For All Mankind (2019) - Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[Greg.K]

I have free Apple TV+ for a year after buying a new Mac in February, I should probably watch this.

Maybe I'll catch up on this after we finish The Plot Against America, back to back alternate history shows.

 

[SamT]

I also finished season 1. Greatly enjoyed it. It goes from hard comedy in episode 3-4 to hard drama later. Normally this tonal shift shouldn't work, but it worked for me.

Spoilers for all. The kid that died subplot normally shouldn't work but that also worked for me on some level that I can't explain.

I think the Russian encounter could have happened in another season. They broke the ice too early and now they are not a threat anymore.

There was another way to approach the series. Like a military conflict on the moon and a dark future. That would have been the case if he had actually killed that Russian on the moon. I feel like they are going the hopeful future route.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Season 2 Teaser:

 

[SamT]

Saw the teaser yesterday, looks like they are going full Space Force. This series is the serious cousin of the Space Force!

 

[David S. Peterson]

2nd Season Trailer - For All Mankind

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Didn't I embed that literally two posts above?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The first episode of season two premieres on February 19, 2021:


Synopsis:

“For All Mankind” season two picks up a decade later in 1983. It’s the height of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and the USSR are at their peak. Ronald Reagan is president and the greater ambitions of science and space exploration are at threat of being squandered as the US and Soviets go head-to-head to control sites rich in resources on the moon.​

​

The Department of Defense has moved into Mission Control, and the militarization of NASA becomes central to several characters’ stories: some fight it, some use it as an opportunity to advance their own interests, and some find themselves at the height of a conflict that may lead to nuclear war.​

Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Wrenn Schmidt, Shantel VanSanten, Sarah Jones, Jodi Balfour, Sonya Walger, and Krys Marshall are all returning as series regulars.

New this season are:

• Cynthy Wu as Kelly Baldwin, the daughter that Ed and Karen Baldwin adopted during the time jump to fill the hole left by their son's death.
• Casey Johnson as Danny Stevens, one of Gordo and Tracy's sons. The role was played by Jason David in the first season, when the character was a child.
• Coral Pena as Aleida Rosales, the aspiring engineer whose aspirations to join NASA were put into jeopardy by her family's problematic immigration status. The role was played by Olivia Trujillo in the first season, when the character was a child.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I look forward to the show returning but also hope it focuses more on space exploration and less on earthbound melodrama this time around.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I look forward to the show returning but also hope it focuses more on space exploration and less on earthbound melodrama this time around.

I love a good alt-history story, so I'm as fascinated by the earth-bound drama as I am about what's happening in space. It's fascinating how the difference of one pivotal event can redirect the course of history. And it's equally fascinating to see what happens regardless; Ted Kennedy gets elected president in 1972, because the moon landing hurt instead of helped Nixon and developments involving the space program had kept him away from Chappaquiddick in July of '69. On the other hand, Ronald Reagan still became president -- four years earlier -- because all of the factors that led to him becoming president in the real world still applied.

Outside of the real historical figures, each of the invented characters feels like a different slice of the American experience, and so through their personal melodrama, we get to experience how this alternate timeline is shaping America and the world.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Renewed for Third Season:

Apple TV+ announces early season three renewal for “For All Mankind”

Apple TV+ today announced that “For All Mankind,” the critically acclaimed drama series from Golden Globe nominee and Emmy Award winner Ronald D. Moore and produced by Sony Pictures Television, has been renewed for a third season ahead of its second season global premiere on February 19, 2021.

“For All Mankind” explores what would have happened if the global space race had never ended. The series presents an aspirational world where NASA astronauts, engineers and their families find themselves in the center of extraordinary events seen through the prism of an alternate history timeline – a world in which the USSR beats the US to the moon.

Season two of the space drama picks up a decade later in 1983. It’s the height of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and the USSR are at their peak. Ronald Reagan is president and the greater ambitions of science and space exploration are at threat of being squandered as the US and Soviets go head-to-head to control sites rich in resources on the moon. The Department of Defense has moved into Mission Control, and the militarization of NASA becomes central to several characters’ stories: some fight it, some use it as an opportunity to advance their own interests, and some find themselves at the height of a conflict that may lead to nuclear war.

The 10-episode second season will debut globally with the first episode on Friday, February 19, 2021, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday, exclusively on Apple TV+.

New stars set to join Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, Sarah Jones, Shantel VanSanten, Wrenn Schmidt, Jodi Balfour, Krys Marshall and Sonya Walger in the second season include:

• Cynthy Wu (“Holidate,” “Before I Fall,” “American Vandal”) as Kelly, an astronaut’s daughter.
• Coral Peña (“Chemical Hearts,” “The Post”) as adult Aleida Rosales, who we met in season one.
• Casey W. Johnson (“GLOW,” “Rise”) as Danny Stevens, the son of astronauts Gordo (Dorman) and Tracy (Jones).

“For All Mankind” is created by Golden Globe nominee and Emmy Award winner Ronald D. Moore, and Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominees Ben Nedivi and Matt Wolpert. Moore, Nedivi and Wolpert executive produce alongside Golden Globe Award nominee Maril Davis of Tall Ship Productions. “For All Mankind” is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

The series will join recently renewed Apple Originals including the Peabody Award-winning “Dickinson,” which returns for its second season on Friday, January 8, 2021, and global hit series “Ted Lasso.” The complete first season of “For All Mankind” is now available to stream on Apple TV+.

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, Mac, select Samsung, LG, Sony and VIZIO smart TVs, Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy one year of Apple TV+ for free. This special offer is good for three months after the first activation of the eligible device.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Season 2 Trailer:


The second season premieres in five weeks.

 

[Greg.K]

Since season 2 is imminent and I had a mostly free day, I finally binged season 1 last night/today. Really loved the first half of the season, but the second half was a bit over the top with all of the various things going wrong. The acting was pretty great throughout, though.

There's a lot I could go into, both good and bad, but one thing bugged me: the moon base lifeboat situation didn't really make any sense to me. -

Spoiler

assuming Apollo 24 had made it to Jamestown successfully, for instance, their command module would have been used as a lifeboat for Ed, leaving the 24 crew with no way off the moon. What was needed was an unmanned command module being in orbit for backup, just like the ISS keeps a Soyuz docked.

I really did like the 70s period music, and it's nice to see season 2 continuing this into the 80s.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Season 2 First Look Featurette:

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I enjoyed the season premiere. It's interesting to see how this timeline is diverging further and further from our own. John Lennon lives, but Pope John Paul II was assassinated. It's far more advanced, with electric cars in 1983. Jamestown base has roughly the size and scale of the Amundsen research station at the South Pole in our timeline. International space travel has become routine.

On the other hand, Reagan getting elected four years earlier than in our timeline has had a significant impact on the geopolitical situation. The Camp David Accords weren't successful, so Israel and Egypt never made peace. The United States never negotiated a treaty to gradually cede control of the Panama Canal Zone, and as a result Torrijos's stance toward the United States hardened instead of softened. There are military space shuttles in this timeline, and a skirmish between East and West Berlin in 1982 brought the United States and the Soviet Union dangerously close to nuclear war. Being elected four years earlier also means that he is prevented by 22nd Amendment from seeking reelection in 1984.

The idea of a cataclysmic solar event on May 21st, 1983 is more problematic, because an alternate timeline shouldn't affect what the sun does. There were real solar events of comparable magnitude in May 1967, August 1972, and March 1989. In the first case, it really did almost trigger nuclear war. Given that there are way more people in space in this timeline than our timeline, and given that there is significantly more reliance on satellites much sooner in this timeline, it makes sense that a solar event would have a bigger impact than it did in our timeline. But as far as I know, there simply wasn't one in 1983.

The other tricky thing is that, the more the timeline diverges, the more difficult it becomes to predict what would happen. The fashion and culture of this 1983 feels pretty similar to our 1983, but chances are that the music and clothes and architecture would be affected by such drastically different events.

 

[Josh Dial]

The other tricky thing is that, the more the timeline diverges, the more difficult it becomes to predict what would happen. The fashion and culture of this 1983 feels pretty similar to our 1983, but chances are that the music and clothes and architecture would be affected by such drastically different events.

I hinted at this in an earlier post, but I'll go right out and write it plainly: my guess is that Ron Moore intends on jumping ahead decades at a time as the show goes on (maybe every season?). It's going to eventually land in the future--maybe even the far future.

I have no basis for this guess, of course, except that I think Ron Moore loves speculative fiction so much that "dabbling" in an alternate history may not be "enough" for his story to breath.

 

[SamT]

I also enjoyed the first episode. The different events felt very random, like they took anything that happened in our timeline and they just chose the opposite, it didn't feel very meaningful.

 

[SamT]

This thing is finally happening for real. They are going to the moon to stay.

It's time to get excited about space again | CNN Politics

In order to take the next giant leap for mankind and put a person on Mars, NASA first wants to go back to the moon, 50 years after the last Apollo mission. A spectacular baby step comes Monday with, weather and mechanical issues permitting, the Artemis I mission.

edition.cnn.com

"We're going back to the moon in preparation to go to Mars," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Friday morning on CNN's "New Day." "That's the difference. Fifty years ago we went to the moon for a day, a few hours, three days max. Now we're going back to the moon to stay, to live, to learn, to build."

How many years we are behind from the series?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hey guys. Just started this series today on a whim. Worth investing my time in the (so far) 30-episode run across three seasons?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yes.

I find the show occasionally frustrating because I wish it focused more on space travel and less on human drama, but that’s simply a case of the showrunners making something different than what I’d prefer. What they’re actually making is quite good.

 

[jayembee]

I started watching it a year ago, just as Season 3 was starting up. I had put it off before because I was concerned that like The First (Hulu), Away (Netflix), and Mars (NatGeo), I was going to get into another spaceflight series and have it cancelled too soon. I binged each of the first two seasons over two weekends, before going onto S3.

I don't recall at what point during my binge that my wife got sucked into it. We're both eagerly awaiting the next season (whenever that may be).