This is my favorite season of "For All Mankind" since the first one, primarily because the show has finally ejected its most problematic characters and storylines, and shifted its focus to a group of younger players.
This season is set in 2003, splitting its time between Mars and Earth. A grouchy, older Ed Baldwin is now the commander of the Happy Valley base on Mars, which has expanded operations. However, it's a terrible place for the lower level workers contracted by Helios, including a newcomer named Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell). Danielle Poole has also been convinced by the new head of NASA, Eli Hobson (Daniel Stern), to lead a new Mars mission, challenging Ed's leadership. Meanwhile, Aleida and Kelly find themselves considering new career paths, while Margo gets a new boss in Russia, Irina Mozorova (Svetlana Efremova).
The show does a great job of setting up life on the Mars base, characterized by deep divisions between the haves and the have-nots. You also have NASA, Roscosmos, North Korean, and Helios personnel all uneasily inhabiting the same space, with a bunch of conflicting loyalties. I like the introduction of Miles as a POV character, a blue collar average joe who gets completely shafted by Helios, and turns to under-the-table dealings with the Soviet black marketeer Ilya (Dimiter Breshov) and a North Korean ally, Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee). I appreciate that this season makes both Miles and Ed pretty unlikeable at certain points, and doesn't make it clear who you should be rooting for. My patience with Ed was really wearing thin last season, and he works better here as part of the ensemble rather than the lead. A major part of the plot involves trying to capture a resource-rich asteroid into Earth orbit, and we end up with multiple groups trying to turn the situation to their own advantage, for a variety of reasons.
After years of the Baldwins and their endless personal drama dominating the show, it's so nice to see Kelly and Aleida actually driving the story forward in a few episodes. I was genuinely excited when they decided to join forces. They don't quite share equal emphasis with Ed and Miles, but it's enough. Also, Margo gets a nice, juicy storyline about her exile in the Soviet Union. The manipulation of events to get her back to Johnson Space Center are completely ridiculous, but I can't really bring myself to care this time. The depiction of Mozorova and the Soviets could have been much more nuanced, but by now I hope we've all realized by now that "For All Mankind" is not that kind of show. The one character who feels a little shortchanged is Dani, whose role this year seems to be chiefly to act as a disapproving authority figure that Ed can rail against.
For those viewers who like the show for its space adventure and action scenes, there are a couple of major setpieces, including an accident on the Mars surface and a suspenseful spacewalk sequence in the finale. These don't feel as vital to the storylines as they have in the past, and I prefer it that way. Instead, there's more emphasis put on the characters who need it. Because we're getting so close to the present day, there's also not much exploration of alternate history. Ellen is no longer president, the Soviets go through a regime change, and that's about it. You could view developments at Helios and the return of Dev Ayesa as a commentary on the rise of the tech bros, but it's a stretch.
This year of "For All Mankind" isn't the flashiest, but I came away more satisfied with the show than I've been in a long time. Several of the remaining characters saw some good personal growth and reached natural endpoints. There were still instances of stupidly melodramatic twists, but far more restrained than the ones that soured me on seasons two and three. We got some new POVs, some new faces, and there's plenty to explore in future seasons. I can see the show reaching its planned seven seasons, but since some of the ongoing storylines have finally paid off, I also wouldn't be too upset if Apple decided to end the show here, on a high note.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment