Space Force is hardly the first Greg Daniels-created sitcom to have to drastically readjust its course after a tumultuous first season. Both the Office and Parks and Recreation had to face this obstacle, and their success with the task gives hope that perhaps Space Force might be able to do the same. Unfortunately, while the show is noticeably better than the first season, it still doesn’t quite find its footing as well as its predecessors.
After a disastrous moon mission, Space Force finds its prestige and budget slashed to ribbons. As the cast scrambles to prove why the department needs to exist, they often find themselves in smaller, more personal stories, such as Angela Ali’s (Tawny Newsome) budding romance with Chan (Jimmy O. Yang), General Naird’s (Steve Carell) daughter Erin (Diana Silvers) applying for college and deciding to take a gap year, and Doctor Mallory’s (John Malkovich) antics which include a feud with a defective vending machine.
The best thing about Space Force season two is that it doesn’t feel nearly as cringy as the first season.
Gone are the toothless jokes about a Trumpian administration and caricatures of Elizabeth Holmes and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The cast gets more leeway to show off their comedic chops, and Carell’s General Naird feels more grounded this time around. He still shows Michael Scott-like tendencies, such as accidentally broadcasting a painful medical procedure to the whole compound, but he isn’t wound up as tight as before. Others, like F. Tony Scarapiducci (Ben Schwartz) also get to show off their softer sides. Even Patton Oswalt’s cameo as a Mars-bound astronaut is unexpectedly poignant and wholesome.
Yet the show still flounders.
The plotting isn’t as focused as it could be. There isn’t a strong enough thrust to most episodes, and the season-long arcs also lack dynamism. Plot threads like Angela’s mental health struggles following the moon mission aren’t addressed nearly as well as they could have been, and some threads such as Erin starting to invest in the stock market are mostly unresolved. Some of the scenes, like Tony accompanying Captain Ali to a real estate seminar, feel divorced from the larger story. Although the show sets up the cast with four months to get their act together and save the agency from being dissolved, there is a distinct lack of urgency throughout the seven-episode season.
Space Force was recently canceled by Netflix, so if you haven’t seen the second season yet, at this point, there’s not much of a reason to. It’s a shame that such a great cast and a creator with a proven track record have created a show that has come a long way but still falls short.