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First reviews for Seth McFarlane's scifi drama The Orville

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B

berzeli

Banned
Variety:
When the dust settles, ”The Orville" may emerge as the most inexplicable show of the new season. It certainly never makes a convincing case for its existence. The first impression — that it exists so that creator and star Seth MacFarlane can do elaborate ”Star Trek" cosplay — is only reinforced over the course of the tepid trio of episodes that kick off the show.
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I'm starting to think that Scott Buck is soon to become Seth's #1 fan for taking the heat off him.

edit: you know what let's throw in their description of the third episode for good measure:
The third installment, which is devoted entirely to their efforts to expand their family, is one of the most spectacular and unfortunate storytelling fails of the year.

An air of self-congratulation hangs over the entire hour, as if MacFarlane, who wrote it, couldn't get over his awe at his own bravery in engaging with a difficult, complex topic. Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that the show takes a big creative swing tackling issues of gender and identity, but it does not connect, and the end result is disastrous. If it's challenging for ”The Orville" to wring laughs from the audience, it's all but impossible for it to earn the dramatic (and tone-deaf) conclusion it attempts in the third episode.
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T

Timu

Member
From that trailer I knew it was going to be bad. It's a shame, I want him to create something good again like he used to.
 
L

louiedog

Member
zewone said:
I mean Family Guy was good...

What else has he done that was quality?
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He wasn't bad on Gilmore Girls for his 2 minutes of screen time.

Fy4DsME.png
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P

PSqueak

Banned
...i suspected this was not gonna be good, but part of me had hopes it would despite my dislike of McFarlane.

zewone said:
I mean Family Guy was good...

What else has he done that was quality?
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Bad episodes of Family guy outnumber the good ones and it took less than half the time that it took the simpsons to get to that point.
 
B

brianmcdoogle

Member
Is McFarlane the one who supposedly wrote such a terrible script about women fighting over him that prompted Reese Witherspoon to start her own production company? Is that the rumored one?
 
Nydius

Nydius

Member
I was already concerned after reading this article of a MacFarlane Q&A from TCA back in early August. The article confirmed that it was supposed to be an hour long dramedy rather than a half-hour comedy, and MacFarlane started waxing poetic about "old" Trek and how "new" Trek is dystopian or some shit.

At that point I knew The Orville was screwed because you've got Fox promoting it like a half hour parody comedy but MacFarlane (and others) who want the world to view it as dramatic sci-fi with solid comedic chops. People are either going to tune in and be disappointed that it's not a parody or they are going to tune in and be disappointed that it's a poor drama that barely rises to Star Trek knock-off levels.

To reinforce the "yep, it's screwed", you've got Mark Jackson calling it a show for disgruntled Star Trek fans and trying to compare it to 90's ST:TNG and Red Dwarf while also praising Seth MacFarlane's respect for the "craft for acting"? Oooookay? Guessing Mark Jackson didn't see A Million Ways to Die in the West.

Late edit: Forgot to add that Fox also put it in an awful time slot where it may be bumped around with time shifts due to football games possibly running late AND directly competing against NBC's Sunday Night Football.
 
E

Effect

Member
brianmcdoogle said:
Is McFarlane the one who supposedly wrote such a terrible script about women fighting over him that prompted Reese Witherspoon to start her own production company? Is that the rumored one?
Click to expand...

I believe so. Vulture did an article on that back in June and narrowed it down to a few films with them thinking that A Million Ways to Die in the West was the most likely film/script that she could have been talking about.
 
S

Slayven

Member
Captiosus said:
I was already concerned after reading this article of a MacFarlane Q&A from TCA back in early August. The article confirmed that it was supposed to be an hour long dramedy rather than a half-hour comedy, and MacFarlane started waxing poetic about "old" Trek and how "new" Trek is dystopian or some shit.

At that point I knew The Orville was screwed because you've got Fox promoting it like a half hour parody comedy but MacFarlane (and others) who want the world to view it as dramatic sci-fi with solid comedic chops. People are either going to tune in and be disappointed that it's not a parody or they are going to tune in and be disappointed that it's a poor drama that barely rises to Star Trek knock-off levels.

To reinforce the "yep, it's screwed", you've got Mark Jackson calling it a show for disgruntled Star Trek fans and trying to compare it to 90's ST:TNG and Red Dwarf while also praising Seth MacFarlane's respect for the "craft for acting"? Oooookay? Guessing Mark Jackson didn't see A Million Ways to Die in the West.
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Yeah I didn't know it was an hour long until i read the reviews. Yeah unless it is in between simpsons and family guy, people are going to turn off
 
R

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
I wasn't even looking forward to this, but it's totally blowing my mind that they're marketing this so dishonestly. I seriously thought it was a half hour comedy, basically Galaxy Quest as a TV series.
 
G

gaiadyne

Member
Random Human said:
I wasn't even looking forward to this, but it's totally blowing my mind that they're marketing this so dishonestly. I seriously thought it was a half hour comedy, basically Galaxy Quest as a TV series.
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I knew it was a straight attempt at Star Trek, but only from reading interviews. Was kinda hoping for A Next Generation style show but it looks like McFarlane doesn't have the chops for it. I'll still be watching this and Discovery because it has been too long since I've watched a good space opera
 
Neff

Neff

Member
Flux said:
He must be the greatest pitch room man. So much shit gets greenlit. It's beyond riding the coattails of Family Guy at this point.
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Most of what he does is successful.

gaiadyne said:
I knew it was a straight attempt at Star Trek, but only from reading interviews. Was kinda hoping for A Next Generation style show but it looks like McFarlane doesn't have the chops for it.
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It takes intelligence to write good sci-fi. I don't think McFarlane is an intelligent person. A shrewd and empathetic opportunist, maybe, but not intelligent.
 
B

brianmcdoogle

Member
Neff said:
It takes intelligence to write good sci-fi. I don't think McFarlane is an intelligent person. A shrewd and empathetic opportunist, maybe, but not intelligent.
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He brought back Cosmos, so he's obviously a very intelligent and thoughtful man who makes sometimes racist and sexist jokes. Also, isn't it great how well he sings!

/s
 
F

Frozenprince

Banned
Man thats super disappointing I was looking forward to this as a parody not something trying to be overly self serious. The trailers were pretty solid.
 
L

Lautaro

Member
And here I thought they were saving the best jokes for the show and that's why the trailer was so boring. Turns out those were the best jokes.
 
Machine

Machine

Member
The first warning sign for me was the name of the show. "The Orville"??? Is this about Orville Redenbacher, the popcorn nerd?
 
W

whyamihere

Banned
Effect said:
Higher I believe. I think the latest Variety articles say it's around 8 million an episode. This is also likely up front cost for things. I imagine a second season would cost less since the investment is already done for a lot of things. However yeah they're putting serious money behind Discovery.

CBS aren't cheaping out on Discovery and clearly have confidence. Here's hoping that is well placed. Please let it be well placed! It's why they likely don't appear to care openly about The Orville. One, it's Seth McFarlane. Two, it has people working on it that they likely feel lead to Star Trek fatigue, etc. Something they don't want to repeat as they easily could have tried to remake late 80s/90s Trek and decided against it. Three, they're that confident in their own production.

A red flag sent up to me was his need to take shots at what CBS was doing with Discovery on more then one occasion. That was never a good look for me. I get him wanting to push his own show but that felt to me a lack of confidence in his own product that he needed to attack something else to make his work look good. If you have a good product or what you really believe is a good product you shouldn't have to do that.
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Exactly where my thoughts are.

But lol that Seth tried to make a straight drama. I still can't believe he basically tried to make Star Trek!
 
B

berzeli

Banned
whyamihere said:
Exactly where my thoughts are.

But lol that Seth tried to make a straight drama. I still can't believe he basically tried to make Star Trek!
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That CBS isn't cheaping out or that their confidence is well placed?

Even more lol is that he seems to have learned nothing from when he failed to deal with gender identity in Family Guy and now "freed" from the shackles of comedy will fail to do it again.
 
Z

ZeoVGM

Banned
I like Seth a lot so I'll still give it a chance.

(And if it doesn't work out, can we get Adrianne Palicki back on S.H.I.E.L.D.?)
 
H

hobozero

Member
It almost sounds like with a bit of tweaking and some inserted "cast interviews" the show might have been turned into another Darkplace. That it almost got there unintentionally is really, really sad.
 
F

FiggyCal

Banned
That first trailer had a lot of jokes in it. That's such a weird way to advertise a project.

Edit: I'll definitely watch it. I thought the trailer was good enough. But I'm super gullible and still half-expecting a comedy.
 
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