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I thought Mercer the weaker part of the show, but I think I was expecting him to be funny, and usually MacFarlane's humor just falls a little flat for me. When I look at Mercer as more of an everyman in the captain's chair, I appreciated the character a lot more.

I really liked a lot of the supporting characters, especially Isaac, Bortus, and Dr. Finn.

On the whole, I liked Old Wounds better than any of the Trek premieres except DS9's Emissary.

I like Mercer, though I like the female cast more.

Alara > Kelly > Claire > Ed > Gordon/Bortus/Isaac > John

Anyway, I quite liked the premiere. There were issues and not every joke landed with me but I still enjoyed it. I'm glad they toned down the comedy a bit as things went on. The only episode I didn't care much for was the voting one I think. LeMarr was just way too stupid in that one.

I feel like I can sued for copyright infringement just by watching the episode, they even have the Rick Berman wallpaper music. It's kind of a big problem if the humor isn't that great when that's the most original part of the show.

I love The Orville. I agree that the humor is slightly hit and miss, but it hits more for me than misses. I look forward to season two!

Am I the only one who thought "A Million Ways To Die In The West" was funny, clever, and good?

I kinda get the impression that The Orville is more intended to be a love-letter to 90's Star Trek, but since it's Fox Seth is contractually obligated more or less to throw-in some dick jokes.

I originally was gonna give the show a miss until friends convinced me otherwise, one thing that scared me off being the teasers made for the show which made it look like dumb lowbrow humor with a Star Trek suit on... namely the scene about the 'anti-banana ray'.

Then I actually watched the episode and got to see that scene in it's full context. They're not too stupid to realize the implications of the device, they're too Smart to believe the device is real until their royal smart-person can confirm the science is legit.

So for the record, I've only watched the first 10 episodes of The Orville so far, and I haven't picked it back up yet. Just got busy instead of something in the show convincing me to do so, but I would like to note that I'm not particularly motivated to pick it back up soon.

One thing I'll never understand is the mass of people who claim to dislike Star Trek Discovery for having unlikable characters
or characters acting incompetent, and then turning around and saying how The Orville is brilliant when it has both these things in an exponentially larger amount. Sorry, I'm not trying to make this into another DISCO vs Orville discussion since I don't think it's fair to compare the two given the different goals the shows have, it's just something that's really bothered me since these shows started airing.

Anyway Chuck really summed up my biggest issues with The Orville right away- I think when the show's trying to be Trek-ish it can actually be pretty good, with Episode 3 perhaps it being at its best. But nearly every single joke in the show has fell flat for me, and for a show purporting to be a comedy...well, it explains the poor reception it gets from critics, at least. The only joke I can remember making me laugh is the viewscreen joke from the first episode.

For me, The Orville is a show that is only decent when it doesn't feel like it needs to remind the audience that it's a comedy. A lot of the time the comedy actually actively makes the show worse, because in order to have a lot of those jokes they need to degrade the characters. I especially feel this when Mercer's dealing with his ex-wife. I just remember multiple episodes where instead of me finding it funny that Mercer's acting like an ass towards his ex-wife, it just makes him come off as an insecure manchild, culminating in an episode where Mercer nearly allows an interstellar war to happen because he's sexually frustrated (I know pheromones were at work in that episode, but I'd really like to think a trained officer could rise above that). Just makes me completely understand why the fleet wasn't going to give him a command until Grayson put in a good word for him.

And that's without mentioning how The Orville tries to get away with doing a lot of really tired ideas done by Trek and various other scifi shows by keeping its facade of being a comedy.

For me, this show feels like it is the Star Trek comedy spin off. While it is perhaps not quite as funny as I expected, I found myself liking the characters and the adventure and the world quite a bit. It's not a full on parody like Spaceballs. It's a sci-fi adventure that tries to make you laugh along the way. And quite a few episodes could fit into the various Trek incarnations with only a few changes. If not for the lack of transporter tech, you could CGI a few familiar Trek aliens into the background here and there, dub over a few lines to change things like The Union and make it The Federation, and this series would be Star Trek.

Old Wounds is perhaps the weakest episode so far. But it's not bad, and considerably better than most Trek pilots. The Emissary being the only one that beats it out for first episode quality.

MixedDrops wrote:One thing I'll never understand is the mass of people who claim to dislike Star Trek Discovery for having unlikable characters or characters acting incompetent, and then turning around and saying how The Orville is brilliant when it has both these things in an exponentially larger amount.

I find the characters generally very likeable. And any incompetence is played for laughs. I do think they take it too far sometimes, like the voting episode I mentioned but still.

MixedDrops wrote: and for a show purporting to be a comedy...

Despite what the network previews wanted to make it seem, it's not a comedy. It has comedy in it, but that's not the primary focus.

MixedDrops wrote:(I know pheromones were at work in that episode, but I'd really like to think a trained officer could rise above that).

He was literally drugged and you're blaming him? Nobody else under the influence was acting any better.

Anyway Chuck really summed up my biggest issues with The Orville right away- I think when the show's trying to be Trek-ish it can actually be pretty good, with Episode 3 perhaps it being at its best. But nearly every single joke in the show has fell flat for me, and for a show purporting to be a comedy...well, it explains the poor reception it gets from critics, at least. The only joke I can remember making me laugh is the viewscreen joke from the first episode.

Some of the jokes fall flat, although any joke involving Bortus and Isaac makes me laugh.

14:00

I think we can rush to some judgement. The new standard is be good from the start at least with more channels and streaming services.