For All Mankind
An AppleTV+ series.

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted June 12, 2023
Edits on June 13, July 5, and November 13

UPDATE: Four years after its debut, and four days after the Season 4 premiere, Season 1 is now on Blu-Ray. No DVD or 4K so far, and no word yet on the other seasons.

The show opens in July 1969, with NASA ground crew, and millions of others all around the globe, watching video of the first manned moon landing. It is about a week before the launch of Apollo 11, so that first step is taken by Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. In this alternate history the space race continues at a feverish pace, unlike the truncated Apollo program in our world. The fear for America is that the Soviets would militarize the moon, so of course there are many in the US military who want to do it first. Not only did the Russians get there first, they also land the first woman on the moon, which jump starts America's search for women pilots to join future moon missions. Among the first trainees are two of the original Mercury 13, not officially part of our NASA, but rather a private search for women capable of being astronauts. Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) is likely this alternate world's Jerrie Cobb. Her real name was Geraldyn M. Cobb, but I'm not sure if the M was for Molly. She was the first of the 13 to complete all of the same tests as the Mercury 7 men, ranking above several of them, but that program was cancelled quickly denying the women any further training. She died earlier in 2019 before the show premiered, but it is possible they had her or her family's permission to use her surname. A couple of others were alive at the time, but only two now, with Wally Funk the only one to have gone into space, even though it was just a sub-orbital flight with Blue Origin. In the show the other original is the fictional Patty Doyle (Cass Buggé).

Several real life people are featured in archive footage, such as politicians John and Teddy Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan, along with their Soviet counterparts, with some of the dialog overdubbed by voice actors. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins are also there, and Apollo 11 does land on the moon, but the scenario is altered slightly. Gene Kranz, Mission Control's Flight Director, and Deke Slayton, the first Chief of the Astronaut Office, are also featured. Their fates in the show may be different than in real life, but I felt due respect for the real people was maintained. I guess they weren't able to get the families of others to sign off on the show, so the Apollo 10 crew, Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman), Gordon "Gordo" Stevens (Michael Dorman), and Fred Talmadge (Nick Wechsler) are all fictional. At this time I'm only a couple of episodes into Season 2, and I may add to the cast list in the Overview column, while a few that I did include are no longer on the show, either because of their death or other factors, but I won't divulge any of that now. I like parts of the show, but there are more soap opera elements than I expected, but I guess that is inevitable when you're dealing with people, their emotions, anxieties, and trauma. Not to say all of the real world astronauts and others involved were always paragons of virtue, but there have been several scenarios I felt were unlikely to have occurred in real life. I'll do my best not to spoil any of that.

A lot of alternate histories aren't technically science fiction, but this one is because it deals with scientific endeavors. Even before I began reading SF I was a fan of shows like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and later Star Trek. I was also very interested in the space program. I was in the fifth grade when Alan Shepard became the first American to go into space. We didn't have TVs in the classroom then, but I know we listened to several radio broadcasts. Maybe not for Shepard's sub-orbital flight, but surely for John Glenn's three orbits. I followed the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions closely, watching live when Armstrong took that "One Small Step…" Thus I was very disappointed when we stopped going to the moon in 1972 after only six manned landings. An alternate history where our space program flourished instead of floundered helps rekindle the feelings I had when I first started reading SF. In addition to the soap opera elements, another thing that disappointed me is when Season 2 fast forwarded through several years. At the end of Season 1 Jamestown Base was just a single structure, capable of housing only three people at a time, even though only one is there at season's end. At the point I'm at now, that base has expanded to house many more, although I'm not sure exactly how many, but at least a dozen I think. There are probably some more flash forwards ahead, since I think they make it to Mars sometime in Season 3, and there will be a fourth season, but no premiere date has been announced yet.

In spite of the minor criticisms mentioned above, I do recommend the show. It is only available on AppleTV+ at this time, no DVD or Blu-Ray, and no way to buy it digitally otherwise, not even iTunes. [UPDATE: Season 1 now on Blu-ray, see link above.] I think Apple's normal free trial period is a month, and since there are currently 30 episodes, you could watch them all during that time. I was lucky to get a three month offer through Roku, so I have time to watch it and maybe some others like Foundation or Severance. If I still feel the same by the end of Season 3 I may extend my subscription. We'll see. Now to some specific, but also hopefully non-spoilery comments. My favorite performances so far have been the previously mentioned Sonya Walger, who as Molly Cobb becomes the first American woman in space, and the first to land on the moon. Jodi Balfour as Ellen Waverly is another highlight. She was the lone person (American at least) on the moon at the end of the first season, and she served several other tours at Jamestown Base, but is now back in Houston in a ground crew position, although she may go back into space in the future. She has had to hide the fact she is lesbian by marrying NASA engineer Terry Wilson (Nate Corddry), who is gay. Her girlfriend will be featured again, but I've no idea how that will work out. I also like Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole, not only the first black astronaut, the first black woman, and part of the first three-person crew of Jamestown Base. Another standout is Wrenn Schmidt as Margo Madison, the second to become Flight Director after Gene Kranz's death. I'm ambivalent about Gordo's wife Tracy, another of the women astronauts. Not the actress herself, Sarah Jones, but the way her character is written. She is both too good for Gordon, and not good enough for the astronaut corps, but again I don't know what lies ahead for her.

[First edit: After the third episode of Season 2, and in spite of the fact Gordo is one of my least favorite characters, I was wrong when I said Tracy was too good for him. In the midst of all the egos, she may be the most self-centered.]

You'll notice my favorites mentioned above are women. The men all suffer from the overriding misogyny of the time period, even when they have to reluctantly concede that some women can do the job as well as any man. Joel Kinnaman as Ed Baldwin is now Chief of the Astronaut Office. He was a competent astronaut, but lousy as a husband and father. His latest decision (as of Season 2 Episode 2) is so wrong I couldn't believe it, and since it involves a character I don't care for I'm really scratching my head over it. It's one of the things I was referring to above, something I am sure would never have happened at our NASA. One more thing I could criticize, but it's not a spoiler, or at least I don't think so. Most people have heard of "Chekov's Gun" in the context of a mystery. If you talk about or picture a gun early in the story, that gun needs to be used later, or it shouldn't have been mentioned at all. Shortly after Jamestown Base was first established, on the rim of Shackleton Crater at the moon's south pole, the Russians did the same on the opposite side of the crater. Ed Baldwin was for a time the only one at Jamestown. He encountered one of the Russian cosmonauts tampering with one of his experiments. After several days of tense confrontations, with the Russian tied up at Jamestown, they made peace of a sort, with the Russian helping Baldwin prepare for a delicate mission. As Baldwin departs, the Russian very clearly looks toward Jamestown Base, and you know he's thinking of how he might sabotage something. Yet we never see him again, then the Season 2 flash forward happened, so whatever he had in mind was either forgotten by the writers, or forgotten by that cosmonaut. That bugs me.

[Second Edit: I guess I should have waited a bit longer to start this review. The next episode I watched confirmed neither the Russian or the writing staff had forgotten. But it took nine years (that's how long the flash forward was), for them to discover what the Russian had done. I won't say what though.]

In our world, NASA has done great things, but fallen short on some other hoped for projections. A lot of people may think of Apollo 13 as a failure, but in my opinion it showed what dedicated, intelligent people could do in the direst circumstances, so it was really a victory. There are several scenarios like that in For All Mankind, and while some result in deaths, they also show that same resolve and ingenuity that we've seen in real life. I may update this as I watch more, especially when they get to Mars. It will make a nice comparison to the National Geographic Mars show from a few years ago, some of which I liked, but I've only seen the first season. That ended in a way I not only didn't expect, but in a way I didn't like. Need to revisit that one of these days. For now, if you get a chance, check out For All Mankind. Come for the space flights, stay for the soap opera, or vice versa. One way or the other you may like it.

Additional comments after finishing Season 3:
There were several times along the way I was wondering if I should bother watching all the episodes. The soap opera scenarios continued, and on the space missions there were several instances of supposedly highly intelligent people doing stupid things, for selfish or spiteful reasons. This being an alternate history, those space missions are not just an extension of the US/Soviet rivalry, there is a private industry element as well. A character and actor I haven't mentioned previously is Ed Baldwin's wife Karen (Shantel VanSaten). She is now his ex-wife, and along with a very rich industrialist, created the first private space station, Polaris. There are technical difficulties during a celebratory function, ending in several deaths, and Polaris is purchased by another private firm, Helios. Its CEO wants to transform Polaris into a ship capable of going to Mars, so when Ed Baldwin is passed over as the commander of NASA's Mars mission, Karen persuades Ed to come aboard the Helios mission. Helios announces a launch about two years earlier than either the US or Russian missions, which throws both countries into another frenzied space race. A lot of compromises and altered designs have to be made, some of which are later regretted. Season 2 ended with another flash forward, to 1995, showing a person taking steps on Mars.

Things happening on Earth are both similar to our history, but with some major deviations, such as the first woman President of the United States. Earlier Presidents had been Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, but the years they took office might have been different. No mention of Watergate or Nixon's resignation, nor of Carter or Ford, and the one time George H. W. Bush is mentioned he is head of the CIA. Bill Clinton was defeated by the Republican woman, but her troubles are complicated by something that led to the real-world Nixon's downfall; Oval Office tape recordings. Helios had made most of its money mining Helium3 on the moon, but that led to the decline in fossil fuel production, throwing a lot of people out of work. Those people organized protests against the government for the policies that led to their unemployment, and other agitators used their frustrations for their own ends. Details of specific events are different, but not that different from things we have witnessed, including bombings of government buildings. One image brings back the memory of the Oklahoma City federal building, although this alternate world bombing occurred about a year later than our reality. Very little said in Season 3 about the moon bases, but it can be assumed the US and Russian bases are still separate, with no cooperation. I won't reveal the how and why the two countries combined for the Mars landing, but Helios has landed too.

There are major lapses in logic which I will endeavor not to spoil. I'm not sure of the exact landing date for the US/Russians, with Helios landing shortly after, but the end of the season has to be close to nine months later, sometime in 1996. Remember I said Season 2 ended with someone walking on Mars in 1995. Someone else had landed before them, but we're expected to believe a lone person had survived a crash landing, and he's still alive nearly a year later. How did his oxygen and water last that long? Considering all the personal drama going on between the NASA, Soviet, and Helios crews, along with the political drama on Earth, some viewers might have taken that in stride and not thought too much about it, but it was a major narrative mistake in my opinion. They could have changed that to the other mission landing sometime after the others without their knowledge, but considering that site was not far from the others it would be difficult believing they hadn't detected that landing. The season ends with another flash forward, to 2002 (or maybe it was '03), but it only shows the situations of a couple of people on Earth. I've no idea of the status of the Mars habitats, or the moon bases. One thing they did a good job on was the aging makeup for multiple characters still around from the beginning, spanning nearly thirty years. Most of that was different and graying hairstyles, some body-padding and facial prosthetics like double chins. Several of those characters won't be around for Season 4, and I don't know which others will still be featured.

I have a little more than six weeks left on my free trial. If Season 4 was ready now I would probably watch it, mainly to see the aftermath of what just occurred, but there is still no word on when to expect it. Besides, all the episodes wouldn't be available right away, and at this time I am saying this show is not the one that will get me to extend my subscription beyond the trial. I will check out some of their other offerings and I'll see how it goes.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Season 4 premiered November 10, 2023. There will be only one episode per week, the season finale coming on January 12. I have seen the first one, but I'm not sure I will continue, not even sure if I will keep my AppleTV+ subscription that long. If I do watch the full season I will update this review with a few comments.

 

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