The Reel Review
Steve Carell stars in this Netflix comedy as the commander of the newly-created sixth division of the US Armed Forces, the Space Force. Yes, this is intended to be a spoof of what really happened in 2019 under the direction of President Donald Trump. You just can’t make this stuff up.
Created by Carell and Greg Daniels, creator of the U.S. version of the popular British series, The Office, Space Force is intended to be a screwball comedy in the vein of 1980’s Airplane! or Reno 911! (Apparently exclamation points are the tell-tale sign of a successful spoof. Note that there isn’t one in Space Force.) The concept is cute, it has a huge, big name cast – John Malkovich, Lisa Kudrow, Jane Lynch, just to name a few – and a big budget production.
But it just isn’t funny – like, not even once. Was the hilarious Steve Carell from The Office shot into space and replaced by a profoundly unfunny replicant from Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Good luck trying to suffer through more than a couple of the painfully bad, ten half hour episodes. At least Ginger Gonzaga does a nice job portraying a parody version Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Space Force is a colossal misfire.
REEL FACTS
• Space Force was Fred Willard’s final role, before he died of natural causes at the age of 86 on May 15, 2020. Willard appeared in the 1978 comedy film Space Force.
• Donald Trump signed an Executive Order creating Space Force in February 2019, Its logo is eerily similar to the fictional Star Trek logo. (We said you can’t make this stuff up.)
• Space Force creator Greg Daniels has four children. One of them, Owen, stars in the series as Obie Hanrahan.
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