Friday, 1 December 2017

The Orville Review: “New Dimensions”

Are we…bonding?
(This review contains spoilers!)

          As we approach next week’s season finale, The Orville featured character development aplenty in the penultimate episode, giving insight to both major and minor characters as well as an awesome finale.

          One thing I really love about this show recently is that every episode includes a small mystery for the audience to figure out. “Cupid’s Dagger” had us wondering why everyone was acting so weird, and “Firestorm” had the big question of why scary things were showing up all over the ship. This episode was no different, as the crew discovered a mysterious wormhole that seemed to kill anything that came into direct contact with it.

          It turns out inside the wormhole is a world populated by beings who only live in two dimensions, and the Orville can travel through it thanks to a protective shield. The mission quickly becomes an escape plan though, as the wormhole closes and it’s up to LaMarr to get them out.

          I also really liked how there were three major stories going on onboard the ship today, and none of them really felt like they were overstepping each other: we saw Ed’s confidence be shattered by Kelly after she accidentally revealed she secretly asked the admiral to make him captain, Kelly discovering that LaMarr is secretly one of the smartest members of the crew, and Yaphit feeling rejected after LaMarr is appointed as the new head of Engineering instead of him. While overall the stories are all tied to the main 2-D world plot and LaMarr has the most focus, a lot of ground is covered this week that seems to be setting up Ed and Kelly getting back together next week.

          I also can’t stress enough how cool the 2-D World was. While not the first time we’ve seen a concept like this, I loved how you could kind of make out the denizens of the world by seeing lights move through the circuit boards, as well as the implication that there might be beings of higher dimension than even the main cast watching them. It was a great concept overall, and one that really makes me glad this show isn’t afraid to take risks.

          The humour was also great this week. While I could’ve done without the Bortus cold open that didn’t go anywhere, I loved the return of the Elevator Music Alien as well as Ed’s Jane Austen “prideful ass” joke. While this show’s humour doesn’t always land, when it does it consistently makes me laugh out loud.


          The fact that The Orville looks like it’s finally hit its stride makes me really sad that we only have one more episode until who knows when the show comes back. This episode was another great one, combining great character development with fantastic sci-fi concepts. This is truly the spiritual successor to Next Generation we’ve been looking for.

FINAL SCORE
9/10
Amazing

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