5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

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Avenue 5 is pretty comparable to The Orville, but what does this sci-fi series do better? And perhaps more importantly, what does it do worse?

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5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

There’s something of a sci-fi renaissance going on these days. There are two new Star Trek series currently airing, and other series are popping up. Perhaps more notable are the big names getting involved in the new generation of sci-fi, as in the case of these two shows.

Armando Iannucci is famous for his biting political satire like Veep, and his Avenue 5 managed to snag Hugh Laurie to head up its cast. Seth MacFarlane, famous for his adult-oriented animated shows, finally got his chance to make his comedic homage to his beloved Star Trek. Both shows are amazing, but not all things are equal between the two.

10 Better: Intrapersonal Relationships

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

Everyone on board the Orville has their own share of personal problems, but we don’t see those from a personal view very often. Avenue 5, on the other hand, often takes time for little asides about how characters are dealing with their own issues completely separately from everyone else aboard. Captain Clark has to sort through issues in his relationship alone – Ed Mercer would have had drinks with at least one member of his crew while he tried to work on his problems. Avenue 5 has more single character problems while The Orville focuses on working everything out as a crew.

9 Worse: Interpersonal Relationships

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

It remains to be seen whether The Orville is better in this sphere because the crew are better people than those aboard the Avenue 5, but the Fox show definitely does a better job of showing how people stuck together cope with one another. Even if those aboard the ship in the Hugh Laurie led comedy aren’t still together of their own choice, there surely has to be someone on the ship who isn’t just angry about everyone else’s failings. The Orville shows us a much richer view of living together and making everything work.

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8 Better: Science Fact

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

Avenue 5 spends a lot more time worrying about what’s possible from a real-world perspective. Sure, we may not have the technology now to go on a space cruise, but their in-universe treatment of everything is much more inspired by real science than on board the Orville. Being knocked off course on the Fox show would have the ship back on target by the end of the episode – the science crew on the Avenue 5 have been struggling with the physics of the problem since the beginning.

7 Worse: Science Fantasy

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

Sure, every time there’s a problem on board Captain Mercer and crew work it out with some mumbo jumbo about how this thing works or that thing is broken, but there’s not much real-world science behind any of it. It does let them have new problems to work out more often without them starting to seem insurmountable, which is something Avenue 5 lacks. There’s nothing wrong with science fantasy- it lets a show be able to have a little more flow without getting hung up.

6 Better: Realistic Bureaucracy

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

Only the people who are on the ship and who work for the Judd corporation really care about getting the Avenue 5 home as soon as possible at all costs. The government has taken a definite take it or leave it stance- they want to be paid back for the huge cost of recovering it or they’re not going to help.

No one on the Avenue 5 itself seems to be up to the task of doing whatever they need to do on their end to solve their problem sooner rather than later- they’re making their own hoops to jump through instead of cutting to the chase and getting it done.

5 Worse: Moving the plot along

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

The Orville doesn’t ignore bureaucracy entirely – it seems to understand that leaving out the entire world outside the ship isn’t a good way to move forward. But it doesn’t take too much time making itself wade through red tape just for the sake of it – if it takes more than a few minutes to cut through it to what needs down, then it’s a huge part of the episode’s plot. Sometimes that’s what is needed- we don’t need to see the same struggle with pencil pushers over and over.

4 Better: Harsh Comedy

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

If there’s something that marks Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci’s style, it’s biting satire and mean personal jokes – see his other American comedy hit, Veep. Almost every joke is at someone else’s expense, in sharp contrast to The Orville. That isn’t to say it isn’t good comedy – it’s just that it’s a crueler kind than what we see from the Fox show in general. Almost every character is a loser in some way, presenting failure after failure for the jokes to work with- when someone succeeds at something, it’s usually an accident.

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3 Worse: Comedic Variety

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

Not all of the jokes from Avenue 5 are the biting and cruel kind – see the turn lasers Herman Judd comes up with, or the orbiting turds that inspired them – but the lion’s share are. The Orville, in contrast, has a much wider comedic variety, thanks in large part to creator and star Seth MacFarlane’s background.

It hits an almost perfect mix of high brow and low brow comedy as well as self-effacing jokes instead of mostly those at other’s expense. It gives much more of an impression that everyone is no better or worse than each other.

2 Better: Consequences

5 Things Avenue 5 Does Better Than The Orville (& 5 It Does Worse)

When someone messes up on Avenue 5, it has real meaning. Does the Real Crew forget to vent something when they should have? Welcome to the permanently orbiting turd belt, suckers. They forget for about the 10th time today that Karen Kelly is lurking around listening for any juicy tidbits you let slip? Enjoy the passengers taking it out on you when she tells them just to get her kicks. Everything that happens has real meaning, and it’s going to last until the ship gets home or everyone is dead. It adds some real weight to anything that goes on.

1 Worse: Plot Variety

It isn’t that The Orville doesn’t suffer consequences for things that happen or slip-ups they make. It’s more that it’s more episodic than Avenue 5 is. Both shows carry things over throughout their runs, but The Orville focuses more on what new thing the crew is going to get involved in today. It has recurring elements like the Krill and Ed and Kelly’s relationship, but they don’t dominate the show episode to episode. When a character messes up, they’re also much more likely to forgive and forget when it doesn’t cause any permanent damage.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/avenue-5-compared-the-orville-better-worse/

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