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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
48
Mixed:
16
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
The Daily BeastJun 6, 2022
Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
For All Mankind is doing so much right with astronaut fiction—grounding it in mundane lives and historicity, while separating it from its big names and dates enough to reach for something more profound than documentary—that minor bumps only rattle the otherwise smooth ride in an exceptional craft. For All Mankind pursues greatness, succeeds, and plants an Apple flag for the world to see.
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Feb 18, 2021
Season 2 Review:
There’s a lot more going on in the second season of For All Mankind than the issue of guns on the moon, of course—as it did in its first season, the series continues to excel at balancing its sprawling ensemble of characters, all of whom are driven by a dizzying array of motivations, with the precise textural demands of a well-dressed period piece.
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ColliderJun 9, 2022
Season 3 Review:
For All Mankind is a fascinating, underrated show that offers science-fiction/alternate history on top of great storylines, strong characters, and well-written episodes. It all works together seamlessly without feeling like storylines are being sacrificed in the name of spectacle. If you liked the first two seasons, the third keeps up the momentum.
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Jun 9, 2022
Season 3 Review:
“For All Mankind” is simply one of the best things on TV. Aside from being uncomfortably prescient — the Russia/U.S. tensions induce cold shivers of recognition — it balances what might be with what is, mixing the not-all-that-fantastic with well-grounded human drama. Prepare for blast off.
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Mar 27, 2026Nov 10, 2023
Season 4 Review:
Stream it, all the way to Mars and back. For All Mankind continues to audaciously rewrite history in season four. It’s got a handful of legacy characters with over thirty years of baggage to process, as well as new frontiers of the continuing space race to explore with both its sharp writing and stunning production design.
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Jun 8, 2022
Season 3 Review:
At its best — which it still so often is — For All Mankind is able to present so many different, exciting movies at the same time that the missteps stick out more than they would on a series not trying to do as much, let alone as widely capable. By heading to Mars, FAM is reaching further than ever — a reach that sometimes exceeds its grasp, even as it’s a lot of fun to see them try.
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Jun 6, 2022
Season 3 Review:
For All Mankind Season 3 delivers more of what made its excellent Season 2 so thrilling. ... If there’s one spot, though, where For All Mankind Season 3 might frustrate viewers, it’s the resurrection of one of the most contested storylines in the show’s run. By the end of Episode 8, however, I could see where the writers were going with this story and its conflicted main player. ... Overall, For All Mankind is just freaking good TV.
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Mar 31, 2026
Season 5 Review:
Themes include the use of government propaganda on Earth to frame events on Mars in a negative light, also relevant to real-world current events. Science fiction is often at its best when it reflects the here-and-now, which “For All Mankind” has done from the start, contributing to the strength of the show’s dramatic storytelling.
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ColliderNov 9, 2023
Season 4 Review:
While science fiction is a genre with many tones and stories available, there is something refreshing about a show like this that doesn’t hold back from embracing a more mature approach. The questions being raised and the challenges the characters are facing are ones that all of us will have to sit with.
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ColliderFeb 19, 2021
Nov 17, 2023Nov 10, 2023
Season 4 Review:
For All Mankind remains great at simultaneously illustrating how beautiful and dangerous space exploration can be. Over time, it’s had varying degrees of success at dramatizing the geopolitical concerns surrounding the idea of sending people out into the void. This year is pretty strong on that front, but when all else fails, it’s still so palpable that we are watching people living and working on Mars, in a way that’s still exciting when combined with everything else.
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Nov 9, 2023
Season 4 Review:
The Mars mining program is a big source of conflict across the first seven episodes, which don’t always satisfactorily land. But, even when For All Mankind doesn’t quite hit the mark, its ambitious scope is a marvel, and the hold-your-breath moments continue to make this a thrilling and emotional experience.
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Jun 10, 2022
Season 3 Review:
More than once, I was frustrated by season three — frustrated enough to resort to all-caps yelling to anyone who could listen. Even still, there are few shows I’ve enjoyed more this year and few finales I’ve looked forward to more than this one, and despite those frustrations, I still vastly prefer the show’s impulse to dig into the painful places rather than to skitter around on superficials.
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The TelegraphJun 10, 2022
Season 3 Review:
This, then, is long-form drama on a grand scale and, with Kinnaman and the rest of the cast displaying an assured grip on their characters, one that never loses sight of the human stories that lie beyond the technobabble. After two seasons of relative obscurity, maybe it is time an unheralded masterpiece finally achieves blast-off.
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Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
A lot of the male characters, headlined by Joel Kinnaman and Michael Dorman, are flat and stereotypically predictable, but the show tells its best stories with the women involved in the space program, be it the first class of female astronauts or the wives of the original astronauts. Thankfully, large chunks of episodes are devoted to them. And the space scenes look good too.
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Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The strains of having such a huge cast are noticeable; it’s clear that several players, including Aleida, will play a greater role in the future, but the foreshadowing in her storyline doesn’t amount to much more than that. ... Kinnaman, who’s following up a solid turn on Amazon’s Hanna, does great work here.
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Jun 15, 2022
Season 3 Review:
The show also goes small, depicting how national expectations roil the lives of those on the inside. While this dimension of the series isn't as strong as its alt-history, this is still a project by Ronald D. Moore, who set the space opera standard with the revival of Battlestar Galactica.
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IndieWireJun 6, 2022
Season 3 Review:
Plenty of Season 3 moments arise from certain characters’ stubbornness to relinquish the past and embrace a new set of possibilities with fresh people at the lead. “For All Mankind” still manages to be a compelling, propulsive show, even if it often falls prey to that same idea.
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IndieWireFeb 22, 2021
Mar 27, 2026TV Guide MagazineFeb 25, 2021
Season 2 Review:
Thankfully, we're in good company even when grounded in tedious soap opera. [1-14 Mar 2021, p.9]
The GuardianDec 3, 2019
Season 1 Review:
While the rousing speeches don’t really rouse, the production design is a handsome distraction and even though it might not exactly leap off the screen, Moore’s storytelling is relatively well-honed, meaning that it’s never less than watchable. ... A solidly, blandly entertaining drama that will be no one’s favourite of the year while also avoiding being anyone’s worst.
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Oct 31, 2019
Season 1 Review:
There [are] moments where For All Mankind lives up to the show it could be. And it could still become that show; even in the moments where I found myself annoyed by the lack of snap and fizz, I was still curious about where it was going. Its small tastes of an alternate timeline are intriguing.
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Oct 31, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Moore and company are clearly NASA nerds on a level that surpasses even mine, so it’s not hard to understand why they might want to take a similarly slow-and-steady approach, filling in every key detail along the way that explains how and why their universe is different from our own. But the differences are where For All Mankind is strongest. The sooner the series emphasizes them, the better.
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ColliderOct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
While the series initial struggles with some expository explanations and divergent subplots, it picks up steam once it finds its focus. Especially in the back half of the season, where the characters and their overlapping arcs start to come to life and the series finally veers towards some intriguing (albeit understated) sci-fi leaps to match the socio-political inventions of its alt-history.
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Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
You'll find some urgency as episodes wrap, but not a lot. And there's no doubt that the world For All Mankind wants to build is populated with an almost staggering number of people, each getting bits of story, but outside of the women-going-to-space idea, not a lot of it is particularly interesting.
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Mar 27, 2026
Season 5 Review:
In its early run, FAM managed to intertwine its ambitious ideas and scope with the nitty-gritty of character development and relationships. Unfortunately, it slowly started to lose its grip on this. Season four, which was about how capitalism has ruined Mars, turned a little too soapy, with not as much concern for thrilling galactic adventures. Season five begins on a similar note.
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Nov 1, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Things do get mildly more interesting when women are invited to join the space program. ... But where “For All of Mankind” loses itself a bit is in how it unpacks its characters; there’s a lot of pulling back, but not a lot of pushing forward. This results in a pace that is simultaneously plodding and sprawling.
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RogerEbert.comOct 30, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The series firmly and ambitiously casts America as second-best, and wonders how that would make us feel. These are the starting moments for the series, co-created by Matt Wolpert, Ben Nedivi and Ronald D. Moore, who toy with time and history in a manner that’s more contemplative than it is wholly entertaining.
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Oct 29, 2019
Season 1 Review:
If you’re intrigued by that premise—and neither exhausted by ‘60s period pieces where brilliant, flawed men brood as brilliant, perfect women endure retro sexism, nor put off by frequent scenes of mission control guys frantically mashing buttons—For All Mankind is going to be your show. If not, there’s little else to see here.
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IndieWireOct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
It takes a few episodes to break free from rehashes of well-worn stories: unfaithful and distant spouses, unruly kids, interfamily envy. Every character on this show is saddled with an initial, perfunctory purpose. It’s only with the benefit of hours spent with them that more dynamic parts of their corner of this galactic web get to emerge — and that’s too long to wait.
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