For All Mankind

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.

It takes a few episodes for a lot of the new season’s setup – more politics than space exploration, really — to pay off but when it finally does, it proves worth the wait.

It remains one of the most compelling watches on television, infused with awe for the cosmos and faith in humanity’s ability to bridge gaps by working together.

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.

For All Mankind is doing what it has always done: considering the human cost of historical achievement. But the show’s new season hints that its exploration of those costs will be both more nuanced and more overt as its story proceeds further into the future.

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.

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.

All throughout, season 4 unfolds with a breathless pace and a tight grip on story that invites viewers to simply come along for the ride.

Everyone is more or less in a state of deep annoyance. That’s not a bad storytelling device and I’ve always appreciated the show’s interest in showing what problem-solving can actually look like. The Happy Valley portions are richly detailed.