In December 20th, 2019, US president Donald Trump announces the establishment of the newest US armed forces branch known as the US Space Force. The USSF is not exactly brand new, as it was previously part of the USAF known as the Air Force Space Command. But that did little to diminish the incredulity from some quarters, especially when it comes to that name.
The creators of Space Force, the Netflix original comedy series, seems quick to capitalize on this as it is released just 6 months after the actual announcement by president Trump. The show stars Steve Carell and John Malkovich - those names pretty much sealed the deal for me. Let's see if the show itself is any good.
Mark Naird (Steve Carell) is a freshly minted 4-star USAF General who is tasked with leading the new US Space Force military branch. For his assignment he has to relocate to Colorado, much to the consternation of his wife Maggie (Lisa Kudrow) and daughter Erin (Diana Silvers).
At his job, he is assisted by his very competent chief scientist Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich) who leads the science division of the branch, His semi-competent personal assistant Brad (Don Lake) and the suspiciously incompetent social media director Tony (Ben Schwartz).
The show focuses on how Naird juggles, often comically, his responsibility as a father and husband as well as a military leader who is leading his Spacemen and Spacewomen to explore and subjugate the stars. It is as difficult as it sounds, as he needs to fend off ridicule from his rivals and political interference.
His wife is also in jail for some unspecified crime, and he has a teenage daughter which is pretty much self-explanatory what that entails. To add to the already tall orders that greets him everyday, the Chinese are also aggressively trying to subvert the USSF's extraterrestrial aspirations.
Before I started the show, I was expecting something along the lines of Silicon Valley, a recently concluded comedy series that closely followed the tech world. While Space Force does try to mirror real world sociopolitical trends, it's satirical intentions is often undermined when the narrative veers into the fantastical.
Unlike Silicon Valley, nothing about the spacefaring technologies and it's peripheral science shown in the show is remotely realistic. I can accept that you can disguise a giant door as mountain wall, but I draw the line at the Chinese possessing a space station that can manuever close to a satellite and snip off it's solar panels. The transition from straight-face comedy to Wes Anderson-esque fantasy science fiction was jarring, to say the least.
That, and the bizarre sexualization of the congresswoman Anabela Ysidro-Campos, who is a parody of real-world US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among other strange character subversions.
If carried by any other actors, I would've lost interest after the first episode. But I think many would agree with me when I say Steve Carell is a dramatic and comedic gem. His interaction with Malkovich's character alone is worth the half hour episodes, although at times it bothers me that Carell's character sound like Gru (Carell's character in Despicable Me) trying to speak like an American.
The story does have it moments, but that's far and few in between. My favourite part is in episode 8 "Conjugal Visit", when Naird's wife forces him to come to terms with their marital situation and suggests an alternative arrangement that deeply upsets Naird. My most disliked episode is easily the second episode where they spent most of the time trying to get a primate to repair a satellite. I know there is a point to be made somewhere, but it just got buried in the silliness.
This is exactly this inconsistency that irks me. With the cast and the concept, this can be such a great show, but as it stands I hope the writers will re-think the show's direction for the next season.
If you have nothing else to watch, you can give this a try, if just for Carell and Malkovich.
