The Orville - Season 3 (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

Episode 7: From Unknown Graves.

This episode was an emotional roller coaster consisting of four separate stories with just a bit of overlapping. Surprisingly, it mostly worked with only the story involving John and Talla possibly being the weakest one because it was both funny and highly disturbing. The story involving the negotiations was okay and did give us some much needed humour.

The two overlapping Kaylon related stories were the crown jewels of this episode. It gave us a lot of perspective on what makes the Kaylon tick the way they do, making one wonder if some post-genocidal engineering was involved for them becoming such murderous monsters in the current time frame.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This was another really good episode. The first four were forgettable for me and over emphasized what I felt were the weakest parts of the show, but ever since then, these last three were all really well done.

I was a little disappointed that the John/Talla thing didn’t have a better resolution - I was kinda hoping that at the end he’d have to swallow his pride and let her carry him to sickbay, the doc would take one glance and figure out the backstory, and give her a temporary strength suppressing pill or holographic simulator solution or something.

 

[Greg.K]

The Kaylon origin story was very well done.

 

[Scott-S]

I know folks seem to feel there is less humor in this season, but

Spoiler

I actually did a spit take when john spit out his teeth.

Oh, and that scene with the kids torturing K1 is exactly why I never wanted kids. I know, that is not reality, but it is how I imagine kids act now that I am an old man. LOL

 

[Clinton McClure]

I think Episode 7 had more humor in it than the first six episodes this season combined. It still seemed to run 15-20 minutes too long but it was a great episode.

 

[Greg.K]

I know folks seem to feel there is less humor in this season, but

Fortunately the last few episodes have brought the humor back.

 

[Francois Caron]

Fortunately the last few episodes have brought the humor back.

Even more important, it brought the humanity back. Everyone on ST:TNG, STS9 and ST:VOY acted as if they had a 2X4 up their backs which is why my appreciation for those series were always a bit limited. Heck, Quark was probably popular because he behaved somewhat normally!

In this episode of The Orville, even though Bortus isn't human, just hearing him say

Spoiler

"They are awful"

actually felt good! And the comedy bits were definitely enjoyable, especially the early "accident" with the delegation!

There was just one major problem with this episode.

Spoiler

Why would any manufacturer incorporate weapons in their robot slaves? That was really dumb!

Next Thursday's episode is Moclan related.

 

[TJPC]

It said the robots got to the point where they were able to communicate with each other and developed “improvements” on their own.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Even more important, it brought the humanity back. Everyone on ST:TNG, STS9 and ST:VOY acted as if they had a 2X4 up their backs which is why my appreciation for those series were always a bit limited. Heck, Quark was probably popular because he behaved somewhat normally!

In this episode of The Orville, even though Bortus isn't human, just hearing him say

Spoiler

"They are awful"

actually felt good! And the comedy bits were definitely enjoyable, especially the early "accident" with the delegation!

There was just one major problem with this episode.

Spoiler

Why would any manufacturer incorporate weapons in their robot slaves? That was really dumb!

Next Thursday's episode is Moclan related.

Oh jeez, please don’t let it be another Klyden-focused episode. Those are as annoying as musical episodes or the times in Family Guy when Peter would hurt his knee and sit and make a painful noise for a good minute and a half just to make the viewer uncomfortable.

 

[Francois Caron]

Oh jeez, please don’t let it be another Klyden-focused episode.

Don't think so, he wasn't in the preview. However, there was someone quoting one of Dolly Parton's songs.

 

[Jason_V]

Something very very strange has happened...

I was watching "A Tale of Two Topas" a week or two ago. My fiancé was in the same room, half on his phone and half paying attention. Sci fi is not his thing and he's never seen The Orville before. He got sucked into the episode and really enjoyed it. I pointed out the episode before ("Gently Falling Rain") had a storyline about something in the news and he wanted to watch that episode, too.

He didn't make it through that episode in one night, but went back and finished it this weekend. And then we watched "Twice in a Lifetime." He bailed on the last five minutes or so, but got the rest of the story.

I wouldn't call him a fan of the show or anything, but he is willingly watching it. (He's seen one episode of The Mandalorian and maybe two episodes of Discovery. Made it through the first half hour of A New Hope and that was it.)

I'm still having a world of problems with the acting and some of the writing in the show, but at this point, it's not going to change, so I have to suck it up and be okay with what we get. Also appreciating the bigger ideas this season is looking at, no matter how they are resolved in the long run.

 

[Francois Caron]

I'm still having a world of problems with the acting and some of the writing in the show, but at this point, it's not going to change, so I have to suck it up and be okay with what we get.

I believe others have pointed this out before, but Seth MacFarlane isn't a very good live-action performer. Or at least in this show, he definitely seems a bit out of place. It's good that the stories are focused more on the crew than on the command.

It said the robots got to the point where they were able to communicate with each other and developed “improvements” on their own.

Good point. I thought the improvements would only be software related. I didn't think about the Kaylon secretly implementing hardware improvements. Then again, why did it seem by their reaction that the parents knew those were weapons that popped out of the head of their slave?

 

[Jason_V]

I believe others have pointed this out before, but Seth MacFarlane isn't a very good live-action performer. Or at least in this show, he definitely seems a bit out of place. It's good that the stories are focused more on the crew than on the command.

For me, it's everyone in the cast. I've never been able to figure out Penny Johnson-Jerald...I thought she was great on Deep Space Nine as Kassidy Yates. But she's always been wildly stiff for me on Orville. I know this show has always had good to great directors, so I don't think it's a direction problem. I don't know if I blame the acting choices/directive from TPTB or the writing.

I get the show is trying to channel early TNG and that acting was a little (okay, a lot) wooden. But that was also the 80's.

 

[Francois Caron]

I get the show is trying to channel early TNG and that acting was a little (okay, a lot) wooden. But that was also the 80's.

Don't remind me of my past fashion choices!

 

[Brian L]

I am really enjoying this season of The Orville.

A few general comments…I nominate J.Lee’s Lamar as the stiffest most wooden actor in the cast. And that’s saying something.

And, since the new seasons are airing at the same time, it looks like the Kaylons that are being sold as domestic servants are going to go all “Westworld” on the host families. Interested to see how that resolves.

Lastly, I had a LOL moment when the member of the negotiating party noticed that Mercer’s hands were soft and she wanted to “borrow him” for the night. Ed’s trying to get out of it, and Gordon yells “I’ll do it!”. In terms of humor, Gordon is probably my favorite character on the show, but as an actor, Mark Jackson as Isaac, in particular in human form, has really impressed me.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yeah, I had never thought much about J. Lee's work on the show, but for some reason this week's episode exposed his less than stellar acting quite noticeably.

Also, I can only hope that the doctor/Isaac running plot has reached an end. Like Klyden and Bordus (which also went beyond the breaking point for me), this is a "romance" which has ranked at the bottom of the interest barrel for me.

 

[Scott-S]

I like this show but I do think they need to stop with the Moclan stories.

Spoiler

We get it. Racism/Sexism/Homophobia bad. I wonder if now that they have been ejected from the counsel they might get attacked by the Kaylons and need to ask for help.

It is starting to feel like every species in this show is just an over-the-top extreme example of each of societies bad aspects. One species is overzealous religion, one (two?) is over the top sexists, one species is over the top xenophobia (kill all organic life forms). It would be nice to actually meet a species that is a little more nuanced.

 

[Jason_V]

We just caught up with "From Unknown Graves" last night. It seemed like a mish mash of different stories that really don't go together...almost small vignettes which make up a book of short stories. There was, of course, the story about how men and women relate to one another. And then our obligatory social commentary. And, what I can only assume they saw as comedy relief, the very injurious sexcapades.

This one just didn't work for me. First, the entire plot of lying to the matriarchical race...the minute these morons announced their plan, I said out loud "this isn't going to end well." And, of course, it doesn't go well until it does go well. Why did anyone think lying was a good way to start new relations? Why?

And then we have Isaac and Claire. I understand her attraction to the holographic image of him (Mark Jackson is very handsome), but come on Claire...you're going after a man who can not give you the things you want. You even go as far as to emotionally blackmail him with the "if you love me, you will change yourself for me." Their dance scene was amazing, however, so I will give them points for that. But it's time for this plot to move on. (Same thing for the Burke/Isaac story...I hope we're done with that one too.)

Which brings us to the sexcapades. Wasn't that a whole ton of laughs and fun, everyone? Wait, what? It wasn't? You don't say.

Bleh episode.

I'm hoping to get caught up completely either tonight or this weekend.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I was able to watch episode 8: Midnight Blue before bed yesterday.

It was a really good episode after you get through the first half-hour slog and the remarkably out of place Dolly Parton song .

 

[PaulGo]

The Orville" Ventures Into New Territory on Disney+
At today's San Diego Comic-Con panel, Seth MacFarlane announced that all three seasons of the Emmy-nominated, fan favorite sci-fi series "The Orville," will be available to stream on Disney+ on August 1 0