For All Mankind

(At the time I'm writing this, three seasons have aired and a fourth one is confirmed.) As an enthusiast for space flight, For All Mankind is an obvious fit for me. The first season with its far-extended Space Race, with Wernher von Braun, the Saturn V, and the Apollo program, was very special to see. Admittedly, it took the series a few episodes to properly take off, but when it finally did, it delivered fantastic characters, an interestig plot, a furious finale, and -- most of all -- perfectly legitimate and realistic depictions of space flight.

The second season continued in a similar vein. Character plot lines continued, the space race continued, the politics continued. The space flight kept its level of realism, though it progressed far beyond what was actually possible with our circumstances.

The third season I felt devolved into too much soap opera. Character-driven plot lines have always been a firm and important part of For All Mankind, but in the third season they began to eclipse the space stuff. There is one episode in particular which could and should have been about strange new worlds but instead spent three quarters of the time on a character being gay and the last quarter on astronauts being absolutely unprofessional. (Both themes actually occur frequently throughout the entire series, but they're typically only part of the narrative, not its entire focus to the detriment of the space stuff.) Nevertheless, the third season delivered a nice finale as well, and I'm eager to see what is going to happen in season four (and hopefully in future seasons as well).

Apart from the soap opera extending its reach, I also have to criticise a certain naiveté. The universe of For All Mankind in many ways feels much more favourable than our reality, and while at many times that feels perfectly reasonable, at others it is a bit overdone.

What impressed me quite a lot, however, is how well the series manages to span the many decades. Starting in '69, the third season is set in the nineties, with the final scene announcing the fourth season to be in 2003. We see the characters age (and, in quite many cases, die), see their children grow up, and that actually works incredibly well.

And, of course, the realistic and genuinely reasonable space stuff is just fantastic!

For All Mankind is one of my favorite sci-fi shows that I've ever seen and that's not hyperbole. I really can't get over how much I loved this show. It's a sci-fi show where Russia beat us to the moon and the great space races never ended. It may start off a little slow for some but after a few episodes you'll be hooked. It gets more exciting the further into the show you get. It's a character driven show that takes you into the lives of NASA astronauts and their families. The visuals in this are amazing and how they take real footage and real life videos and intertwine them with fiction into the show is awesome. This is an intense sci-fi series that must be watched by any true sci-fi fan. I hope they continue to more seasons.

I've completed season 1 and have been hugely impressed with this production. The storyline is fictional space exploration from a US viewpoint in competition with Russia, coupled with the impact on multiple characters relationships, impacted by the political and social climate of the times in which the story is set. The quality of production and acting throughout is very high, the individuals, couples and teams' stories are as entertaining as the dramatic action scenes. I've started and paused episodes multiple times due to interruptions and poor planning on my part, leading me to the conclusion that this truly deserves to be given your full attention, to treat it like a visit to the cinema/movies. It's that good.

This series shows an alternate history where the soviet space program is more aggressive and wins the race to the moon. The space race continues. As the creators said it does change almost everything about the world as we know it.

I really enjoyed the first season of this show, but at the time I didn't realise how detailed and well-written the show was. Seasons 2 and 3 were the peak for me - they had great production values, a great plot with many callbacks and fun characters. Season 4 felt like an unwanted DLC that is good but could heave been skipped.

At first, I didn't know what to expect from this show. But this series shows that the characters are complex and almost everybody has done good and bad things.

Overall the main series characters are Margo and Ed Bldwin who both get much screentime and great character development throughout. Ed Baldwin lost so much while being away from earth that he feel at home in space. It is very poethic and unique. Margo has many callback to his mentor and has a simmelar fate to him.

The first season is said to be very historically accurate and well-written, but the pilot didn't convince me what does this series want to be. After the first 4 episodes I realised that the show manages to capture the feeling of doing things for the greater good and being a part of something bigger. This season had the most drama and the least action compared to the other seasons.

Season 2 had some beautiful cinematography and had a lot more action and tension than the first season. It has a great soundtrack- with a reference to Apocalypse now. I think there was only one annoying plotline, but it didn't bother me that much. Gordo and Tracy were standouts this season. They get a lot of screentime and are a lot more likeable than in the first season.

Some people say season 3 wasn't so good but in my opinion it started off great and ended great. Maybe 7, 8 episodes were not so good but there was quite a bit of tension. The soundtrack is killer and for me the race to another planet is the peak of this series. Karen is the standout this season. And the finale has some major twists that I didn't expect. Be aware of the years in this season.

Season 4 is a great continuation of the series. The first episode and the finale live up to everything that came before. The Russian and earth plotline is great, but the plot on Mars is lame. Standout this season is Aleida who has the most charter development since season 2. It has a lot of set-up and interesting ideas that I wouldn't even think of, but shows no interest in developing them. The season has the least tension compared to the other seasons.

I really enjoyed how they handled the Soviets/Russians in this series. They aren't mindless killing machines but smart people who want peace.

I don't know what the future seasons will bring. I hope season 5 can bring back the great writing of the earlier seasons and I am really excited for the Star City spin-off .

This show has a cool premise, that being what if the space race never ended. It's a sort-of alternate reality and it does a good job of weaving in actual historical events with where the timeline diverged. The main problem is that I feel like the show is being pulled in two directions. In one direction, there is the tension of the space race, engineers scrambling to be the first on the moon/mars and dealing with all manner of technical issues in a realistic-ish way. That part of the show I enjoy. Then, for some reason, the show also throws in a bunch of trite interpersonal drama and stupidity. Like inter-marital affairs, people leaking NASA secrets to the soviets, and a CLEARLY unstable drug-addicted astronaut being given solo control of a super important mission. It's like the showrunners thought the show couldn't stand on it's own without dumb drama, as if there couldn't organically be issues and drama in the context of Frigging SPACE. The first season does this better, but by the 2nd/3rd seasons most of the issues come not from unforeseen difficulties of life on the moon/mars but idiots. It really makes me wonder if they just aren't sure who their audience are. The people who like the technical stuff are not going to like the artificial drama, and vise-versa. Pick a lane, show, and stick with it.