Science Fiction

It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times

That's Seth humor in a nutshell.

Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough

Name a show that started off any other way though. Even SG1 is cringe in the first season. Lexx maybe, but even that one grew different after the first few episodes.

When The Orville came out, I hadn't watched much Star Trek. Growing up, TNG was the one television show that my parents would break the "no TV at the dinner table" rule for, though it happened rarely enough that I really have no memory of it.

About 20 years ago I watched several episodes of TOS and liked it well enough.

I always wanted to like Star Trek, so ~10 years ago I tried season 1 of TNG, which I now realize is rather universally considered an error; and as a result, I didn't much care for TNG. But I still wanted to like it, and Star Trek in general! So when I saw The Orville, I decided to give it a shot. And while I agree that the early mix of comedy with more serious material was a bit off-putting, I thoroughly enjoyed the show. This was what TNG was trying to be (I mean, that's not really fair, but it was my initial sense).

Which then led me to season 3 of TNG, which I started watching last year. And I absolutely love it, and find it overall better than The Orville (which I still really like); but The Orville was basically my gateway to actually enjoying Star Trek.

So maybe I'm coming inside-out from most viewers, but I really like The Orville, and as a bonus, it got me "back" into Star Trek proper.

I was surprised by how good season one was. Season two was great fun. I hated season three.

I feel they tried too hard to make serious points and failed at telling good stories. They wanted to have big thoughts, but just weren't entertaining.

Wanted to like it more than I did. Just didn't think it was all that funny.

Now I thought Avenue 5 (HBO) was absolutely hilarious. It's the funny I expected from Orville. Too bad it ended after 2 seasons.

This is a good show that is trying very hard not to be a great show. I would love to see it explode with popularity more than it already has.

Entertainment wise, I find it to be very fun to watch and am always engaged while I have it on.

Thematically, I think it has either a bad or watered down argument sometimes, but other times I think it really hits. Either way though, I find the way it approaches certain ideas very interesting and compelling to discuss with my SO while we watch it, so even when I don't agree with the thematic intent of the episode, I find it worthwhile to interact with.

That said, it did make me cringe a little bit for the first 2 episodes. They're still worth watching for context instead of skipping them, but don't make any judgements on it until episode 3.

All in all, I give it a 8.5/10 personally but a 7/10 critically.

I did it backwards and started watching Star Trek shows because I love The Orville so much! Hoping it gets renewed for another season soon.

I wished I could have gotten past the awkward comedy you mention. Couldn’t get into it because of that.

Blatant self insert early TNG fanfic. If you liked (or even wrote) that kind of thing in the 90s, you'll like Orville.

I loved it and it's definitely on the list of shows that I'll rewatch sometime sooner or later

Season 3 was not good; it was heavy-handed writing and wasn't all that good drama.

Actually I think much like Strange New Worlds, I think that it showed me how much of the recent issues I have with Star Trek is that it takes itself too seriously. (In fact also as for Star Wars, as blasphemous it is to mention here)

I like it, want more seasons to come out. Now that I finished the Orville, I need to go back and finish Farscape

I thought it would be a parody show at first but its good casual sci-fi entertainment. I liked the first two seasons better than S3.

It was surprisingly good. I enjoyed it a lot. Didn't think I would but it's much better than Picard, such a boring show.

I hated the pilot, never went back

Excellent show. It took a little bit to get it's tone, but half way through the first season it really hit its stride.

The third season of the show is some of the best sci-fi ever made with political and social commentary that rivals things like ST:TNG's "Measure of a Man" and ST:DS9's "Siege of AR-558", but with a good mix of humor similar to ST:LD.

If you haven't watched Orville, you're missing out on some absolutely fantastic Sci-Fi. I'm only sad it's unlikely to get a fourth season, because it deserves it.

It strikes me as a show that was only meant to be 1-2 series but due to popularity has kept going and now its trying to find the balance between comedy and seriousness.

The Orville is to Star Trek as Spaceballs was to Star Wars. A humorous parody, but I can appreciate the effort that they put in to have the show take itself a bit more seriously during dramatic scenes. I enjoyed it, although I only saw two seasons.