The Orville - Season 3 (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Finally got around to the season (series?) finale. Pleasant, amusing (Scott Grimes walked away with the episode I thought with his humor, his outrage at losing his best man chance, his crooning), but still too long for my taste. I have not been a fan of these extended episodes, but seeing as they may be the last we'll ever have, I guess it did give Seth and company the chance to say and do everything they had ever wanted for the series.

 

[NeilO]

Well, keep in mind that the memorial scenes are for us (the audience) as much as (if not more than) the other characters. Whether there are services for all of the others that died, or not, doesn't really mean anything to us, because we don't know those characters. The "named" characters are ones that we know, so the scene is for us.

For one of the characters in question, my wife was affected a surprising amount. She thought the character was an asshat for most of the season -- so did I -- but she claimed to really like them tonight. To be frank, I thought that person had a character arc over the course of the season that came to a proper conclusion in this one.

One more episode left...

I've been slowly watching since it came onto Disney+. I just watched episode 9. I was surprised by the sacrifice, but it worked to complete the character arc. There was one pilot of the smaller ships who after he said something, I thought "red shirt" and then a few moments later he was killed off. I would have liked at least a group mention in the memorial scene of all the others who died in the episode. They could have left us with a recitation of the names of the fallen or something.

Overall, I have enjoyed the season so far. I have been surprised at the long length of some of the episodes. They did pump a lot of money into the season.

 

[NeilO]

Ah...that could make sense, although two demerits for Seth for screwing with the time line if so. I did not discern that those scenes were playing out at a different point in time than the rest of the episode.

If I want that stuff, I will watch Westworld (and I do!).

I was confused a bit at first when watching "From Unknown Graves". In the beginning of the episode I thought we were seeing the Kaylon infiltrating another planet. I thought later in the episode that we discovered that the origin story was actually something that the emotional Kaylon was telling Charly.

 

[NeilO]

And watched the season finale tonight. I think I could have done without the Mochlan ritual at the beginning. Like many of the comments previous, I was glad that it really was just about the characters. We got the the big action with sacrifice the episode before which sometimes would have been the season finale. It was nice to see the resolution of many threads come together here.

I was surprised that we got the appearance at the end from Alara. That was a nice touch.

I saw Penny Johnson Jerald at a convention before the season aired on Hulu, but after it had been all been made. She was quite proud of what they put together for the season and how well they were treated.

 

[NeilO]

I've been seeing this FB post today. I've reproduced the text in the quote below.

The Orville” Is Done. It looks like the ship has been decommissioned.
Actress Adrianne Palicki, who plays Commander Kelly Grayson on the series, recently appeared on Michael Rosenbaum’s "Inside of You" podcast and when he mentioned she’s currently doing a role in “The Orville” to which she responded: “Ahh no, no longer doing that.” Then asked if the show was actually cancelled she said:
“I don’t know, truly, the answer to that. I think there’s the talk that it could possibly be something that certain people want to do but it’s a really difficult show to shoot, man.”
Palicki explained that “The Orville” shot a total of just 33 episodes over six years, which worked out to five-and-a-half episodes a year not a steady income for working actors:
“It became an actual, real issue because there would be so much time in between seasons because Seth wanted to write everything himself so it would just take so much time. At one point, we were like, ‘We have to fight the studio to give us a holding fee or something.'”
She adds that some cast members like J. Lee, who plays LaMarr, reportedly had to get by on “saltines and Gatorade” @ one point because “we just couldn’t afford anything it was horrible.”
She adds that she loved the actual experience when they were filming though:
“I did love so many things about it, I think it was the process that was hard. The process was difficult, I loved the people that I worked with, and I love the crew they’re my family. But it was taxing. For what you got out of it, it was a lot of work for little gain.”

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The last episode seemed pretty much like a finale already if I’m remembering it right.

 

[NeilO]

The last episode seemed pretty much like a finale already if I’m remembering it right.

It was a great season finale and I think it they meant for it to be a good series finale if it came to that.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Her comments add a new perspective to something we’ve talked about here: Seth MacFarlane’s desire to retain complete control of the show has ultimately been the biggest factor in sinking the show. (And I say this as someone who is generally a fan of his work.)

The first season was on track to be a full network season of 22 episodes, and Fox was set to green light the “back 9” after the initial 13 episodes were produced, but MacFarlane wasn’t prepared to deliver those additional episodes.

That led to a delay of more than a year before the second season, which severely depressed ratings. A network show not having a full network season’s worth of episodes also depressed ratings and made it difficult for Fox to build any kind of momentum around it.

The delay of several years between seasons 2 and 3, along with the even further shortened episode count and extended length of those season 3 episodes put the show in a position of trying to be something it wasn’t built to be, which again, further depressed viewership numbers.

From a cast and crew point of view, they all signed on with the idea that they were getting a regular network job, which would have entailed 22 episodes of steady work a year, and the reasonable chance of regular work through likely renewals on a consistent basis. Instead, the huge delays led to things, as Palicki said in the interview, like fellow cast member J. Lee subsisting on crackers and Gatorade during the extended hiatuses because they were under contract to a show that wasn’t actively being produced (no paycheck) or aired regularly (no residuals).

It’s the unfortunate result of taking what was very clearly a network style show and trying to produce it as if it were a prestige limited series. It wasn’t good for the show, it wasn’t good for the fans, and it wasn’t good for the people who worked below MacFarlane.

I genuinely believe that this show’s fate would have been different had MacFarlane allowed someone else to be the showrunner, and concentrated solely on acting in it and maybe contributing one script or one episode of direction per season. He works on too many different projects to have been in a position to give this show the attention it needed to succeed commercially.

 

[TJPC]

How about releasing each season only on DVD, and never releasing season 3 on anything?

 

[BobO'Link]

How about releasing each season only on DVD, and never releasing season 3 on anything?

S3 got a digital release - at least on Amazon. I sucked it up and "purchased" a copy (used "free" digital credits) just to be able to watch it on occasion. BUT - I'd much rather have it on physical and would absolutely double-dip should a BR of the series be released.

 

[Malcolm R]

Seth Macfarlane mentions The Orville in an interview about the Peacock series, Ted, and says "the show is not officially ended".

Given all of the Ted series’ castmembers who have appeared on The Orville, is this a sign that we haven’t seen the last of Orville? Any chance of a fourth season?

We have not officially seen the last of Orville, no. I would be digging a hole, the bottom of which I can’t see yet, to answer that question. (Laughs.) But all I can say is that the show is not officially ended.

How Seth MacFarlane Pivoted ‘Ted’ to “Outrageously Expensive” Peacock Series

The creator and voice talent behind the films and new streaming show talks to The Hollywood Reporter about getting the freedom to tell raunchy jokes, while also giving updates on 'The Orville' and 'Naked Gun.'

www.hollywoodreporter.com