Avenue 5

I'm not officially doing the A to Z Challenge this year, but if I can fit my posts into the letter of the day, why not?

For "what to watch Wednesday", I'm going to talk about a show I hesitantly recommend. But it fit the letter of the day, so...

From IMDb:

The troubled crew of Avenue 5, a space cruise ship filled with spoiled, rich, snotty space tourists, must try and keep everyone calm after their ship gets thrown off course into space and ends up needing three years to return to Earth.

The first season wrapped up about the time we all got stay at home orders in California. With a total of nine half-hour episodes, it's an easy binge. If you're looking for something to watch.

Because I'm a bit ambivalent about the show, I'm going to list some things I liked and some things I didn't. First up, in no particular order, five things I liked about the show:

1. Hugh Laurie. And with his actual British accent. Sometimes. 
2. They actually take into account how long it would take communications to reach them from Earth (and how long it would take them to send messages back). They play it for comedic effect, but still. 
3. The gravity exerted by the ship created some surprising, but in retrospect obvious, problems. 
4. Even though they were on a space ship in the future, the plots revolved around mundane matters that most people can relate to. 
5. Characters: Billie, Karen (sometimes), Sarah (until her final episode), and Iris. 

And here are five things I didn't like: 

1. Some of the characters were really very annoying.
2. It took the "captain" way too long to figure out what the actual skill level was of the "bridge crew". 
3. The problems created by the gravity of the ship was a gag that was taken way too far. 
4. Too many of the "bosses" were incompetent and/or made things worse. (This is good writing, but some of their idiocy really irritated me.) 
5. While some of the plot points make sense from a "how people are" standpoint, they did take a couple of them way too far. (I don't want to spoil it in case you are planning to see it. And you might not have a problem with it.)

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, it gets a solid 3. Not bad. And I totally want to encourage different sci-fi takes from those that make these sorts of things. 

If my five things I didn't like didn't turn you totally off, you can find the show on HBO's streaming service. 

Have you ever seen Avenue 5? If anyone has anything to add, feel free to do so in the comments.