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Nerdglaze420
Reviews
The Orville: Mad Idolatry (2017)
Characters acting stupid to drive plot
Definitely one of the weaker episodes of The Orville. The concept of witnessing a civilization's development in 700-year time leaps is an interesting one, but the execution is lacking. The trope of religious people being mindless, tyrannical bigots is getting a little tired. Even the prelude is a bit contrived and drags. Ed wants to get together with Kelly again... because he's bored? The Moclans invite him for a drink and - suprise! - the drink is terrible. They invite him to play a game and - surprise! - the game is violent. Why do I see that coming from a mile away and Ed doesn't? Why do these people not understand that their food and drink might not be suitable or palatable to other species? None of this is credible, and it's too predictable to be funny.
The biggest problem is how careless Kelly is about what they call cultural contamination (violating the prime directive in the Star Trek universe), and Ed as well. Isaac even reminds her of it and then she goes right ahead and violates it... because a little girl fell over? Really? "The girl would have died!" First of all, that wound wasn't lethal, second of all, if you mess up a whole civilization, much worse things than a girl dying from an accident can happen, which is exactly why interference is forbidden. Why don't Ed and Kelly know that? It really doesn't make any sense. At least use your scanner or ask Isaac to make sure there aren't any people around who could see you helping the girl.
It's a similar problem as in the Black Mirror type social media voting episode wherein John Lamarr acts like a complete fool throughout, showing zero consideration or respect facing an alien culture, even though his own life is at stake. Selective stupidity of characters who aren't supposed to be stupid is the worst plot device, and these episosodes make heavy use of it.
The Orville: Majority Rule (2017)
Decent Black Mirror type episode with major flaw
The scenario of a society governed by social media type voting is relevant and reasonably well developed. But the episode as a whole suffers a lot from the character of John Lamarr acting like a total buffoon. Not just the statue humping, but his behavior throughout. Other episodes tell us he's highly intelligent, and also a ladies' man, which usually entails having some social skills. In this episode, we see neither. He keeps acting stupidly and recklessly and never learns anything. It's supposed to be comedy I guess, but even a comedy has to take its characters seriously in moments that matter. Lamarr's stupidity, entitlement and recklessness in this episode make it hard to root for him and a Union officer would never act like this, let alone an extraordinarily gifted one.
The episode could have been much stronger had he acted smart after his initial error and still come close to being "corrected" because the system is flawed and unfair. But the way they did it, seeing how continually stupid and socially tone-deaf you have to be to run afoul of the authorities, it doesn't seem very hard to avoid.
The Orville: From Unknown Graves (2022)
Mismatch of ambition and product
The episode has its qualities, but like the others in season 3, falls short in some respects.
The main plot with the matriarchal species was okay. Bortus' concluding line "they are ... awful" was a good laugh. But the resolution was kind of meh. They warm up to humans again because Kelly cheated on Ed? How does that make sense? And why do Ed and Gordon carry their luggage? Don't they have some guys lower in the hierarchy to do that? New Orville always goes for deep, serious drama but still sprinkles in silly nonsense like this. And the clumsy luggage carrying was shown for far longer than it was funny.
To see how the story with the Kaylon and their masters went down was pretty cool. Clearly the best part of the episode. The scene with emotional Isaac and Claire was quite powerful thanks to excellent acting. I would have liked the Kaylon plot even better if the one they found had been the same one as in the flashbacks. It would have given the character much more depth.
The third story is about a love affair between John and Talla not working out because she's always injuring him when they make love. I didn't like it. The whole setup of the romance has been lackluster, they only spent a few very short scenes on it. The relationship doesn't seem real because we have no idea what it is they like about each other, how they got together, what they share etc. It seems random. The storyline with the injuries kind of makes the characters a joke. It's silly and repetitive. Most men would hurt women if they used all their strength to grab them during sex. So they don't. How hard can that be? We know the Xeleyans are super strong, but are they also super unable to control themselves? That wouldn't make them very good security officers. You could say they only lose self-control during sex. Well, okay. Still seems silly and contrived. It did nothing for the characters and went on far longer than it was funny. How quickly John could change Talla's mind after she had decided to break it off seemed completely fake and unrealistic. Even more so because he did it by promising her to be careful. HE's going to be careful, how does that help?
The episode was entertaining and I enjoyed it, which is why I gave it a 7. But spending a few minutes thinking about it, things start to fall apart a little bit. These episodes take themselves very seriously and go on for very long, and I feel that what they deliver in terms of substance is just not on the level it would need to be to justify that.
The Orville: Twice in a Lifetime (2022)
A bit of a letdown
The episode telegraphs right at the beginning that it will pick up the Laura storyline from the season 2 episode "Lasting Impressions", in case the viewer didn't already know from the promo. I was looking forward to that because I quite like the original Laura episode. It is a bittersweet but mostly sweet little sci-fi romance resulting in a philosophical and ethical insight that works really well, in large part because both Scott Grimes and Leighton Meester nailed their respective parts.
Which also made me worried, because I thought most of season 3 wasn't very strong up to this point and when you revisit a story like the Laura one, which is near perfect as it is and the love affair couldn't really go anywhere for obvious reasons, you better make sure it pays off.
And to me, it didn't. My biggest problem with the episode is that the Laura character is mostly wasted. She plays no active role whatsoever. Meester is once again doing a fine job (as is Grimes), but she isn't given much to do. Laura mostly just appears as a McGuffin for Gordon. It also feels cheap to assume that Gordon could just decide to go find her after hiding for 3 years, fall in love with her while she falls in love with him and have a perfect marriage and family with her, when he only knew her simulation before and she didn't know him at all. Wow, that was lucky. (They insinuate that he made her fall in love by knowing a lot of things about her, which isn't just unrealistic, but creepy.) Both the character of Laura and their relationship weren't given much attention in the episode, and I therefore think they should have left it alone. It cheapens and dilutes the original story, and this story lacks the emotional core it should have because we never actually get to experience the relationship that creates the central conflict of the episode.
The conflict itself, Gordon wanting to stay, is interesting, but as many others point out, Ed and Kelly come across as really cold and Gordon accepts what they did far too casually in the end. The mere thought that he could have had a whole happy life with the real Laura should have blown his mind. Plus learning about his own behavior and Ed's and Kelly's behavior should have given him plenty to process and think about. Instead he just laughed it all off like some random anecdote. Also, it doesn't make any sense that they wouldn't have gone for the extra 10 year jump anyways to spare Gordon and especially the timeline they are so worried about the 10 years of Gordon living in the 21st century.
And really, what purpose does the character of Charly Burke serve in this season? Her whole personality is based on being hostile to Isaac. I mean, she has her reasons of course, but that's not much of a character. Besides that, she has some abstract super ability that the writers can set up as important when convenient but that tells us nothing emotionally. And now it is revealed that it's a lost opportunity for finding love that makes her so angry at Isaac and not actually the huge number of people killed by the Kaylon. That doesn't reflect very well on her character either. She urgently needs an episode to give her some personality and something to like about her. Ideally that should already have happened by now.
Speaking of which, the B plot was very thin (although not quite as thin as the one in the previous episode where nothing happened in it whatsoever but it was still there). What was the point of the whole arm wrestling scene? It was zero surprising or funny, nor was it in any way heroic by Charly or Isaac, nor did they bond over it or anything. Pointless. And the motorcycle guys wouldn't have given their motorcycles away because of a silly bet. It often feels like season 3 doesn't use the extra time per episode well. The whole story of Gordon and Laura actually meeting in person and getting to know each other is crammed into a few lines of clunky exposition dialogue, but we get a predictable armwrestling scene that amounts to nothing. Generally, the longer episodes tend to feel slow and self-indulgent.
There seems to be a lot of ambition there. They got rid of most of the comedy, ramped up production value (resulting in great visuals which are the only thing that unambiguously makes s3 stand out positively) and seem to be going for a lot of serious, deep drama. But for this to really succeed, the writing would have to be better, more original, and less preachy.
6 episodes in, although it isn't all bad, I can't help seeing season 3 as a step back. The old concept wasn't perfect either, but all things considered, it worked better.
The Orville: Mortality Paradox (2022)
Great visuals, predictable plot
The crew encounters a planet that should be a desert, but seems to be a modern civilization all of a sudden. They land a shuttle and find a forest instead, then a 20th century earth high school. This is in the first few minutes.
Anyone familiar with Star Trek knows at this point that the episode will end with an individual from some advanced species standing there with the crew and explaining to them that they were creating illusions for them either as an experiment or as some kind of amusement. And that's exactly what happens.
A species that's so advanced that they are no longer mortal wants to feel the thrill of a near-death experience and can do so by inhabiting the consciousnesses of our heroes while putting them in what seems as mortal danger. Ugh, okay. Doesn't explain the need for those highly elaborate set-ups, a 20th century school with a bully that's actually a huge monster, or a 21st century commercial airplane crashing. Why those weird scenarios and slow build-ups? Why not just have monsters attack them and chase them through the forest?
Also, the highly advanced being responsible is suspiciously reminiscent of John DeLancie's Q, just as a woman, kind of silly looking and without being anywhere near as interesting as a character.
The short-lived red herring plot about the Kaylon messing with the Union people's minds because they couldn't beat them by force near the end was more intriguing to me than the actual ending, which is something we've seen so many times before. The Kaylons throwing illusions at them could have been an interesting ongoing problem für future episodes.
The comedy of seasons 1 and 2 is mostly gone, which is a loss. What's good is the production value. The landscapes/surroundings/monsters the crew encounter are visually quite appealing for the most part.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Alita is awesome
In my opinion it is three things that make Alita: Battle Angel great:
1. The movie's visual beauty from start to finish
2. Lots of spectactular action/martial arts fighting
3. Alita's captivating charisma coming from both the design of the character and Rosa Salazar's wonderful acting.
I'm not saying the movie is perfect. The characters remained relatively one-dimensional, and I thought that the love story wasn't credible enough to carry the weight that the plot put on it.
But whatever, which movie has it all? It is a manga, a fantasy, like a dream. Don't ask it to be what it is not. A different way to put it is that it is more emotional than intellectual. It is exciting, engaging, heartwarming and fun. Carrying it all is the character of Alita who by her heart and energy and humanity leaves you no choice but to see her as real and want her to win.