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Like Star Trek? Think Galaxy Quest is Funny? Coming this Fall


JohnRogers
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Tonight's episode of The Orville was the most "Star Trek" thing that's been made since some of Voyager's better episodes. Really, really good balance of parable, drama and comedy... thought provoking without being off putting. Preachy without being insulting. True to the truest Trek form.

 

It's inspiring to see this kind of thing winning again.

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Tonight's episode of The Orville was the most "Star Trek" thing that's been made since some of Voyager's better episodes. Really, really good balance of parable, drama and comedy... thought provoking without being off putting. Preachy without being insulting. True to the truest Trek form.

 

It's inspiring to see this kind of thing winning again.

I agree that this is what they tried to do but I think they failed miserably. I liked the first two episodes but the 3rd one jumped the shark to me.

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Given the facts that are coming out against Harvey Weinstein, and the fact that Seth MacFarlane is one of the only people in Hollywood who has ever publicly fired a shot in his direction, I have to wonder if that has affected the industry perceptions surrounding his career. More and more, it's seeming like Weinstein's pattern of abuse was widespread and blatant, covered only by a devoted industry cabal that was so afraid for their collective careers that they'd never speak out.

 

This tight-gripped level of control certainly seems capable of tilting the playing field against non-compliant rebels who have the integrity to stand up; and Seth MacFarlane was that non-compliant rebel.

 

In 2013, when MacFarlane was arguably at the height of his industry prominance, he used one of the biggest stages of his career- hosting the Oscars- to take a very public shot at Weinstein (a joke that he now acknowleges was very much intentional and pointed). Since then, his works have been relegated to a single production company despite a steady stream of loyal fans, most everything he's involved with recieves systematic critical panning from industry journalists, and his once rosy image at the forefront of Hollywood comedy now languishes despite a continued level of high-quality work.

 

I've got to wonder how much of this has been systematic. I've got to wonder how much his career was stunted by an industry, a corporate mafia, covering for one of its biggest dogs. I may be way off base here... (probably.) but it does seem odd to me. The industry reviews of The Orville were so far off of reality that I've been searching for an explanation... could this be it?

Edited by KenJennings
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I couldn't stop thinking about how last night's episode felt so much like 'if TOS was today'.

 

A morality play about an Earth Clone planet that's taken real-world behavior to an extreme; blunt social commentary; vaguely political overtones without getting too speicifc or divisive; countercultural and subversive solution... oh yea... the good stuff.

 

Set aside the clowning characters and the cheesy (though welcomed) jokes, and you could very easily imagine Kirk, Spock and McCoy visiting this planet; and having to deal with a similar situation.

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^^ Glad you like the show, and fourteen year-old wunderkind Seth McFarlane. To me though, last night's episode felt like a ham-fisted, lightweight imitation of the most clumsily allegorical of the socially-conscious original series episodes, like "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." IOW, it pails horribly compared to even the worst of original series episodes.

 

I kind of liked The Orville at first. Though it was funny and well-done visually. Even signed up for Hulu so I could catch the early episodes I had missed. But each episode since is a decline in quality from the one before it, to where they've jumped the proverbial shark with last night's ridiculous moralizing. We 21st humans spend too much time up and down voting things without any real understanding of the underlying issues?!? And we lack empathy!?! You don't say. Only took sixty minutes to drive the point home. From the opening where they have to explain to the audience that in such a large universe there are bound to be other planets that parallel Earth's development, to the closing where a short visit to a starship turned that vapid, judgmental creep of a young lady into a thoughtful agent for social change, this was the most pathetic writing on prime time tv that I think I've ever seen. This series has become like a bad crowd-funded fan production, apart from the nice visuals. I'll have to cancel Hulu and stick to ST: Discovery.

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I have to admit that I've really enjoyed the last two Orville episodes. Rob Lowe's blue alien was hilarious, and Seth M. is better playing a comic doofus with a man crush than playing grown up. And last week's, with the horror scenes, despite being a predictable variant of the "oh, it was all just a dream" ploy, was really good I thought. I hope they keep it up. Less Seth and more of the other characters helps.
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