The show begins by General Mark Naird (Steve Carell) who commands the newly created America’s Space Force, which is a brainchild of someone like Trump. We are not shown who this person is and he never appears on the screen. But there is an actual person who appears to be giving orders, making the top-notch of his country comply. He is always on Twitter, he tweets his desire that he wants “boobs on the moon” by 2024. The Space Force thinks he means he wants “boots on the moon” by 2024. And hence, begins the “boobs/boots on the moon” story involving Steve and mates. The only person looking to back Steve (Naird) up is scientist Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich) who appears he should have retired from the job years ago. The man is dressed in tweed. Together Adrian and Naird have very little chemistry, though the two are more like an off-and-off couple. The thing is, we do not understand their dynamics, who leads whom, who is whose boss, all of this is unknown. Sometimes you feel Mallory leads the Space Force, the next day he won’t even bring his ID pass along. Lisa Kudrow, as the name suggests plays Naird’s wife, Maggie. She goes missing suddenly after sent to a prison sentence. Lisa’s absence in the show is another detriment. Why she’s missing or sent to prison will always be mysterious. She does appear in the end to let her husband pursue some other woman. Excited to know this woman? Even we barely know her. Niard as a temperamental teenage daughter (Diana Silvers). We do not understand her brief characterization, nor her presence in the show. Some of those who have followed Greg and Steve through The Office and Parks and Rec may say that the show should be given time, after all, both their previous projects struggled with the ratings in the beginning. But we doubt whether those shows were this bad, we don’t think so! If you ask me, The Office pilot remains hilarious to this day and one of my most-watched episodes from the show. It is difficult to fathom that Space Force was created by Greg and Steve who not only did The Office but also another successful stint called Parks and Rec. I mean, what happened here, you guys? As soon as the show aired on May 29, it was the top-steamed show, but quickly the ratings dropped. And we don’t know whether it will b getting another season, for now. All in all, Space Force looks like a show that can be easily skipped and missed. We wouldn’t mind. It has disaster ratings, 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.9 out of 10 with 7,000 reviews in on IMDb. 4.7 out of 10 on Metacritic. As for Netflix’s original offerings, Space Force is currently wedged-in between the 156th and 167th highest-rated original. The thing is, it is one of the most-streamed Netflix shows and despite reading the reviews people are making out time to watch it. That should tell you that there is a pretty good chance that Space Force gets another season because that’s all that Netflix does care about. As long as the views come in, money flows. And that’s the sad reality of Netflix. As a Steve Carell fan and a long-time loyalist, I for one will be happy if the show gets a second run.
