For All Mankind is easily Ronald D Moore’s most powerful show so far, capturing the very essence of why science fiction can be so engaging.. The alternate history space exploration show centres around a world in which the space race (and the Cold War) never really ended and uses believable science straight from the wildest dreams of NASA to sell the viewer on a past that never happened. It’s an interesting blend of Cassette Futurism and retro political drama that seems to be constantly getting better.
Season Three was set in 1992 and dealt with the social and political consequences of a society that spent its efforts fuelling a Cold War and expanding space exploration while being a powerful commentary on current American politics. Season Four is set eleven years later, with mankind’s presence established on both the Moon and Mars, and seems more like an elaborate metaphor for American corporate greed than previous seasons.
With the Cold War thawing, North Korea partially fills in the role of antagonist, though the real drama is homegrown, as old friends return and grudges finally get played out. Wrenn Schmidt continues to steal the show as the complicated and dangerously intelligent Margo Madison, and Joel Kinnaman comes into his own this season as the world’s worst person to be an astronaut, Edward Baldwin.
It’s very much a season in two halves; as political tensions increase on Earth, parallels with growing business operations on Mars increase. Just as this starts getting stale, however, the show flips direction and gets quite exciting. This change of pace is welcome and makes the whole season a joy to watch. Binge as soon as you can.
FOR ALL MANKIND is available on Apple TV+
