It’s amazing how sometimes shows can fall into a particular niche. This is especially true of situational shows that have the same characters in more or less the same settings and facing different plots every week. That’s certainly what happened with The Orville. It was a particular show doing a particular thing, and after two seasons of excelling with its format, the show became very good at playing towards its strengths. Things changed with season three. It moved to a new platform and had a much bigger budget and longer run time per episode. It was a much bigger show, but bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.
The first two seasons had a much smaller budget. The episodes were relatively grounded in philosophical debates rather than larger scale action sequences. Whatever action did take place was smaller in scope and choreographed as such. This was also reflected in a lot of the designs as characters such as Isaac had a very simplistic look to them. This lower budget feel compared to many big budget modern productions gave it a scrappy atmosphere reminiscent of the first Star Trek series.
A lot of this was lost in a transition from season two to season three. The budget was bigger and so there were a lot more special effects that showcased the space side of the series. There were also bigger action sequences and the stories expanded. Even Isaac had a new and more complicated design. This isn’t to say that season three was a failure. On the contrary, it was a great success. But there was a transition period in the first couple episodes as the show adjusted to its new status quo. There were definitely some growing pains that the show got over real quick. It wasn’t necessarily better or worse. It was just different and showcased just how versatile the show’s cast and crew can be as it morphed from one thing to another without losing any quality.
The Orville is now streaming on Hulu.
It’s amazing how sometimes shows can fall into a particular niche. This is especially true of situational shows that haveCOMICONRead More