A Great Review Of The Show "For All Mankind"

 

A once-mighty space show is falling to Earth

Krys Marshall and Joel Kinnaman in a scene from Season 4 of “For All Mankind.” Apple TV+

By Margaret Lyons Television Critic

Dear Watchers,

Season 4 of the space opera “For All Mankind” is halfway done; new episodes continue arriving Fridays, on Apple TV+, through Jan. 12. And as usual for “Mankind,” the latter episodes of the season are where the show really moves. The roller coaster clicks and clicks, from the Earth to the moon, from the moon to Mars — and then whoosh, we’re off. This go-round, the drama hinges on the discovery of a meteor called “Goldilocks” that Americans, Russians, North Koreans and private industrialists all want to mine for its iridium. I guess they’ll have to work together! Or will they?

Season 1 of “For All Mankind” begins in 1969, with America losing the space race but then heavily investing in lunar exploration. Season 4 begins in 2003, and now there’s a functioning, well-staffed base on Mars. But of course, wherever you go, there you are, and so this Martian facility has recreated familiar, earthly conditions: The poorest workers are subject to exploitation; people are paid in scrip; the powerful enjoy comparative luxury while the indentured watch their contracts worsen.

Of course someone is distilling moonshine, and if you can keep a secret, he can get you whatever you need. Sure, it’s rough and dangerous work, but dang it, I’m doing it for my baby back home, and I’m gonna buy her a house some day, just you wait. The entire subplot is irredeemably trite.

I often like the repetition and familiarity of “Mankind,” all the little variations that snowball into huge crises. “You know how this one goes,” the show says, but then suddenly, you don’t. For starters, it is alternate history. But so much about “Mankind” is about bodies in orbit — drifting away, looping back, pulling together, getting knocked off course by fate, by collisions, on purpose, by accident. Dani (Krys Marshall) and Ed (Joel Kinnaman), the last of our spacebound O.G.’s, still battle it out, still admire and resent each other, still share certain burdens.

Over and over this season, the characters instruct one another to learn from the past, and to apply its lessons to the future. I get why the characters might think that’s good advice, but I wish the show would let up a little because its nostalgia for itself is driving it into a joyless rut. Did you love the thrills and spills of Tracy (Sarah Jones) and Gordo (Michael Dorman) in Seasons 1 and 2? (And how!) Well, maybe you’ll like their sons. (Not even a little.) Do you like Ed? (Sure!) Well, maybe you’ll like his daughter. (Uh, not especially.) Well, how about his grandson? (Why?)

Do you like when the crew pulls off a daring feat? How about now? How about again? One more daring feat for the road, friend? Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) remains the monastic genius she always was, even as calamities befall her such that she is a prisoner in Moscow this season. This can feel beautifully in keeping with the character — but also as if the book of Job and “The Americans” are trapped in a misery generator and have been given a Southern accent.

In previous seasons, the show’s capacity to create stakes felt like its truest hallmark. I wanted so badly for the characters to have what they wanted. So much so that when real NASA staffers, et al., were celebrating the successful launch of the James Webb telescope, my first thought was: “Yay, I bet all my space pals are so happy — ooooh wait, I am thinking of characters from my favorite space show, not actual people.” This season, I felt no such passion, partly because most of the remaining characters are simply less dear to me and also because all their desires seemed selfish, vague and ordinary.

I would hate to count out “For All Mankind,” especially because its other favorite trick is roaring back from the clutches of banality. (It has not yet been renewed for a fifth season, but I am optimistic.) And for all its flaws, it is certainly not boring. I watched eight episodes in a day, and the show cultivates such alluring momentum that it isn’t till later that you notice the thinness of the story — that you’re not hearing the sound, you’re hearing its faint echo.

SIDE QUESTS

“The Americans” is on Hulu, and it is a stone-cold masterpiece that I think about all the time. Agh, it’s so good! “Mankind” always makes me think about the book “Packing for Mars,” by Mary Roach, not because I want to quibble with the show’s technology but because, like the show, the book depicts the thoroughness and also the individuality of people drawn to space exploration. If you like tales of people living in remote, extreme conditions for science, I am obsessed with this blogger and this TikToker at the South Pole. Before Ronald D. Moore made “For All Mankind,” he made the reboot of “Battlestar Galactica,” truly one of the greats of its era and a show with some similar ideas about sacrifice, commitment, teamwork and diplomacy. (And some different ideas!) It’s not streaming at the moment, which stinks, but there are other modes of viewing.