Science Fiction

This is a good show that is trying very hard not to be a great show. I would love to see it explode with popularity more than it already has.

It had some jokes thrown it at the most inopportune times

That's Seth humor in a nutshell.

Perhaps the first half of the first season was actually a bit rough

Name a show that started off any other way though. Even SG1 is cringe in the first season. Lexx maybe, but even that one grew different after the first few episodes.

I was surprised by how good season one was. Season two was great fun. I hated season three.

I feel they tried too hard to make serious points and failed at telling good stories. They wanted to have big thoughts, but just weren't entertaining.

While I don't regret watching it—and I'd probably even throw on a new season if it gets one—I felt like it was missing any true classic episodes. I also kept having this strange sense of familiarity with episodes, as if it was just repurposing or rehashing older Star Trek plots.

I kept thinking, "Wasn't there a TNG/DS9/Whatever episode that explored this same general concept/idea, but better?". It felt like it was maybe borrowing just a bit too much from it's inspiration.

I wished I could have gotten past the awkward comedy you mention. Couldn’t get into it because of that.

Blatant self insert early TNG fanfic. If you liked (or even wrote) that kind of thing in the 90s, you'll like Orville.

I loved it and it's definitely on the list of shows that I'll rewatch sometime sooner or later

I did it backwards and started watching Star Trek shows because I love The Orville so much! Hoping it gets renewed for another season soon.

I liked that they weren't the most important ship... and then they became the most important ship. Near the end the fate of every species in the galaxy hinged on the love life of three couples on a minor starship.

It also felt like they had 2 or 3 seasons of stories and hulu said "you get one", so they rushed it.

Actually I think much like Strange New Worlds, I think that it showed me how much of the recent issues I have with Star Trek is that it takes itself too seriously. (In fact also as for Star Wars, as blasphemous it is to mention here)

Love the Orville. Glad to watch more if they make more.

I like it, want more seasons to come out. Now that I finished the Orville, I need to go back and finish Farscape

I hated the pilot, never went back

I thought it would be a parody show at first but its good casual sci-fi entertainment. I liked the first two seasons better than S3.

Best modern Star Trek show.

By "modern Star Trek" I mean every show from Discovery to Strange New Worlds.

Season 3 was not good; it was heavy-handed writing and wasn't all that good drama.

I stopped after watching a few episodes. I guess it just wasn’t for me. Most people I know like it though.

It strikes me as a show that was only meant to be 1-2 series but due to popularity has kept going and now its trying to find the balance between comedy and seriousness.

The Orville is to Star Trek as Spaceballs was to Star Wars. A humorous parody, but I can appreciate the effort that they put in to have the show take itself a bit more seriously during dramatic scenes. I enjoyed it, although I only saw two seasons.