When I first started this show I found it to be a really awkward mix of comedy and seriousness. It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times as some kind of comic relief from a really serious situation. Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough or maybe the show just grew on me, but by season 2 I found myself loving this show.
To me it seems as every bit as comfy, intellectually interesting and even funny as some classic Star Treks while still clearly being its own thing. I wish more comfy space shows like this would get made.
What are your thoughts on The Orville? Also I miss Alara.
I definitely agree about the messaging. The Orville's idea of social commentary is: here's some aliens that built their society around a thing we don't like for no reason, they're total dicks for no reason, therefore the thing is bad.
The Moclan gender issue has been praised as an allegory for trans and intersex issues. But my problem with it is it ONLY works as an allegory. Their society makes no sense at all taken at face value, and has been portrayed inconsistently depending on what point the writers want to make. Why would a naturally hermaphroditic species adopt the human concepts of "male" and "female" in the first place?
I do like the show. It's entertaining, and a sincere attempt to recreate what worked about Star Trek in a way that Disc and Picard weren't. But the social commentary is just not well done. The Orville writers aren't visionaries or philosophers on the same level as the classic Trek writers.