Orville S01 review

My thoughts on The Orville Season 01
By Carbon Dioxide, internet user

Let me get this out of the way first: S01E09 (the one with the blue alien) is a very very bad episode that treats non-consensual sex as a joke and that even uses the sci-fi equivalent of a rape drug as a 'solution' for a diplomatic problem. I would be absolutely fine with that episode being scrapped from the books entirely, they absolutely missed the point there and I am angry about that. They would have to add a two-line summary of the lasting plot changes from that episode to the beginning of the next episode but that would be fine.

Ignoring S01E09 and looking at the season as a whole:

The show often surprised me in a very nice way. Many plot ideas were directly taken from other sci-fi such as Star Trek and other series. However, every single time they managed to subvert my expectations in ways I didn't see them coming. And they managed to find a balance I don't think I've ever seen before: In many many ways it's a happy positive vibes show like we haven't had since the 90s. But on the other hand, they managed to work in plots where the good guys don't always win, adding to the realism of the show.

The crew was, for the most part, likeable, and in direct contrast to Star Trek Discovery, the series actually takes the time to show the personal lives, goals, etc. of each main character. That isn't only nice to know, it also makes it so that character choices make sense.

http://78.media.tumblr.com/28a32ffaa29d2822c885c66da104d63e/tumblr_oy2xkpPIpz1qba6lmo1_r1_500.png
(From: http://tumblebuggie.tumblr.com)

Having said that, I wasn't always happy with the balance between seriousness and jokes. Don't get me wrong, I like the jokes in the show, especially Bortus' straight man thing, which cracked me up every time. But in some episodes, they kind of feel out of place and they hurt the natural flow of the story. The main example of that is the episode on the Krill ship. The joke there was that the infiltrators failed to keep their act as Krill up. And they kept that joke going so long that my suspense of disbelief was completely destroyed, Krill aren't that stupid. Luckily, Seth has said that for S2 they will listen to the fans and have somewhat fewer jokes, while keeping the core of the series the same. Adding to that, in a couple of episodes, my suspense of disbelief was broken because the plot happened only because otherwise reasonably competent crew members suddenly decided to get a bout of extreme stupidity. For example, John on the social media planet. Even after he was told that losing the public trial would mean he'd be lobotomized, he didn't seem to take it seriously and kept joking around. The least he could've done is watch footage of earlier successful pledges, and try to act like those people. It was for his own survival! Another case was in the finale, where, first Kelly and on the second visit the entire shuttle crew, basically said "Don't worry, they won't see us" and then walked straight into the alien civilisation without even trying to hide themselves.

Back to some positive points:

There was one very meaningful and purposeful part of the show that came up in two episodes: the Krill ship one and the finale. The show clearly takes a very strong stand against organized religion and shows that an advanced and happy society is one where they got rid of religious oppression. For an American show, it is actually rather unique to make this point quite this strongly, and I am glad Seth did. I don't think the show actually took a stand against personal faith, just against organized, oppressive or militarized, religion. I am also glad he tried to take a stand against the shallow lifestyles caused by social media, and against suppression of people's true genders. That last thing could've been handled better, but it's a very very difficult topic and I think that under the circumstances, it was handled reasonably well.

I heard people say the sets look cheap. Well, maybe they do but I have to say I didn't really notice. The ship seemed realistic enough to me. And especially the physical model they used for the outside shots of the Orville was really very nicely and uniquely designed.

https://i.imgur.com/PzmIOZsl.jpg

Another criticism I heard is that so many planets they visit have basic humans with a basic human society, and also the fact that the show is full of 21st century references. Yeah, I understand the problem with that. The thing is, seen from a writers' point of view, THAT is very helpful to tell a meaningful story to a 21st century viewer. Star Trek TOS also did all the human societies everywhere, and that worked out okay too. I honestly don't really mind it here either. As to references, what else do you want? Do you want the writers to make up 24th century references, just so that every fan can go shout that the reference makes no sense or that no-one in the 24th century would come up with a song/saying/show that stupid? Nah, I think this approach is perfectly fine.

The nicest part of the season was clearly when Isaac was with the kids and it turned out that despite being a tin can, he's actually really good with them and the kids love him.

For season two, I hope they resolve some important plot points, such as: What is Isaac's world like? And: Will the captain ever ask Alara to open up an actual jar of pickles?

Overall score (disregarding the blue alien episode): 8/10