The Orville is back on!

[K Frame]

Season 2 started on 30 December.

All of the core cast is back, which is good.

They also seem to be introducing some new characters, possibly a new love interest for the captain.

That said, the entire episode was, I think, rather weak and kind of convoluted.

The 3 primary plot lines were REALLY fractured and it just didn't mesh well.

I have hopes that the show will maintain the standards that it established last year. Not tremendously high, but those of a decently thought out and amusing, entertaining show.

[Sindawe]

Yea, it was not the best episode.  Mercer in the shuttle was funny though.

[TommyGunn]

Episode #1  weak  .... ooookay, a bit.  I still like it.   Back on Thursday nights .... I'll have to remember it after Tucker Carlson ends. 

Idiot cable company Spectrum is in a tiff over costs with Tribune broadcast so  watching cable is ..... interesting.   I've hooked up a digital broadcast antenna to get stuff until the tiff is .... terminated.   
First time in 28 years I've watched over-the-air tv.   

    Better quality video than the ¤¤¤¤•••●•●•●•●•●•⊙⊙○○⊙○⊙○⊙ cable box atleast. 

[grampster]

I was really disappointed.  I thought the first episode plainly sucked.  Not funny.  Not even weird.

[TommyGunn]

I was really disappointed.  I thought the first episode plainly sucked.  Not funny.  Not even weird.

Urinating into a canyon once every year isn't wierd?

[RoadKingLarry]

You've had enough injections.

[grampster]

The networks for quite awhile, especially NBC every day this week, has been jamming homosexuality down our throats as something to be celebrated.  (sorry for the porno pun....ummmm, no, I'm not)  So I was hoping for some weirdness and funny on The Orville after Sunday's disappointment.  

Episode 1 had couple problems for an hour...boooring and stupid.  Throw in a yearly pee into a canyon by a race of same sex beings who mutilate their children...not weird, more meh.  I was disappointed.  But then, we get an opportunity on Thursday to bring back the subtle funny.  They couldn't screw up twice, could they?

Then comes tonight.  The same sex alien couple is having a marriage problem.  The crew member, Bortus or Portus, has a porno addiction that endangers the ship as well as himself and his "marriage".  The little kid looked soooo sad.  They have a odd way of divorce.  The only redeeming comedic feature is the porn provider was a very well done stylized, lumpy, brutish alien; a metaphor for the brutishness of porn.  Then they attempt to rescue aliens who look like white humans and speak English.  I suppose that was a pinch of humor mocking the present racism of the Left.   The woman leader sacrifices herself so her husband can leave with their son.  Heroic woman.  More SJW Bleh.  But only half can be saved which teaches Portus or Bortus a life lesson about being unselfish and now all is forgiven;  this after the porn addiction causes a virus that just about wrecks the ship and kills the crew.  Sigh....

The previews for next week looked a bit more positive.  Sigh....  I need about 2 fingers of brandy and get back to my sci fi book, Sten #8, Empire's End.  Swmbo is right.  I have evolved into a grumpy, loud, old bastard.  At least I am a proud, registered, 55 year member of The International Order of Old Bastards, #699842.

[HankB]

. . . Sigh....  I need about 2 fingers of brandy and get back to my sci fi book, Sten #8, Empire's End.

Have you gotten a knife in your arm yet like Sten? 

(Funny how a lot of older sci-fi books seem SO much better than the SJW crap being published today.)

[grampster]

Ssshhhhhh.  Dinna talk't aboot thae knife.  Campbells dinna need't' knae.

[HankB]

Ssshhhhhh.  Dinna talk't aboot thae knife.  Campbells dinna need't' knae.

Talk about spotted snakes instead. 

[grampster]

 

[K Frame]

OK, I watched episode 2 last night.

A LOT more cohesive than episode 1.

And one of the creepiest, most cringe inducing episodes of any TV show I have ever watched.

Just wow.

Even worse that Derulio the Blue Dude in Heat.

[Sindawe]

Concur with Mike Irwin, episode 2 of season 2 as much better written and arraigned than the last episode.  Some cringe moments, but the porn/holoaddiction aspect did provide some genuine funny moments later in the show.

[Ben]

I missed episode 1, but watched episode 2 yesterday. I have to say I'm still not sold on the series. Based on episode 2, I have the same complaints as when we discussed the first season: a comedy/serious combination that just isn't working for me.

I continue to use the Firefly comparison. Firefly managed to merge comedy and serious in the same episode. The Orville does not. I think the problem for me is that they combine extremes in a single episode. If there was comedy in a very serious Firefly episode, it was limited and not "in your face".

In this Orville episode, we have guys making masturbation jokes at the same time they are trying to save the last survivors of an entire species, and having to make the decision to save only half of them. The college frat boy humor hand in hand with another subplot with serious consequences just doesn't work for me. It's like Aragorn and Gandalf doing a Three Stooges routine right before the big battle in The Two Towers.

I recall there were a few episodes in season 1 where they got this a bit under control, and I was hoping they were tightening things up. This episode has me thinking not. I would have really liked this episode if they had made it all about showing up at the dying world, discovering the survivors, and working on ways to rescue them. They could have thrown the computer virus in to complicate stuff without going through the whole porno thing and "couples therapy" and stuff. Or they could have kept their porno stuff, but made the planet subplot less consequential, like trying to get that fuel compound instead saving a species from extinction.

[HeroHog]

Where are you watching the earlier seasons at? A streaming service, if so, which one?

[K Frame]

Episode 3 was a LOT better.

Each episode seems to be getting better in terms of story line.

[grampster]

Episode 4.  Finally.   A decent plot, aliens, and a bit of schmaltz and humor.  Worthy of watching at last. I even chuckled a couple times.   

[K Frame]

OK, good, I have something to look forward to this evening, then.

[Declaration Day]

I loved episode 4.  Being both a Trekkie and a fan of the Orville, I like the actor crossovers and the Orville's subtle nods to Trek.

For example, last week's Orville episode starred Robert Picardo (the holographic doctor) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix) from Star Trek Voyager.

Note also the Orville character Kelly Grayson, whereas Amanda Grayson is Spock's mother.  Then there's Ash Tyler, the decoy in Discovery, and the decoy in Orville is Janel Tyler.

[MillCreek]

^^^No, John Billingsley, the doctor from Enterprise was on last week's episode.

[Declaration Day]

^^^No, John Billingsley, the doctor from Enterprise was on last week's episode.

You're right, my mistake.

[K Frame]

Robert Picardo, who plays Alara's father, also had a short appearance in Season 1 of The Orville.

He's the one who said "Humans, hillbillies of the galaxy."

[Ben]

He's the one who said "Humans, hillbillies of the galaxy."

My favorite line of the entire series so far. 

[K Frame]

VERY GOOD episode!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[K Frame]

Finally got around to watching Thursday's episode.

Not at all a good episode. One of my least favorites, in fact.

Although it is interesting that the doctor has come out as a Robosexual.

Oh, and it's now official... Halston Sage, who played Lt. Alara Kitan, has left the show. Very bummed at that. I thought she was an excellent character.