Space Force (Season 1)

I like most people was very excited for the release of Space Force on Netflix from the minute it was announced. Politics aside, the concept of making a 6th branch of the military focused on space has a lot of comedic elements to it that could be really funny if executed correctly. And I think we all thought that we were in good hands with Steve Carrell not only starring but producing it with his The Office partner Greg Daniels.

The end result is a pretty mixed bag...

Space Force follows the story of General Mark Naird (played by Steve Carrell). Upon receiving a long awaited promotion, he is tasked with heading the newest branch of the military Space Force.

The briefest summary would be that the show is a work place comedy set a year into his tenure as head of space force as he and his chief scientist Dr. Adrian Mallory (played by John Malkovich) strive to put "boots on the moon". Naird has to maneuver the unique cast of characters employed under him while also dealing with an unorthodox family situation with his teenage daughter (played by Diana Silvers) rebelling and his wife (played by Lisa Kudrow) in prison.

It would be an understatement to say that the show is ambitious and attempts to cover a lot of ground in what is seemingly just a workplace comedy. I think a lot of people thought, due to the ridiculousness of the plot, that this show would have a similar cynical humor to that of the Office. The main joke at the crux of this show is how ridiculous the idea of a space force is at this moment in history. By all accounts, this show is a ripe set up to be a parody with a lot of underhanded commentary about the current administration and the ridiculousness of the current administration.

And yet it's all pushed off balance by an unexpected attempt at sincerity to it all.

Everything from the colors, the over the top nature of everything going on in this show, and the cast scream of parody. Ben Schwartz playing the Space Force PR guy, John Malkovich and Carrell in their respective role, all of these characters seem more like caricatures, and yet there are sincere attempts to humanize them and get the audience invested in the personal lives of these people.

What's more, starting with the first episode the show tries to get the audience to see the scientific achievement and American-ness of exploration in space. And honestly a part of it is done effectively.

A lot of that is due to the solidness of the cast, even when they're utilized in counter productive ways.

I've been watching a lot of Steve Carrell lately these days and I do have to say that it doesn't matter what he's in, he is a solid actor as well as a solid comedic force. It is an understatement to say that he carries this show.

But the show is helped by the rest of the cast as well and the dynamics that are built throughout the show, even if they feel kind of hamfisted in there. A great example is the relationship between Dr. Mallory and General Naird. At first I was unsure if I was going to like the two but by the end I really did enjoy the contrast between the two.

While Ben Schwartz is just criminally underutilized in this show, he still manages to absolutely crush it later on in the season. Jimmy Yang, Tawny Newsome, Don Lake, all end up being really funny characters. That cast isn't the problem, it's how they're used.

The characters are overall pretty unevenly focused on throughout the show. There are also characters who you don't realize are going to be recurring characters because their exposure is so sporatic. You don't realize that these are recurring characters until you've seen them a couple times and realize that they're the same people from before.

Furthermore, it often feels like when they were writing the episodes they had all the characters on a cork board and determined how they were going to write the episode based on which characters hadn't had a pairing yet. Certain episodes feel like they just paired two characters together and said, "let's see what happens with these two".

And then you get to the weird situation that is General Naird's family.

I'll talk about the good first, but honestly there isn't a whole lot of good here.

When Lisa Kudrow is allowed to be Lisa Kudrow, she's hilarious...

End of good stuff...

That being said the whole subplot of her being in prison feels out of nowhere and just unnecessary. And they do the same thing with her that they do with the premise of the show. A ridiculous situation like a general's wife driven to commit an unknown crime that puts her in jail for 40+ years is a pretty ridiculous situation, so trying to humanize it and give us "touching" moments between her and Steve Carrell just feels weird and off putting.

Also, his daughter is by far the worst written character in the show. I have no qualms with Diana Silvers, I'm blaming the writers because they didn't give anything for this young actress to work with. Most of the time when she's on screen I am bored, and her character just comes off as pretentious. Of all the things this show tries to accomplish, an angsty teenage girl subplot feels very awkward.

I think the biggest problem with the show is that it aired without having a clear vision of what it wanted to be.

Is the show a commentary on current events? Is it a heartfelt comedy? Is it a comedy of errors? Is it awkward comedy? I honestly don't know and I don't think they do either.

I heard that the show was renewed for a second season and I'm kind of lukewarm on that idea.

I know that Carrell's awkward humor in the first season of The Office needed an episode to marinate and really figure out what it was going to be. Maybe that's what Space Force needs, it needed a mulligan season to get the ball rolling.

And I think this show could work. There were a lot of jokes that had me laughing pretty hard. I also found some of the military and political humor really unique (though there might be some who don't get it). I think the biggest problem is that it doesn't know what concept, character, or even joke to spend the right amount of time on. I've already spoken a little bit about the characters uneven utilization, but the jokes are kind of the crux of whether this show was going to land.

There's a lot of concepts that make really funny jokes in this show, for example a monkey that is in a satelite. It's a really funny idea, dipped in historical accuracy. Why not poke fun at a concept like space travel that hasn't had that much exploration from a creative stand point?

But when it gets extrapolated into an entire episode, it kind of loses the humor. Sometimes it comes back around because it gets so stupid its funny again, but most time its just kind of exhausting. And the same goes for a lot of the plotlines, character arcs, and even smaller jokes. There's just something off about the way a lot of these story elements were executed and instead of really enjoying watching Space Force, I was just tired.

There's just enough in there to make me come back when a second season drops on Netflix, but it will only be to see if the first season was just a fluke.

I think a lot of people wanted this show to be good. I know I did. I'm still holding out hope that it could be. The ingredients are all there, I think there just needs to be a reshuffle of how they're being utilized.

Overall, I have to agree with the prevailing opinion that Space Force leaves a lot to be desired. I can't say the entire experience was unenjoyable, but I can't recommend it right now. I really hope I come back in a review of the second season and say that it's good and you should give it a chance, but if you haven't watched it right now, maybe wait and see if the second season is able to avoid the failure to launch that Season 1 was. (I had to throw in one space joke...)

But those are my thoughts on Space Force Season 1. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films or TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!