The Orville Season Two - Thoughts?

[Ryujin]

Remember that the next episode goes back to whatever the normal timeslot is for your area, not Sunday. For me (Ontario, Canada) that's Thursday Jan. 3rd @ 8:00pm.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It was a good #1 episode. A trickle of new characters made a splash. The plotline interweaving had a nice, natural flow to it.

Not to shower it with too much praise, but I’d posit with a start like this, 2019’s season will be golden.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Richards]

And now we have two Bortis-centric episodes in a row. Odd.

Johnathan

 

[Orius]

Well, tonight's episode was fairly twisted. Moclans just keep getting weirder and weirder. Maybe it's just me, but there's something about Bortas and Klyden arguing in their deep monotone voices whenever they have marital problems that I find unintentionally hilarious. And I knew as soon as that pizza turned into goop there was a porn virus lurking about.

And when the episode wasn't wallowing in juvenile humor, there was that pretty good B-plot about the doomed people on the dying world. It's breathtaking how this show can hit so high and so low in the same episode.

Something that occured to me last episode is just how interesting alien designs on this show gets. Sure, Alara goes for the fairly standard rubber forehead, but there's a lot of creativity otherwise.

 

[Ryujin]

Well, tonight's episode was fairly twisted. Moclans just keep getting weirder and weirder. Maybe it's just me, but there's something about Bortas and Klyden arguing in their deep monotone voices whenever they have marital problems that I find unintentionally hilarious. And I knew as soon as that pizza turned into goop there was a porn virus lurking about.

And when the episode wasn't wallowing in juvenile humor, there was that pretty good B-plot about the doomed people on the dying world. It's breathtaking how this show can hit so high and so low in the same episode.

Something that occured to me last episode is just how interesting alien designs on this show gets. Sure, Alara goes for the fairly standard rubber forehead, but there's a lot of creativity otherwise.

I don't think that it's unintentional

 

[Umbran]

I heard this episode was actually filmed with season 1, to be the season 1 ender, but they held it back to kickoff season 2. If that's right, Alara's presence in this episode is not strong evidence. :-/

IMDB still thinks she's part of upcoming episodes well into the season. Not that IMDB is a system of record, though, so we shall see.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: alien designs

Yeah, it’s gratifying that they haven’t fallen completely into the humans with prosthetic makeup cul-de-sac. Some, obvious CGI. Others are people in suits- the porn supplier would have been at home in Star Wars or The Fifth Element. Maybe we’ll see some puppets along the way.

Regardless, it’s giving the show a better overall visual texture than is typical in American sci-fi...especially on TV shows.

 

[Aeson]

It still surprises me my mom watches the show. I thought it would be too crude for her. I could only guess what my dad would have thought of it. I think Primal Urges would have been the final straw for him if he made it this far. I enjoyed the episode. I watched it while my mom was in another room. She wanted to know what had me laughing so much. Yes, Bortus and Klayden's marriage woes tickles me. Here are these hulking men with deep voices bickering. Chad Coleman has shown some range The Walking Dead, The Expanse, The Orville.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Like many of the better sci-fi stories, The Orville touches on societal issues with just enough remove to do so safely. Bortus & Klayten are analogous to gay marriages, but because they’re aliens, it doesn’t generate the backlash it could with a TV show set in Oklahoma City 2019. See also porn addiction, female genital mutilation/gender reassignment surgery, etc.

IMHO, they do it well, without stereotypes. They’re just a married couple in love...with real issues.