I actually kind of dislike that direction. I enjoy the Orville, but it was better when they were basically some ship no one gave a damn about because these guys clearly weren't the "best of the best" types that always got postings on the Enterprise. Now theyre suddenly front and center and being sent to do key diplomatic missions (and generally things go poorly for all of them). When Seth tries to be Picard it goes falls flat for me.
I have enjoyed the story with Topa but I think they need to give her a break, that is a lot for a child.
I really like that they haven’t done anything romantic with the Captain and his ex, I like her character way more than I thought I would.
The Isaac and Dr. Finn (she’ll always be Sherry Palmer to me) stuff has taken a turn I don’t like.
I thought the episode with Gordon on Earth recently raised a lot of interesting issues.
My problem with the early stuff was some didn’t seem all that funny. I did kind of enjoy the big name guests though.