Stream It or Skip It: ‘Project Blue Book’ on History, About the Air Force’s UFO Investigations in the 1950s

Forty years ago, NBC aired a series called Project UFO. It ran for two very short seasons and portrayed two Air Force officers as they investigated UFO sightings. The source material? The files of Project Blue Book. Now, Robert Zemeckis and showrunner Sean Jablonski have created fictional stories based on the Project Blue Book files. Read on to find out if alien investigations from the ’50s are still compelling to 2019 audiences…

PROJECT BLUE BOOK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Two fighter pilots are flying over Fargo, North Dakota, sometime in the early ’50s. One decides to buzz the stadium where his favorite college team is playing when he sees a bright light darting back and forth.

The Gist: Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey) works as the chief investigator on the Air Force’s top secret Project Blue Book, investigating claims of UFOs. General James Harding (Neal McDonough), who is in charge of the project, tells Quinn to talk to an Ohio State astrophysics professor, Dr. Allen Hynek (Aiden Gillen), and ask him if he can join the investigative team in order to add scientific rigor.

When Quinn tries to convince Hynek, the professor at first says no, but is convinced into doing it with some conditions, one of which is the idea that, instead of trying to debunk all claims, as Quinn wants, he wants to start with the assumption that UFOs (a term he supposedly coined) actually do exist.

When they go to Fargo, the pilot who crashed after having a dogfight with the unknown light is almost a basket case, triggered by a song coming from a radio station all the way in San Diego. Hynek sees the physical damage and the radiation readings and thinks there is something going on. But Quinn insists it’s a weather balloon, and takes Hynek up on the challenge to fly a recreation of what the pilot did. During that, the plane crashes.

Back in Columbus, Hynek’s wife Mimi (Laura Mennell), lonely because her husband is out chasing UFOs and not home with his family, befriends a newlywed named Susie (Ksenia Solo), who seems outgoing and sophisticated. Considering that she isn’t even informed of her husband almost dying in a plane crash, this new development has her excited. But let’s just say that Susie was meant to run into Mimi at that department store.

Other mysteries are afoot, including a strange man in a hat that seems to be tailing Hynek and Quinn. And all of a sudden the pilot being questioned disappears. There’s a cover-up afoot, but why?

Our Take: Project Blue Book is based on the cases investigated by Josef Allen Hynek; some big names, like executive producer Robert Zemeckis are involved, so between the subject matter and the pedigree, it seems like the show has promise. But, after the first episode, we doubt it.

One of the problems is that this material is well-worn by now. When the first show to take advantage of the Blue Book files, Project UFO, debuted 40 years ago, it was a new and refreshing look at the phenomenon of people reporting UFO sightings. Then, fifteen years later, we got Mulder and Scully chasing aliens on The X-Files. So, despite the fact that this show returns to the actual Project Blue Book for inspiration, stories like this just don’t pique our interest anymore.

Why? Well, the structure is very similar to The X-Files: A case of the week, one investigator is a believer while the other is a debunker, a conspiracy taking place at the highest levels of the government/military that will thwart Quinn and Hynek if and when they get close to finding out that UFOs might indeed exist. Not even the vintage cars and clothes make the show more interesting to watch.

So the show rides on the chemistry between Gillen and Malarkey, and we’re not feeling it after the first episode. Might it get better? Sure. But the cases aren’t interesting enough to carry the series.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Gen. Harding tells his fellow top-secret Blue Book committee member Gen. Hugh Valentine (Michael Harney) that the pilot was “taken care of.” “Are you going to rest easier now?” asks Gen. Valentine. Gen. Harding stares into space and clenches his jaw.

Sleeper Star: We liked Ksenia Solo as Susie Miller, who is going to strike up a friendship with Mimi Hynek in order to get closer to what her husband is investigating. How that plays out going forward will be interesting to watch.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Allen tells Mimi about the new job: “If this can help the world see what I see in you, then I support it.” Ugh. We know women were more of the subservient “happy homemakers” then, but that line pounds that notion over our heads, considering that it feels like Allen is being a selfish prick who doesn’t want to spend any time with his family.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Project Blue Book is not only a retread, it’s a boring retread to boot.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.