In retrospect, I think that the negative reviews a few days ago worked for the best here. Up until I read the reviews, I assumed that “Orville” would be a parody, not and actual Trek-like show with added humor. Had I gone into the show cold with that misunderstanding, I’m sure that I would also have been annoyed. But since that incorrect illusion no longer held I was able to appreciate the show for what it was. And what it was was… pretty good, actually.
Orville is clearly not meant to be hard-hitting sci-fi… and that’s a bit of a refreshing change. It’s not gritty or grimdark; the world of the Orville is, at least so far, a pretty upbeat place. The production design clearly hearkens back to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but as far as the tone of the show I got a lot more of Star Trek: The Original Series. The characters are occasionally interesting and actually seem *happy* to be doing what they’re doing. Compare that to TNG, Voyager and Enterprise, where the characters were either crashingly dull or jerks, there out of a sense of duty or some goofball socialistic ideology that means that they are merely cogs in the machine (DS9 actually had interesting characters, but it was a show loaded with grim and gritty). While Seth MacFarlane is no Bill Shatner, I see a lot more of Kirk in his Captain Mercer that, say, Picard or Sisko.
Of course, all this could change in future episodes.
I was impressed with the visual effects, especially the spacecraft scenes. If the show makes it, I can see a whole lot of people making models of the ships from the show.
So, based on a grand total of one episode, I liked it. Clearly, though, the professional critics didn’t… it’s sitting at 11% on Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps the next two episodes – the critics saw the first three – stink. or perhaps my tastes don’t closely align with professional critics. Hmmm.
UPDATE: Hmmmm….
