It was destined to be a hit. It was based off the ridiculous notion that we needed to militarize space, but it didn’t work. I'm breaking down what went wrong.
The Comedy Series Space Force was based off of true events, in fact, the show’s announcement came only day’s after Trump announced that he was opening the sixth branch of the United States Military – they were going extraterrestrial with “boots on the moon”. Trump had announced in 2018 that they were opening a Space Branch of the Military to serve and protect us from…aliens?
I mean the entire concept is hilarious and shortly after the announcement from our idiot President, The Office Creator, Greg Daniels grabbed the idea of Space Force, promising audiences a comedy that would explore the ridiculous notion of having a military force in space to protect us…on earth. It was like a perfect package wrapped up and sent to us for comedic relief. Even better, they grabbed Steve Carell as a creator and a lead in the new series that would pull him out of TV retirement. It even had a stacked cast, with Parks and Recreation and Veep Alums. Alongside with Steve Carell, the Series stars Lisa Kudrow, Ben Schwartz, John Malkovich, Jane Lynch, and Dan Bakkedahl.
So what went wrong? The problem with the show was that it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Was it a happy-go-lucky work place comedy like The Office or Parks and Recreation? Was it a satirical exploitation of another incompetent branch of government like Veep? The problem was – it was trying to be both and failed equally. The series stars Mark Naird (Steve Carell) who is just promoted in the military to a Four-Star General, thinking that his promotion going to be taking over the Air Force, he is informed that he will be leading the newly announced division of the military named Space Force. As a lover of the television series The Office, I was thrilled to see Carell back on screen reprising a lead role. I did, however, have reservations about what kind of character that he would play.
If you know The Office, or even if you don’t, you most likely know the legendary character of Michael Scott. He is inappropriate and lovable all at the same time, he is known for one-liners and cringe-worthy jokes – so it was hard to imagine that personality reprising a new role in a show that is set up to be comedic in the same way The Office was. I wasn’t sure what we were going to get. Instead of a light-hearted lead, you actually end up strongly disliking Mark Naird in the first few episodes, he is aggressive and short-tempered, almost like he was trying to bring in elements of Veep characters to the role, however it didn’t come off right.
The problem with the character of Mark Naird is that you aren’t sure whether you are supposed to like him and root for him or hate him. Here is the difference between The Office and Veep. In The Office, you see mean characters that are inherently likeable and in Veep, you see terrible human beings and you enjoy their awful behavior knowing that they are meant to be un-likable. In Space Force, they aren’t sure whether they want you to like the characters or hate them, which causes confusion and plot issues.
I really wish I wasn’t writing this piece, because I really wanted to enjoy Space Force. I was looking for a light-hearted comedic-satire series that could poke fun at the current state in our world. It just didn’t commit to the story that it wanted to tell with the characters. A real bummer.
Rating: 4.7/10
And that’s the sitch.
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