For All Mankind (SciFi Apple TV+)

awec · 02-05-2021 10:54pm

Been watching this a week behind so stayed out of the thread.

I guess I'm the only one underwhelmed. That finale was cheese with a side of cheese.

The Apollo-Soyuz and Pathfinder space scenes were genuinely just dumb, like leave your brain at the door and come watch this type of thing.

Gordo was literally the most interesting character in the whole show and they've killed him off.

I'm watching this now when I've run out of other shows to watch.

Thargor · 03-05-2021 12:36am

Yeah agree with that, her pointing a gun at his head, the missiles suddenly veering into Sea Dragon, loads of other stupid crap, that was a very poor episode. Some good bits but going way overboard on the dumb stuff now.

FortuneChip · 25-05-2021 9:39am

Just finished Season 2.
A great finale, with some very silly things (mostly covered by previous posts)

Definitely not as strong as Season One.
Some of the personal stuff just felt plucked from a lesser show; Karen & Kelly inparticular.

Gordo easily the strongest character this season, and Tracy was very good again.
I think the show will struggle to manage the cast with another suspected time-jump with Ed & Molly all aging out.
They haven't really done a good job of blooding the potential new crews - if at all.

JP Liz V1 · 15-06-2021 10:54pm

Edi Gathegi to join as a series regular

Need a Username · 30-06-2021 11:17am

I just started this last night and I don’t know what to make of it. But no spoilers please.

I’m not an expert on the history of NASA and the space race, but I was expecting the show to use more real people as the majority of the characters.

For some reason I cannot explain I find Joel Kinneman very unlikeable no matter what kind of character he plays - this was okay in House of Cards because he was meant to be. His buddy is just cardboard. I assumed Kinneman wouldn’t be a problem as I expected the nature of the show meant that the main characters would be change as time went on but for the bits I’ve picked up he will be around for some time.

Was Vin Braun a mentor figure like that to anyone?

Does any of the bonus content explain what changed in history so much?

pixelburp · 22-07-2021 8:25pm

Finally got around to watching the rest of this; finished strong after a few episodes of dithering, even if some moments veered into manipulative drama - but hey, that's narrative fiction for ye... was never dramatic realism to begin with 😋 perhaps on balance a weaker season overall for the limp earthbound segues, but the good still outweighed the bad - and remains a dark horse for best show on TV IMO.

The time jump is going to be interesting; whatever about the issue of some characters (surely) being too old, I wonder will this 90s be radically different to our own? By 1995 the Berlin wall was down and the USSR basically dead IIRC. Drunken Boris Yeltsin in charge of the Russian moon/mars(?) bases 😁

iguana · 23-07-2021 11:01am

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117551306#Comment_117551306

An awful lot of the characters are fictionalised versions of real people, some with name changes. Gordo and Tracey Stevens, for example, are based off Gordo and Trudy Cooper. Gordon Cooper was a Mercury astronaut and back up crew for Apollo 10. Trudy was a pilot who was convinced to stay in their broken marriage because NASA wanted all it's astronauts to be perfect family men and her own interest in flight and space travel was the main reason she stayed. Molly Cobb, is based on Geraldine Cobb. Margo is an amalgamation of Frances Northcutt, the first female engineer in Apollo Mission control, and Margaret Hamilton. Deke Slayton, Gene Kranz and Thomas O'Paine were all real people. In some ways the most important is Sergei Korolev who is the engineer Danny meets in Russia. In real life he was the father of the Russian space programme who died in 1966. The timeline split that creates the alternate universe in the show was that he did not die, and instead continued working on the space programme and is responsible for Russia's successes.

pixelburp · 23-07-2021 5:20pm

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117650721#Comment_117650721

That's interesting about Korolev; I had wondered how deviant from reality the Soviet's own plans and abilities were. Sometimes they have kept parity with America a little too easily for my tastes - though I've liked obviously lower-tech their equipment has been. I know the Buran shuttle really was in development, but never took flight(?) - I think because the USSR was pretty much skint at that stage?

Funny 'cos season 2 felt like it played with the alternate reality a little less than season 1; certainly with its presidents. Shame they didn't take the chance to have a different President than Regan, ala Ted Kennedy in season 1. And I'm going to go ahead and guess they'll just have Clinton be the president in '95 during Season 3. Suppose it's cheaper / easier to use the existing media footage.

iguana · 24-07-2021 11:22am

There is some information here on how they chose Korolev surviving to be the schism creating the alternate universe. Obviously this is never mentioned on the show as the characters don't know Korolev should have died. Another difference in universe is that by landing on the moon first the global influence of the USSR changes and they are less broke than they were in real life. They have more money for their space programme as it is such a huge success. I wonder, though, with the 80s politics, how the USSR being a global leader in the space race would have impacted their internal politics. Would Gorbachev still get into power in that environment?

I'd also really have liked to see more from the ESA astronauts. At the start of the series we had Doireann Campbell the (completely fictional) Irish astronaut on the space station and (the real life) Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels on the moon with Molly. So the ESA is obviously co-operating with NASA but when things moved toward hostilities and potential war with the USSR, how would the ESA astronauts have reacted. Presumably there would have come a point where they were ordered to come home rather than engage in any conflict. But instead of any of that interesting look at the wider world of the alternate universe, we got Karen having an affair with her dead son's best friend. I genuinely love the show but that plot was utterly interminable. There was so much fantastic story to tell that would have elevated the show completely and instead we got that dreck. I couldn't have been less interested in Kelly either. Outside of the scenes with the Baldwins where they broke down with fear of her choosing a dangerous career path and the grief and self-blame Karen and Ed were each feeling at Shane's death, she served no purpose in the wider story. And as a character introduced in the time jump, I felt no connection to her. So would have far, far preferred if the time on her scenes had been used for broader world building too.

https://collider.com/for-all-mankind-apple-series-explained-ronald-d-moore-interview/

pixelburp · 24-07-2021 1:04pm

The Mrs Robinson subplot was bizarre. Smelt distinctly of that classic scriptwriting problem ... we have no idea what to do with this character. Season 1 had more time spent with the astronaut's wives but Karen was the only one left in season 2 so ... Yeah. That was apparently the only thing Moore and co could think of.

As to the world building, that's funny about the ESA cos I'm the same. Alternative universes are engrossing rabbit holes to get sucked into but invariably find myself desperate to know more, beyond the borders of the show. What does Europe look like then with a stronger USSR on their border? Is Germany still divided, Berlin a hotspot? Did the EU form earlier than planned - heck is Britain and Ireland part of it given we joined in 73, and we're in the ESA much sooner than reality. So many questions.

Need a Username · 07-09-2021 2:36pm

I just watched episode 9 of season 1.

I am very disappointed in the series so far - they are very stingy with the going to space element.

Apollo 24 is stuck in space and 25 goes up to repair the ship and all this is sidelined for Karen to have a cry about not knowing who she is.

Where are the rocket launches and spacewalks?

Is season 2 going to actually be about space exploration? Or is is it going to be about Karen getting a job and finding herself? :p

EDIT: And while the score is beautiful, I would prefer it be used much less in scenes in space and on the moon. I would like to hear or not hear what it is really like up there.

youcancallmeal · 07-09-2021 4:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117858594#Comment_117858594

Ha they double down on soap opera nonsense in Season 2 but there is still some decent space based action interspersed throughout. It's worth a watch imo

Need a Username · 08-09-2021 6:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117859122#Comment_117859122

It should be the other way around- great space action with decent soap opera interspersed throughout.

The final episode of season 1 is what the show should be about - space, astronauts, NASA, the politics and the minimum amount of life “back home” - but if there can is going to be even more Karen (and a wild guess here - Tracey and Gordo’s son’s adding melodrama) then I doubt it is going to interest me.

I’m taking For All Mankind off my Up Next. I might give season 2 a look when/if I have finally caught up on my very thing else.

EDIT: Thanks for the warning about the extra soap opera-ness.

pixelburp · 08-09-2021 6:48am

Problem with with the space stuff is that it's expensive. The zero g and green screen are two things something like The Expanse avoids (via magnetic shoes and the ships having no windows), and is probably why it has more going on in space.

I'd have said the writers would have had more space based action but had a budget put in front of them by Sony and told there was money in the back for X amount.

I'm not as down on the terrestrial stuff though. Characters like Margo, Molly and Gordo have been great to follow, especially when it has dovetailed with how history deviates; while Molly's just the best. Season 2 does drop the ball with the human drama. The Mrs Robinson stuff? Jesus.

Need a Username · 08-09-2021 10:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117861655#Comment_117861655

The NASA characters are great and events there are essential and it is good stuff but that isn’t a part of the Earth based “soap opera”.

The soap opera is the families and girlfriends etc.

Far too much of season one was devoted to Karen - they could have shown a lot more of the training for the female astronauts, they could shown more of the Apollo 25 coming aid 24, show actual rocket launches Instead meeting with a school principal.

It would have been much better to focus on Ed alone at Jamestown where we are like blissfully unaware of what is going on back home, make the condolence message for the Reds more obscure so we are also confused and land the big news on him so we shocked too.

I guess this is what happens when Apple are not in charge :p

Anyways it is off the Up Next so no point in me complaining anymore :)

pixelburp · 11-04-2022 7:01pm

The new series starts June 10th, set in 1995. That's another major leap yet I suspect the ageing make up may remain a little suss.

https://youtu.be/rYNpjVTDkhM

Agent Coulson · 16-05-2022 7:07pm

Season 3 trailer

Starts June 10th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4EOW9oqZ4k&ab_channel=AppleTV

SimonTemplar · 16-05-2022 7:20pm

Cool. I absolutely loved the first two seasons. The age issue is similar to Better Call Saul really. A lot of the characters have ages dozens of years different to the actors' ages but you just have to run with it.

Otherwise you have to go down the route of recasting every few seasons like The Crown which wouldn't work for most shows.

pixelburp · 16-05-2022 7:21pm

More NASA porn, yes please gimme gimme gimme.

But ye gods the ageing of its cast has kinda strayed into the daft. 30 years since the start and everyone looks the same.

FortuneChip · 08-06-2022 10:27am

Marketing for this only seems to be getting going now, with the first episode dropping on Friday.

Watched the trailer, and love the route they're going with privatised space exploration. Russia vs US would have been a little tired in isolation.

Obviously the aging out of cast presents a few aesthetical issues, but we'll cope. While I like the idea of Danny following in his father's footsteps, I'm pretty wary about the potential Karen of it all. Didn't sit right then, and has the potential to be even more out of place if we're to believe it's carried over after a ten year jump. I really hope it doesn't feature, but won't hold my breath.

Mostly excited for some space drama.

pixelburp · 09-06-2022 8:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119172972#Comment_119172972

I do wonder how much they might interrogate the idea of privatised Space Travel; if this was an Amazon show, perhaps not given who the paymaster would be lol ... but then again, the show never really betrayed too strong a voice about the world within it. A few moments here and there, like Poole's husband, the returning Vietnam vet.

I also wonder will we see more definitive divergences in the timeline? Again the show didn't get too hung up on that part - bar a few little winks like President Ted Kennedy, or John Lennon still alive and kicking - but by now perhaps there'd be more differences?

Skerries · 10-06-2022 4:36pm

Wow! what an opening episode

I had to shout "it's not possible! No, it's necessary"

pixelburp · 10-06-2022 6:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119184733#Comment_119184733

Ooh I forgot this dropped today. Champion.

Cina · 10-06-2022 10:08pm

Whoa, great opener.

Still, it is hilarious that according to Hollywood, a bit of grey hair = enough for 60+ year old characters. I mean Ed and Karen still look 40 max!

pjcb · 11-06-2022 12:32am

space is a bitch

some interstellar spinning scene riffing music there

what is the deal wit the first wedding dance song

Skerries · 11-06-2022 3:13am

it was the song that Danny and Karen danced to before they bonked

Slydice · 11-06-2022 2:51pm

3.1: That was good! I swear I don't care who gets mission commander but they better

well send Stevens on that Mars mission after what he just did!

I get the feeling, then, that there's gonna be a heroic family storyline going to get built up now between him, his mother and his father.

Good catch-up on the world and events at the start too and the placing of where everyone is now.

They've definitely got some good ideas on keeping the audience into the story when it could easily get too big to follow.

Biggest issue I had I think was the record player. Something about it looked wonky.

I thought I was going to find the hotel storyline a bit boring but no, they did that well enough.

Slydice · 11-06-2022 2:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119184733#Comment_119184733

Any excuse to rewatch...

"No, it's necessary" - Interstellar Docking Scene - 1080p HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ixvpLCdqkA

and the full scene...

Interstellar - Docking Scene 1080p IMAX HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3lcGnMhvsA

Slydice · 11-06-2022 2:55pm

Oh yeah and that one moment at the end..

I swear I felt bit gutted that maybe they'd killed off Stevens like that.

Like.. sure.. a heroic way to go but.. no.. didn't want that.

Was glad to see him dangling off the station at the end.. I swear I thought that was maybe his final moments getting to see an Earthrise or something

pixelburp · 12-06-2022 2:59pm

Excellent opening episode. Really established the stakes going forward while having a decent crisis to deal with in the here and now. A crisis that was executed with a palpable sense of danger. Wasn't sure who would make it out alive, which is what you want in these things.

That we're now in a world of space hotels was a little Sci-Fi, even if it fits within this world of an accelerated race, but they handled it well at the same time. Took a moment or two to get used to; not quite The Expanse, but getting there lol.

While the aging up of the actors was not as terrible as I feared. It's not great, and better with some actors than others - but it's ok. Karen looks silly with her greying power hair, Ed and Margo more convincing. Despite being riddled with cancer, Cobb looked the same, so go figure.

Also, and I don't think details of the alternate universe count as spoilers, given it won't factor in the plot, so: Margaret Thatcher assassinated by the IRA. Jesus Christ! Talk about a little detail with huge, local ramifications. Forgot the space race I had immediate, and lasting, questions about what Ireland and the UK looked after that!! The IRA tried their best for sure, and came close ... but had they succeeded, god knows what Ireland would look like now.

For All Mankind (SciFi Apple TV+)

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