The Orville: New Horizons (Hulu, 2022)

Discussions about Movies & TV shows not "Super" related.
Post Reply
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Yes yes yes! Hulu picked up Seth MacFarlane's The Orville. Ed and Kelly are back, and I can't wait for the banter.
Watching Adrianne Palicki in a Planetary Union uniform is always a treat.
adrianne in uniform.jpg
adrianne in uniform.jpg (68.08 KiB) Viewed 3321 times
Newest addition to the cast is super-hot starlet Anne Winters, as Ensign Charly Burke. My god, is she beautiful. Please don't fuck that up, Seth. Play up her beauty. Make constant jokes about it, yet make her a substantial worthwhile addition who contributes big time to the crew (think Cerie from 30 Rock).
Anne Winters.jpg
Anne Winters.jpg (216.3 KiB) Viewed 3321 times
Plenty of time to hype this since the debut is not until June 2. Finally, the Ja'loja you've been waiting for!

helstar
Elder Member
Elder Member
Posts: 377
Joined: 15 years ago

Good news, 2 June for The Orville, 3 June for The Boys :)
Bert

Yikes, there goes three quarters of the season's special effects budget for one dream sequence!
User avatar
theScribbler
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 1039
Joined: 13 years ago



Note: it'll be on Disney+ in Canada, but still on Hulu in USA.
the Scribbler

:christmastree:
If U C Xmas tree on TV show
it's Xmas Activism! :christmas:

:lynda1:
If U C attractive brunette in a movie

it's Dark Haired Women Activism!

Be very careful!
Don't B indoctrinated!
Cover your eyes! & ears!
:tv:
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Wow. Right out of the gate, The Orville destroys Strange New Worlds with some incredibly poignant writing (Episode 1).
I mean, SNW is OK, but Orville is on a whole different level.
It's basically an anti-bullying episode in space, but it examines the issue from every possible angle.
As a viewer, you may not agree with the conclusion, but you come away with the perception that everything has been considered.
Very smart.

And not only that, but we have a lot more beauty on this crew.
Right out of the gate, Anne Winters (the aforementioned Ensign Charly Burke) plays a major part in this episode.
She is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and should be a star in that Wesley-style 'girl genius' role. Runs circles around Uhura in the same position.
I also really hope we see a lot more of Alexis Knapp as Irillia, the latest alien hottie fling for playa Lt. Lamarr. Would be a shame to waste that makeup on that body by only using it once.

The CGI visuals are amazing in general. Highly recommended.

Also, looking forward to meeting J. Lee (Lamarr) and Jessica Szohr (Talla) at Terrificon and congratulating them on how great this show is. If it tells meaningful stories like this on a constant basis, without veering in any one particular political direction, it's going to be a huge winner.
Dogfish
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 934
Joined: 10 years ago

Aaaaaaand it's gone.

Hulu not picking it up for another season, Macfarlane and members of the cast already lining up their next gigs.
helstar
Elder Member
Elder Member
Posts: 377
Joined: 15 years ago

Damn... bummer :/
Bronson881
Veteran Member
Veteran Member
Posts: 321
Joined: 13 years ago

I agree that is a bummer. I liked this show especially when I heard that Anne Winters was going to be co starring in it. I remember her in the TV show "Tyrant".
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

In The Orville, the Kaylon are cold and unfeeling like The Borg, but the Krill are an interesting hybrid of Klingons, Romulans and Jem Hadar (whom they look very much like) who thrive on imperialism, racial supremacy and religious fanaticism, and come off as being extremely "human" about it. So it's hard to see MacFarlane's tale in Episode 4 about a Krill populist demagogue as being anything but a direct "dog whistle" regarding the previous administration. I hope it isn't "objectionable" to say that, as it seems really obvious.

Nonetheless, what made it a powerful episode was a certain amazing revelation with regards to Captain Mercer which you'll just have to watch the episode to discover - revealing it here would spoil the narrative. I don't know if it's a direct reference to the "Star Child" (Prete-Nama!) from V but it comes pretty close.
User avatar
Mr. X
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 4584
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:

Its much cheaper to make rom-coms and low budget gun action shows. These companies will just become the Hallmark channel at some point, cranking out the same plot with a low budget.
ThatOnePervert
Staff Sargeant
Staff Sargeant
Posts: 168
Joined: 2 years ago

I've been trying to get into The Orville, It's been rough because a lot of the comedy is mediocre to me. The most it interest me is when it does the Star Trek thing of meeting a new species or dealing with an ethical dilemma in space, but all the human characters act like idiots half the time so it brings me out of it. It's like what if the Enterprise was manned by people who never actually learned the Prime Directive and none of them got higher than a C- in Social Studies.
Lurkndog
Elder Member
Elder Member
Posts: 373
Joined: 13 years ago

I haven't watched the show on Hulu, and probably won't. At this point, my streaming money is spoken for.

When they finally come out with the complete blu-ray boxed set of The Orville, though, I will definitely pick it up.
Dogfish
Legendary Member
Legendary Member
Posts: 934
Joined: 10 years ago

Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
Its much cheaper to make rom-coms and low budget gun action shows. These companies will just become the Hallmark channel at some point, cranking out the same plot with a low budget.
It doesn't feel like it's prohibitively expensive to do space opera type scifi these days, and the proliferation of special effects technology will only make it easier. Amazon and Apple spending big on them of course. Disney and Paramount churning them out with that whole weird special effects tunnel thingy they've got. Even something like Cowboy Bebop on Netflix looked okay, it was everything else they got wrong that killed that.

Feels like the problem The Orville had is Seth McFarlane. The guy is always in demand for movies and TV, he's not going to come cheap, he's not going to stick around when a new passion project presents itself, and you kind of need him because he's the heart of the thing.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Episode 5 goes back to the Moclan well for more weighty storytelling. Your eyes will probably be moist at the end (at least two of the characters in the episode shed tears).

Oh, and there's this: an entire scene with Palicki in spandex.
adrienne palicki in spandex.jpg
adrienne palicki in spandex.jpg (60.99 KiB) Viewed 2909 times
No scenes yet with Anne Winters in such outfits, but we could always hope.

But on a larger scale: does it seem to anyone like The Orville and Strange New Worlds are conducting a fierce topical phaser battle in a corridor somewhere?

So far we've gotten 9 episodes of SNW and 5 episodes of The Orville, and within that short span:

- Both series contain a horror-based "Alien" style episode where an away team is hunted by ruthless reptilian creatures who roar in the distance, clamber along walls, and reproduce by spitting a substance at their victims.

- Both series contain an episode where crew members are put through a series of holographic simulations as the result of a 'test' by mysterious outside alien beings.

- Both series contain an episode where a gender-altered character plays a lead role as a guest star, and in both cases that character's status is used as a metaphor for another situation.

This can't just be a coincidence? Either that, or the writers of both shows are just running out of original ideas.
Last edited by shevek 1 year ago, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Mr. X
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 4584
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:

shevek wrote:
1 year ago
This can't just be a coincidence? Either that, or the writers of both shows are just running out of original ideas.
There's a website somewhere that generates 1 of 7 basic random plots.

I posted an article a while ago about how writers are locked into a narrow range of scripts and ideas due to pressures.
Danorian
Sargeant 1st Class
Sargeant 1st Class
Posts: 231
Joined: 15 years ago

The Orville has been doing a lot of follow ups on stuff they did their first two seasons, so I think they're innocent. As for SNW... It is better than Disco and Picard, at least.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Wow, the writing on this show is insanely good, a fair amount of the time.
Episode 7 titled "From Unknown Graves" is a reference to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about slavery.
That's because we get to see the cruel origins of the Kaylon race.

The messages in this episode are profound and heart-wrenching (I cried, again), and the themes are universal
and enlightening - not politically biased in any way. It's about treating people as individuals, with empathy and nuance.

Regrets:

1) John Lamarr is portrayed in this episode as "Man of Kleenex". (Look up the Larry Niven story if you don't know it).
But if he is an engineer, why couldn't he just think his way out of his problem? A suit of armor or some sort of exoskeleton maybe?

2) I would have loved to see Mercer get it on with one of the Janisi commanders. Instead of weirdly using "forgiveness of martial infidelity" as a weird backdoor into Janisi culture, why not just pimp out the dudes and show the Janisi how nice it would be to have a smart man around the house who knows how to command starships *and* fix things?

Otherwise than that, the writers hit a home run. And the theme of Episode 7 doesn't seem like something Star Trek Strange New Worlds is capable of - it's too full of artifice to keep up. Not only that, but the prosthetics *and* the visual effects are better on The Orville, too.
helstar
Elder Member
Elder Member
Posts: 377
Joined: 15 years ago

I thought this last episode was the weakest of the season. Too much crammed into it too, and some of the things made absolutely no sense... for example, the Janisi knew everything about the Moclans but have no idea that humans (and the Union in general) have a sex equality as a standard ?

Of course the Kaylon robots-slavery arc was the best - eventhough nobody has a clue on how all of a sudden they got the head weapons.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

helstar wrote:
1 year ago
the Janisi knew everything about the Moclans but have no idea that humans (and the Union in general) have a sex equality as a standard ?
You could say the same thing about John and Talla - it can't be the first time anyone has tried such a coupling, right? It should have been as simple as Googling "how to do human/Xelayan sex".

Maybe, in both cases, the parties involved just forgot to check the Internet. :)
User avatar
Mr. X
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 4584
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:


Orville coming to Disney Plus. New home?
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Sounds to me like there's gonna be more Orville. Seems unlikely that Disney would just plop it on their streaming service and then not expect to make more of it.

What a great season this has been so far. Episode 8 has everything you want in a sci-fi show:
blaster fights, space battles, politics and intrigue.

Also Adrianne Palicki in another tight uniform (the away team suit) which is quite reminiscent of her costume from Agents of Shield.

Did I mention there's lots of corridors?

And The Orville clearly steps out of the shadow of ST:TNG when the Planetary Union does something ground-breaking that the Federation never did. No spoilers - you'll have to watch the episode to find out.

Great news, but in the meantime, Orville fans, here's a great opportunity to meet the cast at Terrificon in Connecticut this weekend!
(Mohegan Sun Casino - Uncasville CT)

Of course, the big attraction is Adrianne Palicki (who was also two superheroines: Mockingbird/Bobbi Morse and Wonder Woman!) as Kelly Grayson.
But there is also Peter Macon (Bortus), Jessica Szohr (Talla) and J. Lee (John Lamarr).

What a fantastic lineup! Don't miss it if you're in New England. Here's more info:

https://www.terrificon.com/movie--tv--- ... ests-.html
ivandobsky
Veteran Member
Veteran Member
Posts: 316
Joined: 10 years ago

FWIW I imagine the cost for a Trek-like show can be in the region of a soap opera or sitcom, and that many of the design choices were for that reason. The bridge set gets used a lot, the transporter means you don't need to have a spaceship prop when you film out in the desert or whatever, the phasers mean you don't need bullet holes or gory makeup. Of course, you can throw however much money you want and do fancy things, but if people like the universe, and the writing and acting are on point, it doesn't really matter.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

ivandobsky wrote:
1 year ago
FWIW I imagine the cost for a Trek-like show can be in the region of a soap opera or sitcom, and that many of the design choices were for that reason. The bridge set gets used a lot, the transporter means you don't need to have a spaceship prop when you film out in the desert or whatever, the phasers mean you don't need bullet holes or gory makeup. Of course, you can throw however much money you want and do fancy things, but if people like the universe, and the writing and acting are on point, it doesn't really matter.
They actually land the shuttle on alien planets quite a bit, though. So, they do either use a spaceship prop or maybe it's just CGI.

If you didn't check my 2022 Comicon thread, here's a photo of the Orville panel. It turned out to be just Palicki and Macon, but it was still incredible.
There weren't that many people lined up to ask questions - maybe 70-80 were in the audience, total, which is a shame because there were thousands in the convention hall at the time - so I got to ask one question of each actor.

Palicki was so beautiful - I had to finally watch GI Joe Retaliation today just to see her as Lady Jaye (never watched it before), and believe me, you will not be disappointed. She is fantastic as Kelly Grayson, but seeing how great she looked this season in that spandex exercise outfit, I do think it's a missed opportunity that she isn't playing a lead in a superheroine show. She could have definitely done She-Hulk, for example...or maybe played Moonstone in Thunderbolts, since the Mockingbird series didn't work out.

Come on, Seth, give us another season!
IMG_4846.JPG
IMG_4846.JPG (7.93 MiB) Viewed 2621 times
User avatar
Mr. X
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 4584
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:

I do think it's a missed opportunity that she isn't playing a lead in a superheroine show.
She did. The Wonder Woman show that lasted one episode.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
I do think it's a missed opportunity that she isn't playing a lead in a superheroine show.
She did. The Wonder Woman show that lasted one episode.
I meant currently or recently, if that wasn't clear. That WW thing was just a pilot, and I'm not sure if it's even supposed to be publicly on the Net (there are only snippets of it on Youtube). Plus, the WW pilot was *one year* before even GI Joe Retaliation. Following that, the lovely Elodie Yung from that same movie got to be Elektra in **both** the Daredevil and Defenders shows, and Palicki of course was Bobbi Morse in Agents of SHIELD.

Here's what Palicki recently had to say about her opportunity to be WW:

User avatar
Mr. X
Millenium Member
Millenium Member
Posts: 4584
Joined: 11 years ago
Contact:

I think the writers screwed over that WW show. WW isn't someone using sex to manipulate some security guard for example. Angry all the time is not good character development.

I've posted this before but my view is the show should have been done similar to Forever Knight. Basically she's 2000 years old so the episode would have a plot and she would flash back to an earlier life incident that was similar kind of how the second movie had the lesson of Diana cheating for the overall moral lesson of the movie.
User avatar
shevek
Producer
Producer
Posts: 3728
Joined: 11 years ago
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact:

Mr. X wrote:
1 year ago
I think the writers screwed over that WW show. WW isn't someone using sex to manipulate some security guard for example. Angry all the time is not good character development.

I've posted this before but my view is the show should have been done similar to Forever Knight. Basically she's 2000 years old so the episode would have a plot and she would flash back to an earlier life incident that was similar kind of how the second movie had the lesson of Diana cheating for the overall moral lesson of the movie.
The whole concept of that 2011 effort was trash, though. They never should have let David E Kelley near a superhero show, because he never did one before, and it's obvious he would make it into some kind of workplace dramedy. Like Palicki says, she basically got paid to wear a costume, and there's little else to recommend about it.

However, Palicki could have been brought back at any time to do WW guest spots or cameos in CW's Arrowverse shows or HBO's adult DC programs.
There are two Supermen at once (Cavill & Hoechlin); there are three Batmen (Affleck, Pattinson, Iain Glen); there are two Flashes (Gustin & Miller).
No reason there couldn't have been two Wonder Women at once (Palicki & Gadot). In fact, I'm surprised they didn't include her in the Crisis crossover.

And yes, I know we're getting rather off topic from the thread.....
User avatar
DrDominator9
Emissary
Emissary
Posts: 2451
Joined: 13 years ago
Location: On the Border of the Neutral Zone

Finally watched the first 7 episodes of S3 of The Orville on Hulu and man am I pleased with how well written this third season has been. They also stepped up their CGI budget from when it was on Fox. Impressive all the way around. If they end up going over to Disney, that may be what finally pulls me in to the Mouse Overlord. Been resisting it for years so far.

The Orville writers have found a fine balance with only occasionally tossing some humor, but honestly that balance was fixed halfway through Season 1 imho. Love the character of Charlie Burke. Also the scripts are thought-proviking and entertaining as well. An excellent show to binge!
Follow this link to descriptions of my stories and easy links to them:

viewtopic.php?f=70&t=32025
Post Reply