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The Orville, Score...

Discussion in 'The RedBanned Bar & Grill' started by Mike Worth, Sep 11, 2017.

  1. #1 Mike Worth, Sep 11, 2017
    Just finished watching the first episode of the Orville (Seth Macfarlane's new action/comedy/drama/sci fi show).

    The show is, niche... if you like Seth Macfarlane (which I do), and you are a fan of fun Star Trek parody, a la Galaxyquest (which I love), then you'll enjoy this show.

    However, the score... by Bruce Broughton... man... it's SO good. If you like the Star Trek, TNG (Ron Jones, Jay Chattaway, Dennis McCarthy), man, this score is right up there. It's SO excellent. Great timing of the narrative drama, nails the Star Trek tropes; excellent action music, spot on thematic statements, and development in the grand style of space opera.

    Definitely a great moment in today's film and television scores. Check it out!

    Mike
     
    Jake Schale, Matthias Fluor and Sean Barrett like this.
  2. #2 Doug Gibson, Sep 11, 2017
    Cool. Thanks for the heads-up. I do plan on checking it out. I think Seth is brilliant.

    You know, I was really under-whelmed by the theme that was posted. Perhaps it's just a genre thing.
    I have met Bruce a few times, and know he is fantastic (his brother too) but the theme ..... meh.

    I guess, what I may be unfairly referring to is sometimes people pick a score as "bringing back sophisticated scores" as a 2nd theme to just
    enjoying what they hear. In that sense ...... nah.

    But, I have only listened to that one-minute theme not the show. I may change my opinion after seeing a show. I know Bruce has chops galore. Nothing wrong with turning off the critic and just enjoying the show.

    Thanks for letting us know !
     
  3. #3 Sean Barrett, Sep 11, 2017
    Good to hear! I missed the premier but it looks like I can watch it on Hulu. Looking for to watching it!
     
  4. #4 Mike Verta, Sep 12, 2017
    Theme-wise, the problem is that David Newman nailed the joke so completely on the first try that Bruce is forced to go everywhere but where he oughta. The result is this completely forgettable and bland theme. I could spend hours praising Bruce's work, but this needed to be much more fun and catchy and instead it's a joyless send-up of the idiom. There's no real love in it...! I don't watch TV so I won't see the show, but there's no question that he will be performing at a level orders of magnitude higher than most because he simply has the chops for it.
     
  5. #5 Alexander Schiborr, Sep 12, 2017
    Just looked and listened on YT to the maintheme. Unbelieveable that this was done for a show in 2017. Sounds great.
     
  6. #6 Mike Worth, Sep 12, 2017
    I don't think the theme is as solid/striking as Jerry's theme for Star Trek, nor David's theme for Galaxy Quest; but I will say that Bruce nailed the Development/thematic "spinning out" of the theme throughout the episode, translating it into several emotional variations, augmenting it, etc. And, his vocabulary for this episode is right up there with the Star Trek TV series (The next Generation, Enterprise, Voyager), in terms of enhancing the drama, supporting the genre tropes, etc. That was more what I was getting at.

    I think the theme is perfectly fine, to me, it's about as solid as John Debney's main theme for Sea Quest, which was perfectly fine for television. In fact, the Orville theme shows hints/shades of the Seaquest theme in places. :) Makes sense, there are certain harmonic things that you do to evoke that "Space-a-cana" sound. What excited me more was Broughton's attention to developing his music throughout the episode, like the 90's Star Trek shows. Which I think he does admirably.

    Mike
     
  7. #7 Jake Schale, Sep 13, 2017
    SeaQuest. That's exactly what I thought when I first heard it! Love those 90's themes and I think Broughton was a great choice.
     
  8. #8 Mauro Pantin, Sep 14, 2017
    Watched the first episode once, been humming the theme for the past two days inadvertently. Works for me, I guess!
     
  9. #9 Richard Wilkinson, Oct 11, 2017
    Having watched a few episodes of The Orville and Star Trek Discovery, I'm finding The Orville has a consistently better score -and theme. Weirdly, the score for Trek seems to smooth over any drama rather than enhance it - Russo scores right through moments that could be far more impactful if the music modulated or paused or swelled etc. It's odd to see/hear, given that's something I thought was done very well on Fargo. Both shows using a decent sized live orchestra is a huge plus though.
     
    Samuel Diaz likes this.
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