There’s a lot to like about new Disney+ series Last Days of the Space Age.
An appealing cast, fab retro recreation, diverse storylines, a captivating soundtrack, and themes that are ripe for exploration.
The 8 part drama takes us back to 1979 when falling space station was dangerously crossing the skies ready to crash land anywhere without notice. It would come to land around Esperance, over 700km east of Perth.
Writer David Chidlow sets his series in the outer ‘burbs of Perth during WA’s 150th celebrations, in a cul-de-sac where three families are the series focus.
Tony Bissett (Jesse Spencer) is foreman at a local power plant where the workers are striking against management while wife Judy (Radha Mitchell) works on the other side of the picket-line, in administration. This makes for domestic tension despite both being devoted to one another. Teen daughter Tilly (Mackenzie Mazur) dreams of a career as an astronaut, rejected by her careers counsellor who suggests she set her sights on a future in retail. Youngest daughter Mia (Emily Grant) just wants to surf like her grandfather Bob (Iain Glen) who has parked himself in a caravan, uninvited, in the street.
Eileen Wilberforce (Deborah Mailman) is guardian of her teen son Bilya (Thomas Weatherall) who struggles with a staid high school with no inclusion of First Nations people. He’s also harrassed by the police force when there are local delinquency problems. Eileen is similarly pressured by her neighbours not to create problems during a street party.
The third family unit centres around Sandy Bui (Linh-Dan Pham) and Lam (Vico Thai) who run a beachside food truck but harbour deep sadness over the separation from an absent son, while another son, Jono (Aidan du Chiem), lives in his shadow.
If that wasn’t enough, the Miss Universe pageant arrives -for reasons which aren’t entirely clear- with a Russian entrant Svetlana (Ines English) and her manager Yvgeny (Jacek Koman) on the receiving end of local racism, while journalist Mick (George Mason), brother of Tony, is keen for a good story.
Cramming all the storylines into 37 minute episodes is a tall order. So whose perspective is this story? It feels like it wants to be Radha Mitchell’s, juggling marriage, motherhood, factory work and a meddling father. Yet it becomes diluted by so many other plots, or an edit forced to weave so many threads that her screen time leaves us unsatisfied. It’s a shame when Mitchell is certainly capable of more depth than is afforded. Jesse Spencer is similarly under-utilised.
This leaves the series with the ultimate feeling of soap, where all characters are given equal screen weight. Is it the sum of the parts? Perhaps…
There’s also no time for humour which could have complemented the overwhelming drama of marital strains, domestic dreams, misogyny, racism, teen angst, homophobia. Chidlow does weave societal tensions into a TV valentine, but any lightness is left to the visuals rather than the script and characters.
The costume, props, production design departments have certainly worked overtime to bring it all to life. There are lashings of brown clashing with gaudy ’70s colours while the soundtrack needle drops onto Olivia Newton-John, Plastic Bertrand, Chic, The Bee Gees, The Village People and ABBA. Some scenes, particularly those set around the factory, are also too thin with extras, suggesting the budget had to allocate spend on its excellent design and music rights.
Into the middle of the story a power blackout will also disrupt everyone as a major event. Yet I’m not sure the writers knew that Perth at that time always turned off their street lights by about 2am anyway (I know, crazy right?). A blackout is not that big a deal, even in the city of lights.
Despite all this, Last Days of the Space Age has a (luke)warm heart. It has gone to great lengths to recreate an era -including building most of the set in NSW to double for WA. If it falls short it’s not for lack of trying.
The Skylab story has fantastic potential (especially had this been set in Esperance). But sometimes less is more and a version of events doesn’t always hang together.
Last Days of the Space Age is now screening on Disney+
links to content on ABC
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