Film & TV
Recommendation: Final Space
“Final Space, a mysterious dimension that may hold the answers to immortality. Mooncake is the key to opening final space…”
By Will Holden
In the modern pantheon of adult focused animated tv shows, it is hard to stand out from the crowd. This is something I found with Final Space, despite the fact that this is a recommendation, and a strong one, I must admit that I bounced off this show on my first attempt. Hopefully this will inspire some people who may have given this show a go but not stuck with it, to dive back in. The results are worth it.
Final Space is a weaving space opera comedy following a rag tag group who crew the space ship Galaxy One. Gary Goodspeed is a prisoner aboard the Galaxy One having spent 5 years in near isolation, his only companions were the annoying helper droid KVN, the ships computer HUE and a small army or identical robots that maintain the ship. This is until Gary discovers Mooncake, an adorable little blob of an alien who, it transpires, is a deadly planet killer. This discovery leads to Gary and the crew being joined by Avacato, an anthropomorphic cat mercenary, his son, Little Cato and Quinn Ergon, a member of the Star Fleet-esque Infinity Guard. Unbeknownst to Quinn, Gary has been sending daily messages to her throughout his sentence believing that they sparked up a relationship just prior to his incarceration.
The crew are pitted against the sinister Lord Commander who is voiced, unrecognisably, by David Tennent. The Lord Commander wants to access Final Space, a mysterious dimension that may hold the answers to immortality. Mooncake is the key to opening final space which sets up the core contention of the series.
As the narrative expands the show proves to be funny, exciting and heart wrenching in equal measure, seemingly elevating itself above just being another episodic animated comedy. The characters are engaging and it does not take long before you care about each one making the jeopardy feel real and the stakes appropriately high.
The animation is superb with a combination of drawn and CGI elements which are blended together seamlessly. The characters are full of expression meaning you get so much meaning from a look, especially seen as Mooncake speaks in a language indecipherable to the rest of the crew.
Having said that, the script is great too. The characters all have their individual voices and feel complimentary of each other. As I said early, I initially did not quite get on with the show on my first viewing. The jokes didn’t land and, at the point I had reached, the best elements of the story had yet to be revealed. Having gone back and re-watched these early episodes I think they are just as good as later ones, I was expecting something different on my first watch and I think this is what put me off, the trailers and advertisements for the show don’t do a particularly good job of explaining the grandeur and exhilaration that the show achieves but it absolutely worth getting up to speed with. The first 2 series are currently available with a third commissioned and set to air in 2021.
5 Planet Killers out of 5.
You can find final space from these lovely places:
Bigger Than Capes 