Steve Carell’s Netflix original Space Force is the story of a team of United States armed forces who are given the responsibility of launching the newly designed space force to ‘put boots on the moon by 2024’. Led by general Mark Naird (Carell), Space Force is an office comedy with a quirky leader with a heart of gold, wildly reminiscent of his The Office. The first season was a chaotic massacre where character establishment went hand-in-hand with multiple storylines that were tough to keep up with. There was Mark’s daughter Erin (Diana Silvers) and his wife Maggie (Lisa Kudrow) who reluctantly end up in Colorado where the Space Force base is situated. While Maggie ends up in jail for 20 years for a crime that we know nothing about, Erin goes through a rebellious phase that has her pissing off her father in more ways than one.
‘The office’ is also made up of a motley crowd of people gathered by general Naird to carry out space operations. Set to be a light comedy, there was heavy grabbing at thin air to advance plotlines in season one. However, when it’s Steve Carell, you agree to give him a second chance and that’s exactly what we did as we sat down to watch the second season of the show that dropped on February 18 on Netflix.
A huge leg-up from season one, the seven episodes of season two, at 30 minutes each, has upped its humour game with a tighter script and not too many distractions from the main plot. General Naird is on trial as is the rest of the Space Force for having disobeyed air force orders and launch a retaliatory strike on the moon on China. In an effort to save the lives of the astronauts who were haphazardly chosen in a moment of desperation, Naird is being tested for a hand in a coup and the first 30 minutes as the motley crew of Space Force (including his daughter Erin) go on trial in front of the US Secretary of State, it makes for some of the most heart-warming few minutes of this season. Here is what we absolutely loved from season two of Space Force (some of it may be driven purely by nostalgia for The Office).
The friendship
Naird as the head of Space Force and Dr Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich) share a friendship that is based on a professional setup. With new and more lucrative job offers, threats of dissolving Space Force, a national trial at the Pentagon and extensive budget cuts that include Mallory’s precious Mars mission, general assessment says it’s difficult to maintain a friendship in these trying situations. However, these two movable characters with their snarky sense of humour and pranks to boot (The Office lovers, are you listening?), form a friendship we definitely stan.
The father-daughter duo
Erin went from being the rebellious child trying to date a Russian spy to anger her father and protest against his dating his colleague in season one to testifying for her father at the Pentagon. She has now been promoted to the status of an intern at Space Force, shadowing brigadier general Bradley Gregory (Don Lake) and making it to a controversial cover of Time magazine. She is also trying out for colleges and figuring out what she wants to do for the rest of her life. Her father’s unquestionable support and her decision to stay close to him had us teary-eyed in a couple of places, we must add.
The Johnny English humour
The script is so much more humorous this time around and we found ourselves genuinely chuckling in many places. Some slapstick and mostly great writing, some of the scenes reminded us of Rowan Atkinson’s Johnny English. Be it out-drinking the Chinese general with copious amounts of Moutai in the event of striking a deal, or the endless line of pranks within Space Force ecosystem to get the ‘creative juices flowing’, the jokes weren’t Mindy Kaling-B.J. Novak level funny but it sure was a leg-up from season one. Credit also to Tony Scarapiducci (Ben Schwartz) who plays the social media director of Space Force who single-handedly upped the humour quotient many notches.
Angela Ali
The ‘Drummer Moon Girl’ has our heart and there are no two ways about it. Angela Ali (Tawny Newsome) was a helicopter pilot with Space Force before being sent to the moon in season one. Her infamous first words in space had her say, “It’s great to be Black on the moon”, instead of ‘back’ and she shot to social media fame as an American hero. However, she struggles to adjust to real life back on Earth, unable to execute basic human functions like laundry. She throws her clothes out of her window and buys new ones on a daily basis and plays drums in the middle of the night to cope with her anxiety. This coupled with her troubled yet wholesome relationship with scientist Chan Kaifang (Jimmy O. Yang) makes a great story that season two focuses on. We can’t wait to get more of #ChanAli in season three!
Closer to The Office
There is a camaraderie that is heart-warming and blasts you with warmth from the very first episode. These are a bunch of people who work together for the government and their day-to-day workings include shooting people into space and keeping state secrets safe. However, they are still human at the end of the day, breaking bread and bad news together, ‘ready to go to war’ for their leader Naird. We did find ourselves wishing that Naird was closer to Michael Scott from The Office but we are not disappointed either! There is fierce loyalty, love and respect for each other and there is an understanding that is truly understated and makes the show definitely worth your time.