For All Mankind

The storytelling is smart and the worldbuilding world-beating, but it’s the characters’ deeply felt commitment to progress and each other that makes this come alive and soar to the stars.

It takes a few episodes for a lot of the new season’s setup – more politics than space exploration, really — to pay off but when it finally does, it proves worth the wait.

With each episode, Season 5 builds tension while giving us brief moments of relief, all culminating in another massive shift that promises to usher in a completely new and exciting age.

The characters feel more specific and three-dimensional now, which in turn makes the long swaths focusing on interpersonal dynamics more interesting than they were a season ago.

The show also goes small, depicting how national expectations roil the lives of those on the inside. While this dimension of the series isn't as strong as its alt-history, this is still a project by Ronald D. Moore, who set the space opera standard with the revival of Battlestar Galactica.

Domestic drama occupies a lot of screen time and plays out in ways both predictable and unlikely. For all of its polish and cleverness and suspense, “For All Mankind” ultimately puts the soap in space opera.

It takes a few episodes to break free from rehashes of well-worn stories: unfaithful and distant spouses, unruly kids, interfamily envy. Every character on this show is saddled with an initial, perfunctory purpose. It’s only with the benefit of hours spent with them that more dynamic parts of their corner of this galactic web get to emerge — and that’s too long to wait.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This show authentically presents to this audience what good old 100% original and untampered American Exceptionalism looks like.

With a really compelling premise, interesting characters, and a fun first season, it's tempting to rate this show very highly, but if you continue to watch, it's hard not to see the flaws. It's disappointing because there are a lot of great things about it, but the plot is often driven by rickety implausible moments that just aren't worthy of the show. Silly engineering choices, silly decisions, silly character development. Mind you, I'm talking about individual details, not a constant flow. It remains very watchable. Be aware that the DEI crew have been hard at work on this one. Women are better than men at everything and there are points when every character with any power at all is female.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

GREAT concept. But quickly morphed into a schlocky soap opera. Deeply disappointing as the original storyline was so very promising .