When Steve Carell left The Office, many missed the actor’s antics as Michael Scott, as other mockumentary shows like Parks and Recreation didn’t quite fill the gap. However, in 2020, Steve Carell’s workplace comedy Space Force looked like an interesting contender for the well-loved sitcom. Following a group tasked with establishing the United States Space Force, Space Force had a brilliant cast, including the likes of Steve Carell, John Malkovich, and Ben Schwartz. As a result, the American comedy series was set up to be one of Steve Carell’s best TV shows in recent years.
Space Force aired on Netflix for two seasons during the height of the pandemic, with its second premiering in 2022, but was unfortunately canceled in April of the same year. This was surprising considering the show had many big names in the comedy genre attached to the project, including The Office’s showrunner Greg Daniels. While there were a number of reasons why Steve Carell’s Space Force was canceled after just two seasons, the most prominent reasons for the show’s downfall were the recycling of outdated comedy seen in The Office, as well as an overreliance on Steve Carell’s performance.
Space Force’s Supporting Characters Were Not As Great As The Ones In The Office
The Office Provided Comedic Characters For Steve Carell To Bounce Off
The problem with Space Force was that the supporting characters were simply not that great, and they did not live up to the ones seen in The Office. While The Office had plenty of standout characters, each with their own personalities and humour, Space Force lacked that variety and relied on Carell’s performance for a lot of its comedy. Supporting characters in TV shows like Space Force and The Office are crucial to helping set up the comedy of their lead characters, and while Steve Carell was great as General Mark R. Naird, the other characters in Space Force felt lacking.
Compared to The Office, the supporting characters in Space Force were bland even though the cast was brilliant. For example, Ben Schwartz was a particularly notable character on Parks and Recreation, and he brought comedy to the show through his character’s appearance alone. However, Space Force suffers in this department, leaving Carell’s performance falling flat. The Office’s unique characters and varied cast allowed Steve Carell to have a lot of fun as Michael Scott, especially in terms of improvisation, which contributed to the show’s notoriety. Unfortunately for Netflix’s Space Force, the show just couldn’t match that same energy.
Space Force Didn’t Live Up To How Good Its Cast & Production Value Was
The Visuals In Space Force Looked Great
The most disappointing element of Space Force is that it looked great, but the show itself didn’t live up to its cast or production value. Throughout the 2010s, Netflix gained a bit of a reputation for big budget shows that failed in their reception, with shows like Hemlock Grove and Marco Polo. Therefore, it is surprising to see the same mistakes happen for Space Force in 2020. Space Force had a rather large practical set that looked authentic for a US building due to its details, proving its high production value, as can be seen in Netflix’s set tour below:
Some have suggested that Space Force is a TV show that would have worked better as a movie due to its set up. Originally playing on a joke that Donald Trump’s space force idea was never going to last, it is rather ironic that Space Force also didn’t last very long, and it eventually would have become culturally irrelevant. Instead, Space Force should have utilized its fantastic visuals and brilliant cast in a movie, which would have allowed for a more concise script and focused on supporting characters, to truly bring out the same comedy as The Office.
Space Force
Release Date 2020 - 2021
Writers Greg Daniels
English (US) ·