The Orville begins its second season with a strong, low-stakes, character-focused episode
TV Reviews Recap“Ja’loja,” tonight’s premiere for the second season of The Orville, was a low-key outing completely lacking in dramatic set pieces, bombastic action sequences, or crazy, high-concept science fiction weirdness. And honestly, that’s great. Starting the season by focusing entirely on the characters and their relatively modest problems was a great pay off for all the effort season one put into developing the crew of the Orville into a group of people we care about. Enough, even, that we can have a sincere and emotionally invested opinion on whether one of their jackets has sufficient zippers to successfully facilitate making a date with a dark matter cartographer. By eschewing a big, gonzo opener in favor of a series of intimate character studies, The Orville is solidifying its identity beyond being a soothing Next Generation nostalgia blanket awkwardly fused to a juvenile, gag delivery vehicle.
Well, mostly. After all, overarching story tying together all the individual plot lines (and boy, there were a lot of plot lines this episode) is Bortus returning to his home planet for his annual pee. Since Moclan urination is such a rare occasion, it’s become codified into ritual (the Ja’loja of the title). It also presents one of the only remaining schisms with The Orville’s tone. Seth MacFarlane equally loves both bodily function humor and the enlightened ideals of Gene Rodenberry; he will set up a joke like an alien’s annual pee party, then have everyone work extra hard to behave like it’s not funny. That disparity wasn’t much of an issue here, since the whole bit was relegated almost entirely to the very beginning and end of the episode. It primarily existed to provide a framework for the crew’s relationship troubles. Ed is spending his time in the mess drinking bourbon and listening to “As Time Goes By” on a record player and pining for Kelley. Kelley is using Bortus’ Ja’loja celebration as an opportunity to go public with her new relationship. When she goes to discuss it with Ed, he misconstrues her intention and believes she, like him, wants to try to make their relationship work again. He repeatedly attempts to get her to tell him directly if she still loves him or not, which Kelly rebuts as being irrelevant. As far as she’s concerned, if the two were in a relationship, it would be impossible for Ed to make a decision that may endanger her life. That, Kelly argues, isn’t fair to the rest of the crew who wouldn’t receive the same consideration. Ed says that’s not true, and if they’re still in love, that’s all that matters. The show never really tries to present Ed and Kelly as having equally valid viewpoints. Ed is constantly depicted as being short-sighted and too-emotional. Though I may be biased in my assessment, since I still have no interest in the seeing the two getting back together. I’ve already said I think the show works better with the two navigating friendship than an on again/off again relationship, and that feeling still holds. Though Ed’s obsession with Kelly’s romantic life does lead to the episode’s best gag: As Kelly and her boyfriend Cassius(Chris Johnson) are canoodling in her quarters, a jealous Ed flies one of the ship crafts slowly by her windows so he can spy on the two making out. It’s nice to see how our petty natures will adapt to new technology.
Gordon really wants to ask the new crew member on a date, but has no idea how to approach women. He tells John that he’s only ever been with women who were into him first (he dated his stalker for five months before she broke up with him for being too needy), and he needs help talking to her. John sets Gordon up with a zipper festooned jacket and the advice to always go with one more zipper on your clothes than you’re comfortable with, and has him go through a few different degrees of difficulty in his (to me, very creepy) nightclub training simulator. Nothing about the whole scenario reveals anything we didn’t know about the characters —it was mostly just an excuse to get the two of them to hang out. Now that John has relocated to engineering, the show will have to be more creative in finding ways for the two to interact.
In the midst of everyone else’s romantic struggles, Alara is attempting to find some comfort in her own relationship problems. Just as she’s reached a place where she’s comfortable being alone, Bortus tries to hook her up with another officer on account of a taboo around attending the pee ritual single. The officer in question ends up being Dan, the big, round-headed lizard-like alien guy who spent a good portion of the previous season riding the elevator. Despite being off-putting from the start, Alara agrees to give him a chance, only to have Dan prove himself to be even more off-putting. He’s needy, tone-deaf, and writes phenomenally bad poetry — which Alara critiques with surprisingly well-constructed observations. At least Gordon likes it.
The sole non-romantic subplot concerned Dr. Claire having trouble with her older son, Marcus and his new shithead friend James (Jake Brennan). Before the kid even said a word, you knew he was a punk because he looks just like a cross between Scut Farkus from A Christmas Story and Randy from Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. And sure enough, the second Claire tells Marcus he can’t go and hang out, James calls her a “pain in the ass”. Claire is struggling as a single parent, and fortunately, Isaac has continued to ingratiate himself into Claire’s family life and is surprisingly ever-present to calmly disparage her ability to parent. While it feels a little awkward that Isaac would just be over all the time like an overbearing houseguest, he has such a good dynamic with every member of the family I’m happy for any half-baked excuse to have him loafing around. Claire confides in Isaac that she feels like she’s losing Marcus as he becomes a teenager. It’s a poignant concern, but one that’s undercut as the tension between the two is framed solely as a consequence of James’ bad influence. It’s even more awkward as the conflict extends to James’ parents, who believe Marcus is the one causing trouble. Isaac’s computer savvy saves the day, proving in front of everyone that James was manipulating everyone and his parents get their comeuppance. So Claire is vindicated, but it doesn’t change the fact that Marcus is careening headfirst toward adolescence. Still, it’s a nice conclusion to the story that a grateful Claire asks Isaac to accompany her to the Ja’loja. The future of The Orville seems like a pretty chill place and if a single mother and her common-law platonic life partner robot want to raise a family together, I’m totally down with that.
In the end, a contrite Ed makes peace with Cassius and Kelly, Gordon completely fails to ask out the new officer, and everyone is able to attend Bortus’ special day. “Ja’loja” is a promising start to the new season. The humor is more integrated into the interactions between the characters and the show has a more natural flow because of it. No pee joke intended.
Stray Observations
- Hi everyone! Welcome to coverage for season 2 of The Orville. Tonight’s episode was originally intended to be this season’s second episode –while next week’s, which was originally going to be the final episode of last season— was going to be the premiere. Normally, mucking around with a show’s episode order is infuriating, but in this instance I think it was a good call.
- I know I disparaged Bortus’ pee adventure, but goodness if it doesn’t raise a lot of questions. Apparently all Moclans have their own unique day? What does a years’ worth of urine look like? Is Moclan physiology so efficient that it takes them an entire year to accumulate what would just be a regular pee for us? Or is it some sort of super-concentrated acid that could melt rock? How long is a Moclan year, anyways? Should The Orville ever get big enough, this will all be outlined in insane detail in one of countless supplementary source books. Comment threads will get into contentious arguments about whether certain depictions of Moclans peeing break canon.
- Penny Johnson Jerald is so good. Her delivery of the admonishment, “Do you have anything else to say that does not reek of contrition” was top notch.
- Alara getting Dan’s text, “I miss you” within moments of excusing herself from the table was great.
- Fashion Corner: Oh, lord. The civilian clothes on this show are so bad. It’s like someone took all the fashions from Next Generation and filtered them through DeepDream. Cassius in particular was wearing such a spectacular series of awkward cuts and strange patterns, of increasingly bulkier v-neck sweaters and striped tunic ensembles that I could barely handle it.
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– With that musical opening, I almost thought that I was getting a rerun of “Frasier”.
– Forgive me, I’ve never seen “Casablanca”, but that was sort of a homage to that, right?
– Please don’t go there. With Seth and Halston breaking up, it would be super awkward if they started a romance now.
– I missed a few moments of Gordon talking to the new crew member, but I couldn’t tell if he was trying to flirt or trying to make small talk. Either way it was very painful to watch.
– Okay, Gordon is interested in her.
– Kelly’s boyfriend is one of those hyper-emotionally mature people from an actual Star Trek show, while Kelly is a….normal person.
– That’s a good way to show that Alara’s people are academics. Painful for that guy, but a good way.
– “Here’s my theory…” Oop, here we go. Yeah, didn’t like that little statement.
– Okay, it looks like Ed & the new cartographer might be something. She looks like Jadzia’s ex-wife on “Deep Space 9″.
– Okay, the inter-personal relationships are the things that will fill in the gaps of a storyline on a show like this, but I’m not sure if “The Orville” was ready to base an entire episode on them. I’ve seen several episodes on other shows where it went well, but I don’t think this one succeeded. However, seeing as this episode was supposed to be the season finale of last season, it might have been a way to wrap up the Ed/Kelly emotional storyline. At least for a while.
Actually, based on the episode codes on the Wikipedia page, last season was supposed to be 13 episodes. The finale we got last season was the 13th episode filmed. This was the first episode filmed for season two. The next episode on Thursday was supposed to be the 12th episode of the first season.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orville#Season_2_(2018)
Great. So Fox is already fucking with the order.As is tradition.
Maybe they’ll forget to air an episode or two, too.
As a guy who’s always had trouble approaching women, I found Gordon’s attempts at small talk both uncomfortable and true to life. When he did his boomerang swoop around her table, I could see myself doing the same thing.Kelly’s boyfriend (BTW, his name is “Cassius”) is a mature adult, while Kelly and everyone else is the kind of flawed, immature character McFarlane usually creates. It’s no wonder he stands out in comparison.
It also struck me that this episode was really heavily reliant on the interpersonal stuff as the meat of the episode, rather than a sci-fi plot. It played as sort of a workplace drama/comedy, that just happened to take place on a space ship in the future. But I think it worked, and that that bodes really well. As a sci-fi fan I’d prefer it be more of an accent note, but it means that the episodes can be enjoyable even when the plot fizzles. Which is inevitable.
Nope. All that relationship crap ruined the show. It was a pointless hour of needless filler about who is dating who. Just awful.
Either way it was very painful to watch.Yeah, but real-life romance is often awkward, cringe-worthy and painful to watch.
I was dead certain that the capper for the pee ceremony would be a loud water-draining-into-a-bucket sound that just went on and on and on, with all the non-Moclans getting increasingly uncomfortable and maybe even having to go themselves. (It’s a year of pee, after all!)The fact that this didn’t happen makes me wonder if Seth is finally moving away from the frat-broiest aspects of his comic sensibility, although his half-baked “women want men they can be disappointed in” theory is certainly evidence to the contrary.
Gordon’s zipper jacket was a sight to behold. I love it.
I saw that and thought Eddie Murphy for some reason.
Oh I thought Thriller jacket, but in turquoise.
It doesn’t look like the Thriller jacket even has any zippers, looks like it was all snaps…correction, looks like it may have had a single zipper.
My mistake Beat It jacket* which I was uncomfortable typing out just now.
Exactly one more then it needed…
So…the perfect number of zippers, then.
You’re thinking of the Beat It jacket.
Needed more zippers.
Always have one more zipper than you are comfortable with.
My brain instantly went into “I want that” mode.
I wish Trey Parker and Matt Stone would’ve done this and not Seth MacFarlane.
Then… it wouldn’t have happened? This is 100% Seth’s pet project.
What really sold the drive by scene was the “No way” Macfarlane utters before putting the ship into cloak. Nothing creepy about John’s nightclub simulator. This is The Orville at its best. It will give us all the Trek toys but we remain human. The Orville probably has a bunch of Reginald Barclay clones serving on it.Here is a question. In the future everyone can replicate their own clothes. They also have access to centuries upon centuries of fashion. So why can’t they have a person dress in 1980s fashion another in 1820, 1950 etc when not in uniform?They have replicators and all of human history to pick from.
Yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch for outrage to find the nightclub simulator creepy. The difficulty level was a decent joke. Overall I liked the episode but seemed a bit too low key for a season starter. Not sure it would hook many new viewers.
Agreed. I can see why this was the supposed to be the season finale of last season
It’s not though, it was supposed to be episode 2 of the new season.
but it wasn’t, the next ep was supposed to close the season.
Geordi on TNG had a bit of a creepy holo-deck habit too. There was that episode where he needs to figure out what to do with the ship and summons up a holo-deck version of the ship-designer who happens to be rather attractive woman and then several seasons later he meets her for real and she discovers his program.
Yeah both the nightclub simulator and the kids hacking the replicator for vodka seemed like realistic touches to things that Star Trek wouldn’t have actually gone into.
So why can’t they have a person dress in 1980s fashion another in 1820, 1950 etc when not in uniform?The same reason people don’t do it now?
I found it creepy because the way in which he ‘suceeds’ is lying to the person he was asking out, thus presenting the idea that the only way to get to know anyone in that setting is by being a creepy lying pickup artist.
I was very confused about why Isaac was there for every scene with Claire and her kids but hey they’re a good couple.I figured they were going to put the Cartographer lady with Ed the moment she showed up, though I did think they were going to go a different direction for a while there. Until they looped back at the end there.
You must remember this….
a piss is just a piss…
I love this show. It’s ST:TNG with some bite and some real human-based humour. As much as I enjoyed ST:TNG, it was always antiseptic.
As my wife and I were watching this last night, I called Macfarlane’s “drive-by” seconds before it happened. My wife was like “What the Hell?” My response: “I could myself doing that.” My wife: “Stalker!!!”When the new crew member showed up, I also thought she would be Macfarlane’s character’s new love interest, but am kind of hoping she is a “spy” for the Krill. I remember last year when Macfarlane and Grimes’ characters got on board the Krill ship and did some recon. Maybe the Krill will do the same?
She seems a little too dull. Like they’ve intentionally given her no character traits except pleasant. Even watching her play on her phone just sitting there she didn’t portray anything.
…and that’s how good she is. It’s the perfect cover.
There’s a definite male/female dichotomy regarding the “drive by,” with each interpreting it differently, and it was reflected in the show. One thing though: shouldn’t they be calling it a “fly by”? And why didn’t Ed engage the cloaking device in the first place? Oh, wait, then she couldn’t have caught him, so that part felt contrived.
Yeah. You’re trying to spy on somebody, and you have a cloaking device, but you don’t use it?
Whenever a scene or plot line only works because someone does something they normally wouldn’t do, it’s a sign of bad writing. They could have had Kelly accuse him spying and him say, “How do you know? I was cloaked.” Yeah, he’d come off sounding dumb but he has before.
I read the scene as that he literally did just go for a drive and happened by.. not that he was purposefully spying on her.
It’s a “drive by”, the same way you still “dial” a phone number.
The actress who is playing the dark matter cartographer also played the Krill teacher in the infiltration episode last season, so I am very much hoping that’s how this plays out.
Good catch!
Oooh, good eye. Here’s hoping you’re right.
There were so many little tells, like Alara not having a lot of information about her, that I feel like she has to be a plant.
Ohh – I thought she came off as familiar!
Now I am looking forward to her being a Krill spy/saboteur – and to add to the fun, she actually falls for Ed despite hating him for what he did to all the other adults last year. Having her end the episode by outright hitting on the Captain did seem a bit like McFarlane giving himself a love interest – but if she has an agenda as well…
Wasn’t that a key plot element of “Star Trek: Discovery” last year?
I missed the premiere until tonight, so I just have to say: Are you a wizard?
Ding ding ding!
SPOILER…….
Pat yourself on the back until your arm falls off.
I hope they got a bunch of the romance storylines out of their system for a while, I really don’t care about most of that shit.Was anyone else disappointed that the peeing scene didn’t have at least a little bit of gross out humor?
I like the romance subplots because it’s one thing TNG was mostly bad at. I love the characters on that show but they were also a bit too good at times. I like this change in the Orville even if the humour doesn’t always work
I’m not really a fan of romance subplots in any media honestly so it’s a general complaint I always have.
That’s also why I like the Orville kids. They’re behaving exactly as you would expect real kids would act without being whiny brats like Worf’s kid. Hacking a replicator to make vodka was perfect.
As long as there’s NEVER a “Captain Mercer Day” on board, I’ll be happy.
If they hacked a replicator in an empty unused sleeping quarters, why the hell didn’t they just drink it there instead of running down a brightly lit hallway to a sim room that everyone uses. oh right. teenagers.
Yes, because if there’s one thing that we all should be watching a science fiction space opera comedy, it’s for the same fucking lame-arse shit every other show does.
The purpose of the show has always been a TNG style nostalgia show. TNG had those same kinda plots but now they can do them with better sensibilities. I don’t need it to be a soap opera but I like a little romance subplot. its more human that way.
I never watched the original Star Wars so I don’t really give a damn about that. I like the humourous takes on science fiction, that’s all.
Geordi and Data were very good together, most of the time. Same with Geordi and Worf. Looking at it now, it’s probably because LeVar Burton is such a relatable and generous actor, equally game for playing straight man or spouting technobabble with urgency.
Honestly there are only ever four ways that pee joke could have gone: 1. He pees a lot, which impresses everyone.2. He pees a little, which underwhelms everyone.3. The pee comes out of some part of his body that it doesn’t come out of for us humans.4. Everyone gets pee on them. All are pretty cliche, so I’m actually kinda glad they didn’t even bother with it.
They could also just have the non-Moclan attendees comment on the smell (i.e. some of the lines from Anchor Man; “it’s like the inside of a wooden leg”)
I was kind of expecting a shy bladder joke, since there was an audience. “The ceremony will now commence… Any minute now. Here we go… wait, not yet. Thinking about waterfalls… and… The ceremony had commenced!”
Eh, the episode didn’t really grab me at all, a cliched joke would have been a relief imho.
I mean, it’s not like there weren’t plenty of other cliche jokes in that episode….
I was waiting for a pee blow-back gag, everyone getting a little sprayed, then acting incredibly polite about it, with maybe the locals calling out, “Ah! It’s a blessing!”That they didn’t go broad like that, I think, is a testament to where the humor is modulated on this show; a good thing overall. If you took 8 or 9 of the “humorous” episodes from ST:TNG and lined them all up together, you’d have a show pretty similar to this one. So much so (and with the alumns continued involvement) it feels like they’re in the same shared universe. Of coure Star Trek and The Orville aren’t in the same universe but (wink wink) whose to say… one well placed wormhole and – whoops – “Hey, we’ve time traveled to the NBC Lot circa California 1966…”
It looked like there was at least going to be a big (or comically small, or whatever) stream as he peed off the cliff, but that it got cut, maybe by the network or something. Also, I missed the very beginning, so missed that it was going to be a pee, just caught a couple of references to going to the bathroom, so when the scene started I thought for a second that it might be him squatting, groaning, then an ground-shaking boom as a super-compressed, hyper-dense year’s-worth shit-brick hit the rock.Finally, I can hardly ever discuss this show without mentioning that I’m always astounded when people praise this show’s theme & music, because I just fucking loathe it.
I dunno, EdKed – I like THE ORVILLE theme music. It fits the “This is STAR TREK – Only With the Serial Numbers Barely Filed Off and Some Goofy/Scatological Humor” tone perfectly.
I see too many people expressing totally unironic liking for it, without any trace of the excuse you cite, coupled with the contemptible “this is the style an SF TV show theme should always be in, it’s just what I’m used to” attitude. Plus the fact that in and of itself it’s such a sludge-pile of cloying hackery and obviousness. It annoys me to even sit through for the length of the opening credits.
If I thought THE ORVILLE was a comedy SF series, I wouldn’t like the theme music at all. But since it’s McFarlane’s attempt to do a TREK series with a few jokes thrown in for good measure, the music seems pretty okay to me given what they’re doing.I will admit, the opening credits don’t go far enough to establish that THE ORVILLE is not some Quantum Drive SuperDreadnought, but a smallish starship with a decidedly B-Team crew that really isn’t equipped to go toe-to-toe in a pitched battle or a serious situation.
Look, I just detest it in and of itself (just like the people I cite who praise it seem to just like it), and even granting all your points, it’s nothing I want to really sit through under any circumstances. There’s just something cloying about the whole feel of the thing.
Hey, okay, EdKed. I mean, I’m surprised I like this show at all, given my normal distaste for Seth McFarlane as the College-Educated Progressive Version of a DudeBro – and honestly, his Captain Mercer remains the show’s weakest element. And it so closely follows ST:TOS/TNG conventions and tropes that it often feels like something a group of precocious Freshmen could concoct – or R.M. Meluch would turn into a novel series that In No Way Is a TREK Pastiche, nosiree!
♫They see me warpin’, they hatin’.♫
I was really sad there wasn’t some huge explosion. Or at least a sound like water coming out of a high pressure fire hose. There was nothing :(Also, romance crap is typically put in to cater to women. They tend to ruin things :/
Actually I’m kind of glad that they didnt turn the ceremony into a punchline. Playing it for laughs would have undercut the scene.
I wasn’t really fond of the episode so I was kinda looking forward to a cliched joke.
Any attempt to make it comedic would only invite comparisons to the first Austin Powers movie. Instead Seth chose to make it, well, dignified. But now that highly-acidic urine’s been mentioned, I wonder if that huge chasm in solid rock was the result of countless Moclans peeing into it over the centuries.
I at least expected the peeing to go on for a bit…
Watched The Orville a couple times during 1st season & it was always much better than anticipated. Thx for the character study synopsis & primer recap AVClub published last week. Last night’s 2nd season premiere episode was enjoyable & nice start. Ok, bye.
Anybody else exclaim “Ja’loja!” when they peed last night before bed? Just me? OK then.
I’ve been saying it with every piss today. I’m ready to plan a ceremony.
I enjoyed this episode overall, but I also gave it a pretty good roasting on Twitter.Also, let’s give it up for Jason Alexander as the bartender. Not a lot of actors could bury themselves under such heavy prosthetics and makeup and still be so uniquely themselves.
I’m sitting there in the first scene going “that bartender sounds exactly like Jason Alexander but… like it’s not him right?”
That was Duckman!?
Yup. That was George Costanza. I heard it in a few inflections of the voice. I had to look it up on IMDB to be sure. It was him.
Thrust your pelvis! IN SPACE!
Reasons I dragged this episode:Setting up a little romance between Ed and his much younger subordinate officer. Gross. (Yes, I know Seth and Halston dated in real life, and I think that’s gross, too.)It’s the far future, but men still refer to grown-ass women as “girls” when trying to fuck them. Double gross.They introduced a new character, but failed to provide any sort of personality or backstory for her and only used her as a dick target for two lonely men. Triple gross.All that said, I really appreciated that the show was confident enough to step away from the adventures and just let these characters live for a couple of days. I love that kind of thing, and I’d really like to see more of it in my shows.
The age difference is only ten years. My mother was twelve years older than my father and they almost made it to their fiftieth anniversary but alas my mother passed away.
He’s 45. She’s 25. Also, she works for him.
Getting insanely outraged over an imagined (but nonexistent) romance between two characters? Someone needs some happy in their life.
Wow, you’re so virtuous. Congratulations!
They desperately need to get more women in the writers’ room.
“It’s the far future, but men still refer to grown-ass women as “girls” when trying to fuck them. Double gross.”Men and women are just boys and girls regardless of whether anyone is trying to fuck them or not. Get over it.
Adults dating adults is not “gross”. When my parents met, my father was 35 and my mother was 23.
The question of having a relationship with a subordinate is a legitimate one (as Kelly eloquently elaborated in the episode); but it is entirely separate from the issue of age.
I finally watched it and more reasons to drag it:They code Kelly’s new guy as “enlightened,” but he completely disregard’s Kelly’s valid WTF reaction to the drive-by and immediately sides with EdEd gives him a “cheat code” (Journey + wine) to make Kelly forgive him (which she oddly accepts like this was not something Ed had used in the past? Like that would definitely raise some flags for me if my new bf did a very specific thing my ex-bf who is having boundary issues did) and they laugh her anger off
The fact that the doctor fawns all over Isaac despite him being an ass to her (which is completely in character, but she just rolls over when he agrees she’s a shitty mom, when really, she’s just having the struggle all parents have with adolescents) and he saves the dayI do think the show is trying, but it screws up at least as much as it gets right, and when you look at the slate of writers from last season, well, most of it’s MacFarlane. He needs some help to get these scripts on the level of actually reflecting the aspirational aspect of Roddenberry’s Star Trek.
Just get Isaac an emotion chip and be done with it.
Point three would be very important if she later turns out to be a deep-cover Krill agent. Otherwise, you’re spot-on.
Just how many bars with alien bartenders does a medium-sized vessel need, anyway? Because Alara’s meetup with Dann was in an entirely different place than where Ed was drinking.
When Alexander did the Think Tank episode of Voyager he said in interviews that he is a huge Star Trek fan. He either said that the show-runners heard that and asked him if he wanted to do an episode, or he went to the show-runners himself and asked if he could guest-star.So it doesn’t surprise me that he would say yes to appearing on this show in what looks like it could be a recurring role.
It would be nice if reviews would identify on what network the show is on.
It airs on Fox in the US, not sure where you are. They probably didn’t feel the need to tell you because it’s extremely easy to find online and already known to most people reading this.
I don’t know the song, but why was the same song played on the bar’s record player, later by Isaac on the piano, and at the end at Bortus’s party? Like is this the one old piano song anyone knows?Enjoyed the episode but this little part bugged me.
So has Seth updated his pop-culture references to anything post-2005 already?
I am still shocked at how much I like this show. The ONLY reason i gave it a shot to begin with was the fact that they were able to get signed off on season 2. My first thought was “seriously?” So I started watching the first season and kept thinking “is this really good? Wtf is going on!?” No way can I be liking this. It’s better than discovery! A fucking stupid looking star trek knock off is better than star trek discovery! Lol
I was truly interested in what people thought about the first episode last night, And really enjoyed your review/summary. The best science fiction is simply interesting people placed in the future. And wow, does The Orville deliver. My favorite line of the nigh is the captain sitting at the bar. “You know what would be great right now? a Krill invasion.” Seth has found his home.
The tall scary woman from John Wick is surprisingly funny.
It really is hilarious just how much of an homage this show is to TNG.On another note, I recognized the piano renditions of As Time Goes By, but could anyone tell me the name of the jazzy song playing in the opening scene?
Excellent review Nick! I wondered if others would notice and appreciate the ‘everyday life’ approach to the season opener …and you really nailed it! Great sci-fi series of the past have generally focused on stories that were either thought provoking, action-packed, or morality based. Rarely did they touch on what life itself might be like in the future. Even when they did, such slice-of-life elements were only a small part of a ‘big’ story, (and seldom felt as relatable as the situations presented in last night’s episode). To have a series completely focus on the typical day-to-day interactions and situations one might encounter on a starship with a diverse population of human and non-humans was both original and surprisingly enjoyable. It really felt like a well balanced family comedy/drama, only set in outer space! My family and I thought it worked well, and hope the show will continue to maintain a focus on the everyday life aspects of life on a starship in the upcoming ‘thought provoking, action-packed, morality based’ episodes. Ironically, just earlier yesterday, my youngest daughter had adamantly insisted that one of the biggest mistakes any guy can make when having a heated disagreement with a gal is to tell them to ‘calm down’, (stating that will always make the situation worse). And there it was in the season opener! I also loved it when Kelly used the line that every ex boyfriend/husband hates to hear … “if you got to know him, you’d really like him”. I said, ‘wouldn’t it be funny if Ed does get to know him and actually ends up liking him’? Then there it was. Same with Issac and the Doctor. Last season it seemed that Issac and Clair’s boys would become friends, yet early in last night’s episode I said to my family, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if Clair and Issac actually pair-up, (if for no other reason than because of how good he is with her boys)? Then there it was. Finally, the Orville is capitalizing on the character development from last season, and in surprisingly believable and relatable ways. I truly didn’t expect that from Seth MacFarlane! If this season continues to follow a pattern of believable/situational character based stories, at some point Cassius will be too honest for his own good and will casually mention to Kelly that the red wine / all is forgiven move was actually Ed’s suggestion. Then he really will need Kelly to ‘calm down’!!! Funny that one of my gripes with season one was that I felt the characters were a bit too cartoon-ish and not very believable. But last night’s episode did something I wasn’t expecting, (that Nick nailed early in his review), … it turned the crew of the Orville into a group of people I actually care about. Man, I wasn’t expecting that. When you can do that, you just may have a long running hit television series. Keep it up Seth and company, (ya done good).
I took the Moclan pee day to be like a birthday. Many share the same day, but you just surround with the special people in your life like friends and family. Not a special day for all, just special for those close to you.
I am really liking this series. It is a more realistic version of the future to me. In TNG, everyone is so proper and self righteous. Like society is so advanced there is no predjudice or bad stuff in the world. They go to a society not there yet and treat them like children not behaving right.But here they are mostly better. Yet people have all the same hang ups. Relationship problems, nervousness, able to joke about others, etc.
Gordon is increasingly the weak point in the crew for me. I wouldn’t mind him being the mostly comic character of the bunch if he was, you know, funny.Last season I didn’t want to see Ed and Kelly back together, but after this episode it would probably kill the show for me if they do reunite. I stopped watching The Goldbergs when the overbearing, can’t take “no” for an answer guy ended up with his crush as his girlfriend and I really enjoyed that show otherwise. Granted, Ed and Kelly have an actual relationship history unlike Erica and Geoff, but that’s no excuse for badgering your ex to say she still loves you. That she didn’t definitively stay “no” isn’t a good sign, but I’m hoping the show steers away from that.One thing science fiction is teaching me is that no music was written after the 20th century. People can blame MacFarlane’s taste here, but this is true all over the genre.
I’m likewise hoping they don’t get back together. She’s apparently moved on and there appeared to be some small spark between him and the new officer, so maybe we won’t see it.
As soon as she showed up, I suspected she was going to be a potential romantic interest for Ed because apparently the Union doesn’t have rules about captains fraternizing with the crew members.
Nor did the Federation. Picard was involved with a subordinate once, and let’s not forget Kirk. Apparently rules the rest of us take for granted get ignored in the service of the story. More bad writing.
I can’t understand why he wants to get back with her so much. She cheated on him, and that makes her a bad person.
Yeah I would love if a show like this just whipped out some rap music at some point. Like it’s OK to use something modern, your shows set in the future anyway.
It would be more difficult on something like TNG, but this show could make up some music and say it was very popular in 2107 or something because they could get silly with it.
I couldn’t help but think of you and the other members of the old AVC Goldberg reviews comments section who really, really hated the “successful stalk” aspect of the Erica-Geoff relationship (so, basically all the women) when thinking of the fact that it was so unfortunate that the one truly great Goldbergs episode of the post-AVC-review-demise era (“Dinner With the Goldbergs,” a tour-de-force of every bit of bad restaurant behavior you can imagine a family having) was so inextricably bound into having that relationship as part of its setup.
Erica could have been dating anyone for that episode though. Another boyfriend would actually make more sense. Since Geoff knew them and shouldn’t have been so shocked that they are all rude, obnoxious OTT monsters in their own special ways.
Oh, totally. I never meant to imply otherwise. Just that I found that episode funny, and it was a shame that there was that element to put off former fans of the show who might have enjoyed the rest of it.
I don’t even miss it. With so many viewing options these days and a desire not to be staring at a screen all my waking hours, I’ve been finding it surprisingly easy to stop watching shows that annoy me, even if they’re long held habits like The Simpsons.
Did you watch a different show?! I like to give a show a pretty generous “wait and see” attitude but God damn how did they manage to get worse!?Characters: 2D just barelyFX: Hello poor video game cut sceneMakeup: who gave these Face Off rejects a job.Set design: SNL called. They want their poorly designed sets back for their next Star Trek skitWriting: just mediocritySeth McFarlane: HE SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED OUTSIDE A RECORDING BOOTH AGAIN
I’m optimistic about this, I started and quit last season seeing so much wasted potential. Solid Sci-fi stories marred by what seemed like rejected Family Guy jokes.
I was expecting San Diego jokes based on the title.
Regarding the tension between Claire and her son, Marcus, I hope they return to it. The kid isn’t going to stop being a teenager overnight. This seemed to be an episode about battles rather than about the war so maybe we’ve only seen portions of themes that will continue throughout the season.As for Moclan anatomy, I wondered the same thing: How does that work?! I hadn’t even thought about the length of their year but it’s a good point. I also wondered how Xelayans get by without livers. I get the impression the writers are just making this stuff up according to the needs of the current joke instead of having actual explanations.
I couldn’t disagree with you more. This was a good episode for fans, terrible to get people into the series. The whole thing a premiere episode is supposed to do.This felt like a 4th episode plot where everyone is already back and established. There was no excitement in it, and overall a bad episode for a season premiere. If it was in episode 4, I would have no issues.
I guess my problem with “The Orville” is managing my expectations. I expected a full court press joke machine but I’m not sure what they delivered. Some of the Trek aspects were handled quite well in a pretty brainy way. The jokey bits were sort of shoehorned in and not all that funny. I felt the same way about “King of the Hill.” I expected it to be as hilarious as “Beavis and Butthead.” It was not. It took me a while to adjust to the more nuanced approach.
I loved “King of the Hill” precisely because of its nuanced approach. If anything, “The Orville” could stand more nuance, especially given stuff like the dry-humping-a-statue scene from last season.
Wow, B+? Seriously? 30 minutes in I was screaming at the TV (well, talking softly out loud to myself) that if this isn’t a solid F I don’t know what is. I had to check the score before the show was even finished just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and, B+?! Mind blown.This show has literally no idea what it wants to be – Serious sci-fi show? Romantic drama? Broad comedy? It’s trying to be all of those things at once and succeeding at absolutely zero of them, IMO. Clearly I’m in the minority here so I won’t go on and on about it, but I really am shocked at all the positivity I’m seeing in the comments, I thought it would be a bloodbath…. and just a minor gripe of mine for any sci-fi show but seriously, is there no new music since the 1940’s? Why are aliens even interested in playing hundreds of year-old human music? Has literally nothing been released of any value in any of these thousands of cultures? … also apparently cell phones have gotten lower resolution and much fatter in the hundreds of years since they’ve been invented. Huh.
You are not alone. By the second half of this ep I was fast forwarding past almost every scene. This was a episode made up completely of Star Trek B Plots…and not even that good of B Plots. To my point, I actually thought the single parent / misunderstood child sub-plot ripped straight from an 80s sit-com was the most interesting of them. Sad.
I do appreciate what Seth MacFarlane is doing here, and I enjoy the show for the most part. I can’t help but feel though, that if they changed the look of the uniforms, maybe the ship design(too late for that now), and especially Isaac; it would make the show so much better to me. Just make them look more believable or cooler in general. Some of it just seems too corny for me.Anybody else feel that way?
Nice review! Relevant to the season, the show, the history. This is why I read the A.V. Club. Finally something focused on the show and not on some political subtext. Almost gave up on the whole site. Need more of this!
I was pleased with the episode as well. Nothing earth-shattering nor was there meant to be anything earth-shattering. My main complaint is that this was not a very good choice to showcase the show for new viewers that might have tried out the show after the football game. This was fill in the blanks character development for folks who have already seen the show.
This really was refreshing. At first I was annoyed that nothing major was going on, but a third of the way through, I was glued to the TV wondering how Ed would take his ex-wife dating again, If Isaac would help Claire with her parenting difficulties and awaiting the cringe that would be Gordon asking out the new Officer after that awkward scene on the bridge. I really ended up enjoying this episode.
This show really fails at comedy, science fiction, and homage, but I’m fascinated by all of the positive feedback.
the orville is the fried chicken waffle of tv, or scifi-tv.it shouldn’t work. it’s too much and too little. but damn, does it work, and takes home the trophy for best comfort food ever.
Dann’s name is spelled Dann, with two Nns, as seen an Alara’s phone(?) when Dann texts her outside the restaurant.
I mostly enjoyed season 1 in spite of the jokes – I get it, it’s Seth MacFarlane blah blah but the timing and tone was always off, even for him.This episode was much better, humor-wise, and I actually laughed a few times – Ed mispronouncing “Cassius” right after Kelly told him how to pronounce it was genuinely hilarious to me.Gordon is the worst (although I loved that jacket and the zippers on the back), and I don’t understand where this “Alara is terrible at dating” stuff is coming from. They briefly alluded to it last season but this episode made it seem like there were some kind of wacky dating hijinks we missed.I like how Dan’s lesson about not judging a book by its cover was totally negated by how obvious it was that Marcus’s friend was a little shit even before he opened his mouth.The makeup on this show is absolutely horrible. Way too much eyeshadow on all the women, and Alara’s spider lashes and terrifying lipstick are the only thing I can think about when she’s onscreen. The new cartographer had awful lipstick, too.
Do Moclans have their own ships crewed solely, or at least mostly, by Moclans, and if so, how much of their time is spent going back Moclan for various Ja’lojas?
If Ed is still in love with Kelly, it will impact his command decisions , as they relate to her, regardless of whether or not they’re in a relationship.
I know I disparaged Bortus’ pee adventure, but goodness if it doesn’t raise a lot of questions. It kind of makes sense, tho. From what little we’ve seen, Moclus looks like a very desert/arid environment (on top of all the industrial pollution). A species evolved with that environment would be very fluid conservative. They probably don’t sweat a lot and their poop is probably pretty dry too.
When two Moclans mate, as Bortus and Klyden have, wouldn’t it be natural (and efficient) for their Ja’loja cycles to align? Or does Klyden NOT have to pee once a year? Why would that be?How easy would it have been for Bortus and Klyden to stand side-by-side (or back-to-back) for this oh-so-important ceremony? What about their child? Wouldn’t his first Ja’loja be some sort of special event, like a rite of passage?Instead, we’re left wondering whether poor Klyden has the clout to make the Orville divert to Moclus again when it’s HIS time. Or maybe they’ll make him use the simulator deck since Chad L. Coleman isn’t in the main cast?
The drive-by scene was funny, but also contrived…if he could make the ship invisible, why wouldn’t he do it before there was any chance of Kelly and new guy seeing him?
Shuttles with cloaking devices would have made any Starfleet officer pee like Bortus.
..sick of hearing this comment.. is it so hard to imagine how Eds mind is whirling with emotion and thoughts about his ex that it’s not all there to think of cloaking the ship.. that scene was funny, can’t you guys just chill and enjoy the show for what it’s worth..
Wow really? This was an episode made up completely of Star Trek B Plots…and not even that good of B Plots. If this is what people think they were missing in ST:TNG I guess I’m out. …And I guess I’m very glad you people weren’t in charge 30 years ago.
I actually had the opposite reaction to the civilian clothes! At least they try to be interesting, and use various layers and shapes. The clothes from TNG and DS9 were so boring, and totally unbelievable for such a diverse and wealthy society.
I still disagree, but I appreciate your perspective!
I have no idea how this merited a B+. It was tedious. No real plot to speak of, nothing propelling the episode from point to point. This is a “15th episode in a 24-episode season” kind of show. It’s a terrible season opener. This show hasn’t earned a “Data’s Day” yet.The show wasn’t outright terrible, but I’d just as soon not watch it again. But at least it was a better choice than the PornHub episode that followed.
Honestly, Ed is such a dumbass but I find myself liking him more and more with each episode.My dad and I keep trying to find good sci fi shows we can watch together – I was going to recommend this to him but I don’t know that he’d react very well to an episode about an alien pee ritual.
2 years later finally getting around to this season. Glad I did.