# The Orville

10 Hacker News commenters recommended The Orville and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Fans call it the best modern Star Trek and say it gets much better after the first few episodes. Critics say early episodes were cringeworthy and dated.

## Why people recommend it

- Best modern Star Trek (4 comments): "once it goes past the first few "family guy"-esque episodes, is a fantastic Star Trek" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50313859)) "That's why Orville is my favorite of the newer ST series." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296903)) "The Orville was the best Star Trek in a very long time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987023))
- Stronger than newer Star Trek shows (3 comments): "That's why Orville is my favorite of the newer ST series." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50296903)) "the best modern Star Trek has to be The Orville" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367336)) "but the Orville does it better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49590231))
- Gets much better after early episodes (2 comments): "once it goes past the first few "family guy"-esque episodes, is a fantastic Star Trek" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50313859)) "The Orville was the best Star Trek in a very long time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49987023))
- Excellent and cheers people up (2 comments): "then I watch The Orville and I'm happy again" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49742270)) "The Orville is excellent. I am a fan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49125343))

## What people warn about

- Cringeworthy, dated American humor early on (2 comments): "It got less cringeworthy once they toned down the dated American culture references during the second season" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50314561)) "it was cringe on many occasions and i would not recommend it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50314052))
- Derivative, copies other shows (1 comments): "best described as McFarlen using his money to pay for his Larping (in a good way), but was pretty much just copy pasting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50297267))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Star Trek: The Next Generation](https://hackerapproved.com/p/star-trek-the-next-generation.md): 88 recommend
- [Star Trek: Deep Space Nine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/star-trek-deep-space-nine.md): 59 recommend
- [The Expanse](https://hackerapproved.com/p/expanse.md): 51 recommend
- [Silo by Apple TV](https://hackerapproved.com/p/silo.md): 27 recommend
- [Altered Carbon (Netflix series)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/altered-carbon.md): 23 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Orville", https://hackerapproved.com/p/orville/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).