The first season of Netflix‘s Space Force was largely panned, underwhelming critics despite an all-star cast and a beefy streaming giant budget. However, Netflix wasn’t ready to give up on the Steve Carell-fronted satire quite yet, giving it a second season despite the dismal reviews. Focusing on Carell’s Gen. Mark Naird, Space Force is a workplace comedy about the people who have set up the sixth branch of the U.S. Military: the Space Force. It also stars John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, Tawny Newsome, and Jimmy O. Yang.
To the surprise of many, Space Force seems to have turned itself around for its second season. The new batch of episodes drops on Friday, Feb. 18, and the reviews are starting to trickle in. So far, the general consensus seems to be that the show has hit its stride in a distinctly different second season, a common occurrence with comedies (have you tried to watch the first season of Parks & Recreation recently?). So, what do the reviews have to say?
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An Improved Season
The Hollywood Reporter noted that the second season was a marked improvement from the first. “The extraneous satire and off-base subplots have been jettisoned in favor of a greater focus on the central cast of characters, which in turn has allowed Space Force to reveal itself as the more streamlined and sincere workplace comedy it always seemed to have the potential to become,” critic Angie Han wrote.
Streamlining
PopCulture.com‘s Tania Hussain also noted that the second season was a vast improvement. “In many ways, Space Force Season 2 feels like a new show with familiar faces as it reinvents itself into a solid and well-rounded comedy while correcting the series’ initial direction with a dose of easy, digestible humor,” she wrote.
Finding Its Footing
“From the moment Space Force Season 2 begins, it feels like an entirely different show, as if an entire cloud has been lifted and the show was allowed to expand out of a box it was forced into,” wrote our sister site, ComicBook.com, praising the show’s change of pace.
Not Quite Perfect
“They made some changes, including a shift from the first season’s more cinematic style to something more conventional, and a greater emphasis on the comedy,” wrote Liz Shannon Miller for Consequence. “Did that make things better? The answer is a pretty confident yes, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t some issues with these seven episodes.”
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'Squid Game.' Credit: Netflix
