Galaxy Quest Was a Good Movie
This month marks the return of a Star Trek TV show and as a fan of the new films and a little fan of all of the other Star Trek shows and films I’m quite excited for it. This month, however, is also the debut of this TV show The Orville which is set up similar to the great film Galaxy Quest except with one huge difference, The Orville just isn’t funny.
The Orville follows Seth McFarlane as he cosplays as a captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise sorry wait let me start again. The Orville follows the story of Ed Mercer and the crew of the U.S.S. Orville who explores the galaxy through unexplained missions. The cast is as you see above and is filled with your typical bridge crew which contains humans and aliens. The crew also has Ed’s ex-wife Kelly which is where the show gets’s its internal feud and story from.
Unlike Galaxy Quest, a movie which knew that it was this great parody by making fun of itself and making you laugh at how ridiculous some Star Trek is and how ridiculous the fans are, The Orville tries to not imply its a parody when it clearly is. Everything about The Orville is so Star Trek that it stands out even to my girlfriend who I don’t believe has even seen any before. The show’s team consists of many people who worked on different versions of Star Trek and that’s probably why its able to catch a familiar feeling on the show.
The Orville just isn’t funny and at forty minutes an episode it makes it quite unbearable at times where you want the show to just move on with whatever its actually trying to do. There is something about most of McFarlane’s live action stuff that just doesn’t make the cut, Ted was excellent but Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West and now The Orville just don’t cut it. His Family Guy style small quick jokes don’t work in The Orville where small passing remarks, which are meant to be jokes, end up falling on their faces and standing out way too much. The only thing that would be worse is if the show had a live audience laugh track to it, although I don’t know if some jokes could get more cringe worthy.
The Orville succeeds in copying the style of Star Trek but it succeeds in everything even the fact that people know it’s not a comedy. There are rare moments where you might let out a chuckle but it doesn’t feel deserved. The Orville is so focused on its story in its first episode that it makes you wish the show was simply just a Star Trek style crew going on crazy missions and you’re along for the ride to laugh at their shenanigans, more like It’s Always Sunny but in space. I hope they rectify themselves but I’m afraid it’s probably too late for this crew, watch the new Star Trek series starting next week….it’ll probably be funnier.
Score: 1.5/5
We’ll be reviewing pretty much every new TV show being released this year so you don’t have to watch them all. Follow us on here or on Facebook or Twitter to be updated, thanks for reading.