Whatever ‘Right Stuff’ is, new adaptation from Disney Plus could use more of it
Right stuff, wrong stuff — who can tell which is which anymore?
The writer Tom Wolfe sharpened the notion of “The Right Stuff” in 1979 with the title of his bestselling history of the American space program’s earliest days and the selection of its first seven astronauts, the daring test pilots (all men, of course, and all white) who were celebrated by an enthusiastic nation as having plenty of right stuff to spare. It’s a combination of courage, skill, swagger and ... well, it’s an ineffable quality, isn’t it?
The book became a movie in 1983, written and directed by Philip Kaufman and clocking in at more than three hours. Critics adored it, but its box-office performance was the wrong stuff. It definitely had the right stuff for cable TV, however, where it played over and over for decades, chopped through with equally epic commercial breaks. Although the movie took some fictional liberties, its story and its message kept a firm grip on what we mean when we say someone or something has the right stuff. If “The Shawshank Redemption” had not come along, boyfriends everywhere might still be welling up to “The Right Stuff” on those Saturday afternoons they promised to vacuum.
Now, in a year so clearly defined by the wrong stuff, “The Right Stuff” is back — this time revamped, noticeably tamed and even more fictionalized as an eight-episode streaming series on Disney Plus. I can’t imagine a riskier mission than attempting to improve on the movie, and before we launch, I must warn you that this “Right Stuff” (premiering Friday with the first two episodes) was originally developed for the National Geographic Channel, which tends to make original dramas that are pumped full of promise and heavily promoted (such as “The Hot Zone,” or its “Genius” anthology series on Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso) and then turn out to be textbook examples of lukewarm TV.
The same physics apply here: big launch, but a dangerously low orbit. It’s a-sort-of-almost-pretty-good TV show that wants very much to exude the right stuff but doesn’t pass the rigorous physical tests. Open-mindedness is a huge asset here; the more you’re willing to let go of both Wolfe’s book and the movie (and those pesky historical facts), the more you improve your odds of surviving reentry.
This take on “The Right Stuff” ditches the poetic prologue to spaceflight (namely the bravado of early test pilots like Chuck Yeager) and puts us right into the space race against the Soviet Union, circa 1959, as uptight pre-NASA officials begin to cull a list of the nation’s best pilots who will become the vaunted Mercury Seven.
Possessing the right stuff often puts these proto-heroes, with their “Mad Men”era appetites for booze and extramarital sex, in conflict with one another. Top Navy pilot Alan Shepard ( Jake McDorman) is a macho ball of pent-up anxiety who resents the gung-ho gallantry of Marine pilot John Glenn (Patrick J. Adams), who is among the first to sense that he and his fellow astronauts bear the burden of public perception. Meanwhile, there’s bad blood simmering between hotshot Gordon Cooper (Colin O’Donoghue) and decorated veteran Gus Grissom (Michael Trotter). The other three Mercury astronauts (including “Mad Men’s” Aaron Staton) are basically just that: the other three.
It’s up to the wives of the astronauts to once more become the more interesting part of this tale; the lives of these actual women have been portrayed in movies and TV shows at least as often as their famous husbands, and their stories haven’t changed: Life magazine shares upbeat fairy tales of their loyalty and domestic bliss, while they must mask the pain and anxiety that rule their households.
Notable performances on this front include Eloise Mumford as Trudy Cooper (who agrees to reunite with her estranged husband to improve his chances of being selected); Nora Zehetner as Annie Glenn (who must bravely face the media attention even though she speaks with a stutter); and Shannon Lucio as Louise Shepard (who must cope with her husband’s emotional hangups and constant affairs). This “Right Stuff” is far more suited to the drama of domestic dust-ups than portraying the historic momentum that put the Mercury Seven in space.
The actors do their best to overcome the flat writing, and the show does find its stride by the fifth episode (which is all that Disney Plus made available for this review). What the new “Right Stuff” is missing are the qualities it can probably never have: currency and context.
Wolfe’s book, after all, was researched and released barely 20 years after the space program started; when the movie came out, it lent an authentic and patriotic flashback to a moment audiences could vividly and personally recall.
Now 60 years have passed since the selection of the Mercury Seven, who have all died. Wolfe is gone, too. Something about their story has floated safely out of the reach of those who would re-create it. It belongs to history now, which leaves the producers of “The Right Stuff” in a strange holding pattern. Have they discovered something new or are they just dressing up a Wikipedia entry? Nothing here is all that wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
“The Right Stuff” (eight episodes) began streaming Oct. 9 on Disney Plus with Episodes 1 and 2. A new episode will stream weekly.