Space Force - Netflix -(**Spoilers**)

Agent Coulson

First look at Netflix's Space Force which arrives on May 29th.

“Space Force” centers on Mark R. Naird (Carell), a four-star general and decorated pilot who dreams of running the Air Force but instead finds himself tapped to lead the newly-formed sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces: the titular Space Force.

Kudrow plays Maggie Naird, Mark’s wife who is described as a woman who “sublimated parts of herself to her husband’s career for two decades.” Now that he has a new challenge, she, too, will find herself growing in new directions. See a first look at Kudrow in this new role above.

Mark uproots his family and moves to a remote base in Colorado when the series begins. There, he is “squeezed between the politicians and the scientists,” Daniels tells Variety, when tasked by the White House to get back to the moon and achieve “total space dominance.”

Daniels and Carell co-created the series after previously working together on “The Office.” They executive produce alongside Howard Klein from 3Arts.

In addition to Carell and Kudrow, “Space Force” stars John Malkovich, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, Ben Schwartz, Jimmy O. Yang, Noah Emmerich, Alex Sparrow and Don Lake.

Basq

Ben Schwartz? I'm in!

pixelburp

Basq wrote: »

Ben Schwartz? I'm in!

"Technically I'm hommmmmelessss!"

Agent Coulson

Trailer

pixelburp

That's some cast-list it has going there; a few chuckles but has that sense of a show that'll need some episodes to find its feet. Even the best need time to work things out.

Slydice

Stan! .. ahem.. I mean Noah Emmerich!

pixelburp

Another trailer popped up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4mY2asIjWk

JP Liz V1

Maxwell Smart trying to get to space

bnt

Looking forward to this a lot, hope it lives up to the billing, It will be a little sad seing Fred Willard, who died last week, in his last screen role as Mark Naird's father Fred.

Willard was the star of a Space Force TV movie back in 1978, so they kind-of had to get him involved somehow!

ShineOn7

It's out today and has 46% on RT and 2 out of 5 stars from the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/may/29/space-force-review-steve-carell-john-malkovich

How does Netflix keep managing to fúck up so many of their shows? This should've been a home run considering who's involved

ShineOn7

Jaysus, is it worth even trying?



https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/05/29/netflixs-space-force-with-steve-carell-is-getting-savaged-by-critics/#47e838d94ae2

Here’s a sampling of some of the top critics who have reviewed Space Force already:


“[Carell's] too good for the material, which never takes off. The loony parts aren’t sharp enough, despite the efforts of Carell and crack performers like Noah Emmerich, Jane Lynch and Diedrich Bader.”
Mike Hale, New York Times – 4/10


“Space Force just isn't close to consistent — especially in the first half of the season, the misses outweigh the hits — and even as it settles into itself a little more, it's hard to buy all the eventual smoothing out of characters and plot lines from that choppy beginning.”
Daniel Fienberg, THR – 4/10


“How did this happen, though? How did so much talent and money go to such waste?”
Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone – 4/10


And I have to feature Blake Goble, from Consequence of Sound, who I used to review movies with in college at The Michigan Daily. From his zero out of 10 review:


“It takes a special kind of project to make Steve Carell unfunny. ... Think of the Simpsons episode where NASA puts Homer in the cockpit to drum of some PR and hot ink. There’s your damned Space Force. Here’s a comedy for people either desperate for new Office content, or who still find “covfefe” funny.”

Basq

I'm 6 episodes in and probably will see it through despite being extremely thin on the ground in laughs!

Madness to think of the talent behind this, and yet it's just so poor!

Malkovich, Schwartz (despite just being Jean Ralphio 2.0) and Yang are the only ones really trying. Carrell is phoning it in!

ShineOn7

Basq wrote: »

I'm 6 episodes in and probably will see it through despite being extremely thin on the ground in laughs!

Madness to think of the talent behind this, and yet it's just so poor!

With the huge plethora of great TV out there, why continue with such a poor show Basq?

timetogo1

I watched episode one and thought it was good.
There were certainly a few laughs in the first episode anyway.

I watched the first 3 episodes today. It is highly watchable, but, a laugh here or there wouldn't have went a miss.

Some shows which went onto be all-time great comedies started out with a poor first season, like Parks and Recreation. With a good cast here and chemistry, I'll give it a chance to find its feet in the second season.

Basq

ShineOn7 wrote: »

With the huge plethora of great TV out there, why continue with such a poor show Basq?

Wanted an easy watch.. which it is to be fair.

Westernyelp

god. I really wanted to like this. but it is awful.

fritzelly

Watched the first episode - and even at just a little over 36 minutes it was a struggle to finish it
Expected a comedy but didn't laugh or smile once
Persevered with the second episode and it didn't get any better - done with it
Just used gags from Airplane's first draft that was trashed because the writer realised they weren't funny (at least that's the genre the show was trying to come across as for me)

Recently watched Upload - cannot wait for the second season - stupid, funny and a story to boot, so what the hell happened with this. The writers should be fired - so much comedic gold here with Trump

A shame considering it has some great actors in it

ShineOn7

Is this Netflix's biggest financial flop?

ollkiller

Aye not great at all. Easily watched and found Malkovich the best in it. The scenes with the monkey in space are hilarious though.

pickarooney

Basq wrote: »

I'm 6 episodes in and probably will see it through despite being extremely thin on the ground in laughs!

Madness to think of the talent behind this, and yet it's just so poor!

Malkovich, Schwartz (despite just being Jean Ralphio 2.0) and Yang are the only ones really trying. Carrell is phoning it in!

After the awful waste of talent that was House of Lies Schwartz needs to start reading scripts before signing up for dross.

magic_murph

Terrible.
Watched the first episode last night, struggled to finish it to be honest and wont be going back for mor.

This is supposed to be a comedy. I want to emphasis the word supposed.

Steve Carrell was the wrong choice for this show - I just don't find him funny in anything. He's too stiff / wooden, bland, old.

Ashbourne hoop

I watched it all. It's not great but not terrible either. John Malcovich is the pick of the actors in it.

Midnight_EG

Just finished it, and like I do with anything I watch whether it be movies or TV, I turn off the brain and hope to be entertained. In this case, I was. Enjoyed it loads

Sudden Valley

Only five epsidoes in the space monkey and war games episodes episodes were hilarious but the other three were total duds. Its painful getting through the bad episodes. Malkvoich is great.

martyos121

It did get a bit better towards the end, but it was still very light on laughs all the way through. I just don’t get what kind of tone they were going for here, the casting was great on paper but they didn’t make nearly enough use of a regular scene-stealer like Ben Schwartz. Such a waste of talent and not just him either, I could say that about 80% of the cast at least.

As others have said, Malkovich is a big positive in this and one of the main reasons I stuck with it until the end.

hmmm

I thought this was a lot better than the reviews made it out to be. It wasn't laugh out loud, but a pretty smart satire on Trump's America. It has potential and I'd watch a season 2.

Mr.Prodston

I expected to be very disappointed having read some of the reviews here and comments elsewhere but I quite enjoyed it. Maybe my expectations were lowered sufficiently?

Of course with the money, cast, team and premise it should have been better, but I'd absolutely give it another season. Comedies don't always hit the ground running - we're now familiar with everything and things would be better next time around!

Malkovich was great, and Steve Carell is Steve Carell! It was just a nice show about something utterly absurd!

Maybe I've damned it with the faintest of praise though

Bandana boy

The space monkey stuff is brilliant , poor Theodore

This could have a lot more laughs , but it’s an easy watch and some pretty good satire on America 2020

silverharp

Ive only watched 3 episodes so far, it has some good moments, the AOC-esque Congress woman, I liked the gag of the woman having to catch the lizards beside the launch site and the monkey stuff was funny. Overall though its a very poor show, I couldnt maintain a suspension of disbelief, some of the characters and setups would be more suited to something like Family Guy where you can throw in any old nonsense because its a cartoon.
If Police Academy, Scrubs, Dr Strangelove, The Office are all 8s and 9s, this show is a 3. Carell's character doesn't work for me, compared to the other shows there is nothing interesting or believable about him. He is a General that launches rockets by accident...okaaay , I have cartoons for that.

bnt

The chimpanzee mission just killed the second episode for me: they are not funny. It’s not even that they were portraying what was essentially animal abuse: I have a pretty dark sense of humour and get that it’s fiction and CGI. I could also excuse dodgy orbital mechanics if a show is funny (see Avenue 5), but this just fell flat for me.

miamee

We watched all episodes last week but honestly there weren't too many laughs. Some scenes had the promise of something great but it felt like it never really got going and then it was over. We laughed ab it more towards the end of the series but I'm not sure if it got funnier or we knew not to expect too much! A shame given the amount of really talented people on the screen.

Parsnips

I can honestly say .. this is hands-down the worst TV show I have ever seen in my life. I watched Ep1 thinking WTF...OK its an introduction Ill give ep2 a go. Absolutely ****e. then insisted on not giving up I put on EP3 and had to turn it off after 10minutes.

the most unfunny bull**** I have ever watched. Painfully painfully bad.
And no Im not being a troll and yes I do have a sense of humour.

PS... WTAF was John Malkovich thinking, getting involved in this.

TheIrishGrover

I watched it all and it's strange:

I like most of the characters and actors involved. I liked the fact that Carrell's character wasn't a total idiot as alluded to in the trailers. Liked the human sides to his character with his family and friendships.

I think John Malkovitch and Jimmy Yang are very funny and well cast. As a matter of fact I quite liked the entire cast apart from the PR guy. I get it, he's supposed to be annoying and is a comment on the Social Media-focused whitehouse currently in place but jeez, dial him back..... a lot.

I think it's the overall mixed-bag tone that doesn't work. I would be much more interested in seeing them cut out the kidnapped-monkey type thing and the last-minute replacements. I don't mean a serious drama, there are a couple already out there about the Space Race and more coming. Keep it light but not that light and keep a consistent tone.

If it gets another series I will watch it. The most common complaint by reviewers is the inconsistent tone and I'm sure they will address this to a degree going forward. So I will watch the next season but I'm not really counting down the days.

pixelburp

Renewed for a second season, despite the consensus being a big "meh"

fritzelly

Didn't make it past episode 3 - obviously appeals more to the US audience than the worldwide one

JP Liz V1

pixelburp wrote: »

Renewed for a second season, despite the consensus being a big "meh"

That is a surprise

ShineOn7

pixelburp wrote: »

Renewed for a second season, despite the consensus being a big "meh"

The mind boggles

ixoy

pixelburp wrote: »

Renewed for a second season, despite the consensus being a big "meh"

The husband and I seem to be one of the few people who enjoyed it. Not always funny, it had lots of nice character moments and I loved the relationship between Carrell's and Malkovich's character which played against my expectation in a good way. It reminded of "Upload" (also by Greg Daniels) which also isn't that funny but has strong character pieces.
His shows also do tend to get stronger in their second season, so I'd be hopeful enough.

I assume its renewal is based partially on viewership - its reviews are fairly irrelevant to Netflix's metrics - but also on the names involved and keeping them sweet by whatever deal they signed them up for.

fritzelly

Strange I thought Upload was a fun quirky show but just couldn't get in to this at all

Parsnips

fritzelly wrote: »

Strange I thought Upload was a fun quirky show but just couldn't get in to this at all

Upload was actually great.
Space force = utter SH1T3

Manic Moran

What gets me about Space Force is how inconsistent it is, even with itself.

Naird is obviously very competent. He 'wins' the first episode by a very astute observation on human nature. He's an accomplished fighter jock, did the Scott O' Grady thing in combat, performs outstandingly in front of the Congressional hearing about the cost of oranges in space. He obviously 'understands' technology, you don't fly modern aircraft in combat without full faith that the scientists who built your airplane and weapons know what they're doing. He shows reasonable leadership qualities with the Captain/helo driver, and even gets properly exasperated at his aide who's a general himself. And he's not a bad dad.

Yet on the other hand, he goes into complete farce mode with the space monkey episode (which I thought was the worst of the lot by far, so obviously I have a different sense of humor to you guys) or the wargames episode, goes off the deep end with the spy hunt or habitat, totally ignoring those same scientists... It's like they are two entirely separate characters inhabiting the same body (And thus two entirely different types of show inhabiting the same series). It's possible for a straight, intelligent character to be incredibly funny, and even lose sometimes. Sir Humphrey Appleby being the high point of such a character. Why they decided to had to turn him into an idiot, I don't know. Sure, bad decisions can be made under stress, but stress doesn't turn you into a clown.

By the way, his uniform got kudos as being one of the few to appear in a movie or show with a medal rack which makes sense for the character wearing it, with the right numbers of the right levels of awards and campaign ribbons.

It's like I got to the end on principle and the hope it would get better,

Agent Coulson

Season 2 drops February 18th

martyos121

Wonder if humour will be included this time? First season was such a waste of a great cast.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118412935#Comment_118412935

It must have been well watched....I admit I gave up after a few episodes, doubt it is cheap to make

Need a Username

I watched the first episode today and it was right until it a creepy turn with the general’s reaction to Bobby the Russian spy dating the teenage daughter Then the end with Carrell & Malkiovich sitting on the porch made zero sense - through the episode they had a weird and funny relationship with Malkiovich believing Carrell worked for him and suddenly it they were friends having a normal conversation.

And of the small amount of women in the episode only one was given comedy to do.

Every scientist and military character were doing comedy (whether it was actually funny or not) except the female pilot.

Agent Coulson

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfdchlFsiIs&ab_channel=Netflix

pixelburp

Man, the premise of this show sure aged fast. Is the real life Space Force even a thing, or was it quietly shelved after Biden arrived?

martyos121

That trailer hasn’t done anything to convince me anyway, looks like another season of comedy-by-the-numbers.

JP Liz V1

Cancelled

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118995890#Comment_118995890

lol im shocked, it looks like the days of throwing any auld shiite against the wall to what sticks are gone.