For all Mankind 5.01
Mar. 29th, 2026 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI finished s4 of For All Mankind with mixed feelings - you can read my review of the season 4 finale here, which goes into details as to why - but not so much that I wasn't curious about s5, which started on Friday.
Another ten years time jump, and the season opener as per usual has to establish both what the remaining old characters are doing now, who the new ones are and what the current big problems are. I must say that the s5 newbies - the now teenage years kids from last season plus the very competent (female) Sgt. Boyd, essentially, and a new Russian governor who instantly looked and sounded familiar, because he's played by the actor playing Oleg in The Americans - come across as more sympathetic and interesting than Miles last season. (Miles is still around, sigh. Sam Massey, whom I've liked, is not.) As for the old characters - I had to stop myself from hissing when Ed showed up because as it turns out I'm still not over being annoyed by the way s4 tried to sell me on his story. However, it was lovely seeing Margo and Aleida, both together and apart. (I'll always cherish For All Mankind having made this mentor/protege relationship between two women so quintessential for the entire show.) I mean, on the one hand, Margo's arc - arguably the best and most perfect of the entire show - came full circle last season and basically ended there, but I'm not going to say no to more Margo. Who, UNLIKE ED, faced her responsibility and went to prison, where she gets visited often by Aleida and still brainstorms with her.
Aleida has plenty of problems, and the engineering ones are the least of it, because while she otoh is CEO of Helios, otoh the board is still unwilling to go up against Dev who continues to be on an ego trip on Mars. Dev has been kept ambigious in the two seasons he's been appearing in, but given the incredible damage the most prominent tech bros have been doing in recent years, it wouldn't surprise me if this season would make the moral ambiguity tip over into darkness. Otoh, we also get prequel of the Expanse feelings with Mars and Earth heading towards a clash, not least because Ellen's former VP is now using the familiar slogan of "Earth First" and scapegoating all Martians for the economic problems the US in particular and Earth in general has.
I did miss the sense of wonder space scenes provide, but given this episode established two moons of Jupiter are most likely to carry signs of life, I do expect we'll soon get scenes of various characters heading towards said moons, and hence space scenes again. (My money is on Kelly, wo hasn't gotten anywhere on Mars so far, and/or her son Alex, not keen on Mars but unable to go back to Earth due to his physiology.)
This episode sets up a murder mystery; obviously Lee whose arrest ends the episode won't turn out to be the real killer, and presumably Boyd will be our main detective. Now in theory, the killer could be a new character we've yet to meet, but in practice, the emotional resonance is always stronger if it's someone we already know. Ed with his stage 3 cancer is physically too fragile to have done it, but Miles could have, for motives unknown, though maybe I'm just thinking that because I don't like Miles. More seriously, it probably will be one of the younglings, i.e. the teeangers graduating in this episode.
All in all, a good season opener, and I want more. The Margo and Aleida scene was still the best, though.
Another ten years time jump, and the season opener as per usual has to establish both what the remaining old characters are doing now, who the new ones are and what the current big problems are. I must say that the s5 newbies - the now teenage years kids from last season plus the very competent (female) Sgt. Boyd, essentially, and a new Russian governor who instantly looked and sounded familiar, because he's played by the actor playing Oleg in The Americans - come across as more sympathetic and interesting than Miles last season. (Miles is still around, sigh. Sam Massey, whom I've liked, is not.) As for the old characters - I had to stop myself from hissing when Ed showed up because as it turns out I'm still not over being annoyed by the way s4 tried to sell me on his story. However, it was lovely seeing Margo and Aleida, both together and apart. (I'll always cherish For All Mankind having made this mentor/protege relationship between two women so quintessential for the entire show.) I mean, on the one hand, Margo's arc - arguably the best and most perfect of the entire show - came full circle last season and basically ended there, but I'm not going to say no to more Margo. Who, UNLIKE ED, faced her responsibility and went to prison, where she gets visited often by Aleida and still brainstorms with her.
Aleida has plenty of problems, and the engineering ones are the least of it, because while she otoh is CEO of Helios, otoh the board is still unwilling to go up against Dev who continues to be on an ego trip on Mars. Dev has been kept ambigious in the two seasons he's been appearing in, but given the incredible damage the most prominent tech bros have been doing in recent years, it wouldn't surprise me if this season would make the moral ambiguity tip over into darkness. Otoh, we also get prequel of the Expanse feelings with Mars and Earth heading towards a clash, not least because Ellen's former VP is now using the familiar slogan of "Earth First" and scapegoating all Martians for the economic problems the US in particular and Earth in general has.
I did miss the sense of wonder space scenes provide, but given this episode established two moons of Jupiter are most likely to carry signs of life, I do expect we'll soon get scenes of various characters heading towards said moons, and hence space scenes again. (My money is on Kelly, wo hasn't gotten anywhere on Mars so far, and/or her son Alex, not keen on Mars but unable to go back to Earth due to his physiology.)
This episode sets up a murder mystery; obviously Lee whose arrest ends the episode won't turn out to be the real killer, and presumably Boyd will be our main detective. Now in theory, the killer could be a new character we've yet to meet, but in practice, the emotional resonance is always stronger if it's someone we already know. Ed with his stage 3 cancer is physically too fragile to have done it, but Miles could have, for motives unknown, though maybe I'm just thinking that because I don't like Miles. More seriously, it probably will be one of the younglings, i.e. the teeangers graduating in this episode.
All in all, a good season opener, and I want more. The Margo and Aleida scene was still the best, though.
