The Office and Parks and Recreation are routinely heralded as two of the best comedies of the 21st century (and both are often mentioned on “Best of” lists that encompass a more significant period of time). But what fans of both shows will be quick to mention is that they became beloved in spite of their initial seasons, not because of them. Season two is where both shows found their footing and figured out their tone – reshaping their narrative around their leads in such a way as to make elements of those first seasons all but unwatchable on a rewatch. Now, what does this have to do with Space Force, the Greg Daniels-Steve Carell comedy that dropped this past weekend on Netflix? Well, it’s a measure of (perhaps naive) hope that the same change will come with the second season of Space Force, a series that, much like The Office and Parks before it, is a mess in its first season.
The concept for Space Force isn’t bad: General Mark Naird (Carell) thinks he’s getting promoted to head the Air Force (replacing his nemesis in the position) only to find out, as he’s promoted to a four star general, that he’s actually going to head the Space Force. Joining Carell is just about the best comedic cast you could hope to find: Lisa Kudrow as Naird’s wife, Ben Schwartz (whose long-form improve series Schwartz and Middleditch is worth a look) as a clueless media director, and even freaking John Malkovich. All of that should give you one hell of a show. But the series can’t manage to figure out its tone, rendering the talented cast and the solid premise moot. Is Space Force meant to be a satire of our current political moment (the childish, yet unnamed, president in the series would make that seem like a possibility)? Well, it never pushes hard enough against current events to be considered a viable satire. There are clear parodies of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi who are neither funny nor particularly interesting, and the comedy touches on current political elements without digging into what makes them so absurd (and ripe for a scathing satire). So, it’s not really a satire.
Is it the story of a man desperately trying to keep his family together while struggling with a work-life balance? Well, every time the series allows Carell to tap into that aspect of the character (the caring father and hopeful husband), the series forgets about it in the next episode. Space Force wants us to care just as much about the Naird home life as we do about the more dominate Space Force work life. But in order for that to be the case, it would need to find a more equal balance between the two elements within the series. While most of our time is spent with Naird at work, we also spend a weirdly large amount of time dealing with Naird’s teenage daughter Erin as she works on base. It’s an incredibly awkward fit, melding the workplace storylines with Erin’s workplace adjacent arc (she gets a job at the base fro-yo stand to keep her in the Space Force side of the story). You can’t have a workplace comedy when your lead character’s home life keeps bleeding into key facets of the work storylines.
So, if it’s not a satire, not a workplace comedy, and not a family comedy, then what is it? I’m not sure even Greg Daniels knows the answer to that one. The series hedges its bets on all elements of the story, creating narrative mush. Now, comedies aren’t exactly known for their top notch character development and narrative arcs – but the best ones certainly are. And from The Office, we know Daniels can handle creating complex and engaging characters while still keeping the jokes coming. But that’s not the case with season one of Space Force. There’s too much happening with little to no focus.
So, what could Space Force do in season two to fix this? Well, I think you have the makings of a fun workplace comedy. The only problem with that is that, so far, Naird is really just Michael Scott with a much more important job. He’s a genuinely nice guy who tends to screw up by either overestimating his own abilities (and having his truly gifted coworkers bail him out) or by doing the right thing, just going too far with it. I suspect neither Carell nor Daniels really want to do Michal Scott 2.0, so I’m not entirely sure how they can fix that. Daniels is good at his job and Carell has a really great range – they can handle the tonal changes with the character necessary to make people see him as someone other than the lovable but dim boss we’ve seen before. The other change is simpler. With the focus pared down to the workplace, that eliminates a number of outside characters that pulled focus from those in headquarters. Sorry, Erin, but we don’t need to see you every week. And the Washington D.C. gang? Well, we really don’t need them at all, save for the occasional meeting of the Joint Chiefs (who do prove to be a pretty wonderful diversion from the rest of the series). This should be a show about the Space Force, not about those who only tangentially impact that world.
Will Daniels streamline the series moving forward? I have to think he will. And he’s proven before that he can take a shaky first season and right the ship. With the caliber of talent at his disposal, I think Space Force might be worth a second look in the second season. But season one? Yeah, this one isn’t really worth your time.
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