The Orville Season Two - Thoughts?

[Aeson]

Character growth? Want 10 seasons of bumbling? I would like to see growth.

 

[CapnZapp]

Point is: I didn't see their bumbling as some temporary obstacle the writers always intended for them to overcome.

It felt as if the show was *conceived* that way, as a source of irreverent humor.

S1 Mercer wasn't a prototypical hero in his formative stage. He was a fully developed character full of immature insecurities, which was the draw of the show. I.e. "what if there was a ship NOT crewed by superhuman paragons like the Enterprise!"

Nothing suggested these were expected to go away any time soon, and certainly not vanish almost overnight from one season to the next.

So please, this is not about "growth". This is a desperate retooling of a show confusing the audience for some critics.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Mercer still exhibits a whole bunch more “fallibility” across the board than most of the ST captains across the franchise history. The man just did a “flyby” to check on his ex!

And the “bumbling”? What bumbling? Again, the pilot has been consistently described as one of the best in the fleet. Others had similar accolades to their credit or unique attributes, including one of the few Xelayans serving on a Union ship and the only Kaylon.

They weren’t “bunglers”, just written with their foibles on more prominent display. The verbal jousts, in-jokes and asides we see between several of the characters typically existed only within a single tight pair or trio of friends in a given Trek series- Kirk/Bones/Spock, Bashir/O’Brien, etc.- if at all.

Besides, we’ve gotten to focus on the supporting cast a lot this season: multiple Moclan storylines, a necropsy-holoromance, goo-guy done good, family-centric stories for 2 different families, a spy revealed and (seemingly) redeemed, and a cast change.

 

[Ryujin]

Mercer still exhibits a whole bunch more “fallibility” across the board than most of the ST captains across the franchise history. The man just did a “flyby” to check on his ex!

And the “bumbling”? What bumbling? Again, the pilot has been consistently described as one of the best in the fleet. Others had similar accolades to their credit or unique attributes, including one of the few Xelayans serving on a Union ship and the only Kaylon.

They weren’t “bunglers”, just written with their foibles on more prominent display. The verbal jousts, in-jokes and asides we see between several of the characters typically existed only within a single tight pair or trio of friends in a given Trek series- Kirk/Bones/Spock, Bashir/O’Brien, etc.- if at all.

Besides, we’ve gotten to focus on the supporting cast a lot this season: multiple Moclan storylines, a necropsy-holoromance, goo-guy done good, family-centric stories for 2 different families, a spy revealed and (seemingly) redeemed, and a cast change.

The cast change is really the only thing that occasionally jars me. The original actress brought a life to her character that her replacement lacks, IMHO. It feels like there's a hole in the cast.

 

[Jester David]

I'm still loving this show.
It's nice to have a show unafraid to do a big two-part event story that adds a dangerous new foes and shakes the accepted status quo. And also smaller shows focusing on the personal lives of the crew. Because when everything's a crisis, when the stakes are always turned up to 10, you suddenly need to go to 11 for people to care.

The past week's episode was great, in part because it really builds off the lore and continuity established by the show. You have the traditional Moclans and a dramatic issue with them that feels like a logical extension of what we've seen before. But extra tension is added by invoking the Kaylon threat and bringing up the Krill. It has three plotlines intersecting. There's a lot of payoffs and the drama comes from the mythology built-up over the last two seasons.
You believe that the Moclans would leave the Union, because we've repeatedly seen they hold tradition that highly. You also believe the Union feels the pressure and isn't comprising because it's an easy choice.

It’s great that the show can so effortless straddle the line between enjoyable comedy and high drama.

 

[CapnZapp]

The cast change is really the only thing that occasionally jars me. The original actress brought a life to her character that her replacement lacks, IMHO. It feels like there's a hole in the cast.

Not to mention she's boringly competent with no real weakness. (Attraction to Moclans doesn't count)

To be fair, there might be an ep centered on her that attempts to rectify this.

 

[Orius]

Tonight's episode wasn't too bad. I'm not one for character episodes like this myself, but I didn't feel it a wasted episode. Didn't see the ending coming though. And the club scene wasn't too bad, particularly the comic relief with Yaphit and the Moclans.

I'm satisfied with the show myself. I like the TNG homage, particularly one towards the stronger later seasons, but one that feels fresh, still has something to say, and hasn't run out of ideas. The characters? I think Seth's pulling off the captain role pretty well, he's really picked himself up from his divorce, and while he still has some insecurities, he gets the job done when he needs to. Gordon hasn't done anything really goofy this season, though the two episodes focused on him were serious this season. LaMarr hasn't had any goofy moments, but then he played stupid to stay popular, and he doesn't need to do that now. Talla's kind of flat yeah, but she's older and more confident than Alara was. Interesting, the most flaws we've seen this season was from Bortus of all people.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...and Klyden.

Lots going on in that episode. Shades of Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen” & Donald Fagen’s “Slinky Thing”, Ryker’s teleportation accident, complex dating navigation, and a humerous inversion of Klingon opera.

 

[Orius]

Yeah, but Klyden's not a crew member, so we don't expect to see him live up to the Trek standard. He also serves as a window into Moclan culture, especially when Bortus is willing to question it.

I had kind of a Riker vibe going on too since there were similarities at first, but then they went in a very different direction with it.

 

[cbwjm]

So was it a different timeline or the same one? Will next episode be about what happens if Ed and Kelly never get together?