Spoilers "For All Mankind" Discussion Thread (May Contain Spoilers)

[Mercifull]

They still referenced the movie's fictional line 'failure is not an option' though when they put up the memorial picture of Gene. Which leads me to assume they still had some issue re: Apollo 13.

Worried they will skip Challenger as well once they get to the 80s.

Also a ton of skipping happening during the last few episodes. Whatever happened to the injured kid? did she finally pull the plug? again, edited 'for time'

The "failure is not an option" quote was never said by Gene in real life, it came from the Tom Hanks Apollo 13 movie. Who's to say that this quote wasn't therefor in relation to any number of the Apollo missions up to 22.

I get the impression that you'd prefer a show that is closer to reality than For All Mankind is. In the show universe, the money and resources available to Nasa is much higher than in reality due to the continuation of the "space race". The Challenger disaster probably never happens in this universe, but perhaps other incidents will. The explosion of Apollo 23 that killed Gene of course never happened, nor did the challenges with the Apollo 24 mission, which is perhaps as close to real-life 13 as we'll get this series. The Sea Dragon never got beyond the design stage in reality and the SS missions never left earth orbit. We are going to see a drastic change to the timeline next season with a whole new set of failures and successes.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I am aware that the show takes a huge departure from reality (one of the reasons I am glued to it as well) but I just hope they can make longer seasons to avoid unnecessary time jumps--that makes it a bit hard to keep up with the story. I'm just used to the old 'flesh out the story' format of a 21-episode season. I will likely never get used to 9 episode short seasons.

 

[vrDrew]

Just got done binge-watching this show. Definitely had some high points. But also some low ones too.

The most glaring one is that there are simply too many characters and story arcs going on. To take one example: The experience of Mexican immigrants to the US, and their struggles and injustices, is one very well worthy of telling. But we first meet Aleida when she is ten years old. Implying its going to be at least fifteen to twenty years of series time before she can possibly play a significant role in NASA's alternate history. That's an awful lot of emotional investment to ask viewers to watch.

The science is also a bit hit and miss. There are some great examples of the problems of fuel loads and orbital mechanics. But they leave totally unexplained things like quite how the unmanned resupply rockets actually delivered cargo to the lunar surface. And it also seems a bit inconsistent. The Jamestown astronauts have regular live two-way videochats with their families. But apparently it hasn't occurred to NASA to simply transmit a few episodes of Kojak or All In The Family using the same technology. I'll accept an alternate reality, but it's got to maintain its own internal rules.

I'm glad I watched it. But I cannot say I came away particularly satisfied.

 

[nickdalzell1]

^^ A good example of how a 21-episode season would have filled in the gaps. There are tons of sub-plots all over the place either hurried or forgotten later on to focus on the main plot which also involves tons of time skips. It's essentially being 'edited for time' only not because of ad breaks, but because there's not enough story!

NEVER make the mistake I did of binge watching the entire season. I saw all of it in one weekend and wished I knew it only had 10 episodes.

 

[AustinIllini]

^^ A good example of how a 21-episode season would have filled in the gaps. There are tons of sub-plots all over the place either hurried or forgotten later on to focus on the main plot which also involves tons of time skips. It's essentially being 'edited for time' only not because of ad breaks, but because there's not enough story!

NEVER make the mistake I did of binge watching the entire season. I saw all of it in one weekend and wished I knew it only had 10 episodes.

I would have kind of zeroed in on one or two major plot lines instead of inundating us with various character threads and plots.

That being said, they can pick whichever plot lines they want to continue. I love space stuff so I'm in for Season 2.

 

[Mercifull]

But apparently it hasn't occurred to NASA to simply transmit a few episodes of Kojak or All In The Family using the same technology. I'll accept an alternate reality, but it's got to maintain its own internal rules.

They absolutely “could”... but they didn’t for the same reason they didn’t want to send more tapes up with each mission and that’s because the Tv studios didn’t want people to now they could record shows and movies. There was a mention of this in one of the episodes but appreciate it was quite subtle.

 

[fricotin]

I am watching it on my Mac, is there any way to watch previous episodes ?

 

[0128672]

I am watching it on my Mac, is there any way to watch previous episodes ?

Yes, simply scroll back and forth in the episode view:

 

[fricotin]

Thanks, I had lost track of the action.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I always hated when you finish a series (be it the current season, or a classic series) the entire series disappears from your history and from Watch Next. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon also do this. Why not just reset it to S1 E1? Why remove it completely as if no one wants to rewatch it from the beginning?

 

[C DM]

The teaser was officially released a few hours later during the Comic-Con @home panel. But no release date was announced. AFAIK they have only shot 8 out of 10 episodes so far, so it may well be delayed to the end of the year or 2021.

Looks like filming has resumed: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/17/apple-tv-plus-for-all-mankind-season-2/

 

[xxray]

Just finished the first two episodes. Does it get better than this? I’m kinda bored with the slow pacing.

 

[MarkAtl]

Just finished the first two episodes. Does it get better than this? I’m kinda bored with the slow pacing.

It does. I watched the first 2 episodes, gave up, then tried again. It gets better and picks up.

 

[MiniApple]

Season 2
Episode 1

nice (Shuttle) Enterprise & Star Trek shoutout

wish they would not only have started off with a short recap/flashback of season 1, but also expanded the one they key event since.

a solar flare/storm is/was a good story.
I'm glad there wasn't an invasion/attack from the other side during that (at least so far).

Don't get why Molly went out there, knowing she'll catch a lethal dose and with no hope that the injured moon-buggy driver won't succumb to either the accident injures or the lethal dose. Guess leave no-one behind kinda thing, going out as a hero.

the NASA boss smart lady workaholic sleeping in the office (probably living there full time...) made me chuckle.
Hope to see the (Latin) Dreamer girl she kinda took harshly under her wing, appear this season and succeed.
Her Assistant was hilarious, but also badass in a way, so many updates and tasks around the globe and above.

 

[stridemat]

Season 2
Episode 1

nice (Shuttle) Enterprise & Star Trek shoutout

wish they would not only have started off with a short recap/flashback of season 1, but also expanded the one they key event since.

a solar flare/storm is/was a good story.
I'm glad there wasn't an invasion/attack from the other side during that (at least so far).

Don't get why Molly went out there, knowing she'll catch a lethal dose and with no hope that the injured moon-buggy driver won't succumb to either the accident injures or the lethal dose. Guess leave no-one behind kinda thing, going out as a hero.

the NASA boss smart lady workaholic sleeping in the office (probably living there full time...) made me chuckle.
Hope to see the (Latin) Dreamer girl she kinda took harshly under her wing, appear this season and succeed.
Her Assistant was hilarious, but also badass in a way, so many updates and tasks around the globe and above.

I enjoyed it, hopefully it picks up some momentum.

I have made a mental note to view the One Giant Leap videos. Should hopefully fill in some of the gaps.

 

[technole]

Show wasn't meant to be consumed in a day or two, the suspense of weekly episodes from S1 and now into S2 really made you think about those big things that occurred.

If you want the real life stuff, From the Earth to the Moon series exists. No need to bring that here, this world we don't spend on pointless military interventions and space race continues to be king.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Watched Season 2 ep 1 - bored me. I remember from last year it was good quality but enjoyable no. Too many shows watching bad people do bad things. Not a reason, for me, to continue

 

[sevoneone]

S2E1 was ok, though a little bit of a slow burn compared to where we left off.

I love that it is clear there are way more than 4 shuttles in the fleet, more than one shuttle on orbit/transit, and that there is a polar launch facility for Shuttle on the west coast. Which was actually nearly completed in real life but abandoned after Challenger.

 

[technole]

SpaceX uses Cape Caniveral for polar routes nowadays instead of Vandenburg, the range gave permission after the CA fires awhile back. For a long time they insisted on Vandenburg since they didn't have to go over land. So watching that convo in episode 1 is kind of hilarious.

 

[0128672]

I very much enjoyed S1, so started watching S2 last night. I'm not as enthralled yet with it, but will stay with it. The one thing I didn't understand was in the beginning there was a timeline that seemed to move things forward into the 1980s. Why was there a conversation about getting a color TV when they were so prevalent even in the 1960s? I don't think it was a flashback scene, but I'm not sure what was going on there.

 

[Rigby]

I very much enjoyed S1, so started watching S2 last night. I'm not as enthralled yet with it, but will stay with it. The one thing I didn't understand was in the beginning there was a timeline that seemed to move things forward into the 1980s. Why was there a conversation about getting a color TV when they were so prevalent even in the 1960s? I don't think it was a flashback scene, but I'm not sure what was going on there.

If you watch again you'll notice that they show on old B&W TV set in the bar and a color TV in another person's living room. It's just that Ed is a bit old-fashioned.

 

[Mercifull]

I very much enjoyed S1, so started watching S2 last night. I'm not as enthralled yet with it, but will stay with it. The one thing I didn't understand was in the beginning there was a timeline that seemed to move things forward into the 1980s. Why was there a conversation about getting a color TV when they were so prevalent even in the 1960s? I don't think it was a flashback scene, but I'm not sure what was going on there.

My grandfather put off getting a colour TV for years because he said they consumed too much electricity haha

 

[MarkAtl]

It took me several tries to get into S1, and some of it felt a bit too woke for me (i.e. forcing the social themes over the science) but it ended well.

I enjoyed S2E1, and it was good to see the evolution of several characters that I hope will continue - along with the science.

 

[Janeilfen]

Tried to watch episode 1 of the new series but - oh dear. Dreadful.

 

[sevoneone]

If you watch again you'll notice that they show on old B&W TV set in the bar and a color TV in another person's living room. It's just that Ed is a bit old-fashioned.

I think the idea was to be sentimental. I think that was the TV that was there in the 60s they watched the Apollo program on.