What I Like About the Orville

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE ORVILLE
a gushing about the series

The Orville has been a huge hit for many, with a few dedicated Trekkies folding their arms at the crude humor and it being (apparently) better than the latest of Star Trek, other than Lower Decks but also has its haters just the same.

Seth Macflaren has been notable: you either love him for his charisma or you hate him for willingly using sex jokes and toilet humor, despite those same haters loving Rick and Morty or South Park. He wanted to reboot Star Trek back to its glory days of the 90s as a episodic, “lights on” and “optiomistic sci fi” but was rejected on his pitch. Seth MacFarlen went for making a homage of Star Trek instead.

The premise is simple: a Star Trek homage with a sitcom lean to it. The lights are on, the colors pop, and the conflict is more personal than supernatural. However, the show is heavily hybrid between the two genres: adventure and comedy-drama.

With there being so much to discuss on an episode-by-episode basis yet so little on a broad-basis, I will focus on the first episode of the series, “Old Wounds”. 

“Old Wounds” gets straight to the point: Ed Mercer walks in on Kelly Grayson in the middle of an affair. Ed had shown no tolerance to it by walking off and insisting there was nothing to talk about despite Kelly’s plea to discuss it. It proceeds to move slow for the first half then picks up for the action, albeit with easy enemies but wondrous non of the less.

If I have this correctly, Kelly was making common excuses for being caught cheating, The fact Ed has been working for potentially days without seeing her and him refusing to hear her side of things was reason for the relationship to deteriorate but was no reason to outright see other people without talking to her husband about it first.

This affair, however, starts an even greater arc when Kelly not only pleads for Ed to get promoted but also requests to become Ed’s XO (Executive Officier). Kelly and Ed would have to not only work together but to also confront their feelings about each other, including Ed having to finally hear Kelly out on why she does what she does.

The series is strong in this regard as the Kelly and Ed relationship gets to have a proper focus on the first episode but then proceeds as an arc that is better developed individually but in the same space that other episodes get to have their own kicks. There are a number of arcs, namely Isaac & Clair, Ed & Kelly, and “The Moclan Arc”. But the series maintains a strictly episodic format that gets to end on a satisfying note every week with the arcs acting as a in-and-out that are concluded as chapters, not as a continuous stream of content that you gloss over with glassed-eyes.

The pilot had a sense of scenery and wonder when introducing Earth in 23XX, the introduction to the Orville (the ship), and how significant the use of music is to immerse a scene. Its setting is that of a utopian future, a rarity in today’s sci-fi with Star Trek effectively assimilated into a dystopian future, that has job security, housing, subsistence  replicated by machines, and its military focused on exploration and protection rather than taking and conquest.

You can see it in how Ed Mercer is passionate about seeing the stars and getting on the Captain’s chair. Wanting to explore outerspace as a child is such a simple, normal way of showing the wonder and fullfillment the series intends to offer.

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I have so much to cover but so little energy and time to do so. As this is a new hobby and part of the gig, I do not know if I will do a second part that covers the rest of my notes, but I will certainly make the blogs flow a little faster and simpler for here on out.

All My Best
~ Velvet