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.

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.

I have to say that I enjoyed For All Mankind a lot more than I thought I would. It's actually become one of my favorite new shows of the last few years. It's a sci-fi mystery thriller that takes you down the road of "what if" during the space races. While the show does has its flaw overall it is a very good show. The writing and acting are all terrific, especially Joel Kinnamon. The use of actual footage and real events just make the story that much better. Each episode gets better and better. I put off watching it for some reason and I'm now binging all 3 seasons and can't stop. If you're a sci-fi fan and have been putting it off like me...stop! Go watch this as soon as possible because I promise you won't be disappointed.

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.