Susan Granger’s review of “Hello Tomorrow” (Apple +)
Make no mistake – Billy Crudup could sell ice in the North Pole! That’s why he – almost alone – propels “Hello Tomorrow,” the new 10-part sci-fi series that premiered last month on Apple+.
Familiar from “The Morning Show,” Billy Crudup plays Jack Billings, a relentlessly smiling, silver-tongued travelling salesman. In a retro-futuristic world, Jack heads the Brightside team who hustle luxurious homes on the Moon. It seems irrelevant that these enticing lunar timeshares are fantasies and their buyers are, essentially, delusional.
In the opening scene, Jack convinces a depressed barfly (Michael Harney) that the object he pulls from his pocket is a Moon Rock plucked from the Sea of Serenity. When his mark utters: “Wow!” Jack says, “That is the one word none of us can live without,” setting the stage for the flim-flam to follow.
Jack’s Lunar Residences crew consists of reckless Eddie (Hank Azaria), a gambler who believes that “desperation is a salesman’s greatest asset;” pragmatic, capable Shirley (Haneefah Wood), who’s routinely cheating on her husband with Eddie; and naïve Herb (Dewshane Williams), made ambitious by impeding fatherhood.
Their sketchy scam is simple: for zero down and $150 a month, you can leave all your troubles here on Earth and relocate to a sumptuous setting in space, a luxury that’s no longer reserved for the very rich.
But when they roll into Jack’s Vistaville hometown, he’s forced to face Joey (Nicholas Podany), the son he abandoned many years ago, while desperate Myrtle (Alison Pill), having left her philandering husband, has no where to go.
Created by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen, the dramedy serves as a skewed mirror on contemporary America as adventurous billionaires launch their own moon rockets. “We live in this age where dreaming about a better tomorrow has become a kind of relentless, universal pursuit,” notes Jansen. “It sometimes looks like a deadly addiction and sometimes like our only hope.”
Problem is: there’s more style than substance, featuring caricatures rather than fully-fleshed-out characters.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hello Tomorrow” is a sleek yet shallow 6, streaming every Friday night on Apple+.
