I took a trip this week over to Netflix Land to explore the newly settled province of Final Space. But even after touring every village twice, I still don’t know what to think. It’s quirky, I’ll give it that much, sometimes earning a mild chuckle, but far more often prompting a puzzled tilt of my head and a heartfelt, “Huh?”
Mild spoiler of fairly guessable plot point ahead.
At the core, it seems to be built on a flagrant, almost self-congratulatory foundation of “Show vs Tell” mismatches. The protagonist, Gary Goodspeed, is by all evidence of my senses, a complete and total douche bag. He’s self-important, painfully obtuse, sexist, and dumb as a post, while steadfastly convinced of his own awesomeness. Yet, inexplicably, the characters around him all seem blind to these shortcomings. The one exception is his love interest, who sees Gary the way I do. Yay! Finally, a character I can relate to. But then, rather than proving herself right, she evenutally reverses herself and joins the ranks of the mouth-breathing Gary-lovers. Sigh.
They tried to reveal more layers to Gary as the series unfolded, but it all felt flimsy and artificial to me. So I don’t really know what to tell you. On the one hand, I didn’t much like the characters, or the plot, but on the other, I couldn’t look away from its bizarre character dynamics.
Has anybody else given it a try? Am I the only one who came away wishing I could get my time back?
