The Orville - Season 3 (1 Viewer)

[Wiseguy]

That is the subtitle they’ve given to the new season rather than calling it “season 3”.

Apparently it's also the title of the first new episode.

 

[Wiseguy]

I think it’s a real shame what has happened with this show. It started with a fresh premise but the people behind it never seemed to quite understand the undertaking they were embarking on. Whether it was the first season being cut short because they decided they didn’t feel like making the back nine, a short second season following a lengthy delay, and now a third season not only coming after an absurdly long delay but also (if comments from cast and crew are to be taken at face value) sporting a major tonal shift, it seems like MacFarlane and Co don’t quite understand their own creation or why the audience that tuned in was watching. (I felt the show “Heroes” suffered from a similar misunderstanding by its creative team.)

Don't understand. The first season was 13 episodes (one held over to second season) from Sep-Dec 2017 and the second season (another 13 episodes) from Dec 2018 to Apr 2019. Except for the long break between seasons, it seems fairly normal.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The first season was intended to be a 22 episode standard network season. The network was prepared to order a “back 9” to bring the initial order of 13 up to 22, but the creative team apparently declined the order if memory serves.

The second season then premiered after an absurdly long delay, and was for a truncated order less than a network 22 episode season.

And now we’re three years before the season, with the showrunners switching to an extra-length format while reducing the episode count further.

It’s my opinion that this show would have been best served as an episodic network show with 20ish episode seasons, standard length episodes and regular airdates. I don’t think it’s well served by the premium cable/streaming or prestige model.

 

[BobO'Link]

And now we’re three years before the season, with the showrunners switching to an extra-length format while reducing the episode count further.

Hmmm... sounds like another "premium cable" series that pretty much failed in its delivery on both accounts doing pretty much the same thing... and got lambasted over it...

 

[SamT]

What is an extra-length format? What that means?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Episodes of the new season are longer than the 42 minute length (without commercials) of the episodes from the first two seasons that aired on Fox. The premiere episode is listed as being 68 minutes.

 

[Francois Caron]

The flexible duration will definitely help in properly timing and filling out a full story. I find 42 minute episodes of any show to be a rush job most of the time.

On another subject, MacFarlane wasn't happy being with Fox. The heads insisted on "more jokes" which was deviating from what he was trying to accomplish. This season should show us what he was aiming for. I just hope he doesn't kill all the jokes. It does help "humanize" the crew. They don't behave as if they all have 2x4s up their spine as was the case in ST:TNG.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I’m open to the possibility and actually hoping that I’m totally wrong in all of my concerns and that it’s the best thing ever.

We’re rewatching the previous seasons and a little behind so we’re gonna delay our start of this new season until we can finish our refresher course. I’ll step out of this thread until we catch up but I really hope it’s awesome and you all have the best time watching!

 

[Malcolm R]

The heads insisted on "more jokes" which was deviating from what he was trying to accomplish.

That would be more like what I was expecting when the show started, and probably why I lost interest in the show. As you noted, if we want a serious space exploration show, we have the ST shows.

 

[Francois Caron]

Regrettably, Disney+ in Canada has seen fit to offer us only the edited 50 minute version of the first episode instead of the full 1 hour and 10 minute version available on Hulu in the USA.

I'll figure something out eventually. In the meantime, I've cancelled my subscription to Disney+. I'm not paying more money for edited content.

EDIT: D'OH!!!

I misread the timeline! It was showing 19:00/51:00 which I read as 19 minutes played out of 51 minutes. It actually meant 19 minutes played and 51 minutes REMAINING! The episode's length was correct all along!

I'll reactivate the Disney+ subscription later once I know for sure I won't be over-billed.

I'll finish watching the episode "Electric Sheep" later this evening. What I saw up to now was already impressive!

 

[Francois Caron]

I've watched the complete episode, and I can honestly say that I much preferred this week's episode of The Orville than I did this week's episode of Strange New Worlds.

Spoiler

As I've said in the other thread, this week's episode of SNW felt like a 60s sitcom version of Freaky Friday. I was even checking the timeline to see when it would end.

This week's episode of The Orville however was an entirely different story. The season premiere truly went into unexplored territory that logically should have been followed up before the end of the second season. But now that MacFarlane no longer has Fox's comedic shackles to hold him back, he was able to dive deep into the subject of Isaac's severed interaction with the crew leading to his attempted suicide.

Seriously, I was NOT expecting that at all! Best of all, this has dramatically raised the level of complexity of the character of Isaac almost to the level of Data from ST:TNG. You're now wondering exactly what's flowing inside his mind and if he will try to harm himself again.

The reaction by everyone to this situation seemed consistent for what you would expect from broken people, especially from Dr. Finn, Marcus and newcomer Charly Burke (great job by Anne Winters BTW).

While clocking at 1 hour and 10 minutes, this episode honestly didn't feel that long. I can't wait to see what happens next week!

One last thing: there was one curse word uttered during the episode, but only one, and it was definitely appropriate when taking into account the context under which it was used.

 

[jayembee]

What is New Horizons?

That is the subtitle they’ve given to the new season rather than calling it “season 3”.

Apparently it's also the title of the first new episode.

Actually, the title of the first new episode is "Electric Sheep" (a reference to Philip Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was the basis for Blade Runner).

My thoughts...

Spoiler

It was a very powerful plot-line that was underserved by thin script, and too much time spent on needless CGI-fests (did we really need to see the Pteradon's mock dogfight?). My wife and I both would've preferred to see more reaction scenes from various crewmembers -- whether regular (Ed and Kelly not in command mode, Bortus, Keylhi), recurring (Yaphit, Dann) or ones we've not seen before -- to Isaac's suicide. Were they glad? Upset? Did it change their opinion of Isaac for good or ill? Were they, like Claire, struggling with how they felt? In the funeral service, there were at least a couple of dozen random people there, so it would seem that there were some people who weren't completely pissed at him.

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to see The Orville back, but I was disappointed in this particular episode.

For those wondering, the humor quotient was all but rock bottom. Pretty much the only laugh was the bit ending with Gordon's "I love this job".

On edit:

Spoiler

I was surprised that they didn't have -- I'm sure I didn't just miss it -- a "suicide prevention" advisory card at the end of the episode. Even if it's just an android, and one who got better.

 

[Greg.K]

Kind of weird to get a Strange New Worlds episode with lots of humor, and an Orville season premiere that was devoid of any, on the same day.

 

[Francois Caron]

Kind of weird to get a Strange New Worlds episode with lots of humor, and an Orville season premiere that was devoid of any, on the same day.

There was still some humour in The Orville such as how the new Quantum Drive was tested for stability.

 

[Greg.K]

I suppose the subject matter for this episode didn't really lend itself to much humor, and it's good that they dealt with the obvious Isaac problem head on rather than just ignore it.

But I don't see why Isaac didn't just resign rather than the route he took.

 

[Francois Caron]

It wouldn't matter where he went after The Orville. In fact, it would have been much worse. He couldn't even go back to his own people. He had no way out.

 

[Wiseguy]

Actually, the title of the first new episode is "Electric Sheep" (a reference to Philip Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was the basis for Blade Runner).

They must have changed it. epguides.com had the title of the first episode. Now they have the whole season. Unless they just had the first title as a placeholder until the actual title was released but that would be unusual. They would usually have TBA or something

 

[Wiseguy]

Episodes of the new season are longer than the 42 minute length (without commercials) of the episodes from the first two seasons that aired on Fox. The premiere episode is listed as being 68 minutes.

So if it is ever broadcast on a broadcast network/station, the episodes will have to be edited or new material added? Can't producers ever learn from the Night Gallery/Twilight Zone (1985) mess?

 

[Clinton McClure]

While I thought S03E01 was ok, I didn’t love it or even really like it. The 68 minute runtime seemed more like 120 minutes and I actually split the episode over two nights. It just seemed to drag on forever. The writing was off from the previous two seasons and the jokes were basically nonexistent which, face it, is why I loved the first two seasons so much. I don’t think I even saw a single sight gag. We’ll see what episode 2 brings but more flat writing and CGI indulgence and I may be dropping The Orville from my watch list.

 

[jayembee]

They must have changed it. epguides.com had the title of the first episode. Now they have the whole season. Unless they just had the first title as a placeholder until the actual title was released but that would be unusual. They would usually have TBA or something

Epguides, like a lot of places, seems to harvest info from wherever. It may well be that the episode was originally titled "New Horizons" back when the show was going to continue to be called just The Orville. Then they decided to use that title for the show itself.