the Federation. You get hints that there is still some form of money still in use, probably for cultures that haven't moved past it. I THINK money is mentioned/used in ST:TOS "A Piece of the Action," which makes sense given that that planet is emulating the 1920s.
In this episode of the Orville they talk about why money is obsolete... matter synthesis technology. Essentially, if you can synthesize pretty much everything you need at the push of a button, you don't need cash to buy things, and reputation is the new "currency."
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I watched the episode again, and I picked up on something that I missed.
In all of the Star Trek series physical money has always been something that's not been used in the Federation. You get hints that there is still some form of money still in use, probably for cultures that haven't moved past it. I THINK money is mentioned/used in ST:TOS "A Piece of the Action," which makes sense given that that planet is emulating the 1920s.
In this episode of the Orville they talk about why money is obsolete... matter synthesis technology. Essentially, if you can synthesize pretty much everything you need at the push of a button, you don't need cash to buy things, and reputation is the new "currency."
You would still need money to buy labor, handcrafted goods, energy, antiques, land, intellectual property.... replicators would eliminate "poverty" but many other things would still have value that replicators could not replace.
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Yeah, I thought about that, as well. That's the fly in the ointment of that concept.
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Tonight's the season finale.
I have to admit, I've grown quite fond of The Orville.
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Tonight's the season finale.
I have to admit, I've grown quite fond of The Orville.
Yea....me too. So I went to Amazon.com and ordered the DVD set of season 1. I can catch the episode I missed! =)
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You would still need money to buy labor,
This is the recurring flaw; why would anyone choose to be a waitress, for example, if there wasn't some form of payment for it? I think it's specifically stated somewhere that transporter and replicator technology can handle pretty much any form of cleaning that's needed - even down to a molecular level - so no more janitors, but unless every bar is a holodeck, they're still somehow compensating people for doing one of the least desirable jobs.
Either you have to have some form of monetary system, or you have to disregard basic human freedoms to get those jobs done.
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This is the recurring flaw; why would anyone choose to be a waitress, for example, if there wasn't some form of payment for it? I think it's specifically stated somewhere that transporter and replicator technology can handle pretty much any form of cleaning that's needed - even down to a molecular level - so no more janitors, but unless every bar is a holodeck, they're still somehow compensating people for doing one of the least desirable jobs.
Either you have to have some form of monetary system, or you have to disregard basic human freedoms to get those jobs done.
Or all the shitjobs are performed by robots. Until the robots become self-aware...
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Or all the shitjobs are performed by robots.
Except that we actually see human waitresses several times in TOS, TNG and several movies, even on Earth. (Obviously Ferengi establishments don't count since they have a replicator-resistant currency system.) Even though it's a job that would be easily done by a transporter and replicator, apparently the human touch of having your beer brought out by a real woman (don't recall seeing a waiter outside of a formal banquet) is worth something.
And, as was mentioned, even if you can terraform planets, you can't just replicate the piece of land you want where you want it. Clearly some people (Picard's family comes to mind) have far more land (and in a much more desirable location) than could simply be a fair allocation to every Earth resident. Was all property ownership simply frozen except through inheritance when there ceased to be a monetary system to provide for purchase? It's hard to imagine any physical good one could carry enough of to pay for even an acre of land that isn't essentially currency itself. (Precious metals, gems, etc.) Trading labor for any significant amount of land directly would be near impossible for anyone short of a talented surgeon specializing in something particularly critical.
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Watched the finale last night. I have to admit, the show REALLY matured over this season.
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I enjoyed this weeks 'season finale'*. I could see where it was going when the mention was made of not letting the natives see you, and in my view was handled well. Harkened back to "Who Watches the Watchers" and "Blink of An Eye" in the official ST series.
I really liked the last appearance of the planets inhabitants when they teleported to the bridge of the Orville to the amazement of the crew. The choice of their clothing looked like nod to the way the Krytonians were depicted in the 70s version of Superman.
* When did a season become 12 episodes? I know SciFi did something like that back in the early 00s when they broke up programs like Farscape into spring and autumn groupings, but the parts still classify as ONE season.
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* When did a season become 12 episodes? I know SciFi did something like that back in the early 00s when they broke up programs like Farscape into spring and autumn groupings, but the parts still classify as ONE season.
It's a ridiculous trend that's been going on for a while now. Many series are down to ten episodes. I blame the Brits. Before you know it, our series will be down to six episodes, like theirs are.
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I think the trend to shorter seasons with fewer episodes is driven more by cost. It's increasingly expensive to create these shows, so Hollyweird makes fewer episodes to keep costs down.
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I think the trend to shorter seasons with fewer episodes is driven more by cost. It's increasingly expensive to create these shows, so Hollyweird makes fewer episodes to keep costs down.
Back in the 1960s a tv series would normally run 33 episodes + - per season, with summer reruns consisting of a selection of some of the higher rating episodes. Since that time the number has dwindled. 26 became a norm, as it's half of 52.
Now it's about 22 episodes per season.
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Back in the 1960s a tv series would normally run 33 episodes + - per season, with summer reruns consisting of a selection of some of the higher rating episodes. Since that time the number has dwindled. 26 became a norm, as it's half of 52.
Now it's about 22 episodes per season.
Then figure up the difference in actual runtime between a 1960-1980 half hour or full hour show and a current one. Somewhere around here I've got some old shows with commercials left out that run 26:00 to 26:30. I timed a show a couple weeks ago and got 16 minutes of the actual show in half an hour.
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Then figure up the difference in actual runtime between a 1960-1980 half hour or full hour show and a current one. Somewhere around here I've got some old shows with commercials left out that run 26:00 to 26:30. I timed a show a couple weeks ago and got 16 minutes of the actual show in half an hour.
Watching on Roku, I see all times minus commercials. Most modern 30min shows are 21min runtime, 60min shows are 42min runtime. Something like Star Trek TOS runs IIRC ~53min.
I will give credit to Netfilx and Amazon in that even if they are only doing ten episode series, the runtime is usually 29min/59min respectively. Some episodes of a series might run a few minutes less, or even run 32min/65min or so.
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Back in my TV engineer days, circa 1979-80, IIRC hour long programs had 48 minutes of program time with 12 minutes set aside for commercials and PSAs.
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Back in my TV engineer days, circa 1979-80, IIRC hour long programs had 48 minutes of program time with 12 minutes set aside for commercials and PSAs.
And a good chunk of that was off both ends to allow for more commercials between shows, as opposed to the currently popular couple minutes of content, then a 30-60 second commercial break, then if it's a documentary, a full minute or more of recap before new content.
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And a good chunk of that was off both ends to allow for more commercials between shows, as opposed to the currently popular couple minutes of content, then a 30-60 second commercial break, then if it's a documentary, a full minute or more of recap before new content.
The Walking Dead is a great example of "five minutes of content, three minutes of commercials" after the first ten minutes of each episode. If I didn't have a DVR with FF, there's no way I could watch that in realtime.
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And a good chunk of that was off both ends to allow for more commercials between shows, as opposed to the currently popular couple minutes of content, then a 30-60 second commercial break, then if it's a documentary, a full minute or more of recap before new content.
If I remember correctly, each break was two minutes to 2:30 long. The longer breaks tended toward the beginning and ending of programs. On occasion there were 2:20 breaks, the :20 second parts for promos and PSAs.
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Then figure up the difference in actual runtime between a 1960-1980 half hour or full hour show and a current one. Somewhere around here I've got some old shows with commercials left out that run 26:00 to 26:30. I timed a show a couple weeks ago and got 16 minutes of the actual show in half an hour.
DVD sets of old TV shows such as NAKED CITY, from the early 1960s run 51 minutes per episode. Other show in the 49-50 minute range. 1980s run 48 minutes. Some newer ones like CRIMINAL MINDS run 42-44 minutes.
I don't have a lot of half hour shows on DVD, but I presume you could just divide the hour show run time in half.
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It's a ridiculous trend that's been going on for a while now. Many series are down to ten episodes. I blame the Brits. Before you know it, our series will be down to six episodes, like theirs are.
First season, on broadcast networks at least, has been 10-13 episodes for a long while now. They go to 22-26 episodes after that, generally.
The above does not apply to specialty networks/distributors like HBO, Netflix, etc. They do what they want.
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First season, on broadcast networks at least, has been 10-13 episodes for a long while now. They go to 22-26 episodes after that, generally.
The above does not apply to specialty networks/distributors like HBO, Netflix, etc. They do what they want.
A lot of times the network will buy a set of 12 or so of a new, untried series. If ratings are good it will order a complete 24+- season. If the series is renewed that spring it will order a full season.
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I watched the last episode last night. It was 5 minutes of show and 10 minutes of commercials, rinse, repeat. So I guess the advertisers like it. I almost turned it off.
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I watched the last episode last night. It was 5 minutes of show and 10 minutes of commercials, rinse, repeat. So I guess the advertisers like it. I almost turned it off.
Again, I don't understand how anyone can sit through realtime Network TV anymore. I'm actually somewhat surprised that they have been going in this direction of practically 50/50 content/commercials given DVR and other technology.
If realtime TV with no DVR were my only option, I might sit through 90 seconds of commercials every 15 minutes, which means I might actually stay in my chair and watch the commercials. Longer than that, and I would be up and doing other stuff until the show came back and would thus completely miss what the advertisers were selling.
Anytime I watch shows on network/cable that I don't record, I always buffer them for at least 15 minutes first so that I can hit FF.
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Remember when cable TV didn't have any commercials?
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"I don't understand how anyone can sit through realtime Network TV anymore."
Cell phone.
Just tune the TV out when the commercials come on.
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Remember when cable TV didn't have any commercials?
Just stop that silliness, next I suppose you will tell us MTV used to play music videos all the time!! >:D =D
bob
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If realtime TV with no DVR were my only option, I might sit through 90 seconds of commercials every 15 minutes, which means I might actually stay in my chair and watch the commercials. Longer than that, and I would be up and doing other stuff until the show came back and would thus completely miss what the advertisers were selling.
I still have to wonder why no advertisers have figured out that it might be well worth the cost of buying up all the commercial breaks in a time slot and making one good commercial to run one time with no other interruptions. Not one incredibly idiotic commercial repeated every 5 minutes like the old Hulu model, but one interruption total. Maybe two, like the older shows often planned for, back when they would break the show up into setting up all the basic elements, then a 90 second commercial break, then set up for the climax and use another 90 second break to let the suspense build.
Of course, a lot of them still seem to think that screaming idiocy is the way to advertise, no matter how many used car dealers go under from that marketing plan.