Seth MacFarlane

The things I do for The Orville... First, they moved it from Fox to Hulu, and even though I'd sworn up and down I wasn't going to subscribe to any more streaming services, I went and got myself a Hulu account, after all. And I didn't regret it for an instant, either. Season 3 of The Orville (aka The Orville: New Horizons) was absolute top-notch SF TV, leading me to marvel all over again at just how impressively far the show had come from its goofier, more unfocused, less self-assured show more origins.

Then Seth McFarlane announced that there was one episode they had planned for the season but had been unable to film (I believe due to budget and covid-related factors), and that because he wanted the story to be available in some form and there was no guarantee of future seasons, he was releasing it as a novella. An ebook-only novella. Now, I have nothing against ebooks in principle, but for various personal, idiosyncratic reasons, I've avoided getting into them and had so far done all my book-reading the old-fashioned, papery way. Well, congrats, Seth. Your 25th-century TV show has now dragged me kicking and screaming into the 21st century, because this was the first ebook I ever bought.

And was it as worth it as subscribing to Hulu? Well, I admit, at first I wasn't at all sure. This is a really odd story. Hell, a couple of chapters in, I almost felt like I should check and make sure I'd actually bought the right book. Because here I was expecting a familiar spaceship and a bunch of familiar characters, and instead I got a story set in the 20th century about an abandoned baby who grows up to be a Nazi. So, y'know, cheerful stuff. Eventually, of course, our familiar characters do show up -- although not until halfway through -- and the relevance of this guy's story becomes clear. And then it gets really interesting. By that point, I had a bunch of possible ideas about what was going on. It turned out that none of them was quite right, but the real explanation of what I'd been reading this entire time was fascinating, and it gave rise to lots of complicated philosophical and moral questions, ones the narrative doesn't try to spoon-feed us easy answers to but leaves us to ponder on our own. This is thoughtful, intellectually provocative, socially relevant, humanist science fiction in the grand old classic Star Trek tradition, which means it's very much of a piece with everything else The Orville has been doing lately.

The writing, I should say, is really nothing at all special, but it does the job of bringing this lost story to its audience just fine, so I'm happy enough with it.

Mind you, I'd be happier if we got another season (which, if it happens, might possibly see this one brought to our screens after all, according to McFarlane). So, to that end: Hey! The Orville is now available on Disney+, as well as Hulu (in the US). The better it does there, the more like we are to get more of it. Go and watch it! Go on. I'll wait.

Are you done? See? Didn't that get great? show less

I decided to read the book before viewing the movie. The book was decent. There was plenty of humor to be found, and the sarcastic, often pessimistic main character definitely brought a smile to my face. I'm not a fan of westerns, but I still enjoyed this book. In my opinion, the best scene in the entire thing is the intimate moment between Ruth and Edward. After waiting for so long, you'd think Edward would dive straight in without a second thought. But that isn't exactly how things played show more out and, I must say, that was hilarious. It was one of the best moments in the whole story. show less

A Loony tale of the West

Rating: 3.25 stars at best!

If you're fan of Seth's movies or TV (Ted, Family Guy) you're familiar with his raunchy, over-the-top humor you'll love this story. Not only is it off the wall, it makes Dumb and Dumber look like an Oscar winner! Filled with outrageous pokes at Westerns, gun slingers and highly dysfunctional relationships, were it not for a town, you'd think it was a nut house! With an incompetent sheep herder as protagonist, a girlfriend who also happens show more to be a whore, what transpires is one for the books. I laughed my ass off when I saw the film and the book is even funnier. That said, it's locker room humor at. best, so if you get offended easily, chose something else. Fun, uproarious and predictable it's good entertainment for those that appreciate Seth's humor. show less

The trailer for Seth MacFarlane's movie, A Million Ways To Die in the West, had just hit the internet (and it looked hilarious!) when I saw him on The Daily Show plugging the "novelization" he had done, himself, of his own movie. It was available now, several months before the movie was due to be released, and I'll admit curiosity got the better of me.* I had to check it out for myself.

As far as novelizations go, I suppose this could have been worse. The writing was fair. It didn't suffer show more any obvious pitfalls (like shifting tenses or POV's). It's hard not to be a fan of The Family Guy and *not* hear Brian Griffin's voice when you read the dialog of the main character, Albert, especially after hearing that voice (i.e., MacFarlane's own voice) speak those exact same lines in the movie trailer, but that's nothing against the writing.

At times I felt he was trying a bit too hard to use big words when a simpler turn of phrase would do, sort of a rookie mistake. Take this line for example: “Charlie Blanche and Albert Stark could not have been more contrasting in their deportment: Blanche was a grizzled, weathered-looking mass of aggression, who looked as though he hadn’t smiled since the days of Lewis and Clark." Okay, skip the fact that he starts off comparing two people and then only describes the first (leaving you to fill in the blank for the second). That's forgivable. But "deportment"? I read that word and stumbled on it. It felt as if he had a thesaurus handy as he was writing and wanted to impress somebody. Besides, "deportment" according to my dictionary has more to do with mannerisms and actions than a person's appearance.

Finally, I'll say that the whole thing played out exactly as you would expect a 90-minute movie to unfold, with predictable exposition, rising action and denouement, and true to just about any Seth MacFarlane penned story, it had it's fair share of comedic non-sequitor dead alleys that added nothing to the story except for humorous asides (a bumbling doctor, a gun slinging preacher, a religious prostitute, etc.).

Time will tell how this novelization stacks up against the movie. I suspect it won't, not very well. Regardless if the movie is a hit or a bomb, there will minimally be a group of MacFarlane loyalists who will turn the movie into a minor cult classic (at least), but nobody will hold up this book as anything more than a marketing gimmick.

Given my standards for books and writing in general, I couldn't in good conscience give this 3 stars, so I knocked it down a half-peg, but I suspect any fan of Seth MacFarlane (as I am) will read this and find some enjoyment in it (as I did).

* NB: I think he touched a nerve in me when he talked to Jon Stewart about the novelizations of movies he'd read and loved as a kid back in the 80's, and I remembered that I, too, had enjoyed a few myself back then. Anybody who knows the name Alan Dean Foster will know what I'm talking about. show less