"The Orville: New Horizons" Boldly Goes Where You-Know-What Has Gone Before

The Orville New Horizons takes place 400 years in the future Earth society has advanced both technologically and socially enough by that point that both world hunger and Earthbound war are basically nonexistent prompting humans to turn their explorative efforts towards the starsEarly in the series MacFarlane39s character Ed Mercer found his wife Kelly Adrianne Palicki having an affair They divorced he ended up captaining a ship for the Intergalactic Union the eponymously named quotOrvillequot herself and then Kelly now his exwife ended up being his first officer amp8230 and spacebased hilarity ensued I had my doubts about it at first too but as I ended up writing in my previous piece on the series it all worked outThe Orville used its first two seasons and the diverse nature of its fictional characters to tell conversationstarting stories that tackled a variety of topics including gender identity homosexuality cultural and religious tolerance religion in general and various politicallyadjacent topics all while still managing to be funny just not funny enough for all the seriousness to be sucked out So what39s the difference between The Orville and New Horizons I39ve got two words for ya Budget and balanceThe first noticeable change in New Horizons is how much better everything looks and that39s because of its increased budget Sure the VFX still aren39t what I39d call quotfeaturequalityquot but at least we39ve gotten past that season one look that looking back could best be described as quotvideo gameyquot and honestly I39ve seen video games do better In the face of this season39s explosive opening sequence and the generally cleaner look of a lot of the visuals the budget increase is pretty obvious However in some shots it39s also obvious where much of the new budget went like any shot that has both The Orville and its shuttlecraft in the same sequence Just by looking it39s apparent that more time and effort were spent on our titular craft that anything else in the shot That aside hair makeup wardrobe and sets have all hit peak mainstream TV levels of quality and that most likely is where they39ll all stayThis brings us to balance Again The Orville39s original claim to fame for me was its ability to balance being a serious scifi drama with being a somewhat goofy comedy The downtoEarth nature of the Orville39s crew members made it easy to access jokes made in the modernday vernacular even in the face of its superfuturistic setting As we all know being relatable is half the battle when comedy39s involved and this show is as relatable as a series about a space navy can beThe shift in this seasons39 balance however is either due to each episode39s storylines getting heavier or the jokes becoming fewer and further between In plain English this season is just amp8230 less funny When for example the entire first episode of the new season is about the processing of grief and guilt and feelings related to suicide yes suicide it becomes increasingly difficult not to mention how The Orville39s tone has changed since its flight on Fox After Isaac39s Mark Jackson betrayal of Intergalactic Union a move which cost the human race thousands of lives some people arenamp8217t ready to accept his continued presence on the Orville even though he eventually saves everybody Isaacamp8217s exlove interest Dr Claire Finn Penny Johnson Jerald and her two boys play a big part in that narrative as well which focuses heavily on mental health and the emotional trauma brought onto others by the commitment of such an impactful actMaybe this new shift in tone is a reflection of the showrunners39 collective mood about life in the real world at this moment On a macro level there was a deadly worldwide pandemic over the last couple of years one that I39m certain was at least partially at fault for us only getting three seasons in the last five On a more intimate level the cast and crew of The Orville lost their colleague and friend Norm Macdonald who played an alien blob named Yaphit in September of 2021 and I39m sure that didn39t help things much eitherAll of this is where my Star Trek comparison came from Obviously it doesn39t take a genius to see the similarities but that decided change in tone from semiserious to mostly serious has only brought what was originally a comedic homage of sorts into the realm of direct sidebyside comparison The style of spacecraft the uniforms the format of the show amp8211 that much was right in our faces It39s the show39s newfound commitment to seriousness that makes it feel like MacFarlane39s gone full RoddenberryAgain none of this is necessarily a bad thing it just changes what I thought we39d be given It probably would39ve been some sort of faux pas if there was an actual Star Trek series out there with toes for New Horizons to step on but lets face it The Orville is actually doing Star Trek better than Star Trek is right now and that39s with me taking both Discovery and Picard into considerationOf course Star Trek Strange New Worlds on Paramount has to be acknowledged here given the comparatively lighthearted nature of some of its storylines But letamp8217s be honest That show came out in May of this year and The Orville39s been doing its thing since 2017 Maybe Strange New Worlds is trying to feel a bit like The Orville because again MacFarlane39s show is probably the most Trekky nonStar Trek aroundClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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"The Orville: New Horizons" Boldly Goes Where You-Know-What Has Gone Before

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Ainsley Andrade

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"The Orville: New Horizons" Boldly Goes Where You-Know-What Has Gone Before

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