New TV shows to pass the time

[locker_monster]

I only meant to pick up one new TV show, Star Trek: Discovery, but I somehow ended up with two more. One by accident and one because, well, there's nothing else to watch on Fridays for now.

All of the CW DC superhero shows are back this week, so they'll get a separate post, but in the mean time, my thoughts on three new TV shows: Star Trek: Discovery, The Orville, and Inhumans.

- It's been over ten years since there was a Star Trek show in the air. Was Discovery worth the wait? Um, I don't know. The first two episodes were a prologue, so technically, there's only been one proper episode as I write this. The show certainly looks good, in that, there's a lot of money going into this show. But a large budget does not a good show make. I'm still willing to watch a few more episodes until I decide whether the show is good or bad. For now, it's not a complete train wreck and canon and continuity seem somewhat intact.

The only thing truly bugging me at the moment is the aesthetic of the show. I know you can't have things looking like they did on TOS, but that also doesn't mean you should radically re-design everything. Like, what the hell happened to the Klingons?!?! They don't even look like Klingons anymore. They're bald and pointy and mumble a lot. Seriously, what happened to their hair? Why change something that's so well established and iconic? Is it for the benefit of new viewers? And then there are the new uniforms. I don't like them. I miss the colours. Yellow, blue, and red were easy to see on the screen. Now it's gold, silver, and bronze and sometimes you can't tell which colour is which under certain lighting. Also, pips on the insignia; no thanks. Pips were a TNG thing. Back in TOS days, people had the braids on the cuff to denote rank. The braids were also easy to see. Now, you can't tell what rank people are without really staring hard at the insignia. The holograms for communicating also bug me. We never saw holo screens or holo images on TOS. I don't know there's nothing say that the technology didn't exist back then, but what's wrong with an old fashioned view screen?

(I'm not going to get into how Lorca has a Tribble on his desk, the same desk that has a bowl of fortune cookies on it.)

I am bummed that they killed Michelle Yeoh's character, but it wasn't completely unexpected. Only one ship captain per show. I haven't seen enough of the main cast to decide who I like the most, but Cadet Tilly is kind of funny. I know she comes across as your typical neurotic nerd, but she's a breath of fresh air on a very serious show. Michael being the foster daughter of Sarek and Amanda is a bit hard to believe (as Spock never mentioned a foster sister, but hey, he never talked about Sibok, either), and I wished they hadn't tied the character to well known characters from the franchise's history. Give her a fresh background so you don't have to dance around continuity.

At the very least, Discovery isn't worse than Enterprise, so that's good. :-D

- I hadn't planned on watching The Orville at all. I'm very much not a fan of Seth MacFarlane. His brand of humour is so crude. Instead of going for a smart joke, he goes for the easiest and dumbest joke. The Orville was also described as a Star Trek spoof and that didn't interest me. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw that the show is actually a loving homage to everything Trek. MacFarlane is a fan and it shows.

While Discovery is trying to be new and fresh, The Orville is a fun throwback to Star Trek's heyday of the 1990s. If you're a little leery of the serialized nature of Discovery, then The Orville has your back. Stand alone episodes seems to be its bread and butter. I mean, I have nothing against an overall arc for a season, but there are times when I miss the more straightforward approach. And there are actual colours on this show! The uniforms are bright and not moody navy. The insignia are a little too busy for my liking, but hey, it's hard to top something as classic as the delta shape. The special effects even have a low tech vibe, though I can decide if that's on purpose to invoke an older look or if it's a restraint of the budget. Either way, the nostalgia factor with The Orville is very high.

My only problem with the show is the humour. It messes with the tone. Most of the time, the show plays it straight. The plots and situations are stuff you'd expect from any space set show. And then they throw in a joke and it pulls you out. Star Trek could be fun at times, but the humour and jokes came out naturally. Here, the humour feels so forced. I get that MacFarlane is known for comedy, but the jokes don't need to be there all the time. I also don't think MacFarlane should be the lead on the show. He should have remained behind the scenes as the showrunner. It's not that he's a horrible actor or anything (at least I don't think he is, but I really never notice bad acting), it's just he comes with too much baggage. He's the Family Guy/American Dad guy and it's hard to take him seriously when he's in the middle of a heavy scene. Makes me wonder if the show would be more well received if someone else was playing Ed.

The Orville certainly has room to grow. I'll probably keep watching. Nice to have some fun cheese to mellow out with.

- Oh, Inhumans. I don't know why they thought this show would be a good idea. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was already doing a great job exploring that area of the comics. It also doesn't help that the showrunner is Scott Buck, the same guy who did season one of Iron Fist, the weakest of all of the Netflix Marvel shows.

If you look at all of the Marvel TV shows so far, they aren't anything flashy. All of the Netflix shows are street level superheroes with pretty basic powers that are easy to do for the small screen. Some CGI but nothing too crazy. AoS does a little bit more, but with something like Daisy's seismic powers, you fling people backwards and then add on a sound wave effect after. With someone like Ghost Rider, they did the effect sparring because they knew they couldn't do the full flame head every episode.

I think the problem with Inhumans is, it's trying to do too much. Superpowers and living on the Moon and "hey look, we're filming in Hawaii!". Right off the bat, the show did try to find a way to organically limit the use of everyone's superpowers - Medusa loses her hair, Karnak gets hit on the head, Gorgon conveniently has a pair of boots to cover up his hoofs, Lockjaw is forced to go asleep - but now, you have a show about super powered people who can't use their skill sets. I guess this does force the characters to find different solutions because of their new limitations, but it feels a little silly right now. Maybe things will get better since some of the characters aren't just wandering around aimlessly, but who knows.

Plus, I'm also confused about how Inhumans fits in with the events we've seen on AoS. They mention the outbreak of new Inhumans, but there was nothing about the Sokovia Accords. Are the rogue Inhumans who didn't sign up the ones being hunted? And then you have Desmond Declan, this government guy (or maybe not government guy?) who seems to be rounding up Inhumans. For a bit on AoS, the public seemed to accept Inhumans, but I think that broke down after the Life Model Decoy tried to kill General Talbot. So maybe Inhumans will pick up that thread (since the S.H.I.E.L.D. team seems to be stuck in space for now).

I want AoS to come back now. I just saw the season four blooper reel and it made me miss the cast so much.

Can't wait for the CW DC shows to come back. The crossover sounds truly epic this season.