First of all, let's just stop with these "wokism" talk. I was a conservative myself, and the sooner we let that one go, the sooner the society will stop spoon feeding the message.
The third season is definitely more on the human drama than science fiction. But my overall sentiment isn't as negative.
- I loved North Korean "Castaway" story.
- I thought the writers and particular Casey W. Johnson did a credible job humanizing Danny. His character may not be someone we can love, but his behaviors are symptoms of many tragic chain of events.
- Her ultimate fate notwithstanding, Karen's arc was surprisingly moving.
- Kelly's pregnancy was a bit uncharacteristic, as well as its fallout. However, it did help the Mars plot move along.
- Jimmy's terrorist plot was the most egregious for me. I get that it sets up Margo's heroic exit and for the next season. But it just felt forced.
- To me, the most successful drama of this season is Ellen's. Her speech and Jodi Balfour's delivery were spot on perfect.
- The North Korean story was nicely done, but thrown in there last second like most things seemed to be in this season
- the entire phoenix ship (former hotel) was far, far to "starship enterprise" while the USA and Russian ships had some semblance of "realism". it just kind of took things too far and made the show even more over the top.
- Danny was an annoying psycho but I don't buy Danielle allowing him to be forced to live alone in a capsule. I kept hoping he would sacrifice his miserable existence to help the others since I don't think he is very redeemable.
- Karen's arc was actually pretty great although leaves us without a happy ending for Ed/Karen,
- Kelly was annoying the whole season and totally unprofessional, to be honest nearly ALL the astronauts were totally unrealistic/unprofessional besides Danielle
- the idea the birth was somehow ok on the station vs. on Mars was lacking in plausibility, the entire launch her off the planet and jet the last bit to the station was totally copied from the ending of "The Martian", I mean nearly beat for beat
- the terrorist plot was pretty implausible, those 3 bad guys seemed pretty calm for being about to commit suicide, it still is unclear just why Molly died going back in but it was nice to see her doing what she does best, leading people to the end
- I appreciate the sentiment of Ellen and I'm glad she did the right thing, but it WAS really heavy handed just bashing and bashing and bashing Republicans when both parties weren't much for rights at that time, it seemed a tip of the hat to an overblown stereotype some writers might have of the current political landscape
- At first I thought it was clever but later frustrating at just how many "big" moments were just totally skipped over this season with time jumps, the biggest of which was the initial Russian secrecy over the Kelley pregnancy followed by an immediate skip 5 months where everyone knows and is happy that one of their astronauts totally burdened the entire mission because they totally lacked common sense or any sense of professionalism. where was the moment Ed would find out etc.? totally missed an opportunity. skipped over any sense of wonder at being on mars at first etc.
- as mentioned in a previous post I can buy margo doing minor back door trading of science with the Russians to bolster peace between the countries, followed by more serious espionage to help her friend and love when blackmailed, but I hope there is a sensible explanation why she would help the Russians by defecting to the Soviet Union after he was safely in the USA. maybe we will find out she is now a double agent or something.
