Space Force: What the Must Watch reviewers think

Tuesday 2 June 2020, 9:45

Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan share their thoughts on Space Force.

It's a new workplace comedy on Netflix, co-created by and starring Steve Carell.

The show focuses on a general who teams up with an eccentric scientist to get the U.S. military's newest agency — Space Force — ready for lift-off.

Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below...

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(Photo: Netflix)

Hayley says: "If I am being kind... it's maybe because it has arrived at the wrong time"

“It has a great cast, amazing creators involved, loads of money, so I was struggling to work out what happened here - given the huge amount of potential it's sort of hard not to get your hopes up. I was excited about it.

"If I’m being kind and ignoring the fact that it's just not funny, it's maybe because it has arrived at the wrong time. The show was thought up back when [President] Trump announced he was founding a new branch of the armed forces. He called it Space Force and we all laughed and then forgot about it because he’s absurd and then he did something else absurd. But in those two years, Trump has become more dangerous and we can’t laugh off the stupid stuff he does.

"All that said, [Fred Willard] is so good. Everybody will know him from the Anchorman movies and Best in Show, he’s the best thing in this show, which is saying a lot because there are so many good people. His comedy timing is amazing even at 85."

(Photo: Netflix)

Scott says: "You constantly get distracted by noise and never captivated by the plot"

"When our world is so mad, it’s hard to then go and write a comedy that tries to be madder than real life actually is. It’s also the weirdness that this is kind of based on the political circumstance, but doesn’t really have any political satire.

"To me, this show is a reflection of all the problems Netflix has. Netflix thinks to have a big success, all it has to do is throw as much money as physically possible at a new show. So you spend the whole time going ‘well that’s a big set, oh wow, they could afford that person?' You constantly get distracted by noise and never captivated by the plot.

"Of course we have A-listers in films crossing over to TV projects all the time now - practically every week we’re reviewing a Hollywood A-lister. I always find that the way you know if a show is good is if you kind of forget about them, and get sucked into the plot. For example when Michael Sheen was in Quiz, you thought about him being Chris Tarrant for two seconds, then got captured by it, whereas with this, you just constantly get grounded down by sense of ‘oh that person, oh that person’.

"For me, it shows it all comes down to good writing. It doesn’t matter how much money or talent you throw at it. If the jokes and story aren't good, no one will stick around."