Well it looks like I"m going to be sinking my teeth into some good shows this fall including The Flash when it starts up on the CW network. But one show I've started seeing on Fox is the Orville
For those who are Star Trek fans, like me, you will immediately see the connection between The Orville and Star Trek. In fact, when I first saw commercials for this show, I noticed the obvious parody and the obvious attempt at humor. I knew that Seth Macfarlane, who plays captain Ed Mercer on the show, was a comedy great (although at the time I didn't know his exact biography) and decided it was worth a look.
In the first episode his ex wife joined the ship and, of course, the arguments began. This - along with many other subplots - are not ground-breaking stuff. This is Dr. Phil stuff, or, for that matter, the stuff of most TV shows. In a later episode, Macfarlane was kidnapped by aliens and Macfarlane's security officer, now put in charge, has to make a decision whether to sneak past enemy space to retrieve him and his ex wife who has also been taken hostage. She decides against a rescue mission and gathers the ire of her crewmates only to change her mind when finding that loyalty is more important than the rules. Now how many Star Trek episodes/movies involved that? Plenty. Nothing new here. The Orville, marketed as a comedy, deals with serious issues like this which makes the whole project the equivalent of combining oil and water. Star Trek would not have been as successful if the difficult topics they dealt with were cast as jokes instead.
Yet, that's not the end of my critique of the show. What the show does do is know the difference between slapstick and seriousness and when to switch from one to the other. This works out particularly well, so far, in the interplay between Macfarlane and his ex wife, Commander Kelly Grayson (played by Adrianne Palicki). In the first episode they argue but Macfarlane later realizes that, because she made a decision that saved the ship, is valuable and needs to be there. This is not the time for jokes; it's time for seriousness and the two deliver the scene in well-done fashion. In another episode the crew deals with sexism where an alien crewmate wants to change the sex of his offspring as is culturally appropriate in their race. Macfarlane and Palicki agree against it and do persuade their crewmate but not others in his race and lose the battle, unfortunately, and the sex of the child is changed. In the end of the episode, Macfarlane and his ex wife are seen walking off in a partial embrace which suggests there may be partial feelings between them despite the fact in another episode they argue over annoying habits that drove them apart. I see a lot of truth in this between exes and The Orville is brilliant to spare the jokes when necessary to portray these nuances in human nature and allow the seriousness of the conflict between them to emerge. That's a tough act to pull off.
Do I'm going to give The Orville a continued look - at least for now - to see how the relationships between the crew develop because the characters - though heavily like any character in any other sci/fi show - are worth watching to see how they mature.
For those who are Star Trek fans, like me, you will immediately see the connection between The Orville and Star Trek. In fact, when I first saw commercials for this show, I noticed the obvious parody and the obvious attempt at humor. I knew that Seth Macfarlane, who plays captain Ed Mercer on the show, was a comedy great (although at the time I didn't know his exact biography) and decided it was worth a look.
In the first episode his ex wife joined the ship and, of course, the arguments began. This - along with many other subplots - are not ground-breaking stuff. This is Dr. Phil stuff, or, for that matter, the stuff of most TV shows. In a later episode, Macfarlane was kidnapped by aliens and Macfarlane's security officer, now put in charge, has to make a decision whether to sneak past enemy space to retrieve him and his ex wife who has also been taken hostage. She decides against a rescue mission and gathers the ire of her crewmates only to change her mind when finding that loyalty is more important than the rules. Now how many Star Trek episodes/movies involved that? Plenty. Nothing new here. The Orville, marketed as a comedy, deals with serious issues like this which makes the whole project the equivalent of combining oil and water. Star Trek would not have been as successful if the difficult topics they dealt with were cast as jokes instead.
Yet, that's not the end of my critique of the show. What the show does do is know the difference between slapstick and seriousness and when to switch from one to the other. This works out particularly well, so far, in the interplay between Macfarlane and his ex wife, Commander Kelly Grayson (played by Adrianne Palicki). In the first episode they argue but Macfarlane later realizes that, because she made a decision that saved the ship, is valuable and needs to be there. This is not the time for jokes; it's time for seriousness and the two deliver the scene in well-done fashion. In another episode the crew deals with sexism where an alien crewmate wants to change the sex of his offspring as is culturally appropriate in their race. Macfarlane and Palicki agree against it and do persuade their crewmate but not others in his race and lose the battle, unfortunately, and the sex of the child is changed. In the end of the episode, Macfarlane and his ex wife are seen walking off in a partial embrace which suggests there may be partial feelings between them despite the fact in another episode they argue over annoying habits that drove them apart. I see a lot of truth in this between exes and The Orville is brilliant to spare the jokes when necessary to portray these nuances in human nature and allow the seriousness of the conflict between them to emerge. That's a tough act to pull off.
Do I'm going to give The Orville a continued look - at least for now - to see how the relationships between the crew develop because the characters - though heavily like any character in any other sci/fi show - are worth watching to see how they mature.
