Excellent show! Slated for 6-7 seasons per the showrunner Ronald D. Moore.
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'For All Mankind' Season 4 May Have Already Been Signed Off By Apple, Writers Guild Suggests
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You are so far from being accurate it's not even funny. Soooo far.
But also back in the day, weekly tv shows looked noticeably lower budget, produced almost always on a studio set. “TV shows” today are more like full fledged 8 hour movies with a massive budget to match.
I like the fact they are no longer limited to a five act episode, with each act being an exact length. If the episode needs 30 minutes to tell the story, the episode only lasts 30 minutes. If the episode needs 75, it lasts 75.
I am SO much happier with the new style. I don't have 23 hours to waste on one season of TV - I just can't dedicate the time to that much. An 8 hour season where every (or nearly every) episode is important, and where the budget is much higher is so much better for me. I value my time very highly, and with so many shows competing for my time, I demand the very highest quality, or I will not bother with it.
Apple has done that with their shows though. Mythic Quest has had a 45 minute episode where that was necessary, even though most episodes were 30 minutes. Other Apple shows often vary from 45 minutes to an hour depending on the episode. I like the creative freedom Apple has given its shows.
And had advertising, was only 480p (on a good day), black and white, and you had to be in front of the TV at the time of broadcast or you might never see it again.
The times are changing, we don't even have to walk uphill both ways to get to school anymore!
Folks *this* is a reason to subscribe for $5 to Apple TV+ or get it in the Apple One bundle. Not "For All Mankind" although it is an amazing show... but because Apple supports longer running shows with multiple seasons. Netflix espically but other streaming services too have made splashy TV series projects but they seldom anymore green light them beyond the initial order of 1 to 2 seasons because the cost of productions of a successful series jumps rapidly, Netflix would rather just launch something new (and cheaper.) For creating a rich world you can enjoy for several years and see long running character and story development Apple TV+ is clearly supporting a more premium model.
Maybe.
I wish they didn't do the time jumps (roughly, one season = one decade), but I get it. This lets them dive deep into one particular season but also tell a broader arc across seasons. So I think they'll stick to that formula.
Sounds like you're equating "sci-fi" with "space".
Either way, uh, hope you find something else you enjoy.
Maybe.
Who cares, though? A show doesn't have to appeal to the masses in order to appeal to me.
I thought that Nemesis Games was probably the weakest book. The only big departure from the book I noticed was forced on them by Unforeseen Circumstances (no need to discuss it here, read the TV news rags) and you can see the duct tape where they had to patch that post-shooting. Apart from that - the problem with the last season was uneven pacing of the last few episodes.
Hmm. "For All Mankind" as the prequel to "The Expanse"...?
If you want a harder version in book form try "Voyage" by Stephen Baxter (written in 1996... but pretty much the same concept). Even that has quite a bit of "Human Drama" (esp. considering that Baxter is one of the harder SF authors out there) and/or its "thematic" companion volume "Titan" (the former is fairly optimistic, the second very, very dark).
I just found a French series called Missions which might be more up your street. I've only watched a couple of episodes, but so far it's much more to my liking than For All Mankind. None of the housewife drama, and it's heavily focused on space / technology scenes.
It's free to watch on the BBC iPlayer.
Killing off Alex I'd say was a pretty big departure from the books. Here is a few bullet points as to things they changed that both puzzled me disappointed me.
Having Niaomi abducted by Filip without Marco's knowledge when in the books Marco orders Filip to do it. Changes the entire dynamic from Filip not caring about his Mother and Marcos obsession with Niaomi.
Killing Fred so early. In the books it happens later and in the manner that Alex was killed in the show. It changes the dynamic of how bad of a situation the coalition is in but there is hope with Fred returning and being able to bring opposing belters together. It is devastating when he dies. It was a blip in the show.
The books stories seem big and small. This was a big story where you where suppose to feel the weight of space and time and they made it claustrophobic.
On the ship you where suppose to feel how odd it was having a full compliment of crew especially a crew of strangers which emphasised the loss of their makeshift family. It was an important part of the book completely ignored by the writers of the show.
These are the most notable of things that botherd me.
None of these changes where small nor where they necessary especially swapping who kidnapped Niaomi and why.
First time I've been deeply disappointed by the show. I get why things have to change going from one media type to another but these decisions just made no sense.
Ronald D. Moore showed he could create a very good series with his "re-imagining" of Battlestar Galactica. He's done a pretty good job of For All Mankind so far.