Steve Carrell writing and starring alongside a pretty interesting cast would have caught my attention no matter what the content, but taking something very current and very Trump and poking fun at it? Yeah, I'm on board. Surprisingly, whilst the political and ideological satire is ever-present, Spaceforce actually manages to be more than a simple mockumentary. It's actually got a decent amount of heart and emotional connection to it, whilst feeling totally okay leaning fully into the utterly bizarre premise it is set around.

Carrell is excellent and has created a genuinely nuanced character. I was expecting him to just be an idiot who had landed the job that no one else wanted, but he's actually a fairly sweet individual. Screwed up with a messy family life, sure, but ultimately very likeable and with much more depth than I was expecting. Ditto John Malkovich, who treads a neat line between arrogant genius and humanitarian friend. No one in the show is fully likeable and they do a good job of evenly pointing out the absurdities inherent to the systems and policies that are involved, but at the same time the show isn't just a string of cheap parodies and stereotypes. Even the military leaders manage to show restraint and more than a modicum of common sense, even if it is deeply buried beneath machismo. I also love that we never even get a hint as to why Lisa Kudrow is in prison 😁

I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the writers were happy to really accelerate the show. I did not expect us to already be on the moon by the end of season one, but here we are. It gives the show a surprisingly tense finisher and means that our main characters get a solid mix of both wins and losses. I'm definitely on board for more.