The whole "Orville is the actual new Star Trek" thing from certain parties a couple years ago got very tiring. I watched a couple eps when it was new, too much poop and sex jokes, too much TNG aesthetic copying.
I'm watching the whole series now, about midway through, and hell those folks are right. This show is way more satisfying than Picard S3 was. Episodes are, ahem, episodic but do follow an overall continuity. The show gets better as it goes on; some of those incremental steps are mixed with great leaps. I just watched the episode where the Doctor starts dating the Robot, which was way better than the TNG episode of Data dating the sadsack lady. Even though there's nothing particularly original about the Orville it does have interesting spins on familiar themes, and this last ep was very satisfying especially as it promises an ongoing romance between a human and a robot who can go on the holodeck to bang each other. Ok now I'm wondering what if she became a machine and they interfaced mechanically..
My perception is probably colored since lately I'm watching fanedits that trim the lamest jokes from each ep. (There is still some lame stuff and there is still some actual situational humor. Not sure how much was cut out.) The editor hasn't done season 3 though so I'll have to watch the officials. That might not be a problem as supposedly the jokes were dialed down over the course of the series. I assume that shit was just a Trojan Horse so McFarlane could make off-brand Trek at Fox. Sadly it doesn't look like Disney has much intention of continuing the show.
Anyway to stay on topic let me just say Mike and Rich are fat. Would not bang.