“Every School Kid is Going to Know the Name of the First American in Space. That’s Not Glory. That’s History.”
Another series that captured my interest right away when I first got Disney+ several years ago was The Right Stuff. Since I already knew two of the leads from their work on other shows and love American history, I figured I’d enjoy it. Sadly, it’s wasn’t nearly as good as I expected it to be.
The show looks at the early days of the US space program, specifically the 7 fighter pilots chosen to be the first astronauts as part of the Mercery program. Even among those characters, the show really focuses on three of them, John Glenn (played by Patrick J. Adams), Alan Shepard (Jake McDorman), and Gordon Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue). The show follows the almost two-year period in which the men trained and the scientists worked on the rockets that would successfully and safely get them into space and back. Who will get the historic first flight into space?
The show works in some ways. The period detail is fantastic. The acting from the entire cast is wonderful. I got sucked into the story and enjoyed the episodes. Considering there are only eight episodes in the first season, they cover a lot of ground, and focusing on the three astronauts makes sense, although I do wonder why they chose to focus on Gordon Cooper.
Maybe that is because the show is also part soap opera. This is especially true for Gordon, who is trying to revive his shaky marriage while all this is going on. The men in general don’t come across as heroes, which may be historically accurate, but is a bit of a disappointment. Even John Glenn winds up coming across as sanctimonious by the time the season is over. It’s frustrating because I found I didn’t like any of the men when I was done watching, and I wanted to like all of them.
And then the show just stops. When I was watching it, I thought it was supposed to be an eight-episode mini-series. I wasn’t aware they were planning on more seasons of the show. But the show has now been cancelled, so that’s irrelevant. My point is, none of the story arcs are wrapped up satisfactorily. I get that real life doesn’t wrap itself up neatly at the end of a certain period of time, but I felt like almost everything, was left open.
This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy the show. I was caught up in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The show does a good job of tapping into nostalgia and an important part of American history. And maybe that’s what made my disappointment so much greater – I wanted to like this show more than I did.
If you are interested in a dramatization of this time period, you will want to check out The Right Stuff for yourself. But unfortunately, this isn’t must watch television.
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