www.ditl.org

So I've been keeping an eye on the Rotten Tomato meter for the Orville since it aired. After episode one the critic rating for the show was 20%, whilst the audience rating was 87%.

At time of writing that disparity has widened. The critic rating is now 18%, whilst the audience rating is 93%.

Why the disparity?

I obviously get why people would love the show - I love it myself. The Orville is a bright, welcoming kind of place - both the show and the ship. It's the kind of place a lot of sci fi fans would love to live, where you get to have a flying car, live in a city that's clean and nice, in a society where unfulfilled material needs apparently don't exist any more.

And I kind of get why some people might not like it that much; gritty and dark is very "in" right now (thanks, Game of Thrones), and I suspect a lot of critics think the Orville is hopelessly dated, harking back as it very deliberately does to the 80s TNG. And yeah, humour is a hit and miss affair at the best of times.

So I'm certainly not wondering why the Orville doesn't get universal acclaim or anything. What I don't get is why one group is so heavily against and another, presumably much larger, group is so heavily in favour.

Reading a lot of the critic reviews, their common factor seems to be "not enough jokes / the jokes don't work / not funny enough". Is it then that they didn't realise what they were getting? The Orville was marketed as "a spoof" of Star Trek, as a comedy. Honestly I don't really think it is a comedy. Before the show aired, Seth himself said that what he wanted to do was a serious science fiction series with comedy in it. That's what I said I was desperately hoping for, and to my delight that's what he's given us.

But I wonder if the critics went in expecting "Family Guy In Space" and were left thinking of it as a failed comedy rather than as something that isn't really a comedy at all.

But I think a lot of fans were, like I was, just hoping for a what would essentially be a "Star Trek" type show under a different name and are delighted to have gotten exactly that.

Is that enough to explain the disparity? Or is something else going on? I've seen it suggested that "the media establishment" has something of a hate-on for Seth Macfarlane, given that his comedy tends to be rather un-PC. Is it that?

What do you guys think?

"But I wonder if the critics went in expecting "Family Guy In Space" and were left thinking of it as a failed comedy rather than as something that isn't really a comedy at all.

But I think a lot of fans were, like I was, just hoping for a what would essentially be a "Star Trek" type show under a different name and are delighted to have gotten exactly that."

I think it's this, more or less. Critics wanted a comedy, felt like they were sold a comedy, and now feel cheated. Since the majority of them see sci-fi as little better than cartoons, they don't feel the relief and excitement that we felt to get Star-Trek-in-all-but-name. They think it's a failure because it isn't what they expected. We think it's a success because it's what we wanted.

Well, majority rules, I guess - season 2 has been green-lit.

Mikey wrote:Well, majority rules, I guess - season 2 has been green-lit.

YAAAAY!!!!

Excellent news! I suspect if it continues to do well, especially among the 18-24 demo where it's got a respectable 2.7, that a lot of the lower tier reviewers will suddenly find things they love.

I think with Seth MacFarlane people were expecting a comedy set in a sci-fi universe. Maybe not as Jr.-high as Family Guy, but definitely a parody of Star Trek. I was expecting this as all the commercials I saw from the spring and summer emphasized this. And MacFarlane's name is probably why many started watching it.

But it turned out to be a more serious science-fiction show. It does have more comedic situations then Star Trek ever did, which I believe makes it more fun and relatable for a more mainstream audience then a serious sci-fi show ever could.

I think the critics just reviewed the first episode, and that's why they scored it so low. They were looking for Galaxy Quest, but as raunchy as network TV can be. Except for Rob Lowe ejaculate, the first episode was hardly that. The first episode might be the second weakest of this show first season.