It’s wild to think, going into the fifth season of Apple TV’s lush, sorely underrated science fiction series “For All Mankind,” that Ronald D. Moore‘s alt-history saga began with a simple premise: What if the Russians beat us to the Moon by just a few weeks back in the 1960s? In the seasons since, Moore, along with current showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, has extrapolated a vastly divergent timeline from that simple fracture, including radical shifts in the political winds (a lesbian POTUS? A moon base by the 1980s? The USSR still standing strong in the 21st century?).
Now, in its fifth season, the show’s infamous time jumps have taken us to an alternative 2012 in which Mars has not only been colonized, but might well be on the cusp of asserting its independence from Earth. It’s not quite the near-future fantasism of “The Expanse,” but as the years go by, it’s getting pretty damn close. And, blissfully, it’s carried all of its human heartache, expansive scope, and staggering production values into that great beyond, as mankind reaches further out into the stars than ever before, bringing all of its relatable foibles with it.
After the usual flurry of news headlines that accompanies the start of a new season (including hilarious Easter eggs like a still-alive John Lennon and Jay-Z collaborating on the hit “Grey Album”), “For All Mankind” gets its wheels and asteroids spinning fairly quickly. Years after the Happy Valley colony hijacked the Goldilocks asteroid in Mars’s orbit and defied Earth’s greed, the Martian colonists live in an uneasy peace with their terrestrial neighbors (thanks to a multinational coalition called the M-6 that manages the colony, alongside Costa Ronin’s Russian governor, Leonid Polivanov). And, of course, it’s still 2012, so the kids are still doing flash mobs and “Gangnam Style,” even in space.
Astronaut Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman, rocking some of the show’s signaturely crunchy old-age prosthetics), now in his hobbling eighties, enjoys his final years in exile on the station, as a new crop of Martian kids—including his grandson, Alex (Sean Kaufman)—usher in the first generation of young adults who’ve grown up completely on the Red Planet. Meanwhile, Helios founder Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi) advances his plans to turn Mars into a self-sustaining colony, with none of those pesky supply runs from Earth required. On top of that, a small group of political activists, dubbing themselves the Sons and Daughters of Mars, and led by Season 4 man of the people Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell), begins murmurs of their own “Free Mars” independence campaign.
Like so many situations in “For All Mankind,” the colony is a powder keg just waiting for a match, and the first of many arrives in the form of a mysterious dead body found outside the habitat, which is quickly pinned on beloved Martian citizen (and North Korean defector) Lee Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee), who’s arrested by Martian peacekeeping forces (led by Mireille Enos, who gets to reunite with her “Killing” co-star Kinnaman this season). A hasty attempt to bust Lee out of prison sets off a chain of events that tests the Happy Valley colony more than ever before, forcing the hands of both Earth and Mars as the colonists begin a sincere bid to overthrow their Terran masters and strike out on their own.
Meanwhile, the spirit of exploration that dominated previous seasons of “For All Mankind” lingers, as Ed’s daughter, Kelly (Cynthy Wu), and Helios CEO Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) begin a race to the next frontier: The moon of Titan, which might well be the first step in looking for new life in the universe. For all the domestic and, forgive me, terrestrial concerns that follow the show’s emphasis on Mars this season, it’s this eternal stretch further into the frontier that keeps the show’s bittersweet, humanistic idealism churning.
As always, the show’s far-flung environs manage to stay grounded in the personal and political wrinkles of our age; this season touches on everything from immigration (intergalactic refugees known as “Craters,” so called because they sneak inside supply crates) to the threat of automation to the endless fight for workers’ rights. Corporations fight amongst each other to be the first to reach Titan, all while competing governments squabble for the fate of Mars and the people living on it.
And all of these concerns are informed by a rapidly expanding and shifting cast of characters as expansive as they are endearing; this far into the future from the show’s alt-’60s remit, it’s astonishing that Wolpert and Nedivi are able to realistically keep some of its oldest characters around, while introducing new faces each season who fit seamlessly into the show’s ornate fabric. (Alongside Kinnaman, we also see series stalwart Wrenn Schmidt as the now-imprisoned Margo, still dispensing advice to Aleida about her Titan mission.) Enos and Sanchez stand out as some of the best new faces this season, and Ines Asserson excels as a young Earth marine with a chip on her shoulder related to some complicated characters from previous seasons. Even Kebbell’s Miles grows in prominence and passion as an everyday guy thrust into a leadership role by sheer entropy.
For all the elegantly rendered visual effects and meticulous NASA-core production design of the show, what wows most is the incredibly relatable human drama that plays out in between. The show’s third episode is a heartstopper, a moment of transition that feels like the end of an era, not just for the families who’ve poured multiple generations into this story (the Baldwins, the Stevenses, the Dales), but for all of humanity. Love, loss, maturation, all of these things play out in the brittle walls of spaceships and extraterrestrial habitats as strongly as they always have. While this review can’t speak to the final two episodes of the season, the first eight episodes elegantly set up a conclusion that should speak to the show’s interest in human endeavor at both the micro and macro levels.
At the end of the day, “For All Mankind” is a lush testament to humanity’s dogged desire to better itself, whether in individuals and communities finding the strength to build something where they stand, or in braving the unknown. With knowledge that this is the show’s penultimate season, and a Russian-set spinoff, “Star City,” is on its way, it’s tempting to hope that the whole series will stick the landing. No matter where it ends up, it’ll be worth the ride.
First eight episodes screened for review. New episodes air Fridays on Apple TV.
