Space Force

There are characters that work better than others, and it takes a few episodes for the series to find the right tone (satire ain’t easy), but by the end of the 10-episode first-season run I found myself endeared to this disparate ensemble and deeply invested in what happens next. So, you know, a Greg Daniels show.

An earnestly amusing show that isn't afraid to wear its heart on its star-spangled sleeve. [8 - 21 Jun 2020, p.4]

While “Space Force” benefits from Carell’s impeccable comedic timing and his uncanny ability to play yet another character who’s often an insufferable buffoon with not a speck of self-awareness, the humor is hit-and-miss, the big-budget slapstick set pieces are mildly funny when they should be Mel Brooks funny. ... Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed “Space Force.” The roughly half-hour episodes zip by and elicit a steady stream of smiles and chuckles. It’s just with all the credentials of the main contributors, we hoped for greatness and got … pretty good.

There’s tremendous silliness in Space Force, but it doesn’t slip out often enough.

Space Force is a diversionary delight at best. Missed opportunities abound (whether it’s under-developed characters or first-draft jokes), and anyone expecting a “Veep”-level satire or “Office”-like innovation may be disappointed. Season 2, which seems inevitable given the talent involved, could easily go haywire or refine itself into something better. As it stands, “Space Force” is clearly made with joy. Maybe it won’t fill the “Office”-sized hole in Netflix subscribers’ hearts when the series leaves the service later this year, and perhaps it could serve a greater purpose than silly fun.

Space Force doesn’t have quite enough story for its first 10 episodes—though these days, that’s par for the course for the first season of a streaming show. What the series does have, in spades, is a much more ineffable quality: tone.

While none of the jokes land with the same precision as "Veep's", they do play in the same pool. If Kudrow had been given more screen time, she just might have made this zing as well as "The Comeback."

The show proves much quicker with its droll dialogue than the dramatic force involving America trying to take over space. And yet after seeing all of season one I am still recommending this show, in part because adjusting expectations does make it more enjoyable, and it simply is funny enough to warrant a look.

Despite a rough start, “Space Force’s” impressive pedigree hints at its considerable potential and, after six episodes, provided plenty of clues that it will gradually find its way. An excellent cast and moments of sincere hilarity make this a comedy worth taking a chance on.

The good news is that this is not the worst space parody ever. In fact, it rockets off the pad with a fall-down-funny pilot episode. From there, though, it hits turbulence. ... The best thing about Space Force is Carell and Kudrow. ... Unfortunately, because of the absurdity of their situation, Carell and Kudrow get precious little screen time together. That leaves this show at the mercy of John Malkovich, who is determined to give us one of those peculiar Malkovichian characters.

Carell dilutes his buffoonery with humanity, and Naird is more likeable than he ought to be. There are a few good one-liners. ... But the series struggles to get out from under the biggest joke of all, which is that it is based on a real US government department. It’s material for a sketch, rather than a whole series, and it would be funnier if it wasn’t true.

Daniels knows how to handle an ensemble cast and the Space Force team are deftly drawn. ... Dramatic detours are part of the problem with Space Force, especially during its serious mid-series dip. It’s tense at times, tender at others and often feels more like a comedy drama than out-and-out sitcom. The dialogue has zing and bite but doesn’t elicit enough laughs.

There’s an immense amount of talent on screen in Space Force, from the main ensemble to the recurring cast, which includes Jane Lynch, Patrick Warburton, Diedrich Bader, Fred Willard, Ben Schwartz, Dan Bakkedahl, and Jessica St. Clair. What the show lacks is any kind of comedic vision, or even a fully-formed concept.

A lot of humor ends up left behind and most of it stops short. This is a show that cuts with a butter knife instead of a razor blade. And it cuts every which way instead of one direction. The result is, not surprisingly, a mess.

This workplace comedy feels more silly than sharp.

It took The Office a while to lose its teeth and become a perpetual meme and cuddle-fest, while Space Force goes soft within just a few episodes before limping to an embarrassingly inspirational family reunion finale.

Space Force, the 10-episode first season never quite gels into something cohesive. "Force" is slickly produced with an A-list cast, but all those pretty people and sets can't hide often unfunny scripts and clashing tones.

About halfway through the 10 episodes, “Space Force” starts to get better, and settle down a bit, as the multiple characters begin to bounce off each other, and we get more of a sense of the show as a workplace comedy.

For all the heft behind it, “Space Force” should be an easy win. Ten episodes later, however, it’s safer to say that “Space Force” is really just okay.

Alas, imagining the concept is funnier than anything in the show’s early episodes, which mine stale humor from the pitfalls of military bureaucracy. ... Perhaps with time to grow the characters in “Space Force” will develop into something worthwhile.

“Space Force” tries to be a satire that doesn’t upset anyone—relying on a collection of lame jokes that wouldn’t make it in an ‘SNL’ skit—and forces in unnecessary subplots that go nowhere and derail the series’ minimal comedic momentum.

By turns winningly silly, curiously flat, and hauntingly off-key, the series presents a case study in the artistic perils of trying simultaneously to present a fresh satire of the military-industrial complex and a comfort-food buffet of workplace-sitcom commonplaces. It seems stranded between the caustic and the cutesy.

Reuniting Steve Carell and "The Office" producer Greg Daniels, Space Force carries such an impressive payload -- from the star-heavy cast to the concept -- it's a shame the actual show isn't better. As is, this too-broad parody has sporadic moments but consistently feels like it's trying way too hard to achieve liftoff, like an "Airplane!" movie gone wrong.

Despite occasional laughs to be gleaned from the twist that Malkovich can give the most unpromising of lines, Space Force is not funny, which makes it hard to class as a comedy.

One could almost write the jokes in one’s sleep. Unfortunately, that seems to be precisely what co-creators Greg Daniels and Steve Carell have done with their disappointingly clunky new Netflix comedy series, “Space Force,” which spends a lot of effort just trying to get off the ground. ... To some extent it does [get better], more than midway through this batch of episodes.

[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.

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.

How did this happen, though? How did so much talent and money go to such waste?

Considering the talent hurled at this, we all have a right to expect better. The whole affair has the whiff of “Take Netflix’s money and RUN” about it. Daniels, in particular, should be embarrassed by the general lack of effort in the plotting, dialogue and jokes.

Space Force is unhelpfully sprawling, taking place on a vast base in the middle-of-nowhere New Mexico, with a sneakily huge cast. ... The show wants to be acid and cutting but there’s a streak of toothless gentleness that turns the whole thing, unwelcome as a dash of sweet cream in a jar of pickle juice. ... Space Force is not exactly embarrassing—everyone involved is too talented— but it is shockingly unfunny for a show made by people who are so talented.

“Space Force” remains opaque and obvious and unconvincing. It is a contraption, and just what it is meant to produce is never quite clear. Its tones never mesh; its personality remains split.

There is very little in this comedy that will call forth smirks, never mind laughs — and that’s saying a lot, given the talent involved in the first 10-episode season.

Space Force is exactly what you’d expect from a show conceived around a conference table, then executed by two network TV veterans with a budget befitting their track record but no personal connection to the premise. ... There are so many characters, it takes more than half the season to get to know anyone besides Naird and Mallory. ... Things can get repetitive when you watch more than one [episode] at a time.

The first episode was bad. The second episode was sort of mystifying. ... Space Force is largely unfunny, has no sense of perspective or tone, and, outside of a pleasant, somewhat adorable Odd Couple friendship between Carell and Malkovich’s characters, offers little to warrant a recommendation. Schwartz and St. Clair deliver good performances, too, so there’s that? I guess?

The opposite of greatness. Specifically, "Space Force" is a five-hour bloat full of temporizing dialogue, a few-too-many gags relating to gastrointestinal malfunctions, and a CGI chimp and dog who deserved better. ... Yeah, bad. Long bad too.

[Space Force] is so strange and ill-conceived and ill-timed that not even Carell’s avuncular bonhomie can save it. For all its cinematic trappings, Space Force is a series with a single joke running through it, and that joke is American idiocy.

Space Force is a massive misfire, a show shocking in its inability to generate modest chuckles, let alone laughs. ... Excessive plotting is just one of the problems in Space Force, though. An even bigger one is that the vast majority of its jokes simply don’t land.

Despite its pedigree and the pile of money Netflix threw behind it, Space Force is more of a sleek, high-powered, expensive rocket that tips over and explodes on a school bus full of children before it can even launch.