# The Orville (2017)

> A ragtag crew of an aging exploratory ship in Earth's 400-years-future interstellar fleet balances comedy and earnest space adventure.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/62609

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 36
- Episode runtime: 44 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: science fiction, comedy
- Created by: Seth MacFarlane
- Network: FOX, Hulu
- Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, Peter Macon, Jessica Szohr, J. Lee, Mark Jackson
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5691552/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: earnest, optimistic, warm, breezy, light-hearted

## What critics say

Viewers broadly find The Orville a warm, heartfelt space adventure that leans more on character and Star Trek homage than on comedy, with audience ratings positive across its run.

## Synopsis

The Orville (2017-2022) is an American science fiction comedy series created by Seth MacFarlane for FOX and Hulu. Set four centuries in the future, it follows Captain Ed Mercer (Seth MacFarlane), a divorced officer commanding a not-so-functional exploratory ship in Earth's interstellar fleet. His executive officer and former spouse Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) and chief medical officer Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) join a crew that includes Lieutenant Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) and the Moclan officer Bortus (Peter Macon). Their engine is simple and effective: each episode sends the ship to a new world, a diplomatic crisis or a technical failure, and the crew must improvise solutions while managing their personal tensions. The show runs three seasons and thirty-six episodes in a case-of-the-week format with an ongoing thread of relationships. Its tone is warm, earnest and optimistic, with action beats and gentle humour rather than constant jokes. Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Firefly and Red Dwarf will find resonance in its hopeful utopian outlook, its crew banter and its episodic exploration of strange new civilisations.

## Shows like The Orville

- [Andromeda (2000)](https://ember.film/tv/2838)
- [Star Trek: Discovery (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/59153)
- [Final Space (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/64666)
- [Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)](https://ember.film/tv/619)
- [Other Space (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/55476)
- [Avenue 5 (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/76961)
- [Star Trek (1966)](https://ember.film/tv/235)
- [Farscape (1999)](https://ember.film/tv/4058)
- [Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/143549)
- [Firefly (2002)](https://ember.film/tv/1353)

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