For All Mankind

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.

So far, I am enjoying it. Most of us who are space program enthusiasts know about Werner Von Braun's history with the Nazis. That he was brought to the US with his colleagues to work on ballistic missiles (initially with the US Army Ballistic Missile Agency) but during his confrontation with the Congressional Panel, this was not brought up. The US knew about his background, but did not disclose this initially.

Also, there's a woman character - Margo Madison - who at one point says, "I know the code!" This has made me wonder if her character is a shout out to Margaret Hamilton, the woman engineer who led the Apollo guidance computer software development team at the MIT Instrumentation Lab (now the Draper Lab). You can find photos online of her standing next the pile of computer printout of the Apollo computer code.

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.

(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 a series that, in general aspects is very good. The first seasons despite having a uchronic point of view, are very well documented, which makes it a series that fits you perfectly if you are interested in the subject. The series develops a narrative focused on NASA, which makes it not balanced and does not show us both sides of the story, something I missed.

I would like to highlight the impeccable production of this series, and the great amount of resources that have been invested in it. During the course of the episodes you will be able to see how the era they are in is represented to perfection, getting even more that you can immerse yourself in their environment.

On the other hand, they also deal in a secondary way with the social inclusion of homosexuals in the 70's or the opportunities of African Americans in the space race, including these arguments perfectly in the overall narrative of the story.

In conclusion, it seems to me a very high level series, with good performances and a level of progression that makes you gradually fall in love with its plot.