For All Mankind is a science fiction television series on Apple TV+. It depicts an alternate history where the Soviets complete the first manned Moon landing and the Cold War-era space race never ended.
Season 4
Hey everyone!
I just finished season 4 last night. It took me months to finally get to it. This season couldn't pull me in at all. I came to this show for the science/space and uchronia aspects (I'm a sucker for both). And it would be an understatement to say I have felt mistreated lately.
I feel like ever since season 2, it became obvious to me that this show is just a soap, using the pretext of space to create drama in storylines everywhere. They give away any sense of likelihood for emotions purposes. My problem is that since season 3 it's not even a decent soap.
And the story makes absolutely zero sense in season 4. Some random thoughts in no particular order (spoilers ahead):
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Ed Baldwin's character gets reseted. He apparently unlearned anything related to his son or Gordo's son. He runs away from his family just like in season 1 and is a PoS to his grandson.
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Danielle does not get one win the entire season. That poor character is so mistreated while being kind and doing everything right.
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Why are there private workers on Mars besides for plotlines? It's clearly a somewhat small operation (100 people from what we see on screen?). Especially knowing NASA literally shits money based off what we learned from season 2 and 3.
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it doesn't make one sense that a sick kid is allowed to go to Mars considering safety and protocolar reasons.
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Miles is a horrible character forced onto us.
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black market on Mars 🤣
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the strike would have been shut down immediately by giving the workers what they wanted if that asteroid was worth that much money. It always goes like this in real life. BTW why are they poorly paid? Oil rig workers are some of the best paid manual workers in the world.
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why would the asteroid save or kill Mars? The operation was thriving before discovering the asteroid. They are not mining for iridium on Mars. Why would they stop it then? If it makes money like they are clearly showing us it does, it's self sustainable. But there's no plot for the season...
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in their asteroid heist, of course they exactly have the right material, the right people with the exact skills necessary, and all this in no less than a month.
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The M-7 knows there are people trying to do something about the asteroid, directly from Mars, and they don't check out sublevels 4 and 5 because they're closed? 🤣🤣
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does the hijack group believe that they won't be judged for treason and spend the rest of their lives in prison? Are we supposed to believe there won't be any repercussions?
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When CIA and KGB interrogate Miles, they choose (the illegal and unethical) torture over pressuring him (perfectly legal) with his family from the get go? Makes no sense except for the plot.
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the KGB letting a traitor, Margo, become the head of the asteroid program was hilarious. And then send her to the US.
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WTF is the fuel they're making on Mars for Ranger?? It's a fusion drive! I understand it's to make it fit the SpaceX vibe, but it's like thinking you can power our electric cars with charcoal in the trunk 😅. Science is really disrespected since season 3 and its space race that made no sense.
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a 5 minute extra burn makes an ASTEROID get into Mars orbit 😑
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Aleida only accepted to work with Margo because she thought the asteroid would help billions of lives. Why does she then think that Mars is the best option in the end? They clearly made us understand that if the asteroid orbits Mars, people on Earth will suffer.
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Ed's grandson storyline is flat out dropped in the last episode.
OK I stop my rant, otherwise I'll spend my whole day on it. And yet, I will probably watch season 5 because I'm a sucker for sci-fi uchronia and apparently I enjoy hating this show.
I'm curious to know what you think. Are there things I misunderstood?
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The best rants are the ones that misunderstand tons of the science and the plot. So... solid work here.
Won't address all of them but on the Ranger:
It has two drives.
One is an ion drive, which probably uses argon extracted from the Martian atmosphere. This is the one that they need for moving the asteroid.
The other is actually not specified. It is nuclear, but it could be a NERVA-style nuclear thermal drive or a Unity-style nuclear plasma drive.
Five minutes extra burn entering Mars orbit is very believable, since they already redirected the asteroid once in order to do a Mars flyby.
But most of your disbelief is a bit surprising. Black market on Mars? It would absolutely happen.
Private workers? They literally explain that in the opening montage.
Etc...
It is a weird rant.
Basically the only thing I agree with is that Dani didn’t get a win.
Indeed she did not. At best maybe she got some closure on what happened last time when she had it out with Ed.
Maybe.
It’s a pity, Dani is one of my favourite characters, and it was not a good season for her.
Didn’t she fix the tv for everybody on Mars in like the first hour she was there?
Ok, she got one minor win.
The show runners had her invent space cops and engage in strike busting, so this season's Dani didn't really deserve a win. Like, when the CIA and KGB say that they're going to interrogate a dude, you've got to know what that means.
This. Dani is the bad guy on Mars.
Didn’t she win with Soyuz-Apollo mission?
Yes, but that’s not season 4, which is the bit of OP’s post I was agreeing with - no win in season 4.
She survived gunshot. I would consider getting back to home a win.
I don't understand how the five minute burn puts Goldilocks into a permanent Mars orbit. Wouldn't NASA be able to use an opposite burn at some point in the future, to put it back on track for Earth?
I kept thinking Dev was secretly planning to burn for more than five minutes, to crash the asteroid into Mars, because that would be permanent.
It doesn’t make it literally permanent, but it does make it stable around Mars and very hard to send it to Earth later. Not that it technically was impossible, but Dev would use all his authority over the Helios workers to keep it at Mars. They would at least have to wait until the next alignment, and in the meantime Dev would probably start mining it.
I’m really glad they never suggested crashing it into Mars. That would be a terrible which would vaporize the asteroid and make it way more costly to collect anything valuable.
You're welcome!
The real CIA knew torture didn't work and continued torturing people for years. It was the first tactic used despite rapport building being far more effective.
Helios wants more money
Helios has power over nasa
they are on another planet
the operation was being funneled money in hopes of using mars as a key to asteroid mining, if a asteroid went to earth they wouldn't have to use mars. (although i think it's stupid they didnt throw in some more rare metals in there)
"If you flew from New York to Los Angeles and you adjusted your heading just 3.5 degrees south, you’d land in San Diego instead."
... in the short term, the point of the show is to do things not so you can win the next election, but for all mankind.
Why was there private workers on mars the same reason there was more private US citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan than military personnel.
That's a good comparison!
Also the black market complaint as if in Vietnam the US Military wasn’t smuggling out dope for gangsters back on the east coast.
Wow thanks for your answer!
So much of what you have issues with is explained in the show.
You're absolutely right! But explained is very different from likely, realistic or believable
Bye Bob.
i felt bad for dropping out during 4, i was losing interest for every reason you said and now i feel like i'm never going back in. season one is gold though.
It’s gotten definably worse in the past two seasons, with season 1 & 2 being incredible and the last two being mid at best in my opinion, but if people like it still then it’s good they have something to watch I guess, I just wish it was written a little better with a little less sandbagging on the old characters
I love this show, but it's ALWAYS been kind of a mixed bag from the beginning. To me, it really peaked in season 2 but even that season had the worst subplot in the show. I totally understand if people bow out of it -- especially since season 4 was a whole lot more ridiculous than usual. But I'm fine with the tonal shift and things getting a little crazier, honestly. The show just gives me something no other show has made me feel; the glimpses into this alternate reality will always be enough to keep me coming back.
I think you summed it up well! It gives something that other shows don't give me, but the amount of pain coming with it is becoming substantial hahaha
I also liked that the hijack group found a super secret hidey spot on the Mars base. I’d think that every single millimeter of a Mars base would be accounted for but maybe that’s just me.
Hahaha exactly where I was going at! This makes zero sense, and it's probably the weakest point of the whole season since nobody's arguing against it
You are not mistreated. You had wrong expectations.
The show is, first of all, a drama. Always was and always will be.
Look it up wherever you want. It's always Drama first, Scifi second or third.
=> https://imgur.com/2gn0dNt
Because that's what will happen when spaceflight gets commercialized?
Because they were contracted mostlly on bonus pay and that vanished after the first capture mission failed.
I agree that they would settle this. But it's a private business operator, so it's not that surprising.
Yeah. One would ask why they did this in reality as well so often...
This would absolutely happen. Although not to that extent and volume as shown, probably.
For what they say it's Argon and Methane they are producing.
Ranger does not have a fusion drive. It has 2 drives, an Ion drive and a plasma drive.
Because like all of us you were expecting a post credits scene showing that Dani was still alive...
She’s very much alive in the final episode.
Finally someone making sense. This show, particularly this season, is the most unrealistic thing ever. The whole strike and rebellion is completely absurd. How are people trying to excuse this? OP is right on every point.