General Naird (Steve Carell) reacts to news that he will be in charge of the U.S. Space Force. Image: YouTube/Netflix via AFP Relaxnews
Instead of Dunder Mifflin’s gaffe-prone office manager, Steve Carell is playing a newly-minted United States Air Force division chief in “Space Force”.
A first trailer for “Space Force” sets up Carell’s General Naird as the divisional chief doomed to fail and John Malkovich as Dr. Mallory, the expert scientist assigned not only for his knowledge but also, in all likelihood, his ability to annoy his superiors.
The question is, though, do we want to see Naird faceplant spectacularly, or should he and his ragtag group of Space Force founding members make the best of a difficult situation?
Maybe both, the trailer suggests, ahead of a May 29 premiere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4mY2asIjWk&feature=
Carell and Malkovich are joined by Lisa Kudrow (“Friends”) and Diana Silvers (“Booksmart”) as Naird’s supportive and perceptive family, Ben Schwartz (“Parks & Rec”) as a departmental appointee with a mind for good publicity, Tawny Newsome (“Brockmire”) as a Space Force recruit, Noah Emmerich (“The Americans”) as Naird’s Air Force rival, and Jimmy O. Yang (“Silicon Valley”) as a staff scientist.
It’s also a posthumous outing for the recently departed Fred Willard, whose credits include “Modern Family”, “Best in Show”, “Anchorman” and “This is Spinal Tap”. He plays Naird’s high-ranking father across all ten episodes of the new series.
While “Space Force” is at least tangentially inspired by the real world, it’s not being presented as political commentary.
Netflix has past history with this sort of approach, though 2017’s satirical “War Machine” clung closer to factual reporting: Brad Pitt was in the lead as a fictional army general while its source material was gathered from an earlier, non-fiction account. IB
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