Disney+’s The Right Stuff Might Not Be the White Stuff We Need Right Now
Photos Courtesy of Disney+
So much of a TV show’s success is right place at the right time.
That’s even more true now with so many streaming platforms clamoring for our attention and trying to break through the deluge of new programming (that somehow is still going relatively strong despite a global pandemic).
So the question must be asked: Is this the right time for a show about a bunch of white men heroes?
The honest answer is probably not. The story of the Mercury Seven, the nation’s first astronauts, has already been told in the 1979 book by Tom Wolfe and the Academy Award nominated 1983 movie of the same name starring Sam Shepard, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, and Dennis Quaid.
Disney loves going into its vault and re-purposing its properties. (See the slew of live action remakes of their beloved animated classics that have been coming our way for years now.) So it’s fitting that this joint production among National Geographic, Warner Horizon Television, and Appian Way Productions (Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company) landed on Disney+. We’ve seen the story of The Right Stuff before, but even if we hadn’t, it’s 2020 and Google plus a quick trip to Wikipedia will tell you everything you need to know.
But despite these obstacles, the eight-episode series—seeped in its era much the same way Mad Men was—is more often than not a compelling, inspirational drama that does its best to command our attention. That’s largely due to the stellar cast starting with Patrick J. Adams (Suits) as Major John Glenn and Jake McDorman (Greek) as Lieutenant Commander Alan Shepard. Glenn and Shepard are polar opposites. Glenn, by his own admission, is a “square”: reluctant to drink, devoted to his family, and unlikely to let loose with the boys in any capacity. In later episodes, he’s revealed to be something of a tattletale, ready to put his desire to be the first man in space over his loyalty to his fellow astronauts. Shepard, one of the best pilots in Navy history, is a womanizer who enjoys liquor and fast cars and whose partying ways get him into trouble. For the most part The Right Stuff is Glenn and Shepard’s story, two men whose approach to their careers and their lives is vastly different and that tension is the undercurrent to every episode.
What they both have is a devotion to the nascent space program. It’s 1959 and NASA, which has only recently been formed, is in a race with the Soviet Union to get a man into space. In addition to Glenn and Shepard, the Mercury Seven—hand-picked because they among the best military test pilots in the nation—includes Gordo Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue), Wally Schirra (Aaron Staton), Scott Carpenter (James Lafferty), Deke Slayton (Micah Stock), and Gus Grissom (Michael Trotter). Bob Gilruth (Patrick Fischler), head of NASA’s Space Task Force, is a ball of stress. “Another one of our rockets exploded. I’ve lost count of how many that makes and I’m good at counting,” he bellows.