The Orville S01E03 “About a Girl”
I didn’t like this one.
For starters, the episode is serious enough for you to think about everything in the episode that doesn’t make sense. Why is Bortus even considered a male in the first place? Last week, Bortus laid an egg which hatched into a baby Moclan. Females lay eggs, not males!
And that’s not just my definition, that’s the dictionary definition. “FEMALE: of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs”
spoilers ahead
Secondly, it seems very unlikely that Bortus is going to change his mind about something so important to Moclan culture just because Malloy and LaMarr get him to watch the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation special. “It’s supposed to funny, you’re not supposed to take it seriously “ just doesn’t seem to work for me here.
Most importantly, I don’t understand the point of view that all humans think that Bortus shouldn’t be allowed to have his baby’s sex surgically changed to “male” (even though that only changes the baby’s external appearance because “male” Moclans can still lay eggs thus they are still female, so whatever the surgery does it’s not a sex change from female to male). The Moclans are a completely alien species, that’s the way they do things, who are we to judge them?
The only possible explanation I can think of is that we are supposed to think that the Moclans are right and the humans are wrong, and this is some sort of trick to get conservatives to think that sex reassignment surgery is OK. Sorry, it didn’t work, it’s OK for Moclans, it’s not OK for humans.
The only redeeming thing about this episode is that the humans trying to force their own culture and morals onto the Moclans lost the fight, and the baby did get its sex changed.
You posted an Elton John song and then Trump calls Kim Jong Un ‘Rocket Man’. Is Trump reading your blog?
prolier than thou
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
Or Stephen Miller rather.
Jokah Macpherson
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
I think it was clear that we were supposed to root for the court to decide against sex-changing surgery for an infant, which makes it anti-trans. We were also supposed to be aghast at the patriarchal culture that wiped out women. Criticism of Islam maybe? I like that you could interpret the messages in a lot of different ways.
Some liberals are upset that the show accepted an inherent male and female nature that crossed species.
“Using stale, decades-old “men are idiots” and “women are stronger than you realize” tropes was a major step backwards for the episode. If the show had thought things through, Moclans wouldn’t have to be convinced that stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity don’t actually exist, because they wouldn’t know about them in the first place. Why would those exist in their society? They’re a single-gender species.”
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-orvilles-latest-episode-shows-seth-macfarlanes-futu-1818655458
From an evolutionary perspective, you may well believe that a bunch of different species evolving separately would converge to a similar kind of gender binary. Unfortunately, I doubt they thought about it that much.
Jeremy Cooper
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
> against sex-changing surgery for an infant, which makes it anti-trans
its not anti-trans at all. sex changing surgery when you are able to make the decision for yourself is very different to forcing it on an infant.
we used to actually do this – it didn’t go very well – and actually that horrible accidental experiment helped us to understand more clearly the distinction between gender and sex. it is partly responsible for the greater acceptance of a fluid definition of gender – particularly in medicine where philosophical ideals about human rights don’t even enter the equation…
however i agree with you, that i doubt this much thought went into it.
more humour could have helped too…
Semi Essessi
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
Circumcision and female genital mutilation are unpopular with the elite media, along with psychotherapy for sexual dysphoria..
cesqy
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
From the io9 article:
“That said, The Orville only tackles the topic only on its most basic level, and there are plenty of missteps that reveal the show didn’t fully research the topic it decided to tackle. Characters continually use the phrase “born female,” which is a reductive term that oversimplifies a complex issue, and no one is called out on it. The gender spectrum is never addressed, everything is presented as strictly male or female.”
I had to laugh at that one! Go down and read the comments for that article. I think they are worthwhile.
That said, I thought it was a pretty good episode. It wasn’t one that had me laughing (except for Norm McDonald’s blobby attempt to hit on the doctor) but it did have me smiling for much of the episode. The reason? This played out just like a genuine Next Generation episode. In fact it’s similar to the episode that had MAJ Winchester playing an alien…Half A Life was the episode. The aliens on this planet have a custom that people kill themselves on their 60th birthday, and Troi’s mom has the hots for the alien who is about to turn 60. She talks Charles into defecting to the Enterprise and a similar cultural clash ensues.
You know, at first I thought this show was supposed to be a parody, then a SF comedy, but now I think McFarlane is trying to do an honest homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Stylistically it’s almost identical, except for some McFarlane touches, like workplace comedy situations and pop culture references. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer is the key to changing Bortus’ mind.
I like this show, so it’s a shame that it’s not going to last.
Mike Street Station
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
Why isn’t it going to last? Its getting strong Nielsrn ratings.
Alex
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
“Why isn’t it going to last? Its getting strong Nielsrn ratings.”
Is it? I just assumed it would be a ratings disaster.
Mike Street Station
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
The best part about the court scene was acknowledging that male aliens are far more capable of reshaping titanium than the females and can do so in half the time.
The Orville has some interesting elements. Having Alara run goofily through the hallways to Bortus’ room was great…almost acknowledging that the Star Trek sets are too small to really run at full speed. I like the use of this advanced technology…cutting up an asteroid so it does not hit a planet, and such.
map
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Confusing the sexually confused about sex seems to be the tactics of the transgender sympathizers these days. The in-your-face parades down main street no longer get enough attention. I turned the show off after the first five minutes cause I knew what was coming. Did you notice how quickly the first commercial comes out, right after they throw the “shocking” theme at you?
cesqy
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
how dare you! race and gender are merely social constructions, but islam and homosexuality are genetic.
ron burgundy
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
if bruce jenner converted to islam would have have to wear a burqa?
has there been a fatwa on this question?
ron burgundy
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
McCain is a no on G-C so healthcare is finally dead for good this session.
As much as I would have loved to see NeoGaf and DKos scream, we probably are better off without healthcare getting through for 3 reasons:
1. Repealing Obamacare would be such a huge win that it *might* give Trump and Republicans the leverage they need to pass the DREAM Act. DREAM probably fails even if Ocare repeal passed, but Ocare failure combined with Strange losing means DREAM is impossible. The GOP knows they can’t go to their voters with no Ocare repeal AND amnesty.
2. This failure plus Moore presumably beating Strange puts enormous pressure on McConnell to end the filibuster. Basically McConnell either needs to dump the filibuster or resign after this failure. He won’t do it in this session, but after he loses McCain, Heller, Wicker, Corker and Flake, he will do it for the 2019 session.
3. The bill really isn’t very good. After the filibuster is killed we can get a bill that doesn’t have to deal with all of reconciliations rules and get more of the stuff we want while not getting a bill with such bad PR.
…
Interesting factoid about Trump’s popularity: on 538’s Trump Tracker, they have charts at the bottom that compare Trump’s popularity to other Presidents at the same point in their Presidencies. He is tied with Gerald Ford and only 7.4 points below Bill Clinton.
Otis the Sweaty
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
Are we still impeaching Trump? And why doesn’t Trump just reach out to democrats on health care instead of reaching out to them on immigration, literally the worst possible issue to do that on?
Magnavox
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
No. Impeachment was called off after it was made clear that Trump didn’t mean to sell us out. He thought the deal he was getting with Schumer and Pelosi was just making DACA official in exchange for border security. That’s a bad deal, but not a betrayal.
Even though Trump actually agreed to 6 million CITIZENS and 36 million more chain migrants in exchange for literally nothing, he only did that because he is too stupid to realize that that is what he agreed to.
He isn’t reaching out to the Dems on healthcare for the same reason he isn’t reaching out to them on taxes or infrastructure: there is no common ground whatsoever so no way to work with them.
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
Didn’t like this episode and don’t have much hope they are going in a direction that I find pleasurable. For me the correct model for this show would be Firefly. Good, serious sci-fi/adventure plots with humor thrown in when appropriate. I think they have a cast that could actually pull it off (maybe kill off the Black Doctor as proof of “seriousness”). But it seems like the show is going for goofy and easy, and is going to be more like Big Bang Theory in terms of intellectual heft.
Watched the first episode of Ozark tonight and found that to be pretty intriguing. Nice to see Justin Bateman stretching his range a little bit further from that same role he’s played in 9 or 10 movies over the past decade. He’s a pretty good actor. Daughter is very strange looking but I still found her attractive. Thought of Lion tonight at dinner. The table next to us were four flamboyant homosexuals in their early twenties having a passionate discussion about the season finale of Riverdale.
PerezHBD
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
I stopped watching Ozark when they had a scene with a man fellating another man.
CamelCaseRob
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
Just got to that part. Truthfully, I had much more trouble overcoming the Maya Angelou praise in the first five minutes of Riverdale than I did the cock sucking in Ozark.
PerezHBD
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Much better to watch ‘The Deuce’. Plenty of fellating, but all the actors are the right sex and playing the correct roles. Funny, that to get a fully hetero TV show these days the story needs to be set in the porn industry.
Curle
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
I agree, the concept of male and female to that species when males lay eggs yet females also exist is silly. That greatly detracted from taking this episode seriously, despite that being the way they wanted you to take it.
Now, that said, I think this episode was better than either of the previous two. Mostly because they largely gave up on their ill-fated attempts at humor. This show is bouncing trying to find its grove. It hasn’t quite gotten there, yet.
JayMan
September 22, 2017 at EDT pm
some fish can change their gender apparently. that is, the change in phenotype includes change in reproductive role.
it has occurred to me that some people are so stupid they don’t understand that this is impossible for humans.
ron burgundy
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
The Left is losing their minds in reaction to Trump’s Alabama speech. DKos has like half a dozen diaries on it and NeoGaf is saying that players “of color”* should refuse to play this weekend in the NFL to show their disapproval of Trump.
*Gaffer blacks, like Black Twitter, see all non whites as part of the same team. They like to imagine that all non whites are on their side against whitey.
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
“*Gaffer blacks, like Black Twitter, see all non whites as part of the same team.”
They are, mostly, at present. Key word, at present. How many from the original Bolshevik multiculti coalition expected Stalin’s realignment with the nationalists? Arguably there are no true non-ethnic long term coalitions in multicultural states.
Curle
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Check out of the neogaf thread about it: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1437201
way to go Trump! Trigger those snowflakes!
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
Otis, why is this neogaf site so one sided and hateful? How did a gaming site end up like this?
I thought gamers were mostly quiet nerds or politically more libertarian and tolerant.
Look how delusional they are…..
NeoGAF is a nexus of hardcore gamers, enthusiast press, and video game industry developers and publishers.
This is a neutral ground where facts and evidence, presented within the confines of civil, inclusive discourse, prevail through careful moderation.
LOL. I went through several threads and it was nothing but hatred and obscene rantings.
It wasn’t civil or inclusive. It was just vulgar, shallow, hateful sputtering.
Rifleman
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
I understand their hate. I don’t understand their confidence. They really think that this feud hurts Trump. They live in a completely alternate reality.
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
“Otis, why is this neogaf site so one sided and hateful?”
Like everyone else in the US they were put through the thought programming process we call the Education establishment. They were socialized to act this way. We all work to the pay salaries of people we don’t know doing things to kids we neither understand nor follow and when the kids come out the other end only then do we discover what we paid for. All the while our so-called political allies the Republicans spend all their time consumed with some little minor economic side show ignoring, as best they can, the Bolshevik shit show going on all around them.
On that note, I understand the Charlottesville grovelling to the Bolshevik press may be backfiring with Ryan and congressional Rs experiencing basement level approvals and renewed calls for Paul’s head by the masses and their few congressional allies. Anyone else hearing this?
Curle
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Alara has eyebrows now! Big improvement!
Comic Book Nerd
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
Here’s my try at a Trump tweet:
“Loser Neils “Bore” says 2 states of real quatnum states simultaneously exist. Many worlds theory more intuitive!”
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
Whether this episode was supposed to be entertainment or propaganda, it was utterly incoherent and very badly done.
Seth MacFarlane, the producer and lead actor, seems to want some kind of comedy. What they have is sophomoric. MacFarlane should study some of the long-standing, well-liked comedy teams of the past. Each of them paired a clown with a straight man: Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Amos and Andy, Martin and Lewis, etc. In this case, because MacFarlane and Palicki are supposed to be exes, I think Burns and Allen is the best choice. Palicki would be Gracie, and MacFarlane would be George. In a military comedy, the top kick should be the straight man. Also, Palicki would look great in a catsuit, which adheres to long-standing Star Trek traditions.
In the event, the show was just too mangled for me, and I turned it off about a third of the way in and cancelled all future recordings. If they clean it up, let me know.
bob sykes
September 23, 2017 at EDT am
Oroville screenwriter Seth won’t be cleaning it up but will probably go farther “down low.” Here is a quote from Wikipedia about his portrayal of Brian on the Family Guy.
He further added, “Look, Brian happens to be a heterosexual character, as I am. If I found out that I had slept with a transsexual, I might throw up in the same way that a gay guy looks at a vagina and goes, ‘Oh, my God, that’s disgusting.'”
cesqy
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
The story David Reimer demonstrates that sex change surgery at birth is a bad idea.
David was born male but his parents had his sex changed shortly after birth due to a botched circumcision. His parents raised him as a girl, but he grew up as an unhappy tomboy who was interested in girls. He had his sex changed back as an adult before he ended up killing himself.
The character of Klyden in this episode is a lie. McFarlane, who wrote the episode, tells us that Klyden was born female, and his parents had his sex changed shortly after birth. McFarlane shows us a character who is well adjusted and otherwise indistinguishable from other males. Why? Because sex is a social construct. This is pure fantasy. Meanwhile, in the real world, it isn’t — as the tragic story of David Reimer demonstrates.
Comic Book Nerd
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
The Maclons are an alien race, they are not human.
Lion of the Blogosphere
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
“The Maclons are an alien race, they are not human.”
You could look at it that way. But that’s like saying that the series is a joke, not to be taken seriously.
Comic Book Nerd
September 24, 2017 at EDT am
“The Maclons are an alien race, they are not human.”
That’s like saying that Watership Down is just a book about rabbits.
Comic Book Nerd
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
The episode might better be read as a parable about the dangers of female genital mutilation in a multicultural society.
Imagine being a captain of a ship with a crew member with a spouse who demands that his newborn be genitally mutilated (and what is a sex change operation if not exactly that?) What would you do? Would you submit the dispute to an East African court and glumly accept the verdict, as Captain Mercer does? Or would you, at the very least, expel the child abusing parent back to his home country? McFarland evidently finds the latter option unthinkable.
The rest of the episode would be about Bortus’ choice between the spouse that he claims to love and his duties to the Orville.
Comic Book Nerd
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Idiots of DKos and NeoGaf think that Trump has shot himself in the foot with his Kaepernick comments. One Gaffer brings a modicum of sanity to the discussion: “What’s most depressing is that this shit works. Trump WANTS to see more people protesting during the anthem this weekend. He knows that a disturbing percentage of Americans will eat this shit up. Trump’s racism was on full display like never before in August and his approval rating went up 2 points.”
Otis the Sweaty
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Blacks kneeling before whites. Have they thought that through?
Bob Sykes
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
One Gaffer brings a modicum of sanity to the discussion…
That’s your idea of sanity? He’s just an obscene lunatic.
This guy seems right:
Rifleman
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
Trump should encourage NFL players to piss all over their fans so that the people watching begin to put away their childish obsession with sports and focus on real issues.
Magnavox
September 23, 2017 at EDT pm
As Magnavox comment shows, this is forcing #NeverTrumper’s to stand with Trump. On TRS the retard Cruzbots still hate Trump but they are on his side on this one. MaryK is probably cheering Trump on.
#DumpNFL
Otis the Sweaty
September 24, 2017 at EDT am
Trump makes America prolier than it should be.
JS
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
O/t – Québec Separatists are showing solidarity with Cataloonia, calling “all of us have a right to self determination”.
https://globalnews.ca/news/3765322/quebec-sovereignty-groups-rally-to-support-catalans-in-independence-movement/
Here are the differences between the 2 Latin provinces:
Barcelona wants to break away from Spain, because Catalans think they are funding the lazy lifestyles of Spaniards.
Québecois are seen as lazy freeloaders of the Canadian welfare system, and the rest of Canada wouldn’t mind the French Canadians to GTFO
JS
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
By the way, the consensus on NeoGaf, DKos and /politics is that Trump is hyping this issue because he is trying to distract from Russia.
Otis the Sweaty
September 24, 2017 at EDT pm
ST:D SPOILER AHEAD:
Wow, I cannot believe that Star Trek Discovery killed off the only remotely likeable character and the only one acting like a Starfleet officer in the second episode.
I can’t believe how much better the Orville is compared to ST:D – I was rooting for the Klingons by the end of the premiere.
PrinzEugen
September 25, 2017 at EDT am