The Orville Season 2

[Toth]

Just finished episode 4. It truly has its groove back it seems. Yeah, Teleya is back and like her previous appearance, it has become an awesome episode! I just loved her smugness as she lampshaded how she had given Mercer a taste of his own medicine. Really, just like in her previous appearance, she proves to be one of the most grounded and believable characters despite being a member of fanatic xenophobe space crusaders. Too bad that their banter on the planet was a little short for my liking... they really should have dropped the stupid side story of Malloy's command training. Funnily enough, both story parts reminded me of TNG episodes again. The one where Geordie was stranded with a Romulan on a planet as well the one where Lieutenant Troi was doing the command training under Dr. Crusher's guidance. At least they rip off from the best. XD

Also the fact that the cartographer was named Tyler is just such a blatant take-that at Discovery!

[The Mother of The Others]

Yes!  They got Norm MacDonald on the show!  (Spoiler for that).

And they got Isaac lounging about in underwear on the couch.    

Together these things overcame the noticeable dearth of porn.

Well, the mustache that was prophesied finally arrived, so that sort of counts toward porn content.

[Jaxom 1974]

6 hours ago, Toth said:

 ... they really should have dropped the stupid side story of Malloy's command training. Funnily enough, both story parts reminded me of TNG episodes again. The one where Geordie was stranded with a Romulan on a planet as well the one where Lieutenant Troi was doing the command training under Dr. Crusher's guidance. At least they rip off from the best. XD

Really, almost every episode is aping TNG episodes, or other bits of Trek in general.  They're simply giving it a different spin and presenting it all in a way that doesn't try to be too serious (as TNG did). 

[Martini Sigil]

Isaac sitting on the couch in his underwear complaining about dinner being late was pretty funny....

"...but you don't eat!"

[Toth]

So yesterday I finished catching up on the episodes so far. Both 5 and 6 were pretty good. I must admit, I got a little teary when the wave of excitement went through the Orville crew about the first contact. It is just utterly overwhelming to see them go "Fuck yeah, exploration!", utterly loving their job. I actually really wanted them to go through all the motions successfully. Too bad things turned into a Sliders episode again. I also found it somewhat contrived how events coincided in the end, especially in regards to how the execution was called off.

The 6th episode is literally just the Voyager episode "Someone to Watch Over me". Not quite as funny as Seven disassembling a lobster, but still one of the funniest Orville episodes so far, with pretty much all jokes working as intended. I chuckled quite a lot about Isaacs antics and even Mercer and Grayson's banter about his horrific surprise cake. Great episode! The only thing that seemed a little off was how ridiculously nervous Dr. Finn was at the beginning (come on, she is adult enough to not act like a teenager) and how she herself missed to inform Isaac that human relationships don't end with the 'mating'. Given Isaac's general inclination to just go along with everything people tell him, I don't see how he wouldn't have stopped his attempt to 'end the experiment', so the trouble at the end was quite avoidable.

Then again, there is one thing that made me curious. Isaac was pretty ominous when he said that he would be recalled the moment his superiors decided that he had made enough observations of the Union society. That reeks after a future storyline...

[Toth]

So... I watched the most recent episode.

Spoiler

... as good as the last episode was, I'm starting to get more than a little concerned that all the Moclus episodes end with a gut-punch. Given the general idealism of the show, I'm hoping MacFarlane and his writers don't lose themselves in cynicism there. Just give us some minor victories, damn it!

Also... I'm really not sure I like the way they handled the departure of the teacher guy. Sure, they kinda foreshadowed his clinginess when he was sympathetic to Mercer, but he was also portrayed as genuine down-to-earth guy who doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Kelly however acted strangely as well at the beginning, dragging the thing out and then the whole framing of her and Mercer talking about it. I have a feeling that part was written by someone who doesn't like both characters.

 

[The Mother of The Others]

 

They build awesome spaceships considering all the social disruptions in mochlan society.

When they were searching for the guy I asked the TV, "has anyone checked inside Yaffet?"    

LaForge could have found a way to get that hetero fugitive to safety while also freeing Bortis' hubby, and by the end of the episode the mochlan dead guy would have had a date and LaForge would not.

 

 

[Toth]

3 hours ago, The Mother of The Others said:

They build awesome spaceships considering all the social disruptions in mochlan society.

But they do have absolutely atrocious aim! Must be crewed by Assholes, I'd wager.

[Macklunkey]

I've just realised that Klyden is Tyrese from The Walking Dead.

[Bronn Stone]

On 2/20/2019 at 12:45 PM, King Roberts beard said:

I've just realised that Klyden is Tyrese from The Walking Dead. 

And FAR more importantly, Cutty from The Wire AND Fred Johnson from The Expanse.

[Jace, Extat]

16 minutes ago, Bronn Stone said:

And FAR more importantly, Cutty from The Wire AND Fred Johnson from The Expanse.

And a homeless from Always Sunny in Philadelphia 

[Martini Sigil]

Ty is adorbs, but ...

Spoiler

I simply hate the "kid trope" thing where someone's brat goes running off, and mayhem ensues.... just yuck

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Penny Johnson look better now than she did on DS9? 

[Macklunkey]

8 hours ago, Bronn Stone said:

And FAR more importantly, Cutty from The Wire AND Fred Johnson from The Expanse.

I haven't watched either of those.

[Toth]

14 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Penny Johnson look better now than she did on DS9? 

I think it's the main character status. The Orville just gives her much to do than she ever got as Sisko's space trucker girlfriend.

Wow, the last episode actually needs spoiler tags. Kinda.

Spoiler

So... I knew that Isaac's mission being accomplished is going to be a plot point this season and it actually came as a good twist. I'm a little annoyed how ridiculously many "The Kaylon are evil!" flags they triggered though. Starting with them ripping off the first contact with the Borg, the ominous music while the Orville flew across their city, all the Kaylon having red eyes, the Orville casually doing scans of a plethora of weapon systems, Ty's convenient horror dungeon exploration... It would have been really silly, if the shoot-out at the end hadn't turn uncharacteristically bloody with a ridiculous body count (though it makes me wonder how the Orville's redshirts managed to even scratch the Kaylon soldiers, let alone destroy a surprising amount of them). Then again, it makes very little sense for the Kaylon to let a captured Orville lead the invasion fleet (or letting any of its crew members live, for that matter), given how they could easily steamroll them.

Also... now, all things considered, I have to snicker how the Kaylon look pretty much exactly like the Pralor from Voyager and now they even got more or less the same backstory. Also... I have to think of Stellaris now for some reason. A Fallen Empire has awakened...

 

[The Mother of The Others]

Intense.   

Their faces look better expanded to the sides like that.

let's pray norm mcdonald survives.

Spoiler

So this superior minded species is going to hit us with the tactic we saw in Mars Attacks!    Fascinating.

 

[Bronn Stone]

On 2/22/2019 at 1:00 AM, King Roberts beard said:

I haven't watched either of those.

(referring to The Wire and The Expanse)

Both are excellent.  The Wire is on many if not most lists of the top ten shows ever made.

[Gertrude]

oh hey, I just caught up with this show. Looks like I have good timing

Spoiler

 

So Isaac is going to be a secret good guy, right? Right?!?

 

I was giving this a pass til recently because I'm not a huge fan of McFarlane, but I was pleasantly surprised at how toned down it was. I was wary with the first episode, but it got better. I like it when it's just them being real people instead of trying to force a (usually juvenile) joke in. Gordon and John crack me up when they just make quick asides to each other on the bridge. 

[Martini Sigil]

The Best of Both Isaac's was a good watch... I always like a Yaphit-heavy episode

[Toth]

Mmh... it actually ended the same way many people expected it to go down. And that's not a bad thing at all.
 

Spoiler

 

This arc, both with the Kaylon as a new threat and the enemy mine situation with the Krill seems to go for a lasting change on the universe. Strange how MacFarlane manages to flesh it out one step at a time.

The only thing I'm a little disappointed with is that the Union Fleet only has three ship types in the entire battle. And the Krill only have their one battlecruiser and now their fighters. So the battle, as epic as it was, seemed a bit sterile. You really notice that these faction have little history behind them. It would have been nice to see the Union scrape together a few older or more modern vessels together, throwing everything into the battle they have. On the other hand I do remember reading recently that The Orville actually uses CGI only for the effects: The battle was done with actual models like old-school Trek! So that offsets my complains a lot because, truly, kudos to the effort!

I'm also slightly disappointed that they ran out of time for Isaac to explain his decision to go against his people. We are getting a few hints here and there (the Kaylon apparently included fictional portrayals of violence into their calculation of people's trustworthiness, he did not; the Kaylon Primary also disadvantaged the Union by adding the cruelty of their creators into it, with their claims of feeling pain and having a consciousness making them look a lot less logical than they should be - makes me wonder whether they even included the same failsave in Isaac's construction). Really, Isaacs betrayal was treated so haphazardly that it makes me wonder whether they even intend to explore it more. They sure have to if the Kaylon are supposed to become recurring villains.

 

 

[Bronn Stone]

Spoiler

Placing a machine on board the Orville known to be remote-controllable by an enemy is an astoundingly bad idea that would lead to certain disaster were it not for plot armor.

It is as if Pablo Escobar bought a bunch of Amazon Echos and installed them in his headquarters, trusting that the DEA wasn't reprogramming them to record everything he says and does.