'Space Force' Review: Steve Carell and John Malkovich make an unusual but successful comedic pair
Spoilers ahead for Netflix's 'Space Force'
With SpaceX nearly launching the first privately built space vehicle just a few days ago, it seems all our space comedies from 'Avenue 5' to 'Space Force' are all hovering pretty close to reality. But between the two, 'Space Force' was always going to hover a little closer since it's very premise stems from the establishment of the very real Space Force division set up by the present administration on December 20, 2019, with "Space Warfighting" courses. You cannot make this s***t up.
Everything, from the first guffaw General Mark Naird (Steve Carrel) makes when he hears what the new division is called, to all the POTUS references that pepper the entire series like the way he texts Naird asking him to show Bobby (the Russian spy on the base) "the tech things he wants", to the FLOTUS designing uniforms with capes, seems like lazy humor. Why? Because we live in the new normal where Twitter is placing fact-check warnings on the president's tweets. When real life resembles 'The Onion' headlines, taking potshots becomes so easy that there is no skill to it.
But that said, we do get some spectacular moments with Marcus the "chimpastronaut" who eats his colleague, the "dogstraunaut", before it tries to repair the billion-dollar, net-throwing "war satellite" that the Chinese have sabotaged in Episode 2. But very rarely after that does the series ramp it up to that level of absurdity.
Instead by the end of Season 1, the show makes it seem like it is reasonable to have a Space Force to protect American interests in space as the Chinese drill for Triatomic hydrogen as a source of nuclear power on the moon. By the end, space capitalism and space warfare become a reality and scientific cooperation and respect between nations are treated as a form of naivety.
John Malkovich is Dr. Adrian Mallory, the pacifist Science Head at Space Force who, at first is at odds with Naird, before he becomes his trusted "camp de aide" as the episodes roll by. In fact, it wouldn't be amiss to say that the best part about 'Space Force' is the unlikely pairing of Steve Carell and John Malkovich as General Naird and Dr. Mallory. As Malkovich grinds out his dialogues in his signature style as he expresses dissatisfaction with Carell's old-school military ways, Carell shuts him down while making as many nerd jokes as he can.
In the very last episode, as they fight over American military reprisals for China plowing down the American flag on the moon, Dr. Mallory screams across the atrium, "Not everything is World War II!" to which General Naird replies, "and not everything is Vietnam!". It is the classic 'brawn and brainiac' comic pairing and it is a pleasure to see Carell extend himself dramatically while Malkovich stretches his comedy muscles. Between the two of them, they carry most of the show.
The side characters like the over-eager media consultant (played by Ben Schwartz) who Naird and Dr. Mallory call "F**k Tony", who is forever trying to please POTUS, to General Naird's troubled daughter, to the other duo on the show -- Spacewoman Angela Ali (Tawny Newsome) and Dr. Chan (Jimmy O. Yang) -- keep it interesting enough to keep the pace going in scenes where these two leads don't appear. The likeability factor of the cast is high. So you can actually binge on this show without being tempted to turn it off because some characters are too annoying to watch like in 'Avenue 5'.
This despite the fact that General Naird comes across as more than a little racist and clueless about the geopolitical realities as he thinks China will help India's space program because "they on the continent". But Steve Carell does enough to humanize the General, sometimes looking like an IRL Gru with his fierce frown. He acts honorably and competently. enough times, to make you tolerate his lapses when they do occur. John Malkovich also looks like he is enjoying slumming it in a comedy instead of his usual high brow fare like "The Pope'. Look out for his solo rant against his Chinese counterpart after his diplomatic exchange to resolve a crisis on the moon fails miserably. So while 'Space Force' doesn't live up to its high promise of being 'The Office' redux, it has its moments which make it worth tuning into.
'Space Force' is streaming on Netflix from May 29 onwards.