For All Mankind

Finally something is happening in space. After all the sometimes unpleasantly slow parts, the eighth episode has some serious momentum. On Earth, the only interesting storyline at the moment is with Karen, the rest are basically just sidekicks, and if they weren't there, it would have little effect on the story. (2022.09.24)

One of the few episodes that is more suspenseful on Earth than in space. This is mainly due to three different relationships that go through turning points and stress tests. The ending is amazing. (2022.09.28)

Although the last episode of the second season has the typical ailments of the final hyped episodes, i.e. the whole loop has to be tightened in the last 50 minutes, but the fun is taken care of. At times the creators give us a popcorn ride like Armageddon, sometimes an intelligent rendition in the style of Gravity or The Martian. The work with the characters is good and at times surprisingly ruthless. I'm not sure if the strict "space" concept of the first season was fully adhered to, but at least the last two episodes in the second season have great pacing, tension and atmosphere. (2022.10.01)

I will happily remember the first season, it had great space scenes and characters that were flexible and developed naturally. The second and third seasons are nothing but art-pop constructs with elements of the paradise hotel, which, unlike the desert island, shows the beauty of the desert moon and then Mars. This is a much more likeable backdrop, but the original idea of the first season is completely lost in most of the subsequent episodes. (2022.12.02)

Space pop that's miles away from the groundbreaking and scientifically relatively polished first series, which stays fairly grounded and within the believable concept of an alternate past. Compared to this, the first episode of the third season feels like a sci-fi from 2050. (2022.11.13)

The second episode has great pace and momentum. Things are starting to happen at NASA and big and unexpected changes are taking place. I also liked the alternative to visionary Elon Musk. He may be of dark-skinned, but that doesn't matter. The content reflects the contemporary situation quite well. (2022.11.13)

A pointless episode about recruitment and running from point A to B and back. And when something finally starts to work well (the subtle romantic line with Margo), the ending reliably cripples it. The last peripeteia before the journey, so hopefully from now on it will be a return to the roots: space. (2022.11.13)

It may look like 2001: A Space Odyssey in places, but it's got great momentum and healthy competitiveness, and the final minutes in space are worth it. It was clear that with three different expeditions to Mars, the cards would have to be shuffled. (2022.11.17)

It's as if the creators don't know what to do with some of the characters and are manufacturing a bit of over-the-top excitement around them, which seems to lead to big twists later on. The character of Stevens, in particular, is strange to say the least. I would have expected more drama from the Mars landing, a more grandiose expedition, but that's just a detail. It still maintains that realistic-exotic vibe of something that awaits us in reality in a few years, and it's attractive to watch at least as a mock film experiment. (2022.11.22)

Good emotions, plus the gay issues have meaning and depth. Finally, even the character of Stevens makes sense. Not much space, but the politics this time are satisfying and complex. (2022.11.22)

The political gay/lesbian line is still interesting and quite realistic if you squint your eyes, but the hippies are downright annoying and psychologically it doesn't go well even on Mars. This episode is at least a bit entertaining, though, as the last few minutes bring back memories of the golden days of the first season. (2022.11.29)

A very vague and abbreviated depiction of a key and very ambitious plan to rescue crucial crew members. Almost all the lines on Earth lose any relevance in the context of the one on Mars, and yet there's barely half of it in the entire runtime. I would have expected much more daring and better execution, but alas. (2022.12.01)

The stage in the oval office is thankfully coming to an end. Not that Jodi Balfour is a bad actress and can’t play Madame President of the USA with class and charm, but the whole plot about her sexuality and the mindset and ideology around it is kind of wobbly, and culminates in an emotional speech that unfortunately slips into pathos. It is bearable, but I wouldn't play it as a "sample scene". Again, there are few scenes from space, and when there are, I wouldn't be afraid to call them a fluke (the finale). (2022.12.02)

A finale that is far from the pinnacle of the series. Unfortunately, the idea on which the series was built went awry, and when they started piling on increasingly crazy twists and turns during the last episode, it was clear that there's not much of a universe here anymore. It culminates in a launch from Mars, which is a mix of Armageddon, The Martian and any space crap from any B-movie director, where directorial ingenuity (or lack thereof) goes hand-in-hand with zero amount of even remotely digestible semblance of a possible alternate reality. The only thing worth mentioning is the situation around the space hub. (2022.12.02)

If the third season was wild, the fourth is a blast full of contradictions and contradictory moments. On the one hand, according to the creators of the utopian past, we don't even have mobile phones in 2003, but supercomputers are operating on Mars and rockets have a new propulsion system that makes it possible to cover the interplanetary distance in 14 days. If this is supposed to be a not-so-seriously taken space spy comedy that oscillates somewhere between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cold War reverberations, then OK. As a serious alternative history of the space conquest, however, it's not even close, and both the first and second seasons had a great start. The third and fourth, on the other hand, are already veering in the wrong direction. What’s worth praise, however, are the Russian actors and the entire Roskosmos, with its typically cold, detached and dark Iron Curtain atmosphere. (2024.02.21)