The Orville

Its not perfect, but I like it for the love letter to TNG it is. The resolution to the Kaylon 2 parter was a bit predictable (and less dark) than I would have gone, but this is a TNG ripoff not a DS9 one. You can bag on Mercer all you like, but I like what MacFarland is doing and he largely is letting the show be driven by the other characters (which is arguably the worst aspect of Discovery with the insufferable Mary Sue being shoe horned into everything) and restricting his scenes to a few Picard style give direction kinds. I could definitely use less of the Sam and Dianne shit with him and Kelly, though.

Another thing I noticed is the entire season so far seems to have a central theme about personal identity on certain levels. Not sure if that's intentional or not, but its a pretty strong threat to tie all these stories together. I also like the new security chief more, both in terms of her character and the acting involved. She actually looks like someone who should be in a position of leadership rather than the (self admitted) diversity hire the last chick was. Overall, if they keep this balance of world building, interpersonal comedic day to day interractions, and high sci-fi going this show will remain solid. This is especially true with how well they have dealt with social issues without preaching or ramming ideology on anyone. The various social Maklon episodes are exactly how you handle shit like that without SJWing iit all up and making it insufferable and preachy. The astrology episode is exactly how you critique religion vs science without breaking the sci-fi immersion by pressing any particular agenda.

I can take the imperfections and predictability of this show, because the core is good and entertaining. I end an episode wishing I could watch the next one right away. Compare that to Discovery and its pretty fucking obvious who has the plan and better writers.