After three long years, Seth MacFarlane's The Orville is finally back with Season 3, officially titled The Orville: New Horizons. The new season brings with it some interesting new characters and a new home for the sci-fi comedy-drama, which has now moved from Fox to Hulu — and it looks like that change has also led to some serious upgrades for the series.
The season premiere, titled "Electric Sheep," spends a bit of time showcasing the swanky new look of the series. Everything looks so much cooler, from the shuttles to even the captain's chair. If there's a complaint to be made about the first episode, it's that it doesn't actually involve any new journeys. There are no discoveries or strange new worlds in "Electric Sheep." Instead, what we do have is a dark, in-depth dive into (trigger warning) trauma, suicide, and grief.
In terms of the overarching plot, the ship's narrative is still in the docks in Episode 1, both literally and metaphorically. For most of the episode, the USS Orville is docked for repairs and refits, with Chief Engineer John Lamarr (J. Lee) spearheading a total overhaul of the ship's systems. There's only one real space battle in the episode, and even that lasts for barely a few minutes. While that's a bit disappointing for fans who were hoping to dive right into the more fun elements of the series, it does allow for an emotional, character-driven story, even if it's one that doesn't have much of the wonderfully understated humor that has made the show so enjoyable in past seasons.
The episode addresses the long-overdue question of how the crew is feeling about the Kaylon Isaac (Mark Jackson) still being part of the Orville's team. And the answer? Not good. After Isaac's betrayal of the Orville and subsequent redemption in Season 2's two-part episode "Identity," it seems a lot of crew members have begun to hate and fear Isaac. The most notable example of this is new cast member Anne Winters' Ensign Charly Burke, the ship's new navigator. Charly, who lost her best friend in the Kaylon attack, is brutally honest about how much she hates Isaac. As painful as that is, it's the aggressive attitude that Isaac faces from Claire Finn's (Penny Johnson Jerald) son Marcus (BJ Tanner) that really pushes the Kaylon over the edge. He decides that the ship would be better off without him and proceeds to commit suicide, leading to one of the grimmest and most painful episodes of the show. Of course, the team eventually figures out a way to bring Isaac back (we're not that dark yet), with some grudging assistance from Charly. But the story does provide a completely unexpected and very well-written examination of trauma and suicide, even going so far as to explore how different alien cultures might view the issue.
Most of the crew, including MacFarlane's Captain Ed Mercer and First Officer Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), take more or less a backseat in the episode. The focus is almost entirely on Isaac, Claire, John, Charly, and Marcus. Winters puts on a decent performance as the new crew member but unfortunately, as she is now, Charly is easily the most unlikable character on the show. It's not that her reaction to Isaac isn't at least partly justified, it's just that her character appears to be overwhelmingly spiteful and frankly a little racist towards the Kaylon. And that's a shame because her skillset, which includes the ability to visualize in multiple dimensions, seems genuinely interesting. I do have hope that future episodes will allow Charly to evolve into a more well-rounded character, even if she never fully lets go of her hatred towards Isaac.
The really engaging part of the story is the way in which it depicts how bullying and ostracization, even when done to an unfeeling robotic organism, can cause genuine trauma. Isaac might insist that he does not have the capability to understand emotions but even in his purely logical way, he does react to the hatred dished out to him in a way that's painfully human. Suicide is a complex issue that doesn't have any easy answers and the series manages to tackle it in a way that is life-affirming but not presumptuous or preachy. Overall, "Electric Sheep" is definitely a great episode, but it would maybe be better if the show didn't continue in the same vein for the rest of the season. Serious stories like this, while important, don't exactly fit in with The Orville's brand of humor and wonder. As a rare treat, it's certainly satisfying, but here's hoping we get to see more classic sci-fi adventure stories in the next episodes.
And that does seem to be the case. Episode 2, titled "Shadow Realms," reportedly involves the crew exploring a mysterious region that's presumably uncharted. It seems we'll finally be getting the New Horizons promised by the season's title, and maybe that "May the Force Be With You" speech from the trailer. Wherever the story is going to go, things are certainly looking up for The Orville in Season 3 and with any luck, this could just be the best season yet.
Rating: A-
The first episode of The Orville: New Horizons is streaming now on Hulu. Episode 2 lands exclusively on the service on June 9.