TL;DR – This is an interesting, if overwhelming, exploration of the characters that we will be getting to know across the series.  

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ Service that viewed this series.

Last Days of the Space Age Review –

One area that truly excites me is space, its exploration, and the history and impact that it has had on the world. Everyone can cite that one story about a pencil v pen in a spaceship or one small step for man, and that is this far removed in time from when it happened. What must the impact did those events have on the world in the years just after it happened? Well, in today’s series, we explore just that.

So, to set the scene, it is a tumultuous point in Perth’s history as several competing factors look to crash into each other just when the world’s spotlight is placed on the city. These fracture points are brought into stark highlight when a brick goes flying through the front windscreen of Tony (Jesse Spencer) and Judy Bissett’s (Radha Mitchell) as they travel at 60km an hour. How do you get on when you have a house divided? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.     

All pilot episodes have a difficult job because they have to do a lot of heavy onboarding for an audience while also trying to be engaging. Unfortunately, I have seen many who get that balance wrong, and I think it is fair to say that this almost happens here. There are a lot of characters and competing storylines to try and grapple with in this first episode. While the Bissett family feels like it is the nexus point for the narrative, there are so many different threads pulling off that it is hard to follow at times. For example, Judy’s dad, Bob (Iain Glen), is a secret lover of Eileen (Deborah Mailman), who does not have the best relationship with her daughter Djinda (Shareena Clanton) but convinces her to leave her grandson Bilya (Thomas Weatherall) with her, which is okay with Bilya because he has a crush on Judy’s daughter Mia (Emily Grant).

As this is set in the lead-up to the 1979 crash of Skylab into Western Australia, it very much captures that transition point in time. Indeed, it is very blunt in its depiction of where women should exist in the current hierarchy. For example, the way a Careers Counsellor completely dismisses Tilly’s (Ines English) future to the more subtle ways that the Bissett household works at the end of the day when only one person is bringing in a paycheck. We also see that timestamp in every pore of this film. That moment where everyone was sitting down listening to that Avon lady while the table was filled with things stabbed into fruit brought back a visceral memory from the past. I am not sure if that setting will be enough for the series going forward, but it worked here.

In the end, do we recommend Last Days of the Space Age: Only Kids Dream About Being Spacemen? Well, there was a lot here to get through, and I am not sure that it all landed. But I was intrigued about this setting and world, and am interested to see where it goes from here.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Last Days of the Space Age yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Last Days of the Space Age
Directed by – Bharat Nalluri
Written by – David Chidlow
Created by – David Chidlow
Production/Distribution Companies – ScreenWest, Princess Pictures & Disney+
Starring – Radha Mitchell, Jesse Spencer, Linh-Dan Pham, Vico Thai, George Mason, Jacek Koman, Ines English, Mackenzie Mazur, Emily Grant, Thomas Weatherall, Aidan du Chiem, Ana Maria Belo, Shareena Clanton, Sam Delich, Iain Glen & Deborah Mailman and Lola Bond, Dina Panozzo, Josh Quong Tart, Duncan Ragg, David Howell, Stephen Curry, Matt Hill, Bishanyia Vincent & Sofia Nolan