For All Mankind (SciFi Apple TV+)

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380128#Comment_119380128

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119380291#Comment_119380291

Oxy is still be prescribed left right and centre to this day, and many of its addicts are "normal" people who just went in for wrist sprains and backpain. Doctors prescribe it as a reflex. Only now there's light shed on just how bad and normalised addiction is, so back in 94? No question, it'd be as common as paracetamol.

siblers

Why did they have Danny on comms when he's off his head on drugs. Bit silly even for this show

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401018#Comment_119401018

There's only so many of them on the surface so he had to be given something to do, they couldn't just lock him away. Was kind of stupid of the other guy to just walk away and leave him unsupervised at such a pivotal moment though. Ed called him out for popping pills in front of everyone, and then he killed the dog, so it's not like him being a mess is a secret. I still love this show but there's been several Danny related moments that feel a bit contrived.

Slydice

contrived seems generous for the other dude just sauntering back in with the coffee as if nothing was going on

siblers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119401501#Comment_119401501

It was poorly written. Leaving the drug addict unsupervised during a potentially life or death scenario is just nonsensical

Sudden Valley

Really annoying that Ed and Danny still have not had that all important conversation. Also Eds daughter is an idiot. Actually whole family is made up of idiots. Not sure what ruskies are up to.

pixelburp

Episode 7 and Jesus if the show hasn't decided to make the Stevens' children the absolute worst. Danny the standout with the increasingly tedious drugged-up angle, but the brother and his weird old-young face was also a little tiresome - and feeling a little bit of a cul-de-sac. No real interest in these hick conspiracy idiots, and the blatant way Jimmy Stevens was being played only caused eyerolls.

The White House material was undercooked; would be happy to see a bit more of this, just a little smidge to flesh out the personal stakes. Of course we know what's at stake, having watched this unconventional partnership grow ... but felt the subplot just needed a few more scenes here and there; while the casualness with which the affair happened at all was a bit too flippant.

While the continued absence of Molly Cobb sucks. She got short shrift IMO and is a shame she got written out so comprehensively.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119409326#Comment_119409326

I honestly can't believe the children of Gordo and Tracy Stevens are such melts.

Acosta

Did they really kill off two of the best characters in the show so they could delve deeper into the characters of their weird children? Overall I'm still really enjoying this season, but could have done without this.

Also, the secret service aren't very good in this. They don't bother doing a security sweep of a house before the president goes in and decide not walk in and interrupt the president to let her know that a major crisis is unfolding.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119410821#Comment_119410821

I think killing off Gordo and Tracy was fine, it was a shocking moment and given how we jump time between seasons it makes sense some older characters will make way for new ones. I just don't think they're doing a great job with either Stevens child. The sad part is that the guy playing Danny is a decent actor and if you look at most of his scenes without context they're good. This week's scenes with him and Ed trapped, and he started having a go at Ed about Shane, I thought they were great. The thing that's annoying though is the Karen thing hangs over it all, when there was just no need for it. Danny could be in exactly the same place mentally without ever having slept with Karen. Karen would be in the same place too.

As for Jimmy, I assume his new "friends" will eventually do something big, but I could live without having to see the buildup to it.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119411026#Comment_119411026

That's what I've presumed this Jimmy subplot is headed but Jimmy has been such a wet oik, his new friends so one note and unsubtle, I could care less about what happens. They're just a group of hicks, I can't see how they pivot into terrorism (cos that's where it's headed, right?)

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119411053#Comment_119411053

That's been my assumption from the start, and I'm fine with them dotting that idea throughout the season, but it doesn't need to be Jimmy focused.

I don't want to seem overly critical of the show, because I still love like 95% of it, but this season sometimes feels like they expected us to care about Jimmy and Danny purely because of who their parents were, so they just pushed them straight into these storylines. At least Danny's is impacting on people we do actually care about.

Sudden Valley

I hope Ed actually has already figured out the Danny and Karen relationship and is just waiting for Danny to be honest with him, and has already forgiven them both. I just dont want half an episode of Ed having a mental breakdown when Danny finally talks to him about it. Also the gay president has very little to do with the space race so i hope she is not in next season, she should just dump the husband and go back to Pam.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

The whole Mars program is Ellen's baby, and she's constantly battling Congress to defend their funding of NASA. So she is relevant. However, assuming we jump another decade along to s4, I wouldn't be surprised if more than one of the older cast members are gone, or have a much reduced role.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119412494#Comment_119412494

They should have been gone by now; I certainly hope they recast cos then we're talking people who should be 40 years older - and hitting their 70th birthday by then. To be fair some of ageing has been better than others: I think Margo looks the most convincing, whereas I'm not sure they even tried with Ed. Karen looks like a young woman with dyed hair.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119412724#Comment_119412724

It's funny, I was listening to the official podcast and they had the actress that plays Karen on one week and she was talking about how one of the lowlights for this season was having to spend 2 hours in hair and makeup being made to look old. I was thinking, really?

But yes, I agree, pretty much all of the original cast should be gone by the end of this season, or in the case of Ed/Karen who still have a connection to Kelly, recast. Of the current characters there's really only Danny, Kelly, Aleida, maybe Danielle but not as an active astronaut. I think s4 will lean into the private space travel idea more. If Margo gets caught, and Ellen's out of the white house, maybe NASA won't even exist in S4.

Cina

Apparently Kelly is one of the brightest biodiversity experts in the world yet doesn’t have the cop on to use contraception on a mission where she won’t be back on earth for years. Yep.

I enjoy the show but it’s so contrived at times.

Icyseanfitz

Loving this show except for the Karen/Danny crap, just started s3 and happy to see they've continued on with it 🤦 and to think I actually liked Karen's character before the destroyed her.

Slydice

3.8: Damn that was a step up after the fall-downs in writing over the last few episodes.

I really liked how it seemed like the writer was told to include the no-US-Intelligence services storyline and barely gave it a nod/lip-service.

This episode felt like a really strong Ed storyline. I had to google to see what the difference was. Wiki gives writing credits to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_(TV_series)

Joe Menosky & Eric Phillips

This Eric Phillips seems to be the difference. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5092124/

He doesn't have much other writing experience with only 1 tv series episode of Umbrella Academy listed

What he does have is "Extra Crew" credits and a lot of it was on Altered Carbon which also has Joel Kinnaman.

I'm guessing he knows how to write to Kinnamans strengths. Maybe like how Christopher McQuarrie knows how to do films for Tom Cruise.

Aside from that.. I did get a kick with Dev and his

Spoiler Warning

line about "These are engineering problems, my friends. And we are engineers"

The story around Kelly seems ominous. I could guess there was something wrong with her fella once the headache was mentioned.

This subterfuge conversation between the soviets.. that could be going in a pretty dark direction.

It might also show up the series again though for having no USA intelligence services

Sudden Valley

Another good episode. The reveal at the end was kind of silly but like how you can never predict where this show is going. The show has been good at keeping Karen and the president somehow relevant. If Ed is not in the next season I dont think I'd watch the show as probably the mad lad Danny would be the centre of the show.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I was genuinely surprised by the end reveal but then again I think that's what they actually showed us at the end of S2, we just assumed it was NASA boots.

pjcb

I had thought Ellen was going to resign and go back to head NASA.

Sudden Valley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119433965#Comment_119433965

I think she may not go for re election given the republicans wouldn't vote in a gay candidate but i think NASA will need a new Head sooner than that.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119433965#Comment_119433965

I've been wondering where it's going for S4. I thought NASA might be defunfed and Dev & co would step in and buy them out. But then this week it looked more like the opposite was happening. Either way I think some kind of merger might be on the cards.

Agent Coulson

So

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China

Eh!

Slydice

3.9: That ending! 😲😀😁

Spoiler Warning

They cramped a dude into a soyuz for a whole mars space flight?!?!? He musta been put into some sleep or something.

but like.. also had to be a one way mission.. he can't have supplies to survive!

Ah that's gas. Surely he'll work with em.. either with some preference for working with the USSR or defecting to the USA.

Anyway.. this episode felt like a bit of a series-self-correction:

• FBI now exists
• The report on who to blame for what happened
• The political story had a big moment

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They have a chance here with the FBI if they get crackin pronto. Still a shambles that it took literally decades.

The report blaming Nick.. well yeah.. that dude really did muck it up. What was he thinking wandering off like that after being left in charge. Danny blaming himself.. rightfully kinda.. but looks like he might also get a bit more dependable.. less wierd.

The President moment was done well. Had a real gravitas to it and felt meaningful. I thought it was done well. I liked how Rolan gave Will the 'Your alright kid' moment too.

During this episode.. I .. for a moment..

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missed Molly 😕 She was great for this show. She's not dead.. I hope she's not done with the show.

Eh...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119439024#Comment_119439024

I.. eh.. don't think so..

Spoiler Warning

That patch on his arm looked North Korea. Back in the aul dayz .. during the cold, their regime was more aligned to the USSR than China if my old school history memory serves me well

iguana

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119433615#Comment_119433615

I don't know, it's been a fan joke for a while that the North Korean probe to Mars would end up having an astronaut in it who beat everyone else there. I'm still undecided as to whether or not it's a shark jumping moment for me. It seems incredibly unlikely that a person could have survived for the year or so since the probe was launched. On the other hand, if you go back and watch the end scenes of S2, you can see how planned out this was. As the shot of Mars appears, the visuals take you through a major dust storm on Mars and out the other side, to a calmer area further afield and then the boots appear. Suggesting that the Korean probe landed in roughly the same time period as Sojourner but almost certainly first. There is also a bit of a joke in there as the screen fades to black we hear Cobain sing, "And I Swear That I Don't Have A Gun" but one of the first things we learn about him is that he does in fact have a gun.

Sudden Valley

I cant think how any country that was first to mars would keep it a secret even if it was a deliberate one way mission. I swear this show wildly swinhs between emotional drama to soapy melodrama within the same episodes.

is_that_so

Mixed feelings about this season. Agree with others about Danny. Also not a fan of the Margo nonsense nor the silly reveal at the end of the latest one. It feels like there is not a consistent thread of story through it and it's built a lot more around individual changing premises and dramatic scenes. It's still enjoyable enough but there was better before this.

steve_r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119443611#Comment_119443611

I only recently started watching this show after seeing rave reviews, loved season 1 and season 2 but it’s definitely gotten closer to a soap opera as time has gone on