TL;DR – In Home, The Orville finally finds that balance between the absurd and the sincere and creates one of their best episodes so far.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Review –

So far this season The Orville have continued on in its mission to highlight the juxtaposition between the absurd and the sincere. Now, this is something that you can completely do, but the show in both Season One and so far this season just couldn’t quite find that right balance. Well with Home I think they really are starting to head in that right direction and it doesn’t hurt when you throw in some great guest cast and beautiful art design help along the way.

To set the scene, it is Friday night on the USS Orville and that means only one thing, it is time for the weekly arm wrestles between Lt Alara (Halston Sage) and Isaac (Mark Jackson). This is because Isaac is an AI mechanical android and Alara is from Xelayah that has naturally high gravity, very high gravity, so Alara has very high bone density. Thus they are evenly matched, which is odd when Isaac breaks her arm. After some medical scans, Dr Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) discovers that Alara is suffering from gravity sickness as her body is slowly acclimatising to Earth-norm gravity. The only treatment is returning home to Xelayah, the home she once fled to join the military. A reminder that we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

Why I feel this episode works as well as it does, is that it is dealing with situations that exists and that everyone can relate too. We have all had those awkward family discussions about our futures, and where we see ourselves, or indeed sat back as one sibling is heaped praise upon. There is, of course, that added dimension of the family not approving of Alara’s life choices, in this case, the military. This means that there is a complex web of emotions and undercurrents to every performance as the show explores what it means to be a family.

All of this is brought together by an amazing performance by Halston Sage and supported by a great guest cast. There is incredible depth to Halston’s performance, you feel the pain and hurt, and you understand why she left Xelayah, but also there is that small amount of hope that comes through. Adding to this is it never not a good idea to cast Robert Picardo in a role which Home shows in clear relief. You understand the conflicting emotions of someone wanting the best for his daughter and not understanding why that is not being reciprocated. Also, because it is mini Star Trek reunion, I have not seen John Billingsley go to such a dark place before, and that turn when everything goes wrong was entrancing.

All of this is supported by a visually stunning art direction. We are starting to see some more interesting character creation of the peoples of The Union and this week we got some more unique creation is the Mess Hall including what I am 80% sure was a Wallace Shawn alien. As well as this, the world building of Xelayah was some of the show’s best. Creating a fully functional world of high gravity, including touches like many of the buildings, use a triangle or pyramid shape as that would structurally bare the load of the gravity better.

In the end, do we recommend Home? Yes, we do. It is sad that the episode that best encapsulated the character of Lt. Alara Kitan is also the one where we say goodbye to her. However, I am glad that Halston Sage got one hell of a final episode and I hope this is not actually the last time we see her in The Orville.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Orville yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Trailer – Click Here to View (all trailers have heavy spoilers)
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Orville
Directed by – Jon Cassar
Written by – Cherry Chevapravatdumrong
Created by – Seth MacFarlane
Starring in Season Two – Seth MacFarlane, Adrianne Palicki, Penny Johnson Jerald, Scott Grimes, Peter Macon, Halston Sage, J. Lee & Mark Jackson also Robert Picardo, Molly Hagan, Candice King, Chris Flanders, John Billingsley, Kerry O’Malley, Chris Flanders, Patrick Warburton, Jason Alexander & Norm MacDonald