Though The Orville does not break any new ground, the show continues to provide, in its second night premiere of 'Command Performance,' a refreshing brand of humorously heartfelt entertainment.
'Command Performance' was a showcase for Halston Sage as Security Chief Alara Kitan - her character having to deal with the burdens of captaining a ship for the first time. The theme about the hard choices of leadership - when to follow the orders of our advisors and superiors and when not to - is a bit of a trope, but nevertheless, explored well enough. The innocence of Kitan is adorably amusing. Though how characters play off her attempts at leadership is where most of the humor comes from a la navigator Lamarr calling her Dora the Explorer.
It is encouraging though to see in these early episodes the development of a secondary character in Kitan. The success of
The Orville will be based on how well they develop the rest of the crew outside the captain and his XO, and so far, A+ in that department.
The other storyline of 'Command Performance,' that sees Mercer and Grayson as prisoners, allowed the show to further explore the relationship between the two dysfunctional characters. The bickering is humorous, but there is a lot of heart also. The tender moment between Captain Mercer and Grayson, as they reminisce on the good times of their marriage, was inarguably the memorable scene of the episode. Well, that and the laugh out loud conclusion that sees the aliens given reality television in place of their human prisoners. It does makes you wonder how aliens would view us if they were monitoring our world.
On a side note, Commander Bortus (Peter Macon) also has some time in the spotlight, albeit in a limited role, as we learn he is expecting a child and needs to sit on his egg. As a small preview, this will lead to the next episode - airing this Thursday - one that will for sure cause a lot of discussion.
Overall, 'Command Performance' was another solid episode. It deserved the impressively high ratings of last weekend, and hopefully the show continues to perform well for this second episode.
8/10
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