I haven’t seen a season of For All Mankind for a few years, but now that the new baby arrived my wife and I are digging out some of our old shows. I think I liked the third season, but then again we didn’t rush to watch this one. Maybe we should’ve continued to sleep on it, because I was bored and disinterested most of the way through. The Mars setting for the show is interesting, and the drama between different classes on the colony had a ton of potential. Instead of focusing on that subplot, though, the show decided to create conflict between returning characters that wasn’t nearly as engaging.
Speaking of, the returning characters are the real weak point of the season. Even the characters that I liked in previous season, I don’t like anymore. They kept some of the most boring characters from previous seasons, and then turned the better ones into old cranks. I don’t know who the writers imagine we are going to empathize with, but it didn’t work out.
Spoilers
A lot of the problem with the story is tied into how bad the characters are this season. I didn’t care who won out in any of the conflicts, because even the characters that I liked in previous seasons were just annoying this time around. Instead of a cool rebellion in the Mars colony, Ed Baldwin as a grumpy old man and Dev Ayessa, richest man from Earth become the main insurgents. The plot line on Earth is just Margo and Aleida dealing with their own drama, instead of any real Russia – U.S. tension. I didn’t look forward to any of it.
My Score
IMDB Score
RT Critics
100
RT Audience
84