Just finished Season 2 of this show last night and am wondering why this show didn't get more talk especially here on a Houston board. For those not familiar with it. It follows an alternate history that starts from if the Soviets beat the US to the landing on the Moon. That one change means that the Space Race didn't end with the Moon and both the US and USSR continue to compete with Moon bases, shuttles. Season 2 ends in the early 80's with Cold War conflicts extending into space. The show is centered around the lives of astronauts and NASA administrators. The main characters are fictional but there are real historical figures who play big roles including Werner Von Braun and Deke Slayton. For Sci Fi fans the show creator is Ronald D Moore who wrote a lot of DS9 and was the creator for BSG. This show is far more hard science than those shows with many of the ships and technology based on either real NASA and Soviet ships but also designs that were proposed and studied by both the US and USSR. In my opinion this is one of the best shows I've seen in the last two years and one of the best sci-fi shows I've seen. It's got a lot for history and NASA nerds like me but following Ronald D Moore's style there is a lot of interpersonal dynamics. Like DS9 and BSG the main characters are incredibly capable people dealing with very stressful situation. Unlike some shows like Stargate Universe where there were times I was wondering why some of the characters were even given command and roles of big responsibility given how flawed they were. That isn't the case with For All Mankind. For all of the human flaws they have the characters still feel like they are professionals who can do their jobs very well. I feel like they are really are astronauts and engineers and not just dramatic personae who happen to be astronauts and engineers. From another purely personal point of view as someone who grew up in Houston and still remembers the 70's and 80's (yes I'm old, not as old as Deckard though!). I love all of the references to Houston then with places like Alabama Theater and Shamrock Hotel mentioned. I don't think the show is shot in Houston but it feels like it is and the writers cared enough to get the setting right.
Dude you are on the D&D, you know like 99% wouldn't recognize Mattress Mack or find the original Ninfas Plus you assume people watch Apple TV or go a free trial of it I'm guessing they are CW watchers from Portland I'll watch it at some point
Yep a lot of Clutchfans are either not from Houston or too young to remember how Ninfas was an institution or that the Shamrock Hotel was a Houston icon. We are in a site for a team called “The Rockets” and this is a show literally about rockets and emphasizes the point why Houston is called “Space City”.
While sports are rarely mentioned in the show one of the main sets is a bar where the astronauts would hang out at. In addition to a bunch of NASA memorabilia in the background they have Stros, Rockets and even Oiler memorabilia from the 70’s.
I enjoyed the first season but didn’t get into the 2nd season though I think I only did an episode. Mostly just forgot about it.
It does drag a little bit in the middle of the second season and there is a lot of build up. I'm not going to give any spoilers but the last two episodes really cram a lot into them.
I miss all of the memorabilia that was in the bar at the Astrodome Holiday Inn. Used to go there after Oilers games & even watched the first Texans game there.
Digging this show, about to finish season 1. I chuckle a bit when I see the character Deke Clayton onscreen, I feel like this could be a Red Forman origin story.
I never thought about that but it makes me appreciate the show in a whole new way. I just wish they would've had Deke Slayton calling another astronaut "DUMBASS!"
I remember seeing an ad for this about a year ago and thinking i definitely needed to check it out. Unfortunately, apple tv+ has easily the worst interface of any streaming platform ive ever seen. so i forgot about it, and the show got buried in the app, this thread reminded me, and thank you for the reminder. Been binging and almost done with season 1, it's a really terrific show. Just everything about it is so well done. 9.5/10 Spoiler i could have skipped episodes 7 and 8 tho. they didn't need to **** things up and kill his son. kill the wife, kill whoever, but leave the damn child out of it. it's a show about space exploration, there are plenty of other opportunities to kill off characters, geezus. I hate watching that.
Spoiler Yes that was a very jarring moment when Ed Baldwin's son died. I don't know how old you are but I remember being a kid and riding a banana seat out in neigborhoods that looked like that. That death sets up several events that are in the second season particularly between Ed and Karen.
I was trying to convince my business partner to watch the show. He's both a NASA buff and a fan of political history. I think I started reeling him in with some of the changes to the timeline that happened that weren't specifically with NASA and the Soviet Space program.
For those who are fans of the actual space technology one of the key ships in the show is the Sea Dragon which was an actual concept by NASA.
Interesting good to know... just finished season 1. Spoiler after the russian cosmonaut helped Ed, they showed him in his space suit looking at the US base. seems like he might have pulled some sabotage https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/fbab20db-a25e-44fc-a0db-6f2a36c9f22a
I liked the first season more than the second, maybe because I lived through the 80s. But there was a lot of slogging at points to get through the end. I binged the first season in 2 or 3 days. The second season took me a couple of months to want to get through all of it. There were some very stunning scenes in season two, as good or better than season one, but there is a whole lot of crap story tangents that I don't care about that aren't present in season one.
