Strange new worlds is great, I wouldn’t put it in the same category as the other new treks.
I want to give Orville a chance, but Seth Macfarlane humor and star trek matches about as well as stinky tofu and ice cream.
I want to give Orville a chance, but Seth Macfarlane humor and star trek matches about as well as stinky tofu and ice cream.
A lot of critics dismissed it early for that reason, assuming it was just going to be some kind of Family Guy in Space show.
They were wrong. There is humor in The Orville but it is not really like Family Guy humor (about which I think South Park nailed it in "Cartoon Wars"). On The Orville the humor is just a minor part of the show. They are not going for a comedy in space. They are going for science fiction drama with some comedy tossed in, when appropriate.
I think AnIdiotOnTheNet was wrong though to call it basically a new ST:TNG. It is much more a new ST:TOS. Seth Macfarlane thought that TOS had an optimistic outlook on the future that subsequent ST series had lost. The later series were in a darker future, and he wanted a series that brought back that TOS feel.
It's basically ST:TOS but with a few more jokes (mostly good ones), and instead of being set on the flagship of the fleet, crewed by the very best of the best, it is set on a ship that isn't expected to ever do anything important crewed by people whose careers have gone nowhere where they are expected to finish their terms of service in continued mediocrity.
The first season was OK. It has some pretty good ideas.
The second season continued having many good ideas, and the writers and actors had really figured things out so things really came together well.
I haven't watched any of the third season yet.
And as sibling says, some moments are actually pretty hilarious and/or spot-on. Though of course YMMV.
So that is to say that based on the history of humanity as a species, the engineers running the starships of the future are probably going to still enjoy scatalogical humor which makes think MacFarlane's vison will probably be a bit more likely than Rodenberry's.
Also, Lower Decks is easily my favorite Trek running today.
Good night, good night,
Shit in your bed and make it burst;
Good night, sleep tight,
And stick your ass to your mouth
On a related note, I've been rewatching Enterprise and I didn't know Seth MacFarlane made 2 cameo appearances in the series! (In two different seasons too.)