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From humble Youtube beginnings to national television debut, Olan Rogers’ Final Space has concluded its first season, with an extended second season on the way. It’s packed a lot into its first ten episodes, with some following tested conventions and others pushing the boundary, and all of it being a wild and engrossing ride. Much of this is due in no small part to Rogers’ infectious energy and enthusiasm for the creative process, which comes through in every interview and behind-the-scenes footage shown thus far, but that energy can only take the execution so far. As we venture into the unmarked territory of a Final Space seasonal break, let’s look back on the season we’ve gotten and determine where it could go from here.

One of the major hooks this show had from the start was its flash-forwards, something used in its initial proof-of-concept pilot. It was easy enough to conclude that Gary’s situation floating in space surrounded by debris and dead bodies was likely from the end of the season, but these one minute cold opens ended up also serving another purpose for their individual episodes, specifically in summing up the main focus or theme of each chapter (aside from the finale, which doesn’t have one) in a short and concise way, which is kind of an achievement in and of itself.

Episode 1 Intro: An introduction to the series and Gary as a character

Ep 2: Thoughts about death and what people do before and after it

Ep 3: Altruism vs selfishness and how one sometimes looks like the other

Ep 4: Getting what you want vs Getting what you need

Ep 5: Things can always be worse

Ep 6: Avocato

Ep 7: Be careful what you wish for

Ep 8: Well intended lies vs Harsh truths

Ep 9: Friendship at the end of the world

You might notice there’s some overlap in these, or some that seem more of a stretch, which may point to all of this being unintentional and me looking to hard into it, but hopefully this means the crew used what could’ve been belaboring the point about Gary’s inevitable horrible fate and turned into an efficient and creative way of getting a lot of important information, character work, and storytelling, out at once while being both separate and connected to the main plot, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Speaking of Gary, he fits into the typical good-hearted idiot hero role relatively nicely, winning people over with his childlike optimism and naivety and not being too bad with a blaster. At the beginning of the story, he seems very desperate to interact with ANY organic life form and is particularly obsessed with meeting Quinn again, someone he barely knew for all of ten minutes but is convinced he is in love with. It’s hard to say if his five-year imprisonment and isolation triggered this more hopeful outlook on life, seeing how the only parts of his life before it that we see are brief moments of his childhood and witnessing news of his father’s death. What we do pin down is that his wishes to live up to his father’s reputation have driven a fair amount since then and might’ve led to his acting out. Lucky for him that he now gets this chance right after being released from prison, and he doesn’t really look back from then on (not even when he loses an arm!) until the ninth episode, where finds someone he harmed in his former life who is now far worse off. This reflection doesn’t carry over into the finale, partly due to so much going on, but I hope it’s addressed and/or developed a bit next season, because Gary Goodspeed is very much in the need of some dimensions. And learning when to shut his trap.

Avocato and his son, Little Cato, act as markers in the two segments of the story. Cato Sr. enters as a bounty hunter trying to find walking-Macguffin Mooncake, but stays as Gary’s guide to the world of space while also being an indicator to the audience of the lurking darker depths of the show’s tone. A former high-ranking member of the Lord Commander’s army, he lost his authority when he showed weakness by sparing his son from an order execution, and committed to saving him by any means. While only being around for slightly over half the season, his bond with Gary is near instantly believable as a bromance, which makes his sudden and tragic death such a sucker punch (as well as something I really hope they commit to and not try to reverse, even with the introduction of time travel). Cato Jr., however, is not quite as fleshed out as his father, being more or less a sullen and moody teenager who is partly motivated by vengeance, and nearly gets it too. That said, he does manage to fit in with the rest of the cast fairly easily, so maybe the next arc for him will be to find a purpose in life and the story besides being a sudden replacement.

Quinn very quickly defines her motivations as her own, following a mystery and conspiracy while only being powered by her own since of justice. This starts her off on a good foot, but as this part of her story stands strong, she slowly becomes enveloped in the main plot focusing on Gary, including the concerning ways it goes about developing their romance. I’ve brought up several times before regarding Quinn’s status as the only prominent female character in the story thus far, as well as Gary’s iffy reasoning for liking her being more or less treated as normal, healthy, and endearing when it probably shouldn’t be, but I can’t deny the two have chemistry. There’s also the matter of her future self, Nightfall, who ends up acting more as an exposition device and making the Gary romance feel more expected than earned, but that doesn’t count present Quinn as being her own best self. With her separation from Gary and the rest during the finale, I have no doubt we’ll have plenty of chances to see her grow and develop independently, even if I cannot in alld good conscious ship her with Gary.

Mooncake is a surprisingly complicated character for initially seeming like little more than a mascot and plot device. While is origins and true capabilities are still a bit of a mystery, the show doesn’t shy away from how fearsome his power can be, or his own self-consciousness regarding it. Certain scenes peppered over the season show that despite his limited vocabulary and function beyond floating, squeaking, and firing a huge laser, he’s actually pretty reflective about how his power can cause great harm and his covet by those who wish to misuse it. Like many who meet Gary, Mooncake is drawn by his accepting and charming nature, and becomes a member of the Galaxy One crew in his own right, putting himself at risk for his friends’ sake, even at the potential cost of his own. The season ends with him still in the Lord Commander’s clutches, so we’ll have to wait and see what is done with him, but it should be interesting at the very least.

The Lord Commander himself, however, is a bit of a letdown. While I was initially looking forward to seeing more of him beyond his role as the obligatory villain, but despite some neat nuggets of backstory here or there, he never really made that leap. His connection to Gary through his father ultimately amounts to nothing, his goals to find Final Space suddenly switch from keeping alive to becoming an eldritch horror, and his ability to coerce the majority of the Infinity Guard to follow his crazy plans is never given even the slightest amount of justification other than “they all drank the koolaid”. David Tennant has been given far better heroes and villains to work with in the past, and he deserves more here. For better or worse, the Commander is still seemingly alive by the end of the season, which gives us at least some more time to dig deeper into what makes him tick, but I don’t have much reason to look forward to it.

Really, a lot of this first season seems to be placated by far too many emotional duds that seem to set up something greater by never quite earn what they set out for. I’ve given my take about Gary and Quinn, but there’s also throwing in the main villain’s superfluous backstory, Nightfall’s unceremonious exit, and even making the loss of the entire planet Earth seem like little more than a minor convenience considering how little time is spent there and how minimized the actual loss of life is. A lot of this is buffered by the potential to improve on this in future seasons, but in terms of an overall impression of this first season, it’s not a good sign.

I don’t typically have this kind of assurance that the creator of the shows I cover will be reading (or at least be aware of) the reviews I write, so I’d like to use this opportunity to say something directly to Olan Rogers. First off, thanks for reading at least this, if nothing else, because it means a lot. Second, I hope you know that all of these critical points are with the intent of helping improve your creative process, and for all I know, you’ve probably come to these conclusions already and are in the process of making these improvements without me suggesting it. It is worth noting that the space operatic finale of this show does go above and beyond what one would expect for a show of this tone, but there still needs to be a bit more foundation and a connection between the logic of the story and the events of the plot. You’re a talented guy and I’ve had a fun time analyzing your first televised work, so I know you’ll do your best moving forward, so I look forward to seeing it shine. Keep it up, good sir, and the cookies will be delicious.

Score 7/10