• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Bg Elvis3

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1956-1957)

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 14, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • article placeholder

      Is WWE Raw Cancelled Tonight?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
    • article placeholder

      How Much Do WWE Wrestlers Make?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
    • article placeholder

      How Much Is WWE Ticket?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Is WWE Going Back to WWF?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Is There a New WWE Championship Belt?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
    • article placeholder

      Is Jeff Hardy in WWE 2k23?

      By Coder
      | September 27, 2023
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Is WWE Raw Cancelled Tonight?
    • How Much Do WWE Wrestlers Make?
    • How Much Is WWE Ticket?
    • Is WWE Going Back to WWF?
    • Is There a New WWE Championship Belt?
    • Is Jeff Hardy in WWE 2k23?

    The Orville season three finale review: Don’t say goodbye

    By Matthew Martin
    | August 8, 2022
    TV Blogs

    Thus ends season three of The Orville.

    The episode is hardly what most were expecting from a season finale. It was low stakes, thoughtful, and centered around a wedding between two main characters. The B-plot was a call back to an earlier episode that allowed the show (specifically Seth MacFarlane, who wrote and directed) to wax philosophic about The Orville’s version of the Prime Directive, and about the hope for a future that will come when people quit fighting with each other and learn to work together for the good of all.

    The Orville S03: Penny Johnson Jerald and Mark Jackson as Dr. Claire Finn and Isaac

    It’s a long episode, as most have been this season, and if you aren’t invested in the characters you probably got a bit restless. If you, like me, love this crew you probably enjoyed spending an hour-twenty with them while Isaac and Claire prepared to get married. The old humor was back, though never over the top (not even when two nude Mochlans were playing hide and seek). The egg sandwich made its comeback. My favorite character from season one, Alara, got to cameo. And it all ended with a speech, a toast, and a folk song. Ed and Kelly even held hands.

    It was delightful…

    8/10 – The Orville’s third season finale was a low-stakes, thoughtful episode that ended with everyone smiling and happy.

    As I say, it was delightful…and that’s why I’m upset.

    What do you call a season finale that ends with everyone smiling and happy?

    A series finale.

    The Orville S03e10: Finale

    The title was a clue: Future Unkown. This wasn’t a time-travel episode. There was no great mystery to the plot. The title is a meta-commentary on the fact that this might not be the end of the show…but it might be.

    I hope this isn’t the end. I love this show too much, from the characters to the alien races, to the storytelling style that takes the best of the 90s-era Star Trek and plays around with the fact that it doesn’t have to kowtow to the Star Trek rules. It can do its own thing whenever it wants, or it can be a 100% homage whenever it wants, too. It’s the best of both worlds (pun intended) and I love it for it.

    Seth MacFarlane and co. might want to go on and do other things. That’ll make me sad if so. Yes, the show could conceivably continue without him, but The Orville is more than just a show starring Seth MacFarlane; it’s a show overseen by Seth MacFarlane. He heads the writer’s room. He wrote and/or directed many of the episodes, and the balance of humor and science-fiction in every episode is what it is because his imprint is everywhere. Losing him is more than losing Ed Mercer. In fact, Ed Mercer is probably the most expendable part of the equation. The show would be just fine with Kelly as captain. What the show can’t lose is Seth MacFarlane.

    The Orville S02e07 Seth MacFarlane Adrianne Palicki Captain Ed Mercer Kelly Grayson

    The Orville started as a Family Guy-like parody of Star Trek. It was Trek with dick and fart jokes. By the end of the first season, you could see hints that Seth and co. really wanted it to be more than it was. There was a genuine love of the tropes that made Trek great in the 60s-90s.

    The second season showed they were willing to try being serious, while also keeping their brand of humor in a toned-down way. The balance was great, in my opinion, and some of the storyline payoffs like hearing “9 to 5” playing in the episode “Sanctuary” were amazing. They did things that, on paper, sounded ridiculous, but were executed with so much love and with such deftness I couldn’t help but get sucked in.

    The Orville S02e02 Halston Sage Chad L Coleman Peter Macon Alara Kitan Klyden Bortus

    Season three has toned down the humor even more. I’d say if season one was 60-40 humor/sci-fi, and season two was 50-50, then season three has been like 30-70 humor/sci-fi. This is the show fans wanted “new” Star Trek to be. The only new Trek show that’s come close has been Strange New Worlds, but Orville blows it away in terms of the depth of characters, the richness of the world-building, and the balance between serialized threads and episodic stories.

    I want a season 4 more than I want any other Trek show to be renewed.

    Orville is Star Trek without the baggage and expectations that come with Trek. The aforementioned Dolly Parton thing (and the call back in season three) could never have been done on Trek. The franchise is too high brow and I say that as a fan for 30 years. Orville can do it because they’re brave enough to do it, and it works because it’s still enough to work in this universe.

    I hope we get a fourth season.

    I have no idea how the show is performing on Hulu. I don’t know the numbers. I haven’t seen any press releases touting it, but I also haven’t seen any articles from Variety or the like talking about how big of a money sink it’s been. I’m totally in the dark. I’ve got to believe, however, if Hulu wants it back, and if the support is there, that The Orville will return. I think TV needs it, and not in the form of a “made for Hulu movie” every couple of years. The Orville needs to be weekly because that’s the format that TV needs: weekly adventures, a new ethical dilemma to solve each week, a new weekly wrinkle to a long-running plot thread, a recurring new development for a character, etc.

    The Orville was conceived as “Family Guy in Space” because that’s the only way Seth could have sold it to Fox. He made it a trojan horse to slowly phase out the gags and phase in the Star Trekian drama. Mission accomplished. He saw a void on TV: There was no Star Trek. The Orville filled that void. Yes, it premiered the same year as Discovery, but it wasn’t until this year that Strange New Worlds came along and really embraced the Star Trek legacy. It would be tragically ironic if that happened the same year as Orville’s last. I don’t want The Orville to bow out now that a genuinely good Star Trek show is back airing weekly adventures. There’s room for both, especially since Strange New Worlds only runs ten episodes per season. I can handle one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

    I’m selfish. I want both.

    If I have to start a letter-writing campaign so help me I’ll do it!

    Tags

    Seth MacFarlaneThe Orville

    You might also like

    • The Orville season 3 review part three (really great and really not)

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 19, 2022
    • The Orville season three review part 2 (better and better and better)

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 9, 2022
    • The Orville season three review part 1 (episodes 1-2 bring ups and downs)

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Bless you, Orville.

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2020

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2023 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter