Review: Other Space Is a Cosmic Blast

TV has given us space as final frontier (Star Trek), space as epic war site (Battlestar Galactica), space as source of mystery (Extant) and menace (V). Paul Feig’s goofily funny Other Space, whose full eight-episode first season is now on Yahoo Screen, gives us space as a site to work out your personal business. In Other Space, no one can hear you scream, except the family members, unrequited loves and assorted misfits you’re trapped with.

It’s the year 2105, and the Universal Mapping Project has given command of one of its ships, the UMP Cruiser, to wet-behind-the-ears captain Stewart Lipinski (Karan Soni). It seems like a big assignment for the well-meaning but jittery newbie, but deep-space exploration has become a less glamorous job over the half century in which the UMP has found nothing but rocks and dust.

So Stewart inherits a ship and crew of castoffs and oddballs, including his hard-charging big sister Karen (Bess Rous), who resents being his second-in command; his childhood buddy Michael (Eugene Cordero); Tina (Milana Vayntraub), whom Stewart hired because of a badly-hidden crush; and onboard computer avatar Natasha (Conor Leslie), who was originally programmed as a blackjack dealer. In a nod to low-budget sci-fi-TV past, the gang is rounded out by Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s Joel Hodgson as a stoner tech officer and Trace Beaulieu as the voice of outmoded robot A.R.T. (who, we learn, is the downloaded consciousness of a billionaire who made a bad investment in Singularity technology).

All goes–not well, and then it goes worse. The Cruiser is sucked up by a temporary wormhole–or “space toilet”–that flushes it into another universe. Inexperienced, poorly provisioned and terrified (a UMP training video on resigning yourself to die alone in space doesn’t help) sets out to navigate its new envirnoment, as well as all the personal and interpersonal space-junk that the stress stirs up.

The subject matter may seem an odd choice for Feig if you know him from Freaks and Geeks, which he created, or Bridesmaids, which he directed. (He did branch out into comedy sci-fi in his young-adult Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! books.) But the science in Other Space‘s fiction is definitely light, even by the standards of, say, Futurama, and the production design is decidedly old-school. (It’s reminiscent of one of the few live-action sci-fi sitcoms past, NBC’s Quark, starring Richard Benjamin, from 1977.)

Really, Other Space is a workplace self-discovery comedy about misfits finding their place, in a office that just happens to be floating in an alien dust cloud. Though Yahoo may not have planned it this way, actually, Other Space (which Feig originally conceived for NBC) turns out to be a closer companion to its adopted Community than anything NBC ever paired with the show. The vibe is a little like a college dorm set afloat in space (at one point Tina draws on “my RA training” to handle a challenge), as the Cruiser’s maladjusted crew gets a forced crash course in socialization. (There’s a great example in the second episode, in which nebbishy officer Kent, played by Neil Casey, reveals an origin story that’s both heartwarming and hilariously gross.)

As with the LED-lit, beep-boop control panels of the Cruiser, there’s little brand-new about Other Space, but it grows into a low-stakes, good-hearted good time. The production feels amateurish in a good way, loose, light and benefitting from a cast heavy on sketch comedy experience.

Early in the pilot, the crew of the Cruiser discovers that its food replicator is busted, leaving them with nothing to eat but a massive stash of fudge in the ship’s hold. It feels like a metaphor for streaming the show. It might be too much to binge this odd confection all at once (just as, Karen dourly informs the crew, an all-fudge diet will lead to a ghastly death within weeks). But who doesn’t like fudge? Other Space may not be TV’s, or streaming’s, next great comedy. But it’s a welcome and unexpected treat.