ReeseCormac

Set in a future Berlin, the series portrays two parallel universes connected by a portal that allows communication and travel for credentialed individuals. Both worlds have residents--counterparts--who appear physically identical but who may have different histories and personalities due to the time elapsed since the worlds split. Reflecting Cold War animosities, the two universes do not play well together.

Despite its intriguing premise, able cast, and slick opening credits and theme music, Counterpart fails to rise above a soap opera, with each episode offering only a vague plot, confusing relationships, unexplained violence, gratuitous nudity, sex, and f-words, and dialogue that sounds like the output of a random-sentence generator.

The phenomenal talent of J. K. Simmons in his dual role as Howard Silk keeps us watching, however. An ordinary office worker in one universe and an extraordinary spy in the other, Simmons inhabits both characters flawlessly, often in the same frame. Other cast members have the same opportunity, but Simmons nails it, maintaining every nuance of each personality. Still, the series gives us a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces lost.

The filmmakers couldn't be bothered to give us a complete story, but they nailed the trendy stuff: strong women, weak men, interracial sex, lesbian romance, and of course, foul language. Amazon Prime Video changed the title to "Space Force: Battlefront" probably to sidestep the bad reviews.

The film's first hour nearly loses the audience while developing the uneasy relationships of the three main characters. Roy (Arjun Singh Panam) is an aerospace engineer who was let go when another company bought out his employer just as the satellite he designed was almost ready for launch. Mike (Tom England) is a radio astronomer who was hired soon after the buyout and has no idea why Roy, who thinks Mike took his job, dislikes him. Harry (Joshua Ford), an astronomer and also a former employee of the same company, respects both of his colleagues but makes matters worse as he tries to smooth the rough edges between them.

The three men sit huddled in their car in the woods, examining the cold, night sky with their high-tech gadgetry, when Mike detects an intriguing signal at a specific frequency. He broadcasts a standard greeting back to the source at the same frequency and waits. Eventually, Mike receives a return that resembles his message but that cannot be a simple "bounce" because the message has changed. As the men realize that this could be the first contact with an alien intelligence, one thing after another goes wrong. Mike starts to record the transmission, but his hard drive fails, forcing him to maintain the data in the computer's volatile memory, just as the battery is running low. The men scramble to collect their gear and drive back to headquarters, but they have trouble starting the car. When the car finally starts, they take off at top speed but run into a roadblock. Tension builds into a frantic countdown that resembles the climax of a Mission Impossible film.

Believable characters, fine acting, and a good soundtrack compensate for the implausible story elements and slow start.