On paper, Space Force looks like a no brainer. Steve Carell reuniting with The Office co-creator Greg Daniels to create another workplace comedy sounds like a solid idea. The execution, unfortunately, leaves a lot to be desired.
Mark Naird (Steve Carell) is a recently promoted four star general who has been handed the reins of the newly created Space Force and ordered to get back to the moon by 2024. He’s assisted by his number two, Dr. Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich), his chief scientist, who doesn’t always see eye to eye with Naird.
What’s most striking about Space Force is how toothless it is.
It doesn’t have to be The Office in space: it only needs to mine its premise for the endless satire potential of catering to the whims of a Trump-like President. Some of the best modern satires, such as Veep, showed both the ineptitude and corruption of people in power with dry wit and foul language. Space Force stays clear of that, electing to focus on only the workplace comedy aspect, which, to be fair, could still be funny if handled the right way. The humor, however, is flat for most of the show, despite passable moments such as when Naird tries to use a chimpstronaut to fix a satellite.
The ensemble cast has an impressive pedigree, which makes it all the more disappointing that most of them aren’t given enough to work with. It’s hard to decipher Naird as a character in the first few episodes, and even when he starts singing songs to relieve stress, he seems more like one of the characters from a discarded SNL skit than in a TV show. The only character that’s close to being consistently entertaining is F.Tony Scarapiducci, which is strikingly close to his Jean Ralphio character from Parks and Recreation.
Space Force seems like a relic of yesteryears, trying its best (and failing) to keep up with the times. There are running jokes like a Russian soldier who’s possibly spying for President Putin and Naird’s wife (Lisa Kudrow) being in prison for an unspoken crime, but they don’t gell together with the weak main narrative. As great characters like Kevin, Meredith and Creed were in The Office, they don’t work without the central dynamics of the core cast.
Space Force vacillates between treating the titular military branch as a farce and a genuine enterprise, particularly when it focuses on the new moon landing mission. Its disparate plot threads, which include Naird’s daughter Erin having to deal with growing up in a fragmented family and Naird’s personal pilot Angela Ali trying to learn astrobotany (and later becoming the first African American woman on the moon) don’t mix well together.
It’s surprising how Greg Daniels fails in so many areas in Space Force, especially when another recent effort, Upload, wasn’t nearly as unfunny as the former.
There is some solace to be found in the fact that both The Office and Parks and Recreation had weaker first seasons that were eventually improved upon. Space Force would definitely need a significant upgrade to become a genuinely funny show, but hopefully, Greg Daniels and co are up to the task.
