Final Space was the come out of nowhere fresh surprise of whatever the heck year that It first aired. At first, it seems like a goofy screwball space comedy which was fine, but as it motored along, it became something else… A series with relatable characters, and a story of high-stakes where people die and consequences happen. When we last left Gary and his crew, just about everybody was dead and his ship was destroyed along with the planet Earth. You honestly cannot get more final than that.
With the premiere of season 2, we find Gary on a whole new ship and some of his friends who we thought were dead aren’t dead after all. Cheap, yes… but it works because the consequences are still there. Earth is still destroyed, the Galaxy One is still destroyed, and, as a result of all of this, Gary and his friends have lost their freedom and have, in a sense, come full circle and are right back at the beginning.
I honestly wish that I could say that this premiere is clever, but it’s really not. It’s got some emotion as the fallout from last season’s finale is really affecting Gary and his friends, but this new episode feels like a collective sigh, as if the show is taking an entire 30 minutes to center itself trying to figure out where to go next.
I’m all for a little introspection especially after a big event like the Earth getting destroyed, but this doesn’t feel like introspection… It feels like an unnecessary side side quest. If it were a clever and inventive unnecessary side quest, I would be a lot more understanding of it, but it is simply a vehicle to introduce new characters and put the old characters into a rather cliched racing sequence.
It also doesn’t help that the show takes the entire half hour trying to find its feet again, forgetting that it’s supposed to be a comedy and not making with the jokes that we grew to love last season.
I will say, though, that the quality of the animation has definitely been elevated. The character seemed a lot more alive and are making more dramatic and original movements. They just seem to have a lot more spirit to them and I do appreciate that as a viewer.
I am most definitely not writing this episode off as being bad because it is not bad. You can just tell by watching it that this new season has gotten off to a shaky and unsure start. Hopefully, with the next few episodes, it will gain its confidence again and continue the trend that we saw from last year. As it is, the season premiere is an inconsequential and underwhelming episode from a series that, quite frankly, I expect more from.
Jason Gaston 