My Honest Review of Netflix’s “Space Force”
No one on the planet (or in space) was more excited for Space Force than me. Maybe that was my first mistake.
They always say you never want to meet your heroes. Of course, I understand the thought process behind that famous phrase. Simply put, you put people so high on a pedestal, if you ever actually meet them, it would be impossibly hard for them to live up to your expectations. Now, prior to this week, my experiences with meeting heroes have always been the exception instead of the rule.
Growing up, I idolized to "celebrities" and two only... WCW wrestler Sting, and Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith. Later in life, I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with both of them, and I can say without question they couldn't have possibly been nicer to me.
Now.... This week... I finally experienced the reality of that phrase. No, not with a person, but with a TV Show.
Over the past year or so, I've probably written about Netflix's "Space Force" about a dozen times. That might not sound like a lot, but to put it into perspective, that's about a dozen more times than anyone who creates content daily in our building.
I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I have never been so excited for a TV Show in my life, and the day "Space Force" dropped on Netflix, I bunked down and watched the entire series.
I'm not here to say that Space Force is a bad show, because it really isn't. It's a big BIG show, with a budget seemingly as big as our actual real-life Space Force's. The show is grand in all aspects, beautiful even, with a top-notch cast rarely seen on the small screen.
My issue is simply that I expected too much, and realized a few episodes in that thew show itself wasn't actually going to be a great show. It's, in my opinion, too large of a show and too monstrous of a story to fit in short, 30-minute episodes. The episodes themselves don't have much continuity in terms of where the story leaves off and where it's going. Later in the season, I found myself trying to force a laugh out because I felt so invested in the TV show and liking it, prior to seeing it. I was dumbfounded at how such a tremendous cast which includes Steve Carell, John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, and Ben Schwartz could leave me forcing a laugh or two to justify my excitement.
Hopefully Netflix re-news Space Force for another season, and they can find their rhythm in the second season much like Steve Carell and Greg Daniels' U.S. Office.