Ja'loja

I never reviewed this serial, even if watched complete first season. Was surprised seeing that there is season 2 (positively) . And this is actually one man show in big part. Set MacFarlane is writer, director and main actor. Sci-fi's Woody Allen ? :-)

Well, there are some similarities, and yes, Woody Allen made some sci-fi in his early years. But that was just something interesting crossed my mind.

It started with bar scene, ended in same fashion. What was from sci-fi in this first episode of season 2 ? Basically nothing. Could say that 'pee' story was it, but that was rather bad humor by me. And weakest part of episode.

As I see, Set just growing up, and some real life situations are what he is interested for. And that's good for me. Even if some call this soap opera.

And there is cute new female character, which may have more screen time in next episodes ? Yes, all that may be seen as manipulation with audience. But that's what movies are.

I hope this will be at least on level of first season. Then you have my attention :-)

Remember "Captain Picard Day" from TNG? This is where they got the balance between awkwardness and comedy right, while still keeping believable characters that live in a future reality.

The Orville writers might have have screwed this up by tipping the balance into cringeworthy embarrasement or latrine comedy. But they didn't, and started season 2 with a whole episode observing human behavior. As always, not being predictable might not appeal to everyone.

The Orville keeps being more Trek than the current official movies or series. Good Star Trek always was a people show, and defining the crew's personalities is a good start for the season.

This was a fine episode and while I see many people complain on its dramatic nature I have to say I have no complaints. This is exactly the episode we needed considering that it had been a year since the first season aired, we needed to get reacquainted with the Orville crew. This obviously wasn't the greatest episode the Orville had to offer but I certainly don't thinks it's bad enough for some of these harsh reviews.

Yes, I can see why some does not like the lack of actual science fiction in this episode. Should we start giving bad critics to ST:TNG as well then, because the show had a ton of non-scifi episodes? No, of course not. In fact, some of the strongest episodes were exactly that. Exploring the people.

That said I won't say this is a masterpiece. But it's funny. VERY funny. It has good development of the characters. It has some heartfelt moments. It's well written, well acted.

Again, no masterpiece, but to say this is a bad episode?

Prrrrrrf, give me a break. I will in fact say it's a GREAT way to start off the season! Give me that development! It's not even rushed, just an easing in, and doing it well.

Far from a bad episode, not a fantastic episode, but I think it was great. I laughed, I smiled, enjoy every bit of it. Wonderful start to the season.

The acting was great but the story was a little dull. It would have been better as a mid-season filler. The 'family drama' felt a bit too ordinary for a sci-fi season opener.

That said, it was still much better than other current sci-fi shows, but that's a pretty low bar to beat at this point.