The Radical Child

Since I reasonably enjoyed Disney’s Zootopia, I naturally watched its spinoff Disney+ series, consisting of six short side stories parallel to the film's events. The first sees Judy Hopps’ parents try to rescue their youngest daughter among countless children, Molly, as she hitches a ride on the train that takes her older sister to Zootopia. The second sees Fru Fru the shrew participating in a reality television series while dealing with her forthcoming wedding. The third sees Duke Weaselton ponder his life choices through singing, the next one providing backstory to Mr. Big in a further nod to The Godfather. The penultimate episode features Chief Bogo and Clawhauser participating in a talent show, the last on Sam, an otter waitress, as she serves the sloth couple Flash and Priscilla. I enjoyed this mini-series overall, given its addition to the film’s events (and a few scenes from the movie are even featured); I hope the franchise mythos is explored more before the forthcoming sequel in whatever incarnations Disney decides.

When I first started watching this live-action science-fiction dramedy on Fox the last decade, I assumed it would be a knockoff of the Star Trek series, but given the repertoire of showrunner Seth MacFarlane, responsible for animated series such as Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show, I knew it would be a more lighthearted take on the sci-fi genre. The series opens with up-and-coming Planetary Union officer Ed Mercer, portrayed by MacFarlane, catching his wife, Kelly Grayson, having an affair with an alien, which leads to their divorce. A year later, Mercer receives command of the eponymous spaceship, with Grayson, to his shock, becoming his first officer.

The Orville isn’t shy about its Star Trek inspirations, beginning with its music. The opening credits theme takes inspiration from “Life Is a Dream,” Jerry Goldsmith’s central composition of the first and the fifth Star Trek Original Series films as well as The Next Generation, a similarity more so apparent in the season three remix. The Planetary Union is a nod to the United Federation of Planets from Trek, along with the various alien races, with sundry conflicts erupting throughout the series, chiefly with the Krill, a vampiric and ultrareligious society. The robotic Kaylons, with one of its members, Isaac, serving as a neutral ambassador aboard the Orville, also come into play later.

Other notable crew members include Bortus, a member of the Moclan race with deadpan speech patterns that make for some occasional humor, who mates with Klyden and has a child named Topa, born female, which is rare among their species in their male-dominant society. The episode “About a Girl” focuses on the couple’s decision to change Topa’s gender to male to conform to Moclan society, which hit home to me as an autistic and receives a follow-up in the third season. Another first-season episode, “Majority Rule,” focuses on a twenty-first-century society reigned by upvotes and downvotes, touching upon themes such as the role of social media and public shaming, which parallels modern cancel culture.

The Orville has a pretty good selection of stars, both guest and recurring, aside from Seth MacFarlane. Brian George, who played the Pakistani restauranteur Babu Bhatt in Seinfeld, and various other Indian or Pakistani characters in other media (despite being Israeli), plays a researcher in the first episode. The late Norm Macdonald plays Yaphit, an amorphous blob with a crush on Doctor Claire Finn, and briefly appears in human form thanks to the ship’s Environmental Simulator (which Isaac also uses when he tries to woo Finn). Patrick Warburton plays a long-nosed alien in a few episodes, and Ted Danson recurs as an Admiral in the Planetary Union throughout the entire series.

Overall, I had a great time watching The Orville, which largely avoids the pitfalls of MacFarlane’s animated shows, such as the drawn-out gags and topical references (but there is some sound sociopolitical commentary that never becomes ham-fisted) and strikes a balance between being humorousness and seriousness. I found it an excellent homage and even rival to the various Star Trek series (and it did semi-compete with Discovery upon its original release), which evokes Trek’s feel (musically and aesthetically) while standing well in its own right. I would happily watch future seasons should the series continue and consider it a capstone among Seth MacFarlane's television productions.

The first holiday special based on The Bad Guys serves as a prequel to the film, focusing on the eponymous animal-populated criminal gang as they seek to rob a bank on Christmas on account that most in their city will be celebrating home. At a parade, however, their car accidentally destroys a Santa Claus balloon, causing the city’s holiday mood to plummet to the point where Christmas gets canceled. Thus, they seek to cheer up the residents so they can commit their heist as intended, although they hit some hitches in their plan, and the end doesn't pan out as expected. However, it ties into potential future specials, and I enjoyed the revisit to the world of the Bad Guys overall.

The first live-action television series in the Star Wars franchise focuses on the eponymous character, Din Djarin, a member of the same tribe as Boba Fett (who would receive his own Disney+ series that settles his fate), tasked with protecting a Force-sensitive youngling of Yoda’s species, Grogu, from various entities, whilst dealing with the remnants of the Galactic Empire five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. A very gripping series that well evokes the feel of the films and has an interesting list of guest stars in minor roles such as Jack Black, Tim Meadows, and Ahmed Best (who plays a part that isn’t Jar Jar Binks), and nicely began to fill the gaps between Episodes VI and VII of the Skywalker Saga from its debut.

Both a spinoff of Discovery, whose second season emphasized Spock's pre-Original Series backstory, and a prequel series to ToS, focusing on Captain Christopher Pike's Enterprise and its crew, which includes maybe a handful of familiar faces/relatives of ToS's characters including the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock himself, with a few calls-forward to the ToS films as well, surprisingly including the maligned fifth movie. Unlike Discovery and Picard has largely-standalone episodes, although there are some overarching plot points. They really did a good job modernizing the Original Series' aesthetics with regard to the "futuristic" technology of the time, and the same goes for the music including the opening credits theme and some familiar tunes from ToS, and I really enjoyed the first season and look forward to the second.