Orville - Old Wounds

[Aotrs Commander]

As the show is on catch-up now on my end, I can actually watch the start of the series and thus Chuck's review, as I was interested particularly in his reaction as compared to Discovery.

I thought his reaction was relatively positive, especially in light of us now knowing the Orville itself is still fine-tuning its balance. (And that McFarlane's humour is... devisive, to say the least.)

I can whole-heartedly say I find it unqualifiedly better than Discovery (which I felt didn't even do a great job of my primary mark of approval - starship combat!). Discovery just seems to take itself too seriously (like Space and Beyond did), and given a choice of something that takes itself too seriously and something that tries a bit too hard to be funny, I'll generally er towards the latter. Granted, I've only watched Discovery through the reviews (snce it missed me so badly I am disinclined to watch a full episode), but something about the cast/characters in Discovery I find off-putting.

Maybe it's just the lighting. Discovery seem to be a very dark(ly lit) show, and Orville is very much brightly coloured and that appeals to me too. Discovery has that problem wherein (like in their starship battle) one feels as if one is not seeing half the action.

I feel the example of SG-1 (and to maybe a lesser extent B5) is a good one; both managed humour in different ways without impinging on things. (And I think that's why they are the top two scifi shows in my opinion.) If Orville goes more towards SG-1 (in it's own way), I think it could go far and it's quite acceptable now. (It's made my list of "TV shows I bother to watch" which is a vanishingly small category nowadays...)

[CharlesPhipps]

Space: Above and Beyond was a show about war, though. It was meant to be dark and morally ambiguous.

[Aotrs Commander]

And, in my opinion, that is probably one of the factors in why it failed and never got renewed[1]; because it wanted to be that at the expense of pretty much everything else (including how even during war, nothing is completely serious all of the time, because many real people cope with some humour).



[1]I liked it a bit at the time... But even though I recorded it (like I did pretty much everything then), I have never once felt the urge to ever watch it again.

And given that I can say that about Bayformers...

Okay, nom that's unfair. (O was being a bit facetious.) Spave Above and Beyond WAS clever and had a level of artistry, but it just never managed to leave a lasting impact because it *was* so dark and morally ambiguous.

[Darth Wedgius]

There's a TV Trope, "Eight Deadly Words." It translates into, "I don't care what happens to these people."
From the TVTropes page:

A phrase coined by Dorothy Jones Heydt in a science-fiction based Usenet(*) group in 1991 to describe an audience reaction to a work of fiction where the characters are either so universally bland and unengaging or so unlikable and unsympathetic that the reader simply loses interest in their fate and, by extension, the work as a whole.

Orville has had some good parts, but hasn't really floored me at any point with deep points or clever plotting. But I do like the characters.

On the other hand, Stargate: Universe went for a dark and gritty tone with the characters, and I didn't tune in after the third episode.They seemed to be each others' worst enemy. I don't need television for that. I have real people for that, and I don't spend my leisure time watching real people. Not that my attorney lets me admit to, anyway.


*If you don't know what Usenet is/was, it was like a big, Internet-wide forum. Also, get off my lawn, you whipper snapper!