I've enjoyed watching season 2 of 'The Orville'.

When it comes to my television viewing habits, currently I don't watch almost any of the scripted shows that are out there. I just don't think that almost any of these shows are really worth my time or worth my attention.

After all, since most of the shows are badly written and simply awful, there's no reason to watch them. I don't want to watch depressing stuff that doesn't have anything real to say about anything and that doesn't make me feel better about life. 

Still, just because most of the stuff on tv is horrible, thankfully there is at least one exception. Seth McFarlane's sci-fi series 'The Orville' has been the kind of show that has made me feel better about life and has lifted my spirits.

So when it comes to the show, the biggest reason that 'The Orville' has been such a pleasant surprise is that it has given the audience what it wants. Unlike just about every other show, this series is uplifting and doesn't take its audience for granted.

This uplifting aspect of 'The Orville' has been especially true with its second season. Even though the first season wasn't bad by all means, the show has matured during its second season and has delivered episodes that have felt more believable and authentic.

For example, as a fan of 'socially conscious' episodes, from this season I especially liked episode 2x06 (a happy refrain). In this episode, in which the ship's doctor falls in a low with Isaac the robot, the show handled the storylines with integrity and compassion.

Another really solid episode was the one that aired a couple of weeks ago. The episode that handled sexual discrimination (Bortus' storyline) was creative in a serious way (on planet Moclan you're not allowed to be a heterosexual) and was well made.

In comparison, during its first season, the show was trying too hard to cram in jokes and crude humour instead of being real. The writers tried to use too many jokes, even thought they didn't fit in with the scenes and the show's universe.

Fortunately, this season those forced jokes are gone and haven't been a problem anymore. 'The Orville' has managed to pay a lot more attention to making sure that the storylines in the episodes are solid and that the characters are relatable.

In that sense, when you think about the series as a whole, even though 'The Orville' could still get better, I'm still glad that the show exists. It's obvious that Seth MacFarlane has managed to create a series that respects the legacy of the original Star Trek series.

After all, unlike the official 'Star Trek - Discovery', a pretty horrible show (liked by the critics), 'The Orville' actually works. MacFarlane's uplifting series genuinely understands how to create a show that has actual merit.

In the end, even though critics might say otherwise, creating good sci-fi is not about being nihilistic and having a premise that is completely hopeless. It's not about spending millions per episode on special effects and thinking that money is all that it takes.

After all, even though critics seem to think that a 'Star Trek' series needs to be as 'edgy' and as 'dark' as possible, that's not how it goes. We shouldn't be thinking that being extra depressing or nihilistic is the way to produce these shows.

On the contrary, creating good shows will always be about coming up with stuff that makes sense. It will always be about creating stuff that is genuinely relatable and making sure that your show respects your audience without ever taking them for granted. 

Side projects: writing for a competition.

Over the last three weeks or so, I've spent a lot of time writing stuff for a writing competition. I've tried my best to come up with a short story so that I could take part in a writing competition set up by our local literary society.

The reason that I decided to take part in the competition is not because I was super excited about it. Especially considering that I was still kinda 'busy' trying to get my first book finished, I felt pretty hesitant about taking part in the competition. 

Yet, once my manager told me that I could write the short story as a side project, I thought that perhaps it could be done. Perhaps I could write something fairly quickly and not worry about the quality of the story too much. 

So, having now more or less finished the short story for the competition, I have to say that writing the story wasn't necessarily that easy. It turned out to be more time consuming and more stressing than what I had thought at first.

For example, when it comes to getting started with the project, I didn't actually start before like two or three days before my first 'deadline' was up. I just couldn't find enough energy to write and I felt pretty tired anyway. 

The only reason that I eventually started is because I started to feel pretty guilty about the whole thing. I didn't want to disappoint my manager and I also thought that not trying would just make me a terrible person. 

Nevertheless, once I started writing, I already had a good idea what the story would be about. I would write a short story about our summer island and the guests that we had there over the years (the rules said the title had to be 'let's pay a visit!'). 

When it comes to writing the story (four stories total), I tried not write too much during any single day. I tried to make sure that I wouldn't run out of things to write, which meant that I could write like 30 mins to 1 hour per day max. 

So in practice, every time that I was about to be done with one part of the story (story of a real person), I stopped writing that day. I stopped writing, even though I could have gone much longer and even though I knew what to write next.  

The good thing about this routine was that this way I would keep writing every day. I knew that having a steady writing routine would eventually lead to finishing the story and that I wouldn't have to worry too much not getting the script done.

In hindsight, the hardest part of the task had to do with wrapping up the story and writing the final paragraphs. I really struggled when it came to making sure that the last paragraphs had a solid flow that wrapped up the story as a whole.

After all, in order to get the story done, I spent several evenings writing until like 4 a.m. before I felt that the flow was good enough. The last 10% took almost as much effort as getting the first 90% done  - at least when we're talking about emotional stress.

Still, now that I've successfully managed to finish the first draft, I can only sigh in relief that I completed the task. I managed to give it a go despite not feeling good about it and even though things didn't look that good in the beginning.  

After all, there were certainly pretty solid reasons to slack and not to take part in the competition. I felt pretty exhausted and was still busy trying to make sure that my first book project would get the attention that it deserves.

In that sense, based on my manager's feedback, I'm really glad that I did pretty well with the task. She (like me) liked it apparently more than enough and thinks that it's more or less ready to be sent to the competition.

After all, not only are the characters in the story interesting and memorable, but the story itself is really well written. The characters keep you entertained and the story has a surprisingly good pacing from start to finish.

In the end, even though I don't necessarily expect to win the competition, that's not the only thing that counts. I shouldn't be thinking that if I don't win the main prize money (5000€) or place in the top three, I failed with the task.

On the contrary, especially considering the circumstances, I did well here. I did well and showed that as long as you take your project seriously, it doesn't always matter how excited you are or how motivated you are to start writing in the first place.