Anyone watching The Orville?

[OblongPickle]

Seth MacFarlane's Star Trek homage airs Thursdays on Fox. It's pretty good.

I just caught up on the first 4 episodes and it's a deeper foray into the genre than I was expecting. Being a MacFarlane show I just expected it to hit you over the head with joke, joke, joke, but it's actually good. The connections and similarities to ST:TNG are a little too strong IMO but it does a lot of things well.

MacFarlane addresses some modern issues and tolerance (gender equality, homosexual relationships, transgenderism) just as TNG did and still manages to have smart, laugh out loud moments, as well as low-brow fart and penis jokes. It's got something for everyone. It has a great cast and Adrianne Palicki is super hot.

I'll definitely add this to my queue, just curious if anyone else has been watching.

PS - Did you guys know that Seth MacFarlane is worth over $250 Million? That's crazy to me. He's estimated to be the 12th richest comedian.

 

[bym051d]

I’ve been enjoying The Orvilleand I’m not a Seth MacFarlane fan.

 

[PhDeac]

The reviews of the pilot were very negative. I didn't even bother.

 

[OblongPickle]

It will have some growing pains, and I think part of it has to do with the characters strong similarities to TNG, but I think it has gotten better with each episode. And I'm not much of a MacFarlane fan either.

 

[isledeac]

The reviews of the pilot were very negative. I didn't even bother.

I watched part of the pilot or second episode and it was amazingly bad. Like to the point I thought it was being intentionally bad.

 

[EatLeadCommie]

I've been watching it and it's ok. Some truly hilarious moments, but also some awkwardly serious ones, like the end of the tranny baby episode. It seems to address its social issues only half-seriously, which is fine. I mean, it can't really be a gay couple if there are no women, right? (turns out there are, but that's neither here nor there). The main plot is usually not where the good stuff lies. It's the stuff underneath, like the practical jokes or watching musicals with ice cream to assuage depression.

 

[DeacHead]

I'm into it. My worst fear heading into it was that it would be "A Million Ways to Die in the West" in space but I've been pleasantly surprised at how respectful, reverential even, it's been to prior Treks. For the most part, they've combined TOS plots with a TNG look and feel and added a dick joke or two. The last ep strayed away from updating a classic Trek plot, which I'm sure is the long-term plan since they'd run out of material real soon, like, 20-30 episodes, otherwise.

I'm not surprised about MacFarlane's net worth. He owns rights to all his shows, most of which are in syndication now and Ted was a big money maker.

 

[SmooveDeac]

I know a guy on the show, so I’ve got to check it out at some point.