The Orville (2017) s03e10 – Future Unknown

“The Orville” has had great episodes and middling episodes this season; there haven’t been any bad episodes, and there haven’t been any just good episodes. It’s entirely fantastic, or it’s relatively bland (for “Orville,” so still well-written, acted, directed, just not a zowee).

This season finale—and current series finale—is a wowee zowee; directed by and script credited to creator and top-billed Seth MacFarlane, it does a phenomenal job of wrapping up the season’s outstanding story arcs (which in turn are the show’s outstanding story arcs). In addition, there are a few returning guest stars—Victor Garber’s got a brief scene towards the beginning of the episode; he’s the only admiral who comes back for the finale. One is a big surprise for a quick hello, and the other gets the episode’s second plot.

While the title, Future Unknown, kept having me waiting for Q to show up and whisk MacFarlane off to the past and the future to see what went wrong with the Enterprise after Picard retired, it’s not an homage to any “Trek.” It’s “Orville” being “Orville,” bringing back Giorgia Whigham from the first season. She lived on the planet where people up and down voted each other as a societal thing; it was one of “Orville”’s great early episodes. Now she’s sick of living on such a crappy planet when there’s a bright universe out there, so she calls up Orville and asks for asylum.

First officer Adrianne Palicki–in my dreams, they’re setting her up for the center seat in a sequel series where MacFarlane zooms it in most of the season like one of the admirals—takes it upon herself to acclimate Whigham to the “future.” In doing so, Palicki gives the audience a more thorough history lesson of the future than the show usually allows. Whigham’s the perfect stand-in for the audience while also being a great character. She also looks surprisingly similar to Season Three regular Anne Winters; so much so I had to look them up.

But the main plot once again involves killer alien robot Mark Jackson and his lady love, the ship’s doctor, Penny Johnson Jerald. After witnessing Peter Macon’s vow renewal ceremony with mate Chad L. Coleman (a tremendous, unique sequence), Jackson decides it’s time he and Jerald tie the knot, only she’s not sure she wants to marry a killer alien robot. Then Jackson’s bros tell him maybe he should play the field a bit before settling down.

It’s a wonderful, romantic, touching episode. MacFarlane’s shown exceptional, probably inimitable range this season as a director, and Unknown’s no different. Great performances from everyone, particularly (of course) Jerald, Jackson, Palicki, Macon, Scott Grimes, J. Lee, and Whigham. Coleman’s got some great comic moments. The only crew members without significant arcs are MacFarlane and Jessica Szohr. Maybe next time for Szohr.

Everyone involved has made something exceptional with “The Orville,” “New Horizons,” and old; it’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Though I am wondering if the dress whites are supposed to be so ugly, like a nod to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Regardless….

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The Orville (2017) s03e07 – From Unknown Graves

I’m not sure if this episode’s the best “Orville” of the season, but it’s definitely the best constructed. The script—credit to David A. Goodman, who’s written “Orville” in previous seasons; this episode’s his first “New Horizons”—is magnificent in every respect. There are four perfectly balanced plots. First, the Orville is on a diplomatic mission to a matriarchal society, so captain Seth MacFarlane and first officer Adrianne Palicki cook up a scheme to appear more palatable to the potential allies. The female crew will assume all the leadership and command roles; the male crew will be red shirts with no responsibility. At least when the diplomats are present.

Except that main plot comes after the episode’s cold open—a suburban alien family getting their first home robot… a Kaylon. The family’s experiences with the Kaylon “assistant” will pop up throughout the episode, tying into the second main plot—MacFarlane discovers a scientist (Eliza Taylor) who has reprogrammed a Kaylon to feel emotions. They come on board the Orville so MacFarlane can report the development to Starfleet Command. Or Union Central. Whatever.

Christopher Larkin plays the emotive Kaylon, who is full of regret about his species trying to irradiate all the humans and their other biological friends. Larkin will be a touchstone for various ongoing, Kaylon-related plot lines; specifically, Penny Johnson Jerald and reformed but still unemotional Kaylon Mark Jackson’s romance, and then Anne Winters hating all Kaylons for killing her best friend (and all those other people). I can’t believe what Goodman and MacFarlane (who directs) achieve with those resolutions. They have percolated since the season premiere, with Winters’s hatred of Jackson creating palpable tension through many of her scenes on the show overall. The episode works through all of it, slowly, deliberately, carefully. MacFarlane gives all the actors time to process; sometimes, it seems like he’s being slow instead of patient, but then every time the actor delivers on the moment, and it’s exceptional.

I don’t know if it’s the best episode—there’s another big contender—but it’s definitely the best use of “The Orville”’s new format for streaming. Seventy-ish minute episodes, but still with commercial breaks; the commercial breaks here work beautifully to relieve tension or adjust narrative perspectives. It’s an outstanding episode, start to finish.

The final subplot involves J. Lee and Jessica Szohr’s burgeoning romance, which the show’s been building up for a while. It’s played mostly for laughs, fully utilizing Szhor’s deadpanning abilities and Lee’s incredible likability. It’s a lot of fun in an otherwise mostly serious episode.

John Debney’s score stands out this episode, and not only because it often sounds like he’s doing a Star Wars riff (so much so I thought it was Joel McNeely, who’s also composed Star Wars stuff). The score provides a lot of support for the action; MacFarlane, as director, leans on it just right.

Great acting from Jerald and some terrific turns from Palicki, Jackson, and Winters. MacFarlane gets a little more to do than usual in support of Palicki; they have some excellent character relationship moments.

The ending takes sentimentality by the arm, dances a steamy tango, then leaves it behind on the way to more profound, sincere emotion. It’s a spectacular episode.

The Orville (2017) s03e05 – A Tale of Two Topas

Until now, “The Orville: New Horizons” has never felt aware of its own literal limitations. It’s the last season (for now, they keep saying, for now), and A Tale of Two Topas feels like show creator and episode credited writer and director Seth MacFarlane getting something done before the show’s over.

All they need to do is have alien babies age much faster than expected, just like MacFarlane’s captain’s half-alien child, who gets a mention at the beginning of the episode. But that alien child isn’t the subject of this episode; instead, it’s Peter Macon and Chad L. Coleman’s “son” Topa (played by Imani Pullum).

In the first season of “Orville,” Macon and Coleman had the baby and decided to surgically alter their female baby into a male one. Their race, the Moclan, are an all-male species who hate females in general and the rare female Moclan the most. Topa's now at least a tween—aging a decade while flying around the galaxy for a few years on the Orville. The timeline irregularities don’t matter because it’s a remarkable episode; as it all wraps up, it’s hard to imagine MacFarlane’s ever going to be able to surpass it as a director. It’s astoundingly good and needs to be; the episode’s a series of big swings, starting with Adrianne Palicki being the focus for the first third or so.

The episode runs seventy minutes; there’s time for various character spotlights, including Macon and, to a lesser degree, Coleman (who’s been the show’s resident asshole since the forced gender reassignment episode, which, again, was really early on).

Pullum’s interested in joining Starfleet—Union Point, whatever—and Palicki becomes his mentor. Except Pullum’s having some severe gender dysphoria without any context for it. Dad Coleman, who was also born female and had the surgery as a baby, would rather Pullum kill himself a boy than ever know he was born a girl. Dad Macon disagrees but culturally can’t complain. Macon’s acting is phenomenal this episode and even more impressive given the static alien makeup he’s wearing.

Palicki’s got a concerned third-party arc, leading to Macon and Coleman’s arc, before moving on to an unexpected complication. There’s only so much autonomy a person can have when the Union’s got to keep its allies happy, even if its allies are a bunch of religious bigots.

The episode’s main subplot—besides reformed killer robot Mark Jackson’s continued social problems with the crew (who haven’t forgiven the killer robot business)—involves an archeological dig on an alien planet. It provides a nice backdrop for the main action, which eventually requires doctor Penny Johnson Jerald too.

Great performances from Pullum, Macon, Palicki, and Coleman in the main arc, then Jerald and Jackson in the asides. MacFarlane gives himself a little to do later in the episode, and he’s real good too, but it’s not his episode, and he knows it.

It’s superb work.

Also notable is Andrew Cottee’s score. At the beginning, it sounds very Joel McNeely (so John Williams) but only for the Indiana Jones and the Alien Temple intro; once Pullum’s story takes the stage, it’s this emotive combination of lush tragic and romantic music; easy best music of the season.

And the best episode of the season, too, obviously.

The Orville (2017) s03e01 – Electric Sheep

“The Orville”’s back, with a bewildering addition of a subtitle: “New Horizons.” First, why? Second, it’s the show’s presumed final season; adding “New” to the title suggests they’re trying to get more people watching, so again, why? Finally, this episode’s a direct sequel to events in the previous season; not the season finale either, it’s about resentments stewing amongst the crew since halfway through the second season.

The new title has zero impact on the show (the opening titles are the same otherwise), it’s just odd.

The show also started as a Fox TV broadcast program and becomes a Hulu streaming show this season; there are the telltale commercial break fades to black, which are the only time the episode’s ever clunks. Because, holy cow, is “The Orville” back.

It’s a long episode—seventy minutes, so basically a two parter combined, subplots subtracted—written and directed by show creator Seth MacFarlane. Based on the space action sequences set to Kevin Kaska’s music, Disney ought to at least let MacFarlane direct a Star War, if not write it as well. While “Orville”’s much more like “Star Trek” in its approach to characters, humanism, and quality, the action sequences this episode—thanks to Kaska's score—feel like they’re out of Return of the Jedi or even Empire. Always in very good ways.

The episode opens an action sequence flashback to an alien battle, ending with ship’s doctor’s son, BJ Tanner, remembering how his mom’s alien robot ex-boyfriend and their family friend, Mark Jackson, betrayed everyone. Jackson’s race of alien robots tried to destroy humanity last season, resulting in thousands of dead Federation officers—sorry, sorry, Union—before he changed his mind and saved the day. The action then cuts to new cast member Anne Winters being cruel to an unemotionally unconfused Jackson in the mess hall.

The entire episode’s going to be about how the crew is dealing with Jackson being back on board, back on the bridge, when there’s so much unresolved, justified animus.

It’s an enormous swing from MacFarlane—as writer and director, as top-billed captain of the Orville he gives himself almost nothing to do—and it’s a resounding success. MacFarlene leverages “Orville”’s secret weapon, ship’s doctor Penny Johnson Jerald. While the episode starts focusing on Tanner and Winters being angry about Jackson, it gracefully becomes Jerald’s episode for a while, with significant functional contributions from J. Lee.

Besides Winters joining the cast—she’s the new helmsman, since Jackson’s buddies destroyed her last ship and killed almost everyone onboard, including her best friend—the other big subplot is the Orville getting a zippy fighter jet version of a shuttlecraft, giving MacFarlene another chance to flex the space action.

MacFarlene also leans in on the “Kirk looking at the Enterprise for forty-five minutes” trope, with multiple lovely, lengthy sequences of the ship in space flight. Given how much effort they put into the episode, I’m kind of surprised they didn’t think to fix the commercial breaks.

It’s an outstanding episode, with the long run time breaking the traditional act structure for a forty-five minute show and allowing for numerous deeply emotional beats. Winters gets a layered arc, Jerald gets one starting fifteen minutes in or whatever, Tanner, J. Lee, lots of great arcs throughout. Maybe next time they’ll get to the “New Horizons” (or just ended with the subtitle reveal), but “Orville”’s off to an incredibly strong, surprisingly ambitious start.

Ted (2012, Seth MacFarlane)

Ted has a number of successes; it’s a little hard to identify its most extraordinary one. Is the CG teddy bear, voiced by director MacFarlane, who seems entirely real throughout? Or is it the script, which makes it feasible for a magical, living teddy bear to exist in the real world? Or is it simpler–Ted shows MacFarlane can bring the pop culture references and hilarious inappropriate jokes to live action from adult cartoons?

It’s a good movie, with some major third act problems (mostly revolving around Mila Kunis, whose character arc isn’t believable); Ted goes between being a heartwarming Rob Reiner picture Reiner never made and mocking Rob Reiner pictures. MacFarlane’s direction is surprisingly strong and confident, though he does have a cinematographer (Michael Barrett) who can’t shoot video.

And while MacFarlane and his fuzzy little alter ego are the “star” of Ted, leading man Mark Wahlberg does the film’s heaviest lifting. He makes it believable he’s acting opposite, for extended periods, this talking stuffed animal. There’s an absolutely astounding fight scene between Wahlberg and Ted; it’s too amazing in fact, because one can’t help but wonder how they were able to do it. The special effects technicals overpower the scene’s effectiveness.

The script has a lot of great jokes–the best humor sequence is probably the first one, which had me choking for air–and the supporting cast is strong.

Only Kunis, as Wahlberg’s love interest, falters. She can’t pull off the sophistication required.

Ted‘s an outstanding comedy.