Space Force

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.