Posted by Netflix released this trailer the other day for a new comedy series titled Space Force from the creator of The Office and starring Steve Carell.
Whether you watched the Office every Thursday night during it’s several season run, or you’re just a 17 year old with a Netflix account who decided to make “liking The Office” their personality, you know it’s a damn good show. When the show became a hit, it’s creator went on the create an even funnier (yes, I said funnier) show, Parks and Recreation. So you’d think having this creator/writer and the star of one of the funniest shows of all time teaming up again would automatically have to be amazing right?
WRONG.
I don’t know if you guys have already forgotten but it’s 2019. Literally anything can happen. Soulja Boy is the most talked about rapper, the President took a picture in front of like a hundred McDonald’s Fish Filets, and a stock photo of an Egg can get 30+ million likes on Instagram in 24 hours, The whole world is upside down. It’s chaos. So even something this promising could be a huge disappointment. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons really quick.
Pro: The Track Record of Greg Daniels
This dude wrote on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons in the 90s before creating and writing for King of the Hill, The Office, and Parks and Recreation. That’s an all-star resume as far as comedy writing goes. He’s had zero misses. But someone else has…
Con: Steve Carell’s Track Record
I’m not saying Steve Carell isn’t hilarious, but you have to admit that part of him hasn’t been active in a long time. Recently he starred in Vice a political “comedy” but more of a biopic/dramedy, Beautiful Boy, where he played a father who’s son is a heroin addict, and the Despicable Me series which provided this cursed image.
And we don’t even need to dive into Welcome to Marwen which just looked like the weirdest movie of all time starring Stevie as a broken man who uses barbie dolls to learn how to stand up for himself?
All I’m saying is there hasn’t been a real good Carell comedy in a little while. When he left the Office to get deeper into his movie career he made movies like Dinner for Shmucks and Get Smart, which were just ok, and then also one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen in my life The Incredible Burt Wonderstone which I bet, and hope, most people have never even heard of because the universe decided it was such a poor attempt to make people laugh that it should be erased from existence completely. I mean, they won’t even play this on FX on a Tuesday afternoon and they play The Hangover 2 like twice a month.
Maybe this means that this will be his big comeback to the genre, but we do gotta look at what he’s done recently.
Pro: Netflix
Netflix is well known for letting creators do whatever they want when they sign on for a deal and providing the budget and a hands-off culture is a huge luxury. This means we can get swearing, loose episode formats (longer than 22 minutes), and they can probably afford some good comedic actors.
Con: Also, Netflix.
Netflix doesn’t have more than one good live action comedy television show. Big Mouth is probably the funniest show on the streaming service, but it’s a cartoon. Same goes for Bojack Horseman (less funny, but still great). The funniest live action show is by far Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but they also have the team from 30 Rock behind that which is probably the greatest team of witty comedy writers in history. Besides that, they don’t have one live action comedy show that’s actually good. Remember, this is the network that has given a sitcom called “The Ranch” (starring Ashton Kutcher wearing his hat like THIS) six freaking seasons.
Pro: Workplace Comedies are Great
I’m not exactly sure why, maybe it’s because anyone with a job can relate to them, but workplace comedies almost always end up being great. The Office, Parks n Rec, Scrubs and 30 Rock really nailed this genre, and more recently shows like Veep, Brooklyn 99 and Superstore have brought it back to mainstream TV. So the potential of getting another classic workplace comedy is exciting at least.
Con: The Workplace Is Directly Related to Trump
Look, I hate Donald Trump. He’s pretty objectively a bad person and one of the dumbest Presidents in every sense of the word. That being said…he is unintentionally hilarious pretty often. Whether he can’t figure out what to do with his hands,
Or he’s tweeting at Kanye West,
The guy is a joke on his own. It was funny when he was running but in the 3 years since his campaign it’s just not anymore. Period. Shows like Saturday Night Live are so obsessed with “owning” Trump that they don’t make jokes, or the jokes they “make” are just stuff President Trump actually did.
The premise of this show is about the people “tasked with creating President Trump’s Space Force”…so it’s not like a comedy about astronauts and stuff it’s like organizationally the people who have to put it together? Like is the show going to take place at the Pentagon? and what’s so interesting about being “tasked with putting it together”? Like budget meetings? Logistics on where there headquarter office will be built? It just seems like they’re grasping at a straw to make fun of Trump when literally everyone’s already doing it and doing it fine.
Late night comedians do a great job of making jokes about politics while also shedding a light on some horrible things going on in the government. John Oliver does great in depth pieces with unique comedic takes on each one, Seth Meyers has a segment called “A Closer Look” which keeps you up to date with what’s going on while also making you laugh….but this is all we need guys. 10-20 minutes. That’s about all the amount of President humor I need per day. Anything else is just beating a dead horse. We don’t need 15 minute SNL cold opens about special prosecution updates and we definitely didn’t need a full on 30 minute show called Our Cartoon President.
Any joke you think this Space Force show will make about Trump has already been made before. I mean watch this Family Guy clip of Peter fighting Trump from the other week.
Oh he has self tanner on! He likes to golf! He’s saying Make America Great Again! ITS TOO EASY TO MAKE JOKES ABOUT THIS MAN THAT THERE ARE NO MORE JOKES TO BE MADE.
This show will come out by the end of the year and the year after that (hopefully) Trump will be out of office and what do you do then? Keep up with the show? Will the Space Force even become a thing if Trump isn’t re-elected? I don’t know and to be honest I don’t care. As of right now, I’ll definitely be watching the first episode, but my hopes aren’t nearly as high as they would be had you told me this a few years ago.
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