Want to escape your troubles? Buy a piece of the moon.
Or so we learn in “Hello Tomorrow!”, an interesting dramedy about the folks who sell timeshares to those looking for a way out of their humdrum lives.
Part “Music Man,” part “Tin Men,” the new AppleTV+ series looks like it’s set in the 1950s but includes elements (like hovering cars and robots) that clearly suggest this is another time.
Led by a master pitchman (a sincere but smarmy Billy Crudup), the salesmen hold seminars, knock on doors, prey on the downtrodden. They’re like evangelists promising a better tomorrow for a down payment today.
Crudup’s Jack Billings is the real closer. He knows how to reel them in while others (including Hank Azaria, Dewshane Williams and Haneefah Wood) count the cash. As soon as authorities begin to move in, they’re on to another community.
As idyllic as the world seems, there’s a dark undercurrent that suggests all may not be bright, even on the moon. When a woman is maimed by a smile delivery truck, her son (Nicholas Podany) listens to the Brightside pitch and becomes enamored. Jack takes him under wing and, soon, we discover a connection.
Created by Amit Bhalla and Lucas Jansen, “Hello Tomorrow” definitely has a motive (and a lesson to impart) but, like “Wanda Vision,” has such fun living in its world it’s often hard to pay attention.
The robots, the “Jetsons”-level devices, the retro video phones create great diversions from what’s really going on.
When we lean in to the messaging, we realize this is just as much an illusion as the cowboy pitchman broadcasting from the moon.
Jack would probably have been friends with “Mad Men’s” Don Draper. Just as slick, he has a closet full of skeletons that have the ability to fall out at inopportune times. Still, he presses on with his “buy happiness” pitch and a sincerity that resonates, even though it’s not real.
While the first episodes are fun to watch – particularly with all of the devices the production designers have created – it’s never clear where it’s headed. Are Jack and his team like politicians, promising us the moon but delivering nothing? Or are they simply working stiffs trying to make their way from one River City to another?
“Hello Tomorrow!” takes a while to show its hand and, then, it’s likely bluffing. With Crudup at the helm, this could go anywhere. Whether the moon is the right place is anyone’s guess.
Like a Florida timeshare, “Tomorrow” looks great, but it could have lousy plumbing.
“Hello Tomorrow!” airs on AppleTV+.
