Critic Reviews
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This workplace comedy feels more silly than sharp.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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[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.
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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.
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How did this happen, though? How did so much talent and money go to such waste?
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 63 out of 130
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Mixed: 27 out of 130
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Negative: 40 out of 130
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May 29, 2020
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May 29, 2020I was expecting comedic gold like the office. What a let down, the political humor gets very stale.
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May 30, 2020