Proportionate Response
- Episode aired May 29, 2020
- 36m
Under pressure to retaliate against China, General Naird wrestles with his conscience. Dr. Mallory makes an ominous threat, and Erin goes rogue.Under pressure to retaliate against China, General Naird wrestles with his conscience. Dr. Mallory makes an ominous threat, and Erin goes rogue.Under pressure to retaliate against China, General Naird wrestles with his conscience. Dr. Mallory makes an ominous threat, and Erin goes rogue.
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe deli guy who Gen. Naird's "captured" in The Launch (2020) and put into his car trunk emerges here in the form of a "Missing Person" poster for Emmett Buntlyn on the glass front of the deli.
- GoofsWhen Erin Naird is cycling away from the dirt-bikes, there is a POV shot looking at the dirt-bikes. The amount of dust thrown up is clearly that of the car on which the camera crew are positioned, and not from a bicycle.
- Quotes
General Mark R. Naird: The generation that won World War II was exposed to so much awful reality that they made mostly good decisions for a long time after. Forget history, and you are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Forget how bad polio was, people stop taking vaccines. Forget how bad world wars are, people start puffing out their chests. The real enemy is arrogance.
- SoundtracksSpaceman
Performed by Harry Nilsson, Paul Buckmaster
Written by Harry Nilsson
Produced by Richard Perry
Air Force General Mark Naird (Steve Carell) is promoted to a Four Star General and anticipates taking over as Chief of Staff for the Air Force. Instead, he's allocated control of Space Force, a newly formed militarised unit, tasked with protecting US interests in Space, whilst continuing the research missions. Naird moves to remote Colorado, with his daughter Erin (Diana Silvers) to lead the team and immediately clashes with Chief Scientist Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich), who refutes the need for military oversight. However, Chinese aggression towards the US's experiments starts to increase and Mark must fight his administrations desire for retaliation.
I think expectation has, in this case, worked a little in "Space Force's" favour. One of the reasons I'd put off watching it were the lukewarm reviews it received at the time, so I was expecting something pretty bad. I don't think it's that at all - in fact I reasonably enjoyed the whole run. I don't think it quite matches up to other shows Daniels had a hand in, such as "Parks and Recreation" or "King of the Hill" but viewed on its own merits it does well. Like "Parks and Rec" it's essentially a workplace comedy, where the tropes of that are just given a space twist. Don Lake, for examples, plays Naird's executive office, but essentially acts as the hapless secretary. There's even a charming workplace romance blooming between a Captain, played by Tawny Newsome and a scientist, played by Jimmy O Yang.
It's not hard to see why it wasn't particularly well thought of when it arrived with the fanfare of a new Greg Daniels / Steve Carell project. It's certainly more mildly amusing rather than hilariously funny and includes a bunch of actors playing characters we've already seen do very similar roles. But as I say, without that expectation, it's another in the line of generally warm and charming sitcoms and I'll certainly be running on to the second run.
- southdavid
- Jul 19, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime36 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.20 : 1