The Trump administration is oddly unconcerned about the marketing potential of Netflix's Space Force
Aux Features Film
At this point, we’re all far enough into this thing—meaning the miserable experience known as life—to understand that we should never put anything past the Trump administration. No act is too cruel, too petty, or too craven for that bad man and his bad family or any of the similarly bad people who grovel at his feet, so when something seems to fall under their radar, it’s more concerning than it is reassuring. Case in point: The Hollywood Reporter says that Netflix has successfully secured trademark rights to the name “Space Force” in multiple countries around the world for its new Space Force TV show, which is something Trump’s federal government has not done bothered to do for its actual Space Force.
The thing about this is that it doesn’t really matter. Our First Amendment already protects Netflix Space Force in this country, and by registering it in other countries, foreign branches of Netflix are also protected if the Trump administration decided to start throwing around lawsuits. Getting this taken care was a smart move by Netflix, especially since Trump’s Space Force has not been granted its own trademark rights in the U.S. yet. That being said, a spokesperson for the Air Force told THR that they’re not “aware of any trademark conflicts” between Netflix Space Force and Trump Space Force, going so far as to add, “we wish Netflix and the show’s producers the best in their creative depiction of our nation’s newest branch of the military.”
That… is a surprisingly reasonable reaction? THR notes that it’s unlikely that there would be any confusion between the two Space Forces, with the only possible hiccup coming from merchandise (make sure you’re buying a t-shirt for a Netflix show and not a t-shirt for military propaganda!), but nobody seems to be concerned about that. THR also points out that the U.S. military has been very active about collecting trademarks in the past few decades, so there would be a precedent for Trump’s government making sure it controls all uses of the name “Space Force,” but… that’s not happening.
Knowing what we know about Trump and his fondness for putting his name on stuff and making money however he possibly can, it’s weird that he’s not doing that here. Is he just too busy focusing on more important things, like America’s response to the coronavirus or—ha ha ha, sorry we can’t even get through the sentence. It’s far more likely that he just hasn’t thought of aggressively making money off of his Space Force yet. Or maybe he’s just really excited about seeing how many fighter jets he can put on the moon. Who knows.
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I’m pretty sure Netflix took Space Force a lot more seriously than Trump ever will.
I’d assume someone told him he couldn’t call it “Donald Trump’s Space Force Brought To You By Donald Trump” and he lost interest. Maybe if the first rocket’s an actual solid gold giant “T” he’ll care again.
He was even more annoyed when he couldn’t trademark the cosmos as “Space, brought to you by the Trump Corporation”.
I think he expects the first permanent station on the Moon to be named Trump Moon Base One Hotel and Golf Resort and then bill the US taxpayer for licensing the use of his name.
I just discovered that there was a series in 1978 called Space Force that was also about a bumbling crew of scientists and astronauts. Coincidentally, Fred Willard ( who played Carrell’s father) also starred. And I also just discovered that the new Space Force is toothless politically and very weak narratively. Which is a stunning development considering the talents involved in front of and behind the camera. I mean, Malkovich is giving one of his best comedic performances and it still falls flat because of the writing. All the very talented women are completely under-written. They waste the talents of Ben Schwartz basically playing a different version of Jean-Ralphio, Jessica St Clair has NOTHING TO DO. Jimmy O Yang and Tawny Newsome try as hard as they can to sell the most shallow office romance in the history of TV. Lisa Kudrow shows up in cornrows from a female prison, and even she can’t sell the comedy. It is so tonally inconsistent, so politically naive, and so depressingly under written. It’s like the perfect example of why the creative M.O. of the hands off production style of Netflix can go spectacularly wrong So, yeah, it’s not gonna make much of an impact politically, creatively, or culturally. It’s a giant failure, unfortunately. Maybe Trump watched the original 1978 Space Force? I dunno, but let’s all collectively stop giving free press to the new Space Force. B/C it’s not good and it squanders the acting talents of literally everyone on camera. If Greg Daniels and co. want to have a more significant political or cultural impact, they should have written a better show.
You’re really…*really*…overthinking this show, dude. It’s a 30-minute comedy TV show. What were you seriously expecting, The Wire?
Yeah, it’s so unnecessary to to discuss a TV show seriously on a website that is literally dedicated to all things pop culture. Especially on a website that basically concluded the same thing a week ago. Ugh, if you’re following this site on twitter or whatever ‘feed’ you see this on – know that this (used to be) a community where we took the entertainment value of content seriously. Express your thoughts, but demeaning a commenter b/c they take a show ‘too seriously’ is really off brand and useless.
I just discovered that there was a series in 1978 called Space Force that was also about a bumbling crew of scientists and astronauts.Maybe you should discover paragraph breaks and the fact that you spelled ‘website’ wrong twice in two consecutive sentences.
Great feedback! We all know the value of grammar correction! Do you have some issue with my statements? Also, the sentence you quoted does not, in fact, need a paragraph break. And the spelling ‘website’ is from is taken directly from Merriam-Webster, and it is literally the spelling of every instance I’ve ever seen on any ‘website’. Good try. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/website
Sweetie, you really need to try the decaf. Your desperate need for paragraph breaks occurs in your original post, and as far as your misspellings, well… Yeah, it’s so unnecessary to to discuss a TV show seriously on a webiste that is literally dedicated to all things pop culture. Especially on a webiste that basically concluded the same thing a week ago.Good try. Seriously, go drink some water and then come on back. All is forgiven.
Counterpoint: It’s a mildly entertaining show in the C+ to B- range and perfectly serviceable fare to binge watch over a long weekend.
he’s not. Space Force is a reeking pile of shit. Plenty of other 30-min TV shows are entertaining, are creative, are funny. Space Force is none of those — it is a reeking waste. Its not even as good as Avenue 5, and honestly Avenue 5 is damn close to sucking. I hope Malkovich is making a shit ton for this pile of dung. He’s the best thing in this pile and his role is 75% reaction shots.
Listening to Malkovich telling people to fuck themselves was entertaining, and there were a few really funny lines (“Abortionville, Blue State”), but yeah, it doesn’t really go anywhere. And it the ending was just dumb and impossible.
One of these days I am going to watch The Wire and its either going to be the greatest thing I ever saw or I am going to be disappointed
It can’t be as good as the face people make when they say “you HAVEN’T seen The Wire?!?!???!??!”
I just finished it for the first time two weeks ago. You will be disappointed and not understand why everyone thinks it’s greatest show of all time, especially since The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are so much better. It’s a good show, but you will never want to re-watch it.
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Hey, at least you’re not getting your posts dismissed by this big baby. Here’s a couple of mine that he threw out of his crib. At least he won’t be able to dismiss them from here.—————————————I just discovered that there was a series in 1978 called Space Force that was also about a bumbling crew of scientists and astronauts.Maybe you should discover paragraph breaks and the fact that you spelled ‘website’ wrong twice in two consecutive sentences.—————————————Sweetie, you really need to try the decaf. Your desperate need for paragraph breaks occurs in your original post, and as far as your misspellings, well…Yeah, it’s so unnecessary to to discuss a TV show seriously on a webiste that is literally dedicated to all things pop culture. Especially on a webiste that basically concluded the same thing a week ago.Good try. Seriously, go drink some water and then come on back. All is forgiven.
Good to know you’re the type of shitbag who dismisses posts you don’t agree with. I’ll keep that in mind.Sorry you showed your ass so badly in here. Maybe you’ll keep that in mind for next time.
Agree on the wasted talent. I wanted like 100 more joint chiefs scenes. Having putty say “Take. That. Back.”was one of my favorites.
1978?
What are the chances Trump saw “Space Angel” in 1962?
“Space force? The fuck is a space force?” – Donald Trump, hearing this news
Trump probably thinks this is a documentary and is wondering why the general he put in charge looks like the same guy that was the manager of that paper company they had that reality show about for all those years
I watched one episode. It was somewhat amusing but nothing I cared about enough to continue watching.
Are trademarks really a big deal when it comes to government organizations? I mean, I don’t buy a lot of government organization endorsed products but I never see stuff by or about NASA or the US Army have a TM next to it. Or am I just not reading the credits of shows/movies featuring those organizations close enough?
I think EVERYONE knows that as soon as the door hits Impeach Trump’s fat ass that real Space Force gets rolled under Air Force and this whole farce ends. I wish it was Trump’s Space Force so we could watch it fold in a fiery demise just like Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, and Trump U.
Well, it technically still is. The old AF Space Command was just renamed to the US Space Force, and is still under the command of the Secretary of the AF. If it sticks around it may become independent, but for now they are still Airmen.
This is a byproduct of Trump’s incompetence. Here it is pretty well harmless, but when he leaves dozens of “minor” State Department posts unfilled just by failing to appoint people because he cant be assed to do his job, it allows unfriendly powers like China and Russia unopposed access to foreign governments where they can do damage to American interests and Democrocay in general that will take years or decades to repair.If course, Trump probably wishes he were doing that damage so….
Well, Trump will just come up with a new name. Something even cooler, that no one’s ever thought of before. Like … “Starfleet”. Yeah, that’ll do it.
“We’re changing the name to Starfleet! Starfleet. I bet you’ve never heard that word before. I came up with that word. Starfleet. Nobody’s ever used that term before! And wait until you see the beautiful red uniform shirts the First Lady has designed. Very classy!”
“Mr. President, speaking of those beautiful red uniform shirts the First Lady designed, any chance you could put one on and go to another planet. I’m sure you’ll be fine”.
It’s weird to me that the government still has to trademark the name of military branches. Like, I guess it KINDA makes sense? But still weird.
Hot take (apparently): Space Force was a funny show and I hope it gets a second season.
It did get considerably better after those first two episodes. Man, that show had no clue what it wanted to do, then.
Sounds like a lot of series.
It’s ten episodes, to my knowledge. It’s not a masterpiece or anything, but the first two episodes are as all over the place as you can get, really, and they seem to realize that early on and fix a lot of it.
My father enjoyed the show (I haven’t really watched it), so there’s two fans at least.
So does this mean Netflix can sue or issue a cease and desist against the Trump administration for using the term Space Force? Because that would be hilarious.Seriously, I don’t know anything about trademark laws and how/if they pertain to the government..