-The Two Universes-
The storyline with the two parallel universes is, in my opinion, a story killer.
You lose the feeling of "This could have gotten real!" as soon as you see "our world" is still there. It would have been a lot more interesting and threatening if our would wasn't there anymore.
If you take the multiverse approach, then it's no surprise there are a few universes where the Germans won...
"Our universe" is only used by Tagomi to analyze the errors he's made in his life. Or in his other life. You don't need a German New York and a Japanese San Francisco to do a story like this. It's almost completely unrelated to the escalating conflict between Japan and Germany.
In another life... Even Katy Perry sang about that.
OK, Tagomis visits to the other universe prevented World War III because he brought the Nuke tape. Nevertheless, this appealed to me like an excuse for his lengthy visits to our universe rather than a surprising twist.
-Errors-
I'm German. And I'm annoyed by the bad accents most of the actors have when they speak German. Aren't there any Germans in the USA who can teach the actors a proper pronounciation?
Just get a better pronounciation! I don't ask you to learn our grammar ;-)
And many words and names are just wrong.
In Germany, the Nazis renamed each and every little village that had a French name. But the German part of America is called "Greater Nazi Reich"? It shouldn't have an English name at all. And the Nazis never called themselves Nazis. If the German America had been an (more or less) independent country with an own name, it would have been called something like "Deutsch Amerika" or just "West Amerika".
And the Nazis in this series often greet each other with "Sieg Heil" when it should be "Heil Hitler".
Actually, I doubt they would use "Sieg Heil" at this point at all. "Sieg" means victory, they have already won. No need to invoke the victory anymore.
There are more errors like these in this series which a historian could point out better than I can.
But some of them already suffice to take the "realism" out of the series.
-The Interesting Part-
Nevertheless, there are also some things in this series that are remarkable. John Smith's story actually is very interesting. And Rufus Sewell's acting is great. What happens in his family is way more gripping than Juliana Crane's desoriented search for the truth about the tapes.
In general, I like multiple universe stories very much. But in this case, I just don't.
A series just about John Smith being a Nazi who's betrayed his ancestors ideals would have been more compelling. A look inside the life and mind of a terrible opportunist who isn't even sure whether to kill his son for the Reich or not. A series with a truly bad person in the centre. That would've been it!
Nevertheless, the way the story is made, John could at one point meet his "other self" from our universe. This would also be interesting and I bet this would be a great episode! But I think the first to meet herself will be with Juliana, which should be boring, because they don't differ that much in the two universes.
-Summary-
2/3 of the series miss to show where fascism leads to. These parts deal with shenanigans about parallel worlds (the tapes and Tagomi are just boring) and already-seen-on-TV resistance stories.
The stories of Frank, Juliana and Joe could have happened in any occupied country. Just exchange "misterious tapes" for "military secrets" and you get quite an ordinary war story you've already seen a Gazillion times.
The other third is absolutely worth watching, new and very, very dark.
John Smith is someone you haven't already seen on TV.
I didn't like it as I liked the original series
The authors thought they had to recycle the characters of the original series.
So Mac's nephew (or another kind of relative) works in his original MacGyver's old working place and anybody there has the name of one of Mac's old mates and colleagues? Sure...
I'm absolutely fine with a female boss, but DON'T call her Patricia Thornton! That's just silly. And calling an Ex-Marine Jack Dalton is even more silly.
The characters themselves are... ok. But "Team MacGyver" doesn't work out just like "Team Knight Rider" didn't.
Besides that, I sometimes have the feeling the new Mac just ocssionally builds stuff so you may call him Mac.
Best Sci-Fi series this season!
Like any good science fiction series, it starts with two episodes meant to introduce the characters. After that, you get some very interesting stories.
Capt. Ed Mercer is in some way a little bit like Michael Scott from "The Office US".
His Ex-wife and 1st Officer Cmdr. Kelly Grayson is very interesting. She's broken her husband's heart, but seems to still love him in some way. She's also very capable.
LaMarr and Malloy are a hilarious duo. They pilot the ship together and have incredibly funny conversations.
Bortus, who's got his husband in the ship, is a very dutiful officer with an interesting background and home life.
Kitan is a young bridge officer who only got the position as chief of security because people from her planet don't join the military often (she says so herself). She's extremely strong and can open any jar of pickles in the known universe (you'll get that after watching a few episodes).
Dr Finn has a humour as dry as Mars' surface. I'm surprised she's not British, she could very well be.
Isaac is the absolute Anti-Data. The president of his home world could be Skynet. His Android race considers any carbon life as inferior. And they don't mind telling you that. Isaac has taken the position on the Orville to study human behavior. Or their weaknesses. Like any artificial life form, he's got problems understanding jokes and slang. I like him and I don't fully trust him.
Last but not least, there's Yaphit, a jelly life form whose favourite hobby it is to annoy Dr Finn with his flirting.
So far, there've been great stories which got you thinking and had fun and action.
I can already see the potential for the development of more surprising and serious stories, running gags and maybe even some longer lasting story arcs.
You can see the love Seth MacFarlane put in this project. I'm not that often this enthusiastic about a TV series, but here, it's absolutely justified.
(No) Update after episode 6:
No need to update my review. The show just continues being great :-)
(No) Update after season 1 is finished:
This serial will become a TV legend like Star Trek TNG has become one. There'll be a time when fans will do fan fiction serials in the Orville's universe.
It feels like the producers want to annoy the Trekkie as much as they can with Voyager-era beeping sounds, trials without a lawyer (Starfleet ISN'T military!!!), a completely different Sarek...
Besides from the canon errors, which I have finally been able to overlook since episode two, the main character herself isn't one that "fits" into Star Trek. I only talk about the role, not the actress.
I just don't like Michael. She is self-righteous, calls daddy when her ship is in danger, she isn't loyal... In short, she misses any part of personality a Starfleet officer should have.
She's got a problem with herself and it is absolutely unrealistic she would be an officer anywhere.
Update time!
The text above was from Oct 17.
Now it's Jan 23.
Aaaand: I was right: She wasn't welcomed on the Discovery because she's a great Officer, she just accidentally happened to be this universe's counterpart of someone Mirror Lorca needed to become Emperor.
So it's official: We've got Star Trek with an incapable main character.
Oh yeah, as presumed, she's messed up like 97% of her tasks in the meantime.