General Mark Naird (aged Steve Carrell from “The Office”) is a simple and ordinary, albeit honest, soldier who dreamed of a decent career, but was put in charge of the newly created Space Forces,
at which everyone laughs and no one understands why the President of the United States , in which the previous head of the White House is guessed, generally organized a new branch of the army. But since we have set a goal to return to the moon, then we must do it, yes, sir, an order is an order, that’s right, sir! Mark’s personal life is covered with a copper basin and he has to combine the leadership of a team of nerdy nerds led by the irritable and inhibited old man Dr. Mallory (John Malkovich from “The New Pope”) with the upbringing of a teenage daughter and prison dates with his criminal wife. There are also these Chinese with their lunar program, and Russian spies are somewhere nearby … in short, Mark’s life is not easy now.
But an order is order!
A comedy series from the creators of “The Office” (the very one), presented as a light, moderately absurd production comedy about the tandem of an incompetent leader, balancing his stupidity with high morality and good intentions, and a grumpy scientist who considers himself smarter than he is, and constantly argues in everything with the hero Carrela. Carrell’s character is not at all a copy of Michael Scott from the office, he is simpler and smarter, but he also gets into awkward situations – and, unlike Michael, his face most often says “God, what am I doing here” rather than ” Here I screwed up again, what a shame. ” This is a completely different role, less funny, but a little deeper, or something. By the end of the season, you start to respect Mark – he sincerely wants everything to work, although he does not understand a damn thing about astronautics and keeps himself from the only military instinct to bomb everything to hell and solve the problem. Damn, his wife even has to persuade him to find a mistress for herself, so as not to grieve without her for the remaining forty years of the term!
Malkovich’s hero is also interesting.
Caustic and tense, while constantly speaking in a low, nervous voice, as extensively and slowly as possible, enraging everyone around him, but versed in his business and a really talented specialist – towards the end of the action, Dr. Mallory will even make friends with Mark, no matter what.
There is no point in mentioning the rest of the characters. The annoying PR man Fak Tony (yes, this is his nickname, he got everyone so sick), a stupid secretary who lets guests in instead of delaying, a lively dark-skinned pilot who dreams of astronautics, but does not understand science, a handsome Russian guy sticking to her daughter Mark and inadvertently asking suspicious things … funny characters for small gags, but nothing more.
The same can be said for the main storyline. It’s almost gone. The space forces under the leadership of the hero Carrell need a nosebleed to land on the moon, and do it before the Chinese – and the Chinese are cunning, they keep up everywhere and overtake: either the American satellite will be sawed off by the solar panels, or the astronaut monkey will be taken prisoner. Some kind of horror, now you’ll say even a five-year plan in three days will have to be done!
So this is an easy, relaxed, predictable and moderately funny show to watch once, at times reminiscent of not the smartest anecdote (the open end of the season does remind you of two cowboys who ended up with… egh, you know the ending 😆).
What I didn’t like was the disdain with which science is shown here. Scientists and designers in the Space Forces are just strange nerds talking about solar sails and low shaves, while Mark’s idiotic plans for solving problems, although they do not lead to unequivocal success, are presented as paradoxically working and winning in the competition of engineering and scientific order-soldier logic. I understand that this is one of the ways of humorous conflict and humor often works to deceive expectations, but damn it. Carl Sagan also complained: why are there so many images of scientists in popular culture as crazy geeks who are engaged in some kind of nonsense, or even as dangerous psychos? This is not at all the case. If not for science, everyone would still ride in carts and burn witches in the squares (“That was Agatha all along”) …
Well, some inaccuracies. From the Earth to the Sun, the object that has lost control is clearly more than a week, the flight to the Moon will take a little longer than 36 hours (to climb into low orbit and fly to the ISS, it takes eight to twelve hours, if I’m not mistaken), and the interiors of the ships .. Well, convention, of course, okay, it’s just a comedy. But where is NASA? Are you seriously wanting us to believe that Space Forces, founded by some amateur tweets in big letters at three in the morning after the news on TV, are developing their space program practically on their own? Camon, I just noticed the logo of the national aerospace agency in one scene. Completely disrespectful to those who actually sent twelve people to the moon and returned back, whatever the fans of the flat earth theory and Stanley Kubrick’s conspiracy with reptilians from QAnon may think.
In short, these are the thoughts.
The show is not bad, but the potential was much greater.
The pilot episode was very weak, I expected something more, especially from Carrel (although this is not his fault) and the magic inscription from the creators of The Office. Hopefully, in the second season. something has changed for the better, but there is no great desire to check it.
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