For All Mankind Trailer - Apple TV- SPOILER

Agree with your whole post.

As for the statue, no way would they be able to steal it. Anyway, I suspect they'll use the badge for something else (wreak havoc in the control room?) and the statue is to frame Jimmy for it.

That said, the Danny/ Jimmy soap drama is really dragging the show down.

It's ridiculous that Ed didn't confine D. to quarters instantly. "You're doing drugs! Hit me, be a man! Oh, and you're posted to a crucial job now!"

Also, the Ellen story could have been very good, but I'm not a fan of how they're writing it.

Margo is basically Aleida's Wernher von Braun... Will Aleida react to her like Margo did to von Braun?

PS: Personal drama is fine with me, it's how they go about it. Drama is not the same as melodrama or soap.

 

Personal Drama written well and interesting is good. What they are doing with Danny and Ellen is not good and it's taking away from the overall Mars Mission. The reason why I like what is happening with Aleida and Margo is because it's character arcs that have been there since the start of the series. That is interesting.

 

Take the Sergej and Margo story, for example. Like it or hate it (plus I have a lot of issues with the portrayal of Russians on this show, but I digress), but imo they mostly managed to tell this story in a convincing, low-key, sometimes original way (elevator montage!). Ellen/ Pat, otoh... let's just say back when Pat wrote that letter, I was glad Pat didn't immediately die from a broken heart, while singing a full aria.

 

*Pam.

 

Also, the difference in the Margo/Alaida story is that is in direct relation with the actual mission to mars. It has to do with why the Russians are on Mars to begin with. Danny doesn't need to be on Mars and if Ed was a better leader, he wouldn't be. As for Ellen and Pam, that story should have been over with when Pam left, but they are basically doing it just to let Ellen and Larry have a story, and they seem to be modeling it after the Clinton/Lawinsky issue.

 

I am really struggling with the show this season. After a really strong start, they are going off the rails. The only compelling story line right now is the Margo treason issue. No way that's going to end well, unless she has Aleida killed, which isn't going to happen (This isn't House of Cards, after all).

The Danny drama is really getting out of hand and, as was stated already, Ed's blind devotion to his parents is keeping him from pulling the trigger. A good leader would have sent him packing already.

I'm also not tracking with the conspiracy theory plot line. I guess I'm not paying attention, but why did they steal the statue? And something about Gordo and Tracy didn't die the way history tells it? I guess I'll have to go back and watch.

Hopefully season 4 will get them back in the right direction.

 

Well that was a stressful watch for all the wrong reasons.

Fully two thirds devoted to BS melodrama that I could do without. I really hope they're done with this by the end of the season. It's been dragging the whole show down for me of late, and I'm finding I'm actively putting off watching the new episodes for days at a time.

 

One abstraction that works for me to differentiate between good drama (Margo & Sergei) and bad drama (anything related to Danny) is if the actions of the involved parties are relatable to the viewer at the time. With the Margo & Sergei story line, messed up as the situation has become and uneasy as I was feeling about everything as the situation unfolded, it always seemed like the relevant parties were making choices that seemed reasonable at the time.

With the Danny drama, it took so many contrived instances of people being completely idiotic for the situation to end up being what it is now. So many times that I as a viewer was rolling my eyes and yelling at the screen for some character to not do the obviously stupid thing they were clearly about to do.

One conceivable thing is that the JSC compound is only open to the public during busy hours, and gated off at night - but that they got in the gates at night with the key card and could so get to and steal the statue at night. But it doesn't really make that much sense. Also in an environment like this, the moment Rossi noticed his key card was gone, he would have had it blocked.

I'm actually - legitimately - interested in those issues. For me, the portrayal of Russians feels a lot more in line with my own real-life experiences (I'm a linguist working with minority languages of Russia, and while it was still possible spend a substantial amount of time there) than is normal in American television - it for once actually feels like a show that's done some research and has some people familiar with Russia in the writing room.

 

They really did ratchet up the danger for Mars though when you think about it.
2 out of 3 spacecraft used to get their are damaged and out of commission.
Probably like half of the people sent to Mars are now either dead or injured.

 

I guess you could say Ed has shown that Margo was right in not wanting him on Mars.

They don't believe the story that Gordo and Tracy saved the base wrapped in duct tape, which ironically is true though maybe they'll discover the actual conspiracy (the 2nd reactor) while trying to discover ThE tRuTh

 

After what's happening in a certain part of Eastern Europe, I think the show is all too sympathetic in its depiction of the Russians.

 

How so? For one the story has been written and filmed way before Russia invaded Ukraine and second given what they obviously did to Sergej and how their Kosmonauts behave, specifically the current russian commander, i don't see how there is any sympathy towards the Russians.

Apart from Sergej and some Kosmonauts we've seen during the exchange in season 2 the Russians are depicted as opponents to say the least, good old Hollywood enemies for most of the time until islamic terrorism took over as the general enemy when needed.

 

To be fair, we also have Rolan and Alexei, but otherwise I agree with everything you said.

 

As I said, too much sympathetic. I'm sorry, but I've some Ukrainian dear friends and colleagues, so I'm not really in "balanced" depictions in these times.

 

Your feelings i understand but just food for thought - not all Germans were Nazis, not all Americans are conservative assholes or dumb and not all Russians are supporting this war.

It's unfair to put any political pressure on any show to depict them a certain way because if real world issues.

 

I don't want to go too off-topic (and really this is more of a Neutral Zone topic) but I read an interesting article comparing the Germans under Nazism with the Russians under Putin. And while the former were literally imbued only with propaganda (and thus their worldview was somehow understandable), it is not that difficult for the latter to access neutral news sources. But despite this they are delighted to live under a fascist dictator dedicated to crushing all freedom (not to mention how he is treating the LBGTQI + community) and the opposition is practically non-existent or laughable. And I'm not talking about low-educated people living in remote villages, but also the bourgeois class of the big cities.

The Russians have had several times the choice between liberty and authoritarianism and have always happily embraced the latter (with a few exceptions which are so few that we literally know their names). So, yeah, I know generalizing is bad but let's just say I don't really like them at the moment.

 

NASA Mars Hab set tour:

 

"Martian knick-knacks."