Really bad first episode. I hope the don't continue with this kind of crap since I quite liked the previous seasons.
Impressive. If they are going to keep up this level of production value this is going to be an expensive season. But I welcome it. Especially Isaacs redesign is such a jump in quality taking it from ridiculous in parts to serious and believable.
The story beats and their solution were a bit too easy as usual but the first half was just a pleasure to watch.
I don't understand what this show wants to be anymore. Is it supposed to be taken seriously? Based on this episode, it sure seems so.
Also quite long with no great reason.
I knew they wouldn't kill Issac off.
Legal euthanasia like they have in Switzerland is still a very controversial topic people have a hard time finding consensus on or even discussing. Makes me think of Mary Kills People.
"This thing you do where you act like u have a monopoly on grief is very trying. " -Captain
So we support bullying until suicide. They repeatedly state that it's no one's fault, it's that person's choice. We're also totally cool with going against that person's choice and reviving them. What a fantastic Future.
I'm glad to see that the move from Fox to Hulu was good for this show; though the filler from the extended runtime was impossible to miss, I'm hopeful that future episodes will make better time of it. The fact that Seth MacFarlane was able to resist filling those extra minutes with sophomoric dick jokes is a positive development, instead it was filled with solidly expensive special effects though perhaps they laid the score on a bit thick.
I haven't finished this episode yet. I started watching this show cause it was just a bit of fun. Stupid jokes about glory holes or a dude laying an egg. All the humour seems to have gone and it's taking itself serious. I don't like Start Trek and this just turned into that.
I mean, I understand that there is no reason to stick to a network clock once you enter streaming, but it drives me nuts that so many shows that could've been great if they were simply trimmed down end up losing my attention. Disappointed and hoping for more pointed editing in the future.
I can already tell this is going to be a long season. Charly doesn't belong in a uniform. Mercer nailed it when he pointed out that her willingness to help a fellow crewman depends on how she feels about that person. That makes her unfit to serve. That is unacceptable in any service. You don't have to like the people you serve with, but you do have to support them.
So who thought it would be a good idea to do a live fire exercise in the ship yard?
Trying to get over the fallout from the season finale. Curious thought, things can get better in the future, if there is no future, they can't get better
It's good to be back.
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
I could use a recap, it's been too long...
Sadly, this episode did feel to sit somewhat below the usual quality standard that The Orville has got us used to in previous seasons (some editing and pacing issues and the odd character reaction/dialogue), but I'll give them a break, since they've probably got a bit rusty after all this time away.
But, all in all, I'm so happy to have this crew back, and still feeling as trekkie as ever!
Ahh, the new Ensign is Seth MacFarlane's real life girlfriend. Now it makes sense...
Pretty bland for the big return episode. Not the usual amount of quality humor either. The new Charly character is terrible and the person playing her is a really bad actor.
Sooooo...does new horizons mean that this is no longer a comedy/parody? I have not read any articles or interviews about the new season so I am not sure what Seth has in store. I liked the silliness, Family Guy aspect of the first 2 seasons, but this season started off with communal hate, xenophobia and suicide for 75 minutes...sigh...that was NOT what I was expecting and hoping to see. I wonder what other heavy emotional topics this show ill explore throughout the rest of the season. It felt like one of those "After School Specials"
[8.4/10] The Orville works best when it’s a straight Star Trek imitation, and that's as true in the as the show kicks off its third season as it ever was. The crud that holds the show back -- the tepid attempts at romance between Mercer and Grayson, the juvenile humor -- is all but gone. With that out of the way, you get one of the show’s very best episodes.
“Electric Sheep” is a seventy-minute meditation on heady topics like: suicide, communal anger, moral blame, pragmatic decisionmaking in the face of larger threats, and ethical duties in the face of personal bitterness. The Orville, of course, filters that through high concept ideas like an artificial lifeform trying to kill itself, crewmembers processing their losses from an attack of killer robots, and whether someone who can digest the world in four dimensional space will help save the existence of an android. Michael Piller would be proud of the combo.
It’s also an opportunity for the series to show off at the advent of its third season, with a new network (Hulu), new subtitle (“New Horizons”), and new refit of the ship to dangle in front of the audience. The episode opens with an epic space battle, shines a spotlight on the “Pterodon” (their sleek new shuttlecraft), and beams through fancier new sets and CGI effects to wow anyone who’s forgotten about the show in the three years since it was last on the air.
This is in keeping with the proud Star Trek tradition, as anyone who enjoyed and then suffered through Star Trek: The Motion Pictures long swooping shots of the new cinema-ready Enterprise can attest. In truth, it gets a little tiresome here too. But I’ll confess, while some of the CGI looks fake or plastic-y in places, I find myself preferring the aesthetic of The Orville to its Kurtzman-era Star Trek counterparts. The visuals on shows like Discovery and Picard can feel a little sterile or antiseptic, while there’s a warmth and sense of shiny vibrance to the look here that helps make the viewer feel more at home.
I also admire the show taking what amounts to a whole episode to deal with the psychological fallout of the Union’s betrayal from and battle with the Kaylon, and by extension, Isaac’s continued presence on the ship. The show didn’t completely breeze over the issue in season 2, but certainly put it on the backburner. Addressing how the Finn family would feel, and other rank and file officers would react, to having someone whose choices, however influenced by external factor, resulted in thousands of deaths, is fertile ground to explore.
It reflects Commander Sisko’s simmering anger at Captain Picard’s actions as Locutus of Borg. Unsurprisingly, it’s not the only 90s Trek homage at play here. Ensign Burke’s decision over whether to help Isaac despite her resentments parallel’s Worf’s decision whether to give blood to save the life of a hated Romulan. Examining how and why and extraordinary being would want to end its existence is of a piece with a Q wanting to do the same in Voyager. And there’s scads of smaller shoutouts as we see the Orville itself in dry dock undergoing a refit.
I don’t mind that. The show’s never been shy about wearing its influences on its sleeve, and there are worse sources to pull from. To the point, one the things I always loved about classic Star Trek is the way it would present these moral dilemmas and nudge the audience to think about what they would do in the situation, how they would feel if this happened to them, in the process.
So we’re encouraged to puzzle over the morality of suicide, and more importantly, the psychology of how loved ones and enemies would respond to it. We’re asked to contemplate whether we would act to save the life of someone whose choices resulted in the death of our best friend. We’re made to consider the line between expressing anger at someone we feel deserves it, and recoiling when they take our admonition to heart and try to kill themselves. There’s genuine layers of personal and ethical complexity at play, with rich conversations and debates about all of these things, in keeping with the proud tradition that The Orville so conspicuously follows.
It also serves as an introduction for Ensign Burke, the new member of the main cast who gets quite a bit of focus here. Unfortunately, the actress isn’t especially good in the role in this episode. Hopefully it’s just a matter of settling into the technobabble and jelling with the rest of the cast. On paper, the character is interesting, someone with unique spatial abilities and a legitimate grudge against one of the most interesting figures on the ship.
Her steadfast bitterness at the Kaylon and Isaac for what happened in the battle of last season is understandable but also against the values of the Federation (er...Union). Her willingness to be relieved of duty rather than help him shows how deep her anger cuts. She chooses to save him, though, not because she believes he deserves it, or buys Mercer’s argument for the pragmatism of having someone with intel on what the Kaylon might do around, or would be in any way sad about his death. Instead, she wants to spare Marcus Finn the pain of his guilt after basically telling Isaac to drop dead before his suicide attempt. Again, there’s a multifaceted element to the morality there, which is very much in my Trekkie wheelhouse.
The decision to process all of this through the Finn family is particularly canny. Marcus is a good fulcrum for the story, someone who had a connection to Isaac and feels personally betrayed. He’s a child, so doesn’t come with the expectation of professionalism or maturity , and the visions of his nightmares and discomfort with Isaac help justify his outbursts. He is the emotional core of this one, and while the young actor takes his lumps in some of the higher volume scenes, it’s a good place for MacFarlane and company to channel the story through.
All of that said, Penny Johnson takes the crown here. “Electric Sheep” is as much about exploring the ways in which people react to a suicide as it is about the act itself. In that vein, I truly admire the way the creative team uses the episode’s extended runtime to make space for Dr. Finn to ruminate on her complicated grief over Isaac’s death. Her exchange with Grayson, about how to mourn someone you have complicated feelings about, is writerly but poignant. And I adore the choice to spend a single, long, score-free scene to show the character steeping herself in the place where she and Isaac were happy and letting herself melt at the loss. It puts the sentiment of the season entirely on the actor's shoulders, and Johnson knocks it out of the park.
My only major complaint here is that they don’t follow-through on the business with Isaac here. Plenty of Star Trek shows had fake outs with major character deaths before restoring the status quo at the end of the episode. And LeMarr’s technobabble solution to the problem isn’t outside acceptable tolerances for the science-as-magic of this subgenre. They even do something to earn in terms of character by putting the choice on a reluctant Ensign Burke.
It just cheapens the melancholy of showing that, however emotion free Isaac may be, in his own way, he took the ostracism and resentment and revulsion he sensed from others to heart. He saw the pain he caused the rest of the crew and wanted to stop it. Undoing those consequences, especially after an episode’s worth of stellar scenes of grief and psychological healing, softens them.
Yet, I like how the show uses this peculiar sci-fi scenario to grapple with the mentality behind suicide. It doesn’t turn into an after school special, even having an alien character voice the idea that, in her culture, they respect it as a personal choice since no one asks to be born. But hearing Isaac’s reasons come right from the source gives Dr. Finn the chance to address them, to explain why present problems aren’t necessarily forever problems, and dramatize how a desire to spare people pain can end up producing more of it.
The show takes a side here, while acknowledging countervailing views and taking an empathetic, humane approach to the issue. That is extraordinary Star Trek, and hopefully a sign of things to come as The Orville embarks on its third tour of duty. This is an excellent shakedown cruise for the new season, which shows off the fancy new bells and whistles, but also delivers a level of storytelling and moral complexity that befits the traditions of the franchise this series is aping.
So glad the Orville is back, but man, did they have to choose suicide as the topic of the episode to bring it back on?
The writers are just not intelligent enough for the intellect of the characters they are writing for.
If Isaac really want to help why does n't he just uploaded his whole database.
Great to see the Orville back for a 3rd, long awaited, season. Now moved from Fox to Hulu but with no loss of quality.
I loved this first episode. Just the right balance of humour and drama to put this among the best Star Trek type series. This is more like a cross between Star Trek & Space Quest. For all those who don’t remember Space Quest, it was a series of comedy games by Sierra that were strongly influenced by Star Trek. Hopefully the series will continue strongly and carry on with the great writing and characters. Definitely on my must watch list for all future episodes (and hopefully seasons).
I liked it! This episode was a great exploration and development of the Issac character. It really asked the question of just how he feels, if at all. I don't know that I am satisfied with the result, but it's one I should have expected. Maybe I was hoping for something Data-like, and maybe that's coming. It'll be interesting to see where it goes.
I liked the pew pew parts and the cgi space ship space station scenes. Great job on those, and I love all the extra details on literally every surface.
Well its back. First episode tackled some issues and offered some unique perspectives as the show often does, but the acting for the most part is still as bad as ever.
I am really glad The Orville is back. The Quality of the show is still really good. I like the perfect not goofy humor since season 1. Was there really a real live lesson in each episode? If it was I cant remember it very good. In this episode the whole mobbing and suicide story was a bit too on the nose in my opinion.
Wow.
I suggest watching the last couple episodes of season 2 before watching this to remind you of where the show is coming from. That was my mistake.
The Orville really has earned the right to be known as today's real Star Trek reboot. This episode wasn't relying on the comedic moments, although there were some but it covered a topic that is timeless, poignant and thought provoking in such a way that the OG Star Trek or TNG approached subject matter.
It wasn't the way these most recent lousy shows try to put their political message into them, or Woke messaging. The Orville achieved getting their message across with excellent writing, respect for the topic, allowed the viewers to ponder their own thoughts and they did all this while being entertaining. Kudos to all at The Orville for intelligent story telling without putting viewers off or disrespecting the viewers.
I'm glad we have good sci-fi back on screen again.
I was expecting way more for a season premiere after 3 years of leave tbh. It feels all over the place, like the producers couldn’t choose between slice of life and the usual lesson, so they decided to compress and do both and couldn’t get the pacing right on top of that. I hope the rest of the season will be better and this is just a fluke.
Good to have them back. It's the only contemporary Star Trek show I like. Oh wait ... It's obviously a humble and quiet plot meant to draw you back into this show. I actually appreciate that they don't just throw a menacing phenomenon at us that is threatening the very existence of mankind or of the whole universe like other shows do (I'm looking at you Discovery and Picard!). But even that little story with Isaac proves the show's potential that exceeds the limits of the comedy it was supposed to be originally.
I watched Strange New Worlds right before this one and it's staggering how much apart these shows are. And Strange New Worlds isn't even the worst of Nu-Trek.
For a supposed comedy/parody show to tackle suicide and racism in such a way and right out of the gate. To bring in new characters that instantly have you interested to find out more about them without forcing it on you.
Going into actual emotion, actual complex human ones in all it's ambivalence.
To once again have characters opposing each others' views and still act in respect for each other.
This is (still) real Trek.
First thing I noticed is how much filler there is. Not sure I understand the point of making the episode 20 minutes longer, just to use that time on people sitting/standing in silence, too long cgi transitions and no stakes fights with bots (yeah yeah, she's so good with dimensions that she lost the fight and fast. I guess she was playing 4d chess).
On another note, never realized how obvious is the resemblance between Isaac and Zuckerberg. It's as if Mark got spraypainted gray! Awesome!
As a fan of science fiction i missed shows with this quality of writing. The focus on the train of thought of an artificial being felt more natural and human than the forced narratives of other tv shows. It was one hour of focusing on the value of life itself, not it's shapes, colors or preferences.
The Orville is back! And it looks amazing. Although we maybe spend a little too much time looking at space docks and starships. But they compensated with additional runtime so I take it.
The story is again what this is about. It was great that they picked up on the fact that Isaac was re-instated and what that meant for the crew onboard. Althought I think they are all wrong about him. Yes, it's human to hate and they need a scapegoat. But Isaac did only follow his programming, he did what he was supposed to do just like your PC does what you tell him. But he then overcame his programming, choosing (!) to help defeat the Kaylons. He became more then his program.
The whole story is an analogy about online mobbing and how it can drive people to commit suicide. Claire's words toward Isaac at the end make that clear. It's great to see we still follow that formula and wrap the stories around real problems.
But despite the fact that Burke helped at the end, I still don't like her. That's probably what they wanted to achieve with the character. It would have been easy to make her come around and a part of me is glad the didn't take that road. But for her to get on my good side there will be a lot of redeeming involved.
Did not enjoy this overall. Some nicei deas but no joy. I really grew tired of Isaac last season and hoped he'd be gone. the episode title is a bit of a give away tho. I think the show could be better without him.
on the plus side some nice action scenes at the start with some great acting.
So good to see this show back, couple of minutes in and it's already better than all the "other" shows being pumped out.
Norm still has some lines too!
Review by TygerboiBlockedParent2023-08-12T19:09:35Z
Wow, what a deep emotional rollercoaster this episode was! From the outset, it tackled the conflicting perspectives of survivors of the Kaylon War in a truly powerful and amazing way. The smattering of action/showcase scenes - the opening battle scene, the refitted Orville, the Pterodon and the close-up scenes of Malloy in the cockpit which put me in mind of Star Wars pilots in their X-Wings, the surprise Kaylon attack later in the episode - helped to ease the weight of the psychological elements. That last one (the Kaylon attack) was fab for demonstrating just what a strong, top-calibre captain Mercer can be, when he isn't being an obnoxious creep about the whole Kelly love quagmire. It was a clever solution to a situation that would otherwise have been a bit of a Kobayashi Maru moment. Ultimately though, in the context of this episode, all of that was was a sideshow because the psychological aftermath of the war was the real focus. I actually got teary over a few scenes, particularly Claire telling Ty not to use the holodeck (oops, "simulator") to recreate dead people because it hinders the grieving process, but then using it herself to recreate her "happy place" that she shared with Isaac - which was a brilliantly-directed and acted scene. I even almost welled up for Isaac (for the first time ever) when he was clearly gut-punched by the level of hatred and loathing from the rest of the crew, especially Marcus, with whom he was very close. I thought they may do a tearful "I'm so sorry" thing between Marcus and Isaac (obviously no tears from Isaac) at the end, but I'm relieved that they didn't, as it would have been incongruent with Marcus' behaviour. What they did do allowed Marcus to maintain his cool-boy image whilst also visually conveying everything necessary. Perhaps he will apologise directly to Isaac off-screen, perhaps he won't; it matters not for now. A truly awesome start to season 3 in every way, with absolutely no bad jokes/acting from anyone.