Hulu
The Orville: New Horizons offered a premiere episode that truly shocked with the topics it discussed and how honest it felt. The title of New Horizons was absent within the first episode as it mostly stayed at bay. The new episode ‘Shadow Realms’ finally starts to explore new territory and it’s terrifying.
The crew meets with Admiral Paul Christie (James Read), who is to serve as the chief negotiator with the alien species, the Krill. The Union wants to use part of Krill space on a regular basis to explore new parts of space. With Christie on board, we learn that Doctor Finn was once married to Paul Christie about 25 years ago. She is visibly distracted and upset upon his arrival. Christie and Finn’s interactions serve as character development for Finn before the Orville crew eventually uses the Krill space and explores The Expanse, a place of pure evil, where demons live and if the Orville gets lost in there, the Krill won’t rescue them. The crew discovers a space station in the Expanse, learns of a stress call and examines the station. What comes back with them is some of the most terrifying moments The Orville has offered.
The first half of the episode left me frustrated. I thought many times the crew would never explore space. Many moments led me to believing that the Orville would once again stay at bay and just tease adventures they would go on. A lot of the scenes are dedicated to Finn and Christie reminiscing about their marriage, which nicely adds more development to Dr. Finn. Finn is one of my favorite characters in the series as she often stands up for herself and is gentle to people she meets. The episode was set up nicely with the Krill and Orville coming to terms and finally preparing for exploring the unknown. Christie feels more like a new character rather than a special guest since the writers decide to give Christie more screen time than Finn. He is hung up on Finn and even goes as far to ask Isaac what she likes to get to know her better. Even though I appreciated the time dedicated to Finn, her story with Christie overstayed its welcome and was unnecessary at times.
When the Orville explores the ominous space station in the Expanse, Christie gets too close to a glowing specimen that affects him when he returns to the Orville. Many times on board the space station, the crew makes poor choices including Christie examining the specimen up close. The writers offer many clichés we see in sci-fi films or shows such as separating the group and entering an unknown territory with no weapons or gear to protect them. Even though a lot of the scenes on board the station were suspenseful, many of the choices the writers made for the characters ended up feeling lazy and cheap.
Hulu
The best moments come when everyone returns to the Orville and the show embraces the challenge of venturing to new horizons and how dangerous it could be. Christie mutates into an arachnid looking creature that creeps throughout the ship and manages to shut down the power. A chilling atmosphere is created toward the end of the episode with classic horror tropes that fill every second of the last 20 minutes of the episode. The Christie alien is able to mutate others by spitting green liquid into its victims’ faces. There is a lot of suspense once Christie starts to turn the crew members into the creatures.
So far, this season seems to have a lot of development for Claire. She is a likable character who has a lot thrown at her within the first two episodes. A lot of the crew once again is lost in the background or mutated into the monster. There isn’t a lot going on within the first few episodes, which may lose some viewers and this horror-genre episode caught my interest but I would like more of a threat for the crew to tackle altogether.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
Share this post
