Netflix’s high concept work-place comedySpace Forcejust hit the streamer with its latest installment and there’s a lot to go over in the seven episode Season 2, including a (possibly) earth-shattering ending. The first season of the series introduced us toSteve Carell’s General Mark Naird, head of the sixth branch of the US Armed Forces, The United States Space Force. Season 1 follows Naird as he learns the inner workings and operations of the new task force. All of this leads towards the mission to get Americans on the moon again in a race with the Chinese equivalent space force. The President ultimately asks the American astronauts on the moon to take action against the Chinese astronauts, which Naird disagrees with and fights against. As a result the team is essentially stranded in space with little hope of returning, Naird and his team ousted from power.
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In Season 2, things get more or less back on track, despite the team’s budget having been slashed in half. Naird and his team are all back together. The show opens three months later at a trial at the Pentagon to determine the future of General Naird and that of the Space Force. During the second season, we see General Naird and his team face many obstacles. Naird is grappling with the loss of his wife, Maggie Naird (Lisa Kudrow) now that she is filing for divorce in addition to feeling like he will fail as a father if Erin (Diana Silvers) doesn’t choose the right college after school. On top of that, he is dealing with the burden of the US government and the public being wary of the Space Force. Captain Angela (Tawny Newsome) feels just about done as an astronaut due to her time spent on the moon, and doesn’t have much luck in love when her budding relationship with Dr. Chan (Jimmy O. Yang) doesn’t quite go as planned.
The finale sees the Space Force HQ hacked by the Russians, forcing the band to come up with a way to outsmart the Russians into restoring their power, so they can take charge of the turbulent American satellite Blue Oyster Cult which is heading for a collision course in Russian soil. General Naird and co. realize that the Russian hackers are likely listening to their communication through their hacked computers and thus come up with a performance to make the Russians think that if they do not let the Americans resume control of their headquarters, the Satellite would come barreling down and kill thousands.
This leads to a fantastic sequence with Naird, Dr. Mallory (John Malkovich), Erin, F. Tony (Ben Schwartz), and Naird’s adjutant General Bradley (Don Lake) all reading from a script they make up to let them outwit the Russians into giving them control of their base again. All of this happens while Dr. Chan and Captain Ali are stuck in the elevator, forced to confront their feelings for and issues with each other. After power is restored, Captain Ali is able to leave the elevator and work with Dr. Mallory to manually assume command of the satellite and bring Blue Oyster Cult back outside the earth’s atmosphere.
Throughout the sophomore season, we all see many of the core members of the team considering leaving the Space Force for other jobs and this all comes to head in the finale with Major Ali handing in her formal resignation to go work in real estate in Hawaii, before she sees that Naird has promoted her to a Major status for her bravery. This incentivizes her to remain in the Space Force. Dr. Mallory also learns that he was not given the SpaceX job, something he takes in stride. The show also reveals that Dr. Chan, whowasgiven the SpaceX job in his stead, will stay at Space Force and stay close to Major Ali. F. Tony who was grappling with the decision to leave Space Force and represent TikTok starAddison Raeultimately decides otherwise too, after a meeting with General Naird. The final episode of the season also concludes Erin’s season-long journey of figuring out what she wants to do with her gap year, with Erin deciding that she will stay in Colorado near her father to pursue forestry rather than embark on a trip to Portugal.
The team at Space Force is granted raises as well as an admission into the American Strategic Defense Plan which allows them exclusive access to the Hawaii Telescope. It is here that they see a giant asteroid hurtling towards the earth at a fast pace. What happens next will be anyone’s guess. It is unlikely that the series will follow through with theDon’t Look Uppremise for long. Season 1 ended on a false note, making us think that the Naird, Erin, Maggie and her girlfriend would be outlaws in Season 2 with the government out to get them. However, Season 2 was very much in keeping with Season 1, and for better or worse, even more of a toned down workplace comedy. This makes it unlikely that Season 3 will be bigger in scope, and followDon’t Look Up’s formula of big stars and the end of the world. However,Space Forcedoes have a bench of great TV stars such asJane Lynch,Dan Bakkedahl,Noah Emmerich,andDiedrich Baderthat it has already positioned as central characters in its universe, so it could bring them aboard to a greater degree for a Season 3 dealing with such a large scale disaster.
If theGreg Danielsshowis renewed for a third season it will likely stick to its current format of a high stakes workplace sitcom. We could also see what’s in the cards for Captain Ali and Dr. Chan, as well as how the series advances the arcs of other key players in the show. And who knows, maybe we’llfinallyget the answer to the long-running mystery of what exactly General Naird’s wife Maggie did to end up in prison.
