Hello Tomorrow is an American scifi comedy-drama television series set in a retrofuturistic alternate reality of the early 1960s. Described as a cross between Mad Men and the Jetsons, the TV series features a group of traveling salesman selling properties on the Moon. The series stars Billy Crudup, Hank Azaria, Haneefah Wood, Alison Pill, Nicholas Podany and Dewshane Williams.
The best part of Hello Tomorrow is probably its retrofuturistic setting, with the hovercars and robots performing all kinds of menial tasks, it seems like fertile ground for imaginative stories. Sadly, that isn’t the case whatsoever. The setting never quite impacts the story at all, which is a tale about corruption, greed, guilt and redemption.
Based on the first three episodes now streaming, the thrust of the series revolves around a very convenient event. Main character Jack Billings (Crudup) finding out that his estranged wife is in a coma and a chance meeting with his son, Joey – who has no clue Billings is his father. This quirk of fate inspires Billings to have a stab at redemption with Joey, bringing him into his sales business, to the surprise of his subordinates.
Now, the Lunar salesmen modus operandi is always hit and run, thereby suggesting that the entire business is a sham and that they are all con-men. This fact is demonstrated with housewife Myrtle Mayburn (Pill) who signs on as a means to escape from her philandering husband but is then told that the closest launch to the Moon is months away!
Obviously, Mayburn is a character brought in to cause problems for Billings and co, while his need to build a relationship with Joey, motivates him to disrupt his normal plan of action. All of this necessary to build tension in a plot line that lacks any credible drama or conflict. And that’s all it is sadly. Hello Tomorrow is a boring and pointless TV series. Approach with caution.
Watch now on AppleTV+
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