Light spoilers.
But a number of things need fixing. It has problems all over, from not memorable establishing shots and nothing that particularly stands out or makes you think: hey, that looks like "The Orville" I just tuned into, to even a gimmicky-looking shot of the view screen at quantum warp. It's bland and it's not trying with the cinematography.
The humor, which often falls flat, is too often. In a show like this, it doesn't work like in "Serenity" or "Red Dwarf", here it's very noticeable and when a bad joke it told and there's nothing even any scoring to carry it, it's like you can hear nobody laughing. The banter about their failed relationship was old before the episode ended.
The pacing is often too fast and the editing sometimes doesn't help.
The technology on board the Orville isn't defined enough. I don't even know what some things are. If it wasn't for the borrowing of Bridge ideas from Trek, I still wouldn't know after the pilot what some areas of the Bridge are.
The uniforms have that cheap cheesy 1970's look.
And not all the actors/actresses have characters defined enough. Some kind of run together. Good character actors help defined and shape a character, creating memorably TV characters like Festus Haggen, Thomas Magnum, Sherman Potter, etc. Here it feels like the script is defining them completely. Perhaps not much thought was put into the characters as needed.
And the episode itself is not some event with a big pilot to really showcase the show, it's like something that airs two or three episodes in a mild-ish filler episode.
At least the scoring was right. Can't complain there. Bruce Broughton was a good choice. And the composer line up for the season is also inspired.
In all, it needs a defined look, better writing, less lame comedy attempts, and more world building (maybe an extra character or two; the cat is too small). I think Seth works as a captain and for who the character is and that the show isn't a total mis-fire as some reviewers have written.
But a number of things need fixing. It has problems all over, from not memorable establishing shots and nothing that particularly stands out or makes you think: hey, that looks like "The Orville" I just tuned into, to even a gimmicky-looking shot of the view screen at quantum warp. It's bland and it's not trying with the cinematography.
The humor, which often falls flat, is too often. In a show like this, it doesn't work like in "Serenity" or "Red Dwarf", here it's very noticeable and when a bad joke it told and there's nothing even any scoring to carry it, it's like you can hear nobody laughing. The banter about their failed relationship was old before the episode ended.
The pacing is often too fast and the editing sometimes doesn't help.
The technology on board the Orville isn't defined enough. I don't even know what some things are. If it wasn't for the borrowing of Bridge ideas from Trek, I still wouldn't know after the pilot what some areas of the Bridge are.
The uniforms have that cheap cheesy 1970's look.
And not all the actors/actresses have characters defined enough. Some kind of run together. Good character actors help defined and shape a character, creating memorably TV characters like Festus Haggen, Thomas Magnum, Sherman Potter, etc. Here it feels like the script is defining them completely. Perhaps not much thought was put into the characters as needed.
And the episode itself is not some event with a big pilot to really showcase the show, it's like something that airs two or three episodes in a mild-ish filler episode.
At least the scoring was right. Can't complain there. Bruce Broughton was a good choice. And the composer line up for the season is also inspired.
In all, it needs a defined look, better writing, less lame comedy attempts, and more world building (maybe an extra character or two; the cat is too small). I think Seth works as a captain and for who the character is and that the show isn't a total mis-fire as some reviewers have written.