The Orville: You're Overthinking It

If you are a fan of Sci-Fi and don't much care for The Orville, you're probably overthinking it.

Before I get too far into the weeds, I have a system to decide what i want to watch. The scale goes from "can't miss" at the top end to "I'll catch it later" in the middle and "nope" at the bottom. As I have limited time, "can't miss" shows are limited to about 6-8.

The Orville has become a "can't miss" show for not just me but my wife and daughter as well. Every review I have seen of this show has been "I don't get it" or tries to put it in a box by making unfair comparisons to shows that are not doing what this is trying to do. 

Do I know what this show is trying to do? No, and I don't care. It's different. It's new. It is something my family enjoys. We are not trying to figure out what Seth MacFarlane is trying to do; we are not trying to classify it as something it isn't; and we certainly are not comparing it to other sci-fi.

But let's dabble with a few comparisons anyway.

Most reviewers are comparing it to Star Trek: The Next Generation. While it certainly has that feel in many ways, I liken the show itself to be more Firefly-esque. That much beloved show was very different than any other Sci-Fi TV show at the time. That show was trying to do something different as well and few at the time really understood what it was supposed to be - including this writer. FOX, in their own admitted shortsightedness, cancelled the show after 13 episodes.

The critics believe the same fate will befall The Orville.

I, for one, sure hope that we see 2 full seasons out of this before FOX makes any decision. As they have already learned, it takes people a while to warm up to something new in Sci-Fi. I think if people just go along for the ride rather than pick it apart for reasons to dislike it, you might actually enjoy it. 

I have learned my lessons from Firefly. The question is, has anyone else?

MR GB

A New Direction

Gigastrand was recently bought out by Next Level Technologies. People ask if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Personally, it is a mixed bag.

On the one hand, I not only get to keep doing what I am doing, but I get the resources to make the the company into everything I imagined. Working with smart people who challenge me is such a wonderful experience as well. 

However, after 12 years of putting my heart and soul into the business, rising to every challenge, I did feel like it was giving up on a dream.

Regardless, good things are ahead of me and it is giving me some things to think about. Like, what should I do with the time I do not have to spend running a business?

Of course some of that time will be spent with my family. Though, I still want a project of some kind. Something I can put effort into personally that might be of use to someone else.

So, in the last few months, I have taken stock of what I have. I enjoy writing and I have this blog that I have been using for co-publishing articles from Gigastrand over the years. Before it was being used for that, it was a fun little blog I did. To me, that seemed like an obvious choice.

I will probably just keep it simple. I have ideas for many stories I could tell that could fill a year of blog posts. I can't promise what the content will look like, but hopefully you will enjoy it.

MR GB