The Orville - Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

With The Orville presumably appearing on the equivalent of network television around the world (if it's being syndicated internationally, which I'm not sure about), and Discovery appearing on different streaming services, it doesn't seem like this should be a major concern.

How many past precedents were there for Fox to renew a show, where international syndication played a dominant factor?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have absolutely no idea -- but their programming in general seems to skew domestic, so I'm not sure how much that's part of their business model in the first place.

 

[Matt Hough]

ST: Discovery may very well have a different marketing model than The Orville.

As long as ST: Discovery is bringing in enough paying subscribers to CBS' own streaming service, its renewal/cancelation fate might very well not be highly dependent on ratings.

Unless The Orville has a secondary source of revenue (such as another paying streaming service), then most likely its renewal/cancelation fate will be very much determined by ratings.

I don't know about that. Fox may want to keep a good relationship up with Seth MacFarlane and allow it to at least run out the season even if the ratings turn out to be marginal. They kept Ryan Murphy's VERY low-rated Scream Queens around for two seasons just to keep their close business relationship with him viable.

 

[Bryan^H]

And am I the only one that thought the music score was simply fantastic?

Apologies, if it was discussed earlier.

 

[SamT]

I don't remember the music yet but later I found out it's by Joel McNeely. He made the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire score which I consider the best non John Williams Star Wars score ever created. It even surpasses some of John Williams' Star Wars score.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

There were a number of cues, particularly when the ship was first revealed, that reminded me of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. They weren't soundalikes, but they had the same sort of majestic feeling.

 

[Blimpoy06]

I don't remember the music yet but later I found out it's by Joel McNeely.

The theme and pilot score were composed by Bruce Broughton. John Debney and Joel McNeely will compose the majority of the rest of the season's scores.

 

[Malcolm R]

Just a note that there will likely be a significant football overrun on FOX tonight, so The Orville will be on much later for those hoping their DVR will record it. There was a 62-minute weather delay in Denver for lightning, so that game is only mid-way through the 3rd quarter at 7:40PM.

 

[RobertR]

There were two different inventions here, and I thought they explained it all pretty well. After the Orville landed at the space station, walking through the station on their way to the lab, they explained the genetically modified seeds and noted they can grow anywhere, in anything, without light, water, etc.

I agree with Hanson. There's a difference between a seed that can grow "from anything", and a seed that can apparently generate enormous mass from nothing instantaneously. That was what we saw, and the description of the seed does not explain such "magic" ability.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I thought the second episode was better than the first. One of my worries with this is that it was going to be the Seth MacFarlane show, so it was nice to see a true ensemble episode the second one out. I liked the subplot with the young fourth-in-command security officer taking command during a time of crisis. It felt a lot closer to what the reality of all those early season TNG Wesley Crusher episodes would have actually been like: lots of failing before the success.

The human zoo is a crusty old scifi trope, but the payoff was excellent.

 

[Matt Hough]

I'll have to watch the episode On Demand. I didn't allow for football overrun and thus the DVR will have missed it. I'll be glad when the show moves to its regular Thursday home. No chance of football overrun on Fox Thursday nights.

 

[Bryan^H]

Another great episode. Seth MacFarlane is basically making Star Trek with jokes peppered in each episode(not too many to detract from the moral of the story though).
I hope the consistency, the blend of humor/drama continues, and I really hope this show stays on the rails. I'm enjoying it.

 

[Greg.K]

Laughed in a few spots, mostly the bit with his parents, but didn't enjoy this as much as the first one.

The inexperienced-Lieutenant-in-charge story was ok, but a bit overdone and hamfisted and as mentioned the alien zoo trope is kind of tired. The humor in this show is appreciated but mostly just covers up the fact that the show is a cheap looking TNG retread. And it's a bit jarring to keep flipping between the occasionally over-the-top-humor to the "grandeur of exploration" Trek-y stuff.

 

[Malcolm R]

Early ratings numbers have the show maintaining or slightly increasing from last week. It'll be interesting once the show moves time slots and is competing with NFL football rather than having it as a lead-in.

 

[BobO'Link]

I felt it was another rather ho-hum episode. I didn't care for "Strong girl" being in charge. Mostly because the associated "jokes" fell rather flat. I also didn't care for the sub-plot about the security officer hatching the egg. And they rip off Star Trek, again, with the "Multi-species Zoo" theme/sub-plot. The payoff was/is too pop-culture to be very funny or have any kind of lasting humor. I still do not care for the Captain and XO being a divorced couple. All the bickering is distracting and doesn't fit. So far the best characters are the navigator guys and the mechanical guy (he's far better than Data ever hoped to be) but they don't give them enough to do... yet. It feels like it wants to be Galaxy Quest in the Star Trek universe and doesn't pull off either very well. I'll give it another couple of episodes but so far it's very lacking.

 

[JohnS]

I enjoyed the second episode a lot more than the pilot.
This episode had a nice balance of humor and drama.
I really Hope they make a nice and vast mythology to the show.
The cold opening was funny. I do enjoy the score, but i think the opening credit sequence needs work.

 

[Matt Hough]

I watched the second episode On Demand. I enjoyed it. Nothing spectacular, nothing terribly original, but I find the actors pleasant to spend time with, and the show looks good to my eyes.

 

[Carabimero]

I also watched it On Demand because the football game screwed up my timer. I have since extended the record time for the series by 2 hours to hopefully fix the limitations of DVRs to intrinsically recognize programs.

I liked the second episode. It was well-structured, acted, and scored. I wonder how the show is doing in the ratings. Well, I hope.

 

[Bryan^H]

It's doing great in the ratings. In the ballpark of 15 million viewers.

 

[JohnS]

I also relived that Seth doesn't have offensive humor or dick and fart jokes like Family Guy.