Seth MacFarlane's sci-fi spoof The Orville is kicking off later this month in the US, but according to critics it might just be his worst work yet.
Set 400 years in the future and also starring the likes of Adrianne Palicki and Penny Johnson Jerald, the show features MacFarlane as the pilot of the Orville as a crew of humans and aliens tackle missions in space.
Most critics have not had great things to say about The Orville, commenting that the one-hour episodes are too long and could have benefited from a shorter episode length.
Check out the reviews below...
TVLine (grade D)
"Despite what Fox's official site claims, The Orville is not a 'hilarious comedy'. It's not even a comedy. Yes, there are a few Family Guy-esque punchlines scattered throughout, but as baffling as this sounds, The Orville is mostly a straightforward drama… and not a very good one, at that.
"Riddled with sci-fi clichés and paralyzed by a grim self-importance, MacFarlane's shiny new vessel ends up being a colossal dud that not only fails to take flight, it short-circuits before it even gets out of the docking bay."
Collider (1 star)
"By playing it safe and showing a truly breathtaking lack of creativity, The Orville can't even claim to be better than the myriad of Star Trek fan films that can currently be found on YouTube. If nothing else, at least those have a genuine sense of passion and adoration behind them, whereas MacFarlane's xerox offers only empty veneer."
Variety
"An air of self-congratulation hangs over the entire hour, as if MacFarlane, who wrote it, couldn't get over his awe at his own bravery in engaging with a difficult, complex topic.
"Without giving anything away, suffice it to say that the show takes a big creative swing tackling issues of gender and identity, but it does not connect, and the end result is disastrous. If it's challenging for The Orville to wring laughs from the audience, it's all but impossible for it to earn the dramatic (and tone-deaf) conclusion it attempts in the third episode."
ComingSoon.net
"If you've seen the trailers for Seth MacFarlane's new series The Orville, you would not be remiss in thinking it is a comedy. But you would be wrong. The show is a little bit sitcom, a little bit rom-com, a little bit sci-fi – and it doesn't work on any level."
The Hollywood Reporter
"There are no tongues in the cheeks of The Orville. It's the work of a fan of Star Trek trying to make a Star Trek show, without any of that pesky darkness or edginess modern audiences might expect.
"The highest compliment I can pay to The Orville is that while the three episodes I've seen only fleetingly work, I don't question MacFarlane's sincerity, nor the sincerity of episodic directors Jon Favreau and Star Trek franchise veterans Robert Duncan McNeil and Brannon Braga... Whether viewers will respond to sincerity and professionalism, but limited mirth and very few thrills, when they've been promised Seth MacFarlane hilarity, remains to be seen.
Deadline
"With its urination gags and heavy-handedness on such topics as gender identity and racism, the only purpose of the lost-in-space The Orville seems to be to as a way for Fox to continue its lucrative relationship with MacFarlane and keep him happy."
