Overview
If the past decade or so of Steve Carell's career has taught us anything, it's that he loves playing characters in a workplace environment. If his recent resume has taught us anything else, it's that these characters are usually a source of chaos at their place of employment — or, at the very least, they're surrounded by it.
That proved true in the US version of The Office, as anyone who's heard "that's what she said" too many times well knows. It was also the case in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and its sequel, where Carell made quite the impression as a lamp-loving weatherman. In Apple TV+'s recent drama Morning Wars, he also played a TV host who sparked a scandal — and now, in new Netflix sitcom Space Force, he's taking charge of America's new intergalactic defence squad.
Co-created by Carell with The Office's Greg Daniels — and marking the latter's second new streaming sitcom this month, after Amazon's The Good Place-meets-virtual reality comedy Upload — Space Force follows a four-star general in the US Air Force who dreams of overseeing his chosen branch of the military. When Carell's Mark R. Naird receives a new promotion, however, it's to lead the newly formed space-focused unit instead. So, he's off to Colorado to run the show, and to achieve the White House's aim of returning humans to the moon asap. Obviously, things don't go smoothly, which — as the just-dropped first trailer shows — is where plenty of laughs and a Beach Boys sing-along comes in.
Based on the initial sneak peek ahead of the first-season release on Friday, May 29, Space Force looks a bit like The Office meets Veep meets any movie about astronauts and/or NASA — and that looks like a mighty amusing combination. An impressive cast is on hand to help, with Carell starring alongside John Malkovich, Parks and Recreation's Ben Schwartz, Booksmart's Diana Silvers and Friends alum Lisa Kudrow, as well as Tawny Newsome (Brockmire), Jimmy O. Yang (Silicon Valley), Noah Emmerich (The Americans) and Alex Sparrow (UnREAL).
And if you're thinking, "hang on, doesn't this sound familiar?", that's because there is a real-life precedent. Just last year, the US created a new United States Space Force. If that sounded funny at the time, Space Force, the show, is taking that mood and running with it.
Check out the trailer for Space Force below:
Space Force hits Netflix on Friday, May 29.
Top image: Aaron Epstein/Netflix.