''Moonbase 8'' is an American

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

television series created and written by

Fred Armisen Fereydun Robert Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series ''Portlandia''. He ...

Tim Heidecker Timothy Richard Heidecker (; born February 3, 1976) is an American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician. Along with Eric Wareheim, he is a member of the comedy duo Tim & Eric. He has also appeared in films, including ''Bridesmaids' ...

Jonathan Krisel Jonathan Krisel (; born January 4, 1979) is an American director, producer, writer, editor, and occasional actor. He is best known for co-creating the series ''Portlandia'' (for which he also directed and co-wrote in the majority of episodes), ...

and

John C. Reilly John Christopher Reilly (born May 24, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer, and writer. After his film debut in ''Casualties of War'' (1989), he gained exposure through his supporting roles in '' Days of Thunder'' (1990), '' ...

, starring Armisen, Heidecker and Reilly in the lead roles. It premiered on November 8, 2020, on

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

Premise

''Moonbase 8'' follows three subpar astronauts in one of several

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Moon base training simulators located in

Winslow, Arizona Winslow ( nv, ) is a city in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 9,655. It is approximately southeast of Flagstaff, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and southeast of Las Vegas ...

, hoping to be the crew selected by NASA to travel to the actual Moon Base, whose construction is nearing completion.

Cast

Main

as Robert "Cap" Caputo, a former helicopter tour pilot who claims to be a military veteran *

as Professor Scott "Rook" Sloan, a Christian who wants to spread "the Gospel of Jesus Christ out into the universe" *

as Dr. Michael "Skip" Henai, the son of an astronaut

Guest

Travis Kelce Travis Michael Kelce (; born October 5, 1989) is an American football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft and later won Super Bowl LIV ...

as himself, a piece of "stunt casting" by NASA for the astronaut program *

Adam Lambert Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide. Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical tra ...

as Billy *

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

as Cooper *

Alia Shawkat Alia Martine Shawkat ( ; ar, عليا مارتين شوكت; born April 18, 1989) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in '' The Old Man'', '' State of Grace'', Maeby Fünke in the Fox/Netflix television sitcom ''Arrested Develop ...

as Alix

Episodes

Production

Development

On April 24, 2018, it was announced that

A24 A24 is an American independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. It is based in New York City. A24 was founded in 2012 by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges. Pr ...

had begun production on a comedy television series titled ''Moonbase 8'' that they independently funded. Executive producers include

, and

Dave Kneebone Dave Kneebone is an American television producer. Along with Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker, he founded and runs Abso Lutely Productions, which produces a variety of comedic television shows and films. His role has been described as the busines ...

. Krisel directed all six episodes. Production companies involved with the production include A24 and Abso Lutely Productions. A24 began shopping the series to networks once production concluded. The series premiered on November 8, 2020, on Showtime. The entire first season became available on-demand to Showtime subscribers on November 8, 2020. The series is scored by

Steven Drozd Steven Gregory Drozd (born June 11, 1969) is an American musician and actor. He is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter for the Flaming Lips, Electric Würms, and other projects. Early life Drozd was born in Houston, Texas, and gre ...

The Flaming Lips The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Drozd (guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, vocals), Derek Brown (keyb ...

, his first time scoring a project.

Casting

Alongside the series announcement, it was confirmed that Armisen, Heidecker, and Reilly would star in the series.

Reception

Reviews of the series have been mixed. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 57% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 6.16/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Despite a talented central trio and a few great moments, ''Moonbase 8''s portrait of monotonous mediocrity may be too low-key for some viewers to achieve comedic lift off—though that may be exactly the point." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100 based on 18 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In reviewing the series in contrast to the other "work-space" comedies of 2020, ''

Avenue 5 ''Avenue 5'' is a science fiction comedy television series created by Armando Iannucci that premiered on HBO in the United States on January 19, 2020. It stars Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad in lead roles as captain and owner of a fictional interpl ...

'' and ''

Space Force A space force is a military branch of a nation's armed forces that conducts military operations in outer space and space warfare. The world's first space force was the Russian Space Forces, established in 1992 as an independent military service. ...

'', Danette Chavez of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' stated that ''Moonbase 8'' has the most potential to continue as a comedy on its own merits, beyond the stunt of the space setting. Ben Travers of ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Hollyw ...

'' praised the show while saying it still has room to grow, writing "there’s room for creative expansion in future seasons, but this is a small-scale mission that’s off to a solid start".

References

External links

*
Moonbase 8
' on

* {{Showtime Network programming 2020s American comedy television series 2020 American television series debuts English-language television shows Showtime (TV network) original programming Television series by A24 Television series by Abso Lutely Productions Television series about the Moon Television series about NASA Television shows set in Arizona