LOST IN SPACE
Bumpy flight path for Seth MacFarlane’s ‘The Orville’
S ETH MacFarlane’s new live-action space series, “The Orville,” lifted off to a fast start in its Sept. 10 debut — opening to the biggest scripted drama numbers for Fox since “Empire” back in January 2015. (I’d call “The Orville” a “space-parody” series; “drama” is a little, well, dramatic — but that’s how it’s being billed.)
On Thursday, “The Orville” settles into its regular timeslot (9 p.m.) with its third episode — and it will be interesting to see if the good ride (vis-a-vis viewers) will last as MacFarlane’s series battles ABC’s “Scandal,” CBS’ “Mom” and NBC’s “Will & Grace.” “The Orville,” only sporadically funny, plays like a live-action version of MacFarlane’s mega-successful animated Fox series, “Family Guy”: think schlubby Rhode Island dad Peter Griffin as the captain of a massive, “Star Trek”- type space vessel. Throw in that show’s trademark sophomoric humor and you’ve got “The Orville”(with a more svelte captain). But “Family Guy” episodes are only a half-hour. “The Orville” is an hour-long show ... and feels like it.
The series is MacFarlane’s affectionate, tongue-in-cheek homage to intergalactic movies and TV shows — the “Star Trek” franchise, “Star Wars,” “Battlestar Galactica” and everything in-between. It’s got top-notch special effects and terrific makeup (for its spacealien characters). But it just doesn’t quite gel. At least not yet, anyway. In case you missed the first two episodes, here’s the setup: it’s 400 years in the future. Middling spaceship Captain Ed Mercer (MacFarlane) divorced his wife, Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), after finding her romping in flagrante delicto with an alien being called a Reptisian (think of a guy with a big forehead and reptilian skin).
So imagine Ed’s surprise when, a year later, he’s suddenly (and surprisingly) offered the command of a mid-level “exploratory vessel” called The USS Orville (“You’re nobody’s choice for the job,” he’s told). But there’s a catch: Kelly will be Ed’s First Officer, working alongside her ex on The Orville’s bridge — setting up the back-and-forth bickering between them as they embark on a series of outer-space adventures with their loyal crew: Ed’s best friend, Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes, “NCIS: Los Angeles”); Lt. Commander Bortus (Peter Macon, “Shameless”), an emotionless Moclan (a “single-gender species”) who incubates his own eggs to reproduce; Penny Johnson Gerald (“24”) as the ship’s no-nonsense doctor, Claire Finn; and Lt. Alara Kitan (Halston Sage, “How to
Rock”), the ship’s chief of security who’s also a Xelayan — so she possesses superhuman strength.
Perhaps “The Orville” will find its groove as the season progresses; after all, Fox cancelled “Family Guy” in 2002, only to bring it back three years later based on its impressive DVD sales. But that was during a different, less-competitive TV environment (fewer viewing platforms, fewer choices) — so I’m not so sure Fox will have that much patience with MacFarlane this time around should “The Orville” falter.