The one-year anniversary of the launch of Disney+, the company’s direct-to-consumer streaming platform, is imminent. And in that year it’s been pretty well established what you can expect from the service — shows based on preexisting Disney properties, documentaries exploring animated films or theme parks, movies meant for pre-COVID theatrical exhibition, stuff with Muppets. But now The Right Stuff comes along and blows all of those preconceived notions out of the water (with jet fuel, no less). Based on the original nonfiction book by Tom Wolfe and the Oscar-nominated feature by Philip Kaufman, this new version of The Right Stuff is an elegant, hugely entertaining original series that boldly obliterates any preconceived notions of what a Disney+ original series is supposed to be. With The Right Stuff, Disney+ grows up.
This version of The Right Stuff, like those that came before it, chronicles the foundation of Mercury space program and the Mercury Seven, America’s original astronauts. While all of the astronauts are well characterized and given sufficient depth, most of the show centers around an odd triangle of sorts between John Glenn (Patrick J. Adams), a straightlaced family man whose political maneuvering rubs the other astronauts the wrong way; Alan Shepard (Jake McDorman), the handsome, womanizing flyboy who plays by his own rules; and Gordon Cooper (Colin O'Donoghue), who is just trying to keep his family together (his wife is a fellow pilot).
By now, the trials and tribulations behind the formation of the space program have been well documented and dramatized, and not just in earlier versions of Right Stuff. We all know how ramshackle the program initially was, and how fraught with technical issues it became. Thankfully, the new show does much to focus on the personal lives of the astronauts and what they were going through while also attempting to get this program off the ground (and into space).
Yes, there are key moments in the series (Disney provided five of the first season’s eight episodes ahead of time) is devoted to the physical and psychological strain of the trials and the jockeying between pilots for the first three shots on the program. But there is just as much screen time is given to the political maneuvering that was required just to keep the program afloat. There’s a subplot involving a reporter from Life Magazine who is exclusively covering the astronauts’ stories, which the astronauts agree to because of the fat bonus and the magazine's ability to keep the program in the public eye. Another sequence has Glenn making phone calls to Robert Kennedy on Christmas Day, as interest starts to wan and competition from the Soviet program threatens to overshadow the Americans’ accomplishments. Historical accounts of the space program have a tendency to be overly courteous, with the idea that the American public was enraptured by its concept and supported it every step of the way; The Right Stuff revels in the fact that it was a real struggle most of the time.
Pre-marketing materials for the show suggested that it “gritty” realism is “anti-nostalgic.” That isn’t entirely true (the tiki-themed motel all of the astronauts stay at is a work of heavenly kitsch); but the show’s commitment to the emotional, political, and physical realism of the program is something that should be applauded. Yes, there are many sequences where thin, handsome white men wear skinny ties; but The Right Stuff admirably attempts to uncover what makes them tick.
The Right Stuff, in the larger context of Disney+, is even more remarkable. Comparisons will undoubtedly be made to Mad Men, since both shows focus on selfish, complicated men and are set in the swinging 60s (also Aaron Staton, who played Ken Cosgrove, is one of the astronauts here). But The Right Stuff mimics Mad Men in the way that the earlier show turned AMC into a true critical and commercial powerhouse; before that it was just endless reruns of The Shawshank Redemption and monster movie marathons around Halloween. Mad Men, with its smart, sophisticated storytelling aimed squarely at adults, took it into a different stratosphere. It proved that AMC could be more than what it was.
In the same way, The Right Stuff is Disney+’s Mad Men. This is a show where characters drink and smoke constantly. They sleep around, complete withs plenty of implied, barely covered nudity, and have extramarital affairs. And they say “shit.” A lot. Watching the show, it’s hard not to think about the mild controversies that moved Love, Simon and High Fidelity, deemed too risqué for Disney+, to sister streaming service Hulu, or the brouhaha surrounding the Lizzie McGuire reboot that has, for now, left it temporarily marooned. Certainly these earlier projects weren’t any more intense than The Right Stuff, which doesn’t even have the benefit of being tangentially connected to an intellectual property from Disney’s past. (There are, of course, a few connections for eagle-eyed viewers, including the appearance of actual Nazi Wernher Von Braun, played here by Sacha Seberg, who appeared on several space-themed episodes of Walt Disney’s television show.) The Right Stuff is based on a legacy title, sure, but in terms of form and content, it’s very new for Disney+.
It would also be one thing if The Right Stuff was merely “adult” or “edgy,” which it isn’t, exactly. Nothing feels gratuitous and there isn’t anything even remotely shocking. It’s just more mature and well rounded; these characters are messy and flawed and full of contradictions, and the show isn’t afraid to engage with those less pleasant aspects of their lives. As a dramatic series, it’s phenomenal; it’s frequently touching and just as thrilling. But as a show that could potentially usher in a new era of Disney+, it’s even more exciting. Sure, this could be just another television show on the platform but it could just as easily become a watershed moment, one where the boundaries of what is considered Disney+ entertainment are cosmically expanded. It might be one small step for streaming, but it's one giant step for Disney+.
Grade: A