For All Mankind

Synopsis

An alternative history where the Soviet Union lands on the Moon before the USA. This causes the USSR to continue to exist and other ripple effects to happen all while the space race to Mars and beyond continues.

Review

This review takes place after I finished the 4th season and that is the last season to come out. This show killed itself with the incestuous relationship that occurs earlier in the series. Their decision to have this as part of the story line forces them to continue to recover in future seasons as those characters were forcibly removed from the show.

As you can plainly tell, this show pisses me off. The first season was so good with such great acting that I was excited about what it had to bring. However, the show just spirals downhill from there. The requirement for drama over substance is abundant. The cast is so well done, with Danny and Ed being outstanding characters...... till Ed went native this season. That is what this show has done is great acting, but the story has just belittled them and their story, creating excuses for some of the slimiest and vile things that would have ever happened in US history.

The story is crazy. They are so quick to show the USSR being just like it was in the old days like A Spy Named Orphan, The Spy and the Traitor, and The Main Enemy where the KGB would capture, kill, or maim you to get what they want. However, that is until the story doesn't support that anymore. The inconsistency of the KGB in this show creates a completely unlikely story line as well as USA's stupidity in their belief that their enemy, the USSR, is their friend. A for instance on how bad this story is, in the latest season there is a scene where the CIA and KBG are torturing a US citizen on Mars. Ok cool, sociopaths exist everywhere. However, he gives up information and NASA/DoD decide to INVADE a foreign country's sovereign ground on Mars with force. The show takes great pains to prove that the weapons are not using bullets but CO2 to ensure that it hurt a pressurized environment. So far that is accurate. Then they use C4!!! A high explosive to breach a door in a pressurized environment. What dummy wrote that in?

I feel like I need to explain the “incestuous relationship” comment I made above. So the main 2 families in the first season or 2 are friends. Their kids are friends. One of the families son dies in a car accident. The parents of the other family die on the Moon. The son of the dead parents moves into the home of the parents with the dead son at around 10 years old. When the kid turns 18 or so HE SLEEPS WITH THE MOM!!! She has been raising him and took care of him as a kid. It is gross beyond belief and this woman has been a character of upmost morals and ethics. Then sleeps with the kid she raised. What a stupid plot line.

My Rating

I wanted to like this show. I think Joel Kinnaman is an underrated actor and for the first 3 seasons he is awesome. The fourth season they wrote his character into oblivion. That is what sucks. The characters are great, the story is terrible. It is like they are throwing noodles on the wall hoping it sticks. I want it to be the 8 that everyone gives it, but the fact that the story has been shot to oblivion and there is no lack of fantasy, this is a 4.

Parental Rating

There is limited language, some sexual scenes that are implied rather than showing, and limited violence. I think the first and second season my parents would enjoy. Beyond that I think they would lose interest. The show gets lost. Based on the rules, the show is about family, that is one of the primary plot points each season is a family. Based on the rules, I think I have to say approved by both, but I don't think they would finish the series.

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