by Jake Bourgeois
At a time when we’re all confined to our homes for the most part, taking a trip to space may not be unwelcome. Enter The Right Stuff.
The limited series (8 episodes) follows NASA’s Mercury program and the United State’s drive to get a man into space as part of the Cold War’s space race.
There are a couple of disclaimers here to get out of the way. First, I have not seen the 1983 film of the same name (or at least if I have, I don’t remember it). Second, aside from a few episodes of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, I haven’t watched any National Geographic original programming or any of their recent forays into scripted television. However, after being bombarded with advertisements for their next foray into premium television, I decided to give this one a shot.
The series dropped the first two episodes when it premiered and I was in. I was pleasantly surprised when I fired the series up at how it looked. It looked good. The special effects weren’t very noticeable, aside from one distracting talk on a rooftop. Even some of the more mundane scenes, with the production design and the way the series was shot, it looked like a decent investment had been made in the series.
There aren’t any name actors that I recognize—which I enjoyed, as I wasn’t distracted by a big-name actor popping in. Aside from getting a man into space, the other focus of the series is the juxtaposition of Alan Shepard (Jake McDorman) and John Glenn (Patrick J. Adams), the two leading men for the Mercury team. The two make for a nice contrast, with Shepard being the more (outwardly) arrogant, rock star personality, with Glenn being the more politically savvy, buttoned-up option.
We do get to know the rest of the team, through the media obligations portrayed, and the series does a great job of illustrating just how much the Mercury 7 became overnight celebrities. The complexity of each of the characters, and the impact the increased publicity had on them, was a welcome aspect of the show. It would be easy to paint the astronauts as white knights, but the series shows their imperfections, like infidelities and drunken accidents.
It’s not TV-MA or anything like that (nor am I expecting Disney to go down that path anytime soon), but showing our main characters drink, smoke, and in bed with women is still a bit more adult than anything the service has produced yet. Disney+ just passed its one-year anniversary and we’re not THAT far removed from controversies about whether Disney+ was the right platform for the Love, Simon spinoff series, Love, Victor, and the Lizzie McGuire spinoff series reportedly getting canned for not fitting with the family-friendly vision of platform. So, as tame as some of the depictions are, it was still refreshing to see.
The series is a dramatization (complete with disclaimers that parts of the story are fictionalized), so there are some moments of drama injected into the series. It’s not all hunky-dory in team all the time and there are some disagreements that at times can feel a bit soap opera-y. Significantly, though, the most important moment of tension—the actual launch—still worked, despite obviously knowing the outcome.
If the series had a third “main” astronaut behind Shepard and Glenn, it would be Gordon Cooper. That choice didn’t sit well with me. His storyline as the series presented it never really had the punch I wanted it to. Given the beats of the story, I’d much rather have had that time devoted to either Gus Grissom or Deke Slayton so other moments would’ve hit harder.
The biggest problem the series had puts it in the center of a debate that has loomed large in the era of the streaming wars: to binge or not to binge. I tore through the first two episodes and was really enjoying myself. Then, waiting a week or so for episode three, my enthusiasm waned a bit. After that, episodes piled up on the service unwatched before catching up ahead of the Nov. 20 finale. This is most definitely not the way I’ve watched other Disney+ offerings, and I truly think it would’ve been a better experience if I could’ve watched all eight episodes at once and let my initial high carry me through the season.
The series also starts with what’s quickly becoming a pet peeve of mine: a useless cold open before flashing back in time. When done well, like in Fallen, it can be quite effective. Too often, it’s used as a cheap trick for no apparent reason. That is unfortunately the case here.
For all its flaws, in the end, I found the show to be entertaining and well made. While it may not be for everyone, especially those that have affection for the 1983 film, with all 8 episodes now out it might fit the bill if you’re looking for a quick binge.
Grade: B