For All Mankind (2019) — 14 Community Reviews — scrobble.life

Reviews

Longform community posts about this title

✎ Write a review

For All Mankind (2019): Brave New World - S05E08 - RECAP75@skiptvads10d1 view

Source

Finally finally, things start to blow and get really dangerous enough that nobody can hide behind speeches about freedom or survival, there are no excuses, there are no politics or words that can fix the mess that is happening and I love that kind of chaos, but that same danger makes the SDM Council rough to support without real concerns to be honest. I get why Miles and the rest agree with Lee that the Kuznetsov docking platform has to go, the M6 force is only three days out, Happy Valley barely has food left and the Council is betting President Korzhenko is close enough to being removed that a new Soviet government could make a deal with Mars if they buy some time. There is not much room to go here so it obvious their choices are terrible because the situation is terrible but that does not make a fertilizer bomb a smart move. Blowing up the platform might slow the M6 down, but it fixes nothing, not the food, not the soldiers, not Earth ever accepting an independent Mars, it could just hand the M6 an excuse to treat Happy Valley like terrorists, it could prove their theory without having to explain it and give them real motives to stop the chaos. That is why I liked the Mars drama we got on this episode even when I was not fully on board with the Council. Miles can call the plan necessary and Boyd can warn the soldiers seconds before it goes off but Ruiz still dies, and good intentions do not erase that the people fighting for Mars just caused a death while trying to protect their home.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Miles feels like more of a real leader here because he listens, pushes Irina on what she is not telling him and makes the call when waiting is just not an option anymore, but I am not fully sold on the political plan underneath it. Irina and Polivanov argue the embargo has put the American and Soviet economies in free fall and President Korzhenko is close to losing power, and a new Soviet government might cut a deal that weakens or ends the M6 response, that gives Miles a reason to hold out and gives Polivanov a personal reason since his own future and family are tied to the government changing. The problem is Happy Valley cannot wait on Earth politics, the colony is short on food, the soldiers are close and the Council is trusting people who worked against them not long ago. I get why Miles is right about having to question Irina, but its just obvious and almost look like he is force to proceed with his plan without having much control over, cant even call it a plan, so it was expected that blowing up the platform could easily make things worse before any new Soviet leader ever shows up. Here Miles got more control without having to pretend to be this seasoned expert politician and it still makes clear that being decisive is not the same as being right, as his growing reputation worries a bit, because Gerardo still treats him like the same guy who protected everyone back in 2003 and Miles still has not told anyone the truth about giving up Ghost Ops under interrogation, which Palmer knows, and that alone could wreck the trust he needs right now to keep on going.

Boyd and the new Happy Valley Corps make the Council decision feel even more uncomfortable because the show is basically giving us what Mars wants to become while its leaders sign off on more violence. Boyd tells the new officers straight up that they are there to protect people, not abuse their authority and I like her in that role because she is not just throwing the word independence around, she is actually trying to build a police force that runs different from the one that used to control Happy Valley. The other factor in place here is that Alex jumps in as a medic given how uncomfortable he seems around violence, even though Boyd still makes him go through weapons training anyway. That matters because Mars wants to be kinder now, but everybody knows a fight is coming and kindness alone will not stop it. Lily is helping in a different way after Gulsora dies, recording the people of Mars so Earth sees them as workers and families instead of one group of insurgents, but it feels small next to everything happening around her, a documentary and a song will not undo how easy the explosion at Kuznetsov could be for the M6 to use against them. The show is building a kind of shared identity for Mars and then the Council hands its enemies exactly the kind of event that could wipe out all the work Lily and Boyd have done in one news report, and I believe that is not a flaw on the script, mostly sounds totally intentional to show off how it is the whole reason their cause feels more serious now.

Everything going on at Titan is pretty clear although its a bit complex to care about, mainly because Walt is tearing himself up over the failed return burn because he thinks it was his mistake, while Kelly knows she is the one who changed the programming and still will not tell him. I get why she stays quiet admitting it could get her in trouble and split a crew already stranded far from where they planned to land, but watching Walt blame himself makes Kelly look worse the longer she waits. He ends up temporarily handing command to her because he no longer trusts his own judgment which should be a massive shift for the crew, but the episode moves on quick to a possible life site outside their safe travel range, with Walt still needed since he actually knows Titan. Kelly taking control makes sense based on the recent events and makes her the acting commander, even when she might feel guilty on the inside, but it does not feel settled, she has command because Walt believes he failed, not because the crew knows the truth and chose her. The episode loses force giving this scenes less room to expand and let it sink in or potentially giving her enough time to screw up, while Mars deals with an actual attack, this could have been moments with way more weight to uncover Kelly but fine, probably they saving it for latter. The search for life is a big deal too and Kelly gets a nice speech that gives Happy Valley a rare moment of pride but the Titan conflict feels paused instead of developed. Walt handing over command is not a solution, it just puts Kelly in a stronger spot while in reality things are just getting worst.

The ending is where episode proves the Council did not really win anything at all, even though the bomb takes out the docking platform exactly as planned. Boyd and Polivanov get to Kuznetsov believing the M6 recon team is still two hours away, set the bomb and find out too late that M6 soldiers are already inside. Boyd tries to warn them, which matters because it shows killing soldiers was never the goal but there is no time left and Ruiz pushes Avery away from the blast and ends up dying after debris tears through his helmet. Avery survives but her reaction says it all and this is more personal instead of strategic, she had to be destroyed from the inside looking at that scene, she was already scared whatever damage runs in her family might be inside her too and Ruiz had just gotten her believing she could make different choices, but it doesnt matter anymore. Now her first real mission near Mars ends with him dead because the people she was sent to stop just blew up the station. That is a terrible spot for someone already scared of losing control of herself and it means the M6 could show up even angrier, with proof of an attack and a dead sergeant to justify hitting back even harder. The Council bought itself some time, but it might have made negotiation almost impossible, and for me that is why this episode works really well as continuation of recent events getting prepare for the last two, it keeps the Mars fight easy to follow and shows how desperate they are that it doesnt look like anyone is thinking straight anymore as people are starting to die, and it leaves both sides more scared of each other and with even less reason to trust each other. Mars independence has become this dream and does sound like what had happen before in history, during similar situations where there is people fighting for land, independence, a home, but the people actually fighting for it keep creating consequences they might not be able to walk back.

#forallmankind, #bravenewworld, #mars, #titan, #independence, #resistance, #council, #miles, #avery, #ruiz, #kelly, #walt, #boyd, #irina, #polivanov, #aleida, #happyvalley, #kuznetsov, #m6, #helios, #explosion, #freedom, #conflict, #television, #recap

Rating: 75/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Permalink·Open on PeakD ↗·Posted on scrobble.life

Comments

No comments yet — be the first.

13 more reviews

›For All Mankind (2019): The Sirens of Titan - S05E07 - RECAP80@skiptvads11d1 view
Source

The slow grind keeps going, for me has been Cape Fear and FOMK S05, they both good in their own ways its just that I fall behind with other stuff in real life but dont want to stop half way, but finally this is the episod I felt makes the Mars situation and the Titan mission feel like part of the same story, even though they leave you with two very different feelings. Dev and Kelly both decide they already know what has to happen and both go around everyone else to make it happen, the difference is Dev leaves people dead and hurt while Kelly gets the result she wanted, so one of them looks like a monster and the other a hero and I do not think the show should let that difference settle who was actually right to keep the spice going. Dev clearly crosses a line but Kelly also puts the entire crew at risk once Walt already gave the order to turn back, she just gets away with it because it works out. The landing gives Happy Valley one good moment after months of shortages and people wanting to leave and I like that the episode does not pretend reaching Titan fixes anything or rebuilds the six domes that just got destroyed. The celebration is real but the disaster is still sitting there once the everyone just stops cheering or caring, not sure, but what I want now is for the next episode to judge these two on what they did, not just how it turned out.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
Rottentomatoes Rating

Source

Dev is a lot harder to defend now because this was not an accident caused by Palmer losing control in the field, Palmer straight up says the attack followed the plan Dev signed off. The point was to wipe out crops and food storage so the Sons and Daughters of Mars would finally give up and just typing that out says enough about how far Dev has let himself go, he cant cut a supply line because they produce their own so it was basically blow up their crops so they starve, plain and simple, thats fucking terrorism. He already knows Happy Valley is barely holding on, aid is getting cut, food is rationed, equipment keeps failing and spare parts are running out, and instead of treating that as a sign the colony needs a political solution he makes things even harder for everyone living there. Six domes get taken out, one person dies, seven more get hurt and two are critical, and the food supply drops from about two months down to two weeks, that is not pressure meant to force a negotiation, it is an attack on the same people Dev claims he is trying to save from a cause he thinks is doomed. His reaction after does not help either, he asks if Alex was there and Palmer cannot even answer him, all he gets confirmed is a young woman is dead and he still backed the plan to torch the food supply, even with the domes intact those people were looking at starvation. Dev seems upset because it got personal not because he realizes the plan itself was wrong, and that makes his guilt feel late and weak, so much stupidity coming out of someone so smart.

Source

Source

The human cost is what keeps the Mars side from turning into another council room argument, while Alex is celebrating his birthday with Lily and their friends right when the domes get hit and the show turns a normal little party into the clearest proof that Dev has lost touch with the people he is supposedly fighting for. That party is kind of silly on its own but it matters because these are young people trying to have a life while the adults fight over who controls Mars, this seems to be a world where people still go out and have fun, thats what the party is mostly about, but then one of them is dead and others are badly hurt because Dev wanted to break the will of the rebellion. I liked that the episode does not let the politics stay clean at all, the council has to deal with the dead, the injured, the food that is gone and more people saying they want to go back to Earth, truth is that who wants to be there anymore with how tight is food and the danger that it represents with this kind of attacks. Aleida joins that group because the Titan mission is wrapping up and her family is back home, and her decision shows how weak this independence push has gotten after six months, the early unity is gone, the money system is falling apart and the regular workers keep getting told to accept less while the people in charge keep insisting they will never surrender. It seems to be just Miles who still believes giving up would destroy everything they fought for, but the entire situation is choaking him leaving him out of room and having to face a situation that not the best speech can fix, people are dying, Dev did not create every shortage but he turned a bad situation into one that might not be survivable.

Source

Source

Kelly gets the more exciting half of the episode and I get why the landing feels like such a big win once the Kosmos 1 crew is already dead, their attempt at Titan fails because of a bad calculation that pulls them toward Saturn instead and Sojourner stays on the radio with them until the signal cuts out for good. That gives Walt a real reason to cancel the landing and turn back to Mars and even if he does not like Kelly and made that call fast, but it means choosing not to repeat the same disaster, that does not mean he has become a coward, its just better to recognize failure before its too late. For the most part I think Kelly will not accept it because she keeps thinking about she honestly regret her father after he did not land on the moon when he had the chance and I get why that history matters to her, it follow Ed the entire series and cause more than one accident but none of that gives her the right to change the mission without telling the crew. She overrides the order and forces Sojourner toward Titan anyway, dragging everyone on board into a decision none of them made and the fact that it works out does not make the method okay, it is the same story repeating again, Ed got lucky a few times until he wasnt. If the ship had failed she would be responsible for putting that crew in danger against a direct order, but because they land safely everyone gets to celebrate while the argument about what she did vanished. Not to throw her under the bus but would be nice if the show puts more attention to what she did, Walt needs to find out what she did and Kelly should have to explain why her own fear of regret mattered more than the crew getting a say in risking their lives.

This honestly was such a good episode because it reminds me a lot to Ed, and the landing still works as a moment with tons on impact on the series because Miles understands what Happy Valley needs from it, he pushes Aleida to broadcast the mission audio across the whole base since the ship and the people flying it came out of work done on Mars and that pulls both sides of the conflict into the same moment whether they like it or not. Dev, Palmer, the council, the governor and the regular workers all end up listening because the landing belongs to the colony even while the colony cannot agree on anything else, and I liked that more than a straight celebration on the ship would have been. It gives Mars something good without pretending the political fight is close to be over or forgoten for a minute, after that its all back to regular business, everyone at Happy Valley gets proof their work means something but nobody walks away with more food, spare parts or a real path toward independence. Dev and Kelly both believe they know better than the people around them and one choice ends with someone dead while the other ends with people cheering, but both came from been walking a thin line before becoming wreck less thats for certain. This is one of the stronger episodes of the season for me because it gives these characters a win and a disaster at once and leaves the consequences sitting there waiting from everyone to drop a gear and come back to reality at the final episodes, the landing is worth celebrating, it just cannot make anyone forget who got hurt, who got ignored and who still has to answer for what happened.

#forallmankind, #television, #tvreview, #episodereview, #seasonfive, #mars, #titan, #happyvalley, #kelly, #dev, #palmer, #aleida, #miles, #alex, #lily, #sojourner, #space, #sciencefiction, #scifi, #colony, #independence, #sabotage, #landing, #astronauts, #spaceseries

Rating: 80/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Quick takes

Short comments left when logging a watch

@skiptvads·10d75

Mars independence has become this dream and does sound like what had happen before in history, during similar situations where there is people fighting for land, independence, a home, but the people actually fighting for it keep creating consequences they might not be able to walk back.

@skiptvads·11d80

This is one of the stronger episodes of the season for me because it gives these characters a win and a disaster at once and leaves the consequences sitting there waiting from everyone to drop a gear and come back to reality at the final episodes, the landing is worth celebrating, it just cannot make anyone forget who got hurt, who got ignored and who still has to answer for what happened.

@skiptvads·17d75

I was never bored watching it and the handful of choices they put out worked for me, its a lot to process, especially Boyd refusing to hand over those weapons and Aleida taking charge of the practical stuff inside MOCC while everyone else argued, but by the end I felt the same way I felt through most of the hour, this episode does the job of setting up something bigger, it does not fully deliver on the crisis already happening.

›For All Mankind (2019): No Sudden Moves - S05E06 - RECAP75@skiptvads17d

Source

I have been pushing on this one lately and now Im past half way of this season, its actually getting better and Episode 6 kept the same momentum as Episode 5 because the crisis on Mars finally has more than one side capable of making a terrible decision, but I still think the episode holds back too much when it should let the damage feel immediate. The people inside MOCC control Happy Valley and a handful of hostages, but they do not really have a plan beyond stopping automation and protecting the life they built there, which tracks after a violent protest, like what else you going to do besides taking control of the place? I mean its not worth killing anyone, thats not how things going to get sort out, this is not a ransome. I like that the show does not suddenly turn them into skilled leaders because they took a building, Gerardo can take control of a room but it is Miles who gets that threats alone will not keep anyone alive, anger pushed these people into action but anger cannot run a base, protect hostages or make Earth listen. I got to mention that the episode spends so much time moving groups around the board that it doesnt really show how all this violence is starting to affect them, people got killed and hurt, the base is damaged, and everyone is stuck inside a political fight that can get worse fast, but the episode plays calm about it. I get why, the characters need time to figure out what comes next, but the result feels more like preparation, giving the season direction without giving this chapter enough weight to make a difference or be that important to the story.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Boyd is the best part of the episode because she refuses to pick a side and trust it blindly, so she helps Miles get into MOCC and works with peacekeepers who stopped backing Palmer, but she will not hand the hidden weapons to the protesters because their anger makes sense to her. She knows those guns could stop Palmer from taking full control, but Gerardo has no real plan for using them and handing weapons to scared, divided people makes everything worse and can backfire very quick. That keeps the protesters from becoming another armed group and gives the episode one person thinking past the next five minutes. Miles gets better once he is inside MOCC, he sees that keeping workers tied up and treating everyone like an enemy only proves Earth right about who they are, so he pushes for something more reasonable. He is useful without becoming some perfect leader, he is still taking a big risk and his history with the peacekeepers could be used against him later. His idea to stop the iridium shipments is smart, it gives Mars leverage without hurting hostages, but it is dangerous since Earth can cut off the food, medicine and equipment that keeps Happy Valley alive, and that risk becomes real the second Bragg answers with his own embargo, then Miles basically end up giving Mars something real to bargain with but he also gives Earth a reason to use force instead of talking, as they go everything they do just push closer and closer for Earth to choose violence.

Aleida brings the common sense here, she understands winning MOCC means nothing if the systems fail and everyone dies anyway. She walks in knowing the protesters might not let her leave and makes clear the workers need to get back to their jobs and keep the fusion systems under control, no matter how anyone feels about the takeover. She cuts through the noise fast, she is not there to back Gerardo or defend the governor, she is there because Happy Valley cannot run on anger and the Titan crew needs real information about what happened, which makes her way more useful that on the people in the room, she realize someone has to make some sense and keep the show running. On the other hand Dev situation is a lot more complicated, his first instinct is worrying about Alex, but separating from security feels careless since everyone already blames him for the automation mess so he is a target and can get in hot water real quick. There is in fact an attack on him but it happens so fast it feels more like a way to force Dev to change than a moment that makes any impact to the story. He comes back beaten up and orders the Helios doors locked, and that is the part I care about, Dev has spent years talking about a future for people on Mars and now those same people see him as the guy trying to cut them out of it, the truth is that he has always been blind by his ego, yes he has done some genious stuff in the past because cant denied that but, you live long enough to watch your hero become the villain. Locking the doors could be a safety call or the first sign he no longer trusts the workers he claims to support, I am not sure and the episode ends before Dev explains what this really means.

Finally Earth cutting everyone off is effective, but it does makes the conflict bigger, but it also shows the episode needed more time with the people caught in the middle. Bragg refuses to negotiate and cuts off supplies to Mars, punishing the whole settlement for what a small group inside MOCC did and while that makes sense politically once the governor announces the iridium shipments are stopping, it is still reckless. Happy Valley has families, injured people, workers who never joined the takeover and kids who had zero say in any of it. The embargo gives the season a real threat to build toward but the episode barely takes the time to develop what that means before something new comes up. The scenes with Avery and Marcus hint that military action is coming as expected, their training is prepping them for it and Marcus admits he liked the friends he made up there even though the planet never won him over. Avery telling Marcus that Danny Stevens was her biological father adds more weight to the idea of her being sent to Mars, after all her father caused the drilling disaster there and later died on the planet, but I wish the episode spent more time showing how she or Marcus feels about possibly being sent against people they know, they have gone through a lot and got some skin in the game. The Alex and Lily stuff is sweet but small next to everything else, and Lee coming back is interesting but so sudden it feels inserted by convinience or to fill up some space, they might save something for later and might matter when we get there, but right now it adds to the feeling everyone is being pushed toward the next crisis instead of the one already happening.

I like the direction this season is heading more than I like this episode, honestly I dont know how the episode starts a bit exciting because finally we were getting some chaos with more than one side but its like they pull the brakes. The politics finally make sense and nobody in this fight has a clean way out, like the protesters cannot surrender without risking punishment and losing their homes, Earth cannot give in without handing Mars real political power, and Dev cannot keep acting like the guy building a better future while the workers think his plan is to replace them, we have come to a path with multiple directions almost like the episode needs to choose and but there is no right answer. Boyd still has to figure out what she does with those weapons if Palmer tries to retake MOCC and the Titan crew gets pulled in because the people they care about are stuck at Happy Valley. That gives the rest of the season plenty to work with and the best part is one bad choice can blow up into a problem for everyone, so I think this episode needed to be more than a bridge between the riot and whatever Earth does next, the attack on Dev needed more room, more chaos, the embargo needed more reaction from the people who will suffer and the peacekeeper split needed more attention since that could decide who controls the base. Instead the episode gives every problem enough time to point at the future before moving on, almost like in some way the script is falling into a "what if this, what if that" but nothing really concrete happens that moves or takes a clear desision, nobody wants to be the one that pulls the trigger, yes there is preassure form all sides but still noone has the upper hand or a desisive win of this battle. I was never bored watching it and the handful of choices they put out worked for me, its a lot to process, especially Boyd refusing to hand over those weapons and Aleida taking charge of the practical stuff inside MOCC while everyone else argued, but by the end I felt the same way I felt through most of the hour, this episode does the job of setting up something bigger, it does not fully deliver on the crisis already happening.

#forallmankind, #nosuddenmoves, #mars, #happyvalley, #television, #tvreview, #episodereview, #recap, #apple, #scifi, #space, #iridium, #boyd, #miles, #dev, #aleida, #avery, #marcus, #alex, #lily, #helios, #moxy, #embargo, #protest, #politics

Rating: 75/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Permalink·Open on PeakD ↗·Posted on scrobble.life

›For All Mankind (2019) : Svoboda - S05E05 - RECAP75@skiptvads18d

Source

Svoboda is a decent episode but it makes season five feel stuck, the biggest fight right now is still who controls Mars and who gets to call it home, because for anyone that is not management it starting to feel like a false promise. The automation leak should blow things open, people learn about a plan that could replace almost every worker, remove families from Happy Valley and hand the planets future to companies and governments that do not live there, that didnt risk their lifes to build up a place and call it home, this is a big problem, which is reason enough for the protests to turn angry. Even thought it sounds exciting, I do have a problem with this entire argument, because still feels too close to something this show already did, again workers feel like temporary labor to Earth, leaders make the calls without them and a security force shows up once the anger gets inconvenient, doesnt sound like anything revolutionary and sounds more like recicle material. I get why the people of Mars are furious, but the episode puts everybody on the same side, losing some of the difficulty it could have had, this could be a way more complex problem than what the show is giving us. Palmer thinks humans do not belong on Mars and treats the planet like a temporary assignment, while the protesters say Mars is their home, that difference is the interesting part, but the episode does not spend enough time on it before the conflict becomes a riot. The Ed Baldwin shrine damage is another reminder the same fight is going on and the Titan trip gets one quick update, keeping the season stuck in Happy Valley when it should be opening up into new topics, although it starting to feel like this is getting closer to the end of the season and series as they closing in next year with Season 6. For me there still lot more to go as Im only half of this season, its been a slow griding but a satisfying one.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

[Source](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0T4H1LBWTF004I0FVWT4MXHNLS)

The situation with Dev gives the episode a better argument since it finally makes him answer for the automation plan, though I wanted the show to push him further, at the same time Aleida finds out he knew about the plan and kept it from her because he knew she would fight it and thats not some small disagreement between the two people running Helios, it shows Dev makes huge choices alone and expects everyone else to protect the company once the truth comes out, this has been since Helios and Dev were introduce to the story, basically also why he got kicked out in the past and then bounce back. Alex calling him out works very well for the episode because he will not let the talk stay on speed or efficiency or the dream of Meru City, he asks what Dev keeps dodging, who is this city even for if the people already on Mars get removed to build it. Dev talks about automation as the fast way to get Meru built and make Mars self sufficient, but never says where these new people come from or why current residents should accept getting pushed aside. Alex quitting Helios is the right call, staying would make his anger look empty and it shows how much respect he has lost for Dev. The scene cuts off right when the disagreement gets good though, Dev is never shown wanting Mars to fail, he believes he is building its future, which should make this conflict harder than just a rich guy ignoring his workers, and this episode gets close to that harder conversation and moves on before Dev has to explain why his dream deserves more protection than the lives already there.

[Source](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0T4H1LBWTF004I0FVWT4MXHNLS)

[Source](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0T4H1LBWTF004I0FVWT4MXHNLS)

Irina is the strongest character stuff in this episode by far, her return is threatening without needing to overexplain what she can do. The Soviet prison stuff shows the punishment did not touch the part of her that understands fear and leverage, she gets through the abuse, uses a broken tooth to talk through the pipes, digs up something to use against the guy holding her, and comes out the other side without ever looking beat, but for me what matters the most is she did not come out of it softer or more careful, she came out ready to use those same skills again and Mars just happens to give her a new place to do it. Her conversation with Aleida works the same way, she only has to ask about Margo and it brings their entire history back, such a thick topic to touch on, and Aleida knows immediately it is not friendly. I also like how fast Irina reads Governor Polivanov, he tries to meet people and ask where they are from, but the answer is always just Mars, because he still does not get that Happy Valley stopped being a work site long ago. Instead of learning from that, he listens the second Irina tells him to shut the protests down, which makes him look weak, not scared, just without his own answer for what Mars should become. His wife leaves, Irina steps into that spot beside him and the order that follows makes everything worse almost instantly. This episode gives so much damn context to Star City (2026), specially about Irina story, on next Star City Season we will start to see how her character evolves into turning Star City into a prequel of the other side of the coin.

[Source](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0T4H1LBWTF004I0FVWT4MXHNLS)

[Source](https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0T4H1LBWTF004I0FVWT4MXHNLS)

Then we got Celia who is still easy to root for but her investigation is the most predictable part of this episode. Fred has looked shady for too long, so finding out he was involved in Yoons death, helped cover it up, attacked Celia and had Palmer protecting the secret does not change the story much. That scene also lets him explain too much at once, admitting the death was not planned, admitting the cover up and dropping that the corruption goes all the way up to Palmer, answering a bunch of questions without any of it surprising you. What still works is Celia herself because she has spent the season trying to do her job right while everyone keeps telling her to stop asking questions and now she knows the people giving those orders are tied directly to the crime she was investigating, which should change everything about how she sees the peacekeepers. Instead she puts the riot gear on anyway and I am still not sure what other choice she thinks she has here, maybe she is trying to stop more people from getting hurt, or maybe she just has not had time to process what she learned yet, either way that uncertainty is what saves the moment for me because it gives her an actual problem instead of some clean heroic decision. I just wish the reveal was not so obvious though, because Celia deserves a discovery that actually changes where her investigation is heading instead of one that just confirms what the episode was already pointing at the whole time.

The riot does give this episode a strong ending and that action side that was missing, controling a riot in such space does turn things more dangerous, even if it does not fix the bigger problem I have with the episode but still makes it interesting. The curfew and the order to clear the protest is what turns a tense crowd into open violence and Palmer clearly cares more about control than about why these people are even out there in the first place. Alex is right there helping lead the Mars is ours chant, Miles jumps into the fight the second he sees Lily in danger, the peacekeepers end up falling back, and the crowd pushes toward the command center where the governor is holed up, all of it happening fast, messy and ugly enough that it is going to matter for the next episode, episode 5 ends up with enough cliffhanger to make you want to watch the next one. Miles is not jumping in because he agrees with the protesters, he is acting because his daughter is getting hurt, which ties back to that same family pressure that has been following him around the entire episode, as a matter of fact the entire series, its the reason why he got to Mars in the first place. My problem is the riot is still just the expected result of every decision made before it making the entire action scene just too predictable, Irina pushes force, Polivanov goes along with it, Palmer wants his crackdown, the residents refuse to leave, so there was barely any room for this to end any other way, and the violence ends up feeling like confirmation instead of an actual surprise. Thats where episode 5 leaves me at the halfway point of season five, watchable, with strong scenes from Irina and Alex, an ending that creates real danger but still an extension of last season. Mars is angry again, Earth still treats the colony like property and the same people are deciding its future from behind secure doors. I want the show to move past whether Mars belongs to the people living there and start showing what they would build with real control over it.

#forallmankind, #svoboda, #apple, #appletv, #television, #tvreview, #episodereview, #seasonfive, #mars, #happyvalley, #irina, #aleida, #dev, #alex, #celia, #fred, #palmer, #miles, #lily, #automation, #protest, #riot, #sciencefiction, #scifi, #skiptvads

Rating: 75/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Permalink·Open on PeakD ↗·Posted on scrobble.life

›For All Mankind (2019) : Open Source - S05E04 - RECAP80@skiptvads21d2 views

Source

Open Source finally gives this season a problem big enough to hit everybody on Mars at once and thats why it works so much better than another hour built around one secret or one argument between just too many people as we have seen on other episodes. Ed is gone now and the episode gives that some real space without turning the whole hour into one long goodbye, it wont be easy as everything use to turn around him and besides the series only has one season left since they closing with Season 6. Kelly and Alex go through what he left behind while the people of Happy Valley throw together their own memorial after the officials refuse to give him one and that tells you everything about how different the officials and the people actually living there saw the guy, Ed is an icon and that cant be taken away from him even after he is dead. To them he wasnt just some criminal tied to the Goldilocks theft, he was part of the reason their whole home exists in the first place and that sets the tone for the rest of the episode, where those same people find out their place on Mars might not even be permanent. The show keeps moving instead of milking his death over and over, which was the right call, I still felt his absence but the season does not act like it cant go on without him, it takes that loss and uses it to push Alex into stepping up, and by the end he makes a choice that could change things for pretty much everyone around him.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
Platform: {{PLATFORM}}

Rottentomatoes Rating

Alex gets the most out of this new direction because for once he has something to do besides being Eds grandson or Kellys son, his first job at Helios looks ordinary and I liked that Kelly tells him everybody has to start somewhere even with the Baldwin, its better this way so it doesnt provide the impression he is getting hand overs. Dev pulls him into the Meru City project fast, but the conversation shows that Alex is very competent, he looks at this perfectly designed city and tells Dev a real home cannot feel completely planned out, people need room to change things and make it theirs. Dev does not brush him off, he asks Alex to figure out how to make it affordable instead of just handing him an easy job. There is that uncertainty feeling that doesnt go far from Dev and that is what keeps me hooked, he seems really serious about building a permanent city for real people instead of a work camp for mining, but that does not prove he is innocent about the automation plan, it just gives the episode a reason to hold the answer back. If Dev knows almost every worker could get replaced then Meru might be a city built for the handful he picked and if he does not know then people inside Helios made a massive call without him, either way his reaction to the leak does not settle which one it is. That puts some spice in this situation because he wants Mars to become something bigger but also likes control more than he likes being questioned.

The automation proposal is the core of everything right now and makes a strong case for the episodes because it turns some hidden plan into a direct threat against basically everybody in Happy Valley. Alex finds a restricted document laying out replacing up to 98 percent of commercial work on Mars over five years, with most workers expected to get shipped back to Earth and even if this was only a proposal it is still awful to even know the thought exist already in paper. A lot of these people didnt go there just for a short contract, they built real lives on Mars and Alex is proof of that himself since the planet basically made him who he is, so going back to Earth is not some simple thing for him. Basically the plan treats people like equipment, something you swap out the second a cheaper option comes along and thats why this leak can change things drastically if the public finds out too early and they front run it, there could be a strike but I doubt it would have any impact since in fact what the plan wants is to replace human labor as much as possible, plain simple. I liked that Lily refuses to assume Dev can be trusted just because Alex knows him, taking the file straight to him could give the company time to bury it. Leaking it means everybody finds out at once, but it also puts Alex and Lily in danger since their involvement is not hard to trace and the episode does not explain much the impact and risk that much, and thats fine since why giving up all of it at once. Still the final reactions show the information reaching workers, security, Helios leadership and the governor all at once, and that gives the season a real reason for people to be angry, because almost everybody now has a reason to fear losing their place if this plan moves forward.

The Avery part is quieter and at first I was not sold on her introduction because an angry young recruit with a troubled famous father is an easy character to understand. She joins the off planet force and keeps trying to separate herself from Danny Stevens, even though she is still carrying years of anger toward him but it feels the episode leans hard on that connection, creating a bridge betweer her last name and the fear that she could make the same mistakes he did, but does help a lot that the script do not drag this out for the season before letting Avery talk about it. Danielle tells her that joining for the wrong reasons could put her on the same path as Danny, so she makes Avery see that building her life around proving she is nothing like him still means he is controlling every choice she makes. I like that Danielle is the person who has this talk with her. She knew Danny, made some painful decisions about him on Mars, and stayed close enough to his family that Avery listens to her. Avery returns to the interview and gets accepted after being honest, giving her somewhere to go beyond being angry, and getting this obvious part of her story out of the way early gives her a chance to become more than another Stevens who cannot escape the family name.

During the episodes there are a lot of split pieces that point toward one bigger question about who Mars is actually for, because it starting to look like it was never intended for humas who where looking for a new start. Kelly leaving on the Titan mission represents that older dream of going farther and finding something new, and her time with Aleida gives the episode some warmth before they split up again, their friendship make sense because they can disagree about Helios decisions without pretending it never happened. Aleida shows up ready to confront Dev only to find out he already agrees the company is not working right, which shows how little control either one of them has over the business they run. Aleida cares about getting the Titan mission done while Dev stays locked in on Meru and that leaves room for other people to make choices that could affect the whole planet. Irina showing up in the incoming delegation gives another reason to suspect this plan comes from people way above the regular workers and it does seem like a smart choice becuase that keeps part of the secret and does to explain everything at once, the secret is not private anymore, Alex and Lily basically handed Happy Valley something that could unite them faster than any speech or memorial. I do not know if Dev is going to stand with them, defend Helios or just protect his own city plan, and thats the question that keeps me wanting to continue watching. I have mention before that this season for me has been a slow grind mostly because sometimes Im just too tired after work and in real life stuff to watch content everyday so I have to make the most when I can, but this season is starting to get spicy that keeps me watching. There are still sections that feel less urgent, specially the Avery stuff on Earth but the ending gives everything a much clearer direction than before. For the first time Mars does not feel like a place where separate problems just exist next to each other, it feels like a home where the people living there might finally be done taking orders from anyone who treats them as some temporary population that is about to be ship back to Earth, just with a good job medal when they once where offer a new start.

#forallmankind, #opensource, #mars, #happyvalley, #alexbaldwin, #devayes, #aleidarosales, #kellybaldwin, #averystevens, #daniellepoole, #helios, #automation, #workers, #rebellion, #space, #scifi, #television, #recap, #review, #titan, #merucity, #legacy, #future, #colony, #streaming

Rating: 80/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Permalink·Open on PeakD ↗·Posted on scrobble.life

›For All Mankind (2019): Home - S05E03 - RECAP80@skiptvads25d1 view

Source

This one feels like going up a long hill and every episode is a stop, not in the bad way but its just that between work, the cold and irl stuff, I havent had the time to keep watching, last night I did one episode and realize "Backrooms (2026)" just drop so tonight I might have to make space to watch it and not another For All Mankind Episode. Still yesterday I went home ealry and decided to keep going, only for Mars to blow apart after Ed flew Lee to the ISN base, but the episode pulls back and lets the consequences spread through Happy Valley instead. News reports call Lee the first man on Mars charged with its first homicide, the Sons and Daughters of Mars get labeled a radical group, the governor pushes Palmer to restore order and honestly this all starts feeling like a colony choosing sides, this series really shows you we cant escape the reality from Earth and might not be able to start a "new world" since human behavior remains the same. Then Kelly learns from Dima that Eds cancer has spread and that he refused radiation therapy, and that changes everything for the rest of the episode. Alex hears enough to understand his grandfather is dying, disappears instead of answering Kelly and leaves her handling Ed while she searches for her son. This episode cares more about what happens after the rescue than giving us another chase. Ed is stuck in medical care, Kelly is trying to save him, Alex is avoiding a painful goodbye, and Palmer is slowly taking control of the colony. I expected fire and a full uprising, instead I got an old man refusing to give up his final choices while the world outside starts losing its own freedom, its kinda sad and a let down at the same time, after all Ed has been the center of this series for so long and I got a personal attachment to it since its the one that show me how good Appletv quality is, but I would still agree that switch worked because one family crisis can feel bigger than an entire planet when the time is running out.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/
Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

The Baldwin's as usually easily the strongest part of the episode, starting with Kelly pushing treatment after Dima explains the cancer and Ed making it clear he never wanted her managing his remaining day, you cant tell a guy like him how to go about his last days alive, just doesnt work with Ed. Kelly sees refusing care as giving up, Ed sees the hospital bed as losing control so its a clash as both have different perspectives of what caring for Ed is. Alex handles it differently, riding his bike and ignoring messages until Dev finds him and hears his fear that he disappointed Ed. Then Dev talks about losing his own father young and asks what people want to do with the time they have left and that gets Alex moving. The payoff at Ilyas bar is damn good, Ed sits there in a hospital, chooses Love Me Tender, pours Alex a shot, then raises a glass to Karen, turning one small drink into a family memory that nothing else on space can replace. Kelly and Alex stop trying to drag him back to medical care and take him to his room instead and Alex stays beside him this time while Kelly follows Eds advice and goes to inspect Sojourner One for the Titan mission. None of it needs a speech, the bar, the shot and Kelly walking toward that old ship say enough on their own, for an episode surrounded by arrests and murder accusations, the best scene is still three people sharing a drink because they know there may not be another chance.

Aleida and Margo bring back the engineering side of For All Mankind and their Titan work does feel like the same as Ed pushing Kelly and Alex toward whatever comes after him. Things kinda spike up when a rival mission plans to reach Titan before Helios, Aleida visits Margo in prison, and Margo proposes rebuilding Sojourner One after roughly twenty years on Mars, though the ship needs serious work Aleida cannot supervise from Earth. Margo pushes her to delegate at Helios and go to Mars herself, even joking that she has only made good decisions while sitting in prison and the joke works because their regular visits already show how much remains between them, I really love what they have done with Margo character through all this seasons, both phisically and as how her character has growth, almost same as Ed refuse to die. Aleida admits Margo should be leading the work, but Margo knows the trip belongs to the engineer who can still leave the room and touch the ship. Their goodbye hurts because Aleida is not just accepting a Mars assignment, she is leaving the person who helped shape her career behind. Later Margo returns to her cell, puts on her headphones and watches time pass while Aleida prepares to rebuild the machine that could carry people toward Titan, one handed an impossible problem, the other left with a wall and a clock. It connects with Kelly inspecting Sojourner after leaving Ed too, the same old ship becoming where two women choose work while facing personal loss and this episode remembers that rockets are never only machines, they are also how mentors pass work forward when time is almost gone.

The episode was pretty good for me, specially after been a while without watching, but I got an issue with Boyd and Miles get squeezed between the Baldwin scenes, even though both situation might deserved more weight. Boyd keeps asking whether Lee killed anyone and brings Kuragins unrecorded night work to Palmer again, only to get reminded her bad call on Earth ended with an officer getting shot. Palmer uses that mistake to shut her down, but Boyd cannot leave it alone with the illegal work and murder victim pointing toward hidden cargo. She heads into the sublevels alone, questions a worker who saw the fight and asks what Kuragin was moving inside those crates, until someone knocks her out after she follows him around a corner. She then wakes in medical care, talks with Fred about Mars giving people another start, then learns Palmer put her on six weeks of leave and the episode barely gives her a moment to react to losing the thing that gave her new start meaning. Miles has the same problem after Lily gets arrested for painting Free Mars across the governor's and he begs Palmer not to damage her future before college. Palmer wants cooperation in return, Lily gets released and her friends see Miles shaking his hand before anyone explains why, Lily refusing to treat it like a lesson while Miles thinks protecting his daughter matters more than looking clean to people fighting authority, so I get both of them, which is why their choices deserved more room to breathe.

The episodes handles Eds so well, even though it center about him finally hitting and end I feel like the episode did a lot and handle it just as good with enough importance as it should, it works because everyone finally accepts that they cannot hold on to everything, especially after an episode with so many other stories fighting for space. His Korean War memories are not there just to fill in another part of his past. Seeing the young Ed injured behind enemy lines, saved by Shane Barnhill and then unable to save Shane in return, explains why helping Lee matters so much to him now. Ed has carried that failure for most of his life and getting Lee safely across the line feels like the closest he will ever come to making peace with it, and I think that is why the final scene does not need a loud medical emergency or a long goodbye speech. Alex comes back and stays beside him, while Kelly leaves to inspect Sojourner and continue toward Titan, which is exactly what Ed wants her to do. He gets his family close without asking them to stop living for him and that makes the goodbye hit harder than something more dramatic probably would have. The rest of the episode is still busy setting up what comes next, with Boyd continuing to dig while Palmer closes in, Miles accepting a dirty bargain for Lily, Aleida stepping into the position Margo cannot take and Margo still searching for one last answer. Some of those stories feel rushed, especially Boyd and Miles, and I expected the episode to spend more time on the growing conflict inside the colony. Still the episode finds its emotional center whenever it looks back at Ed. The bar scene, the connection between Shane and Lee, Alex coming back and Ed pushing Kelly toward Titan give the episode a sense of closure without making everything feel finished. I give episode three an 8/10, it is definetly crowded in places but the quiet Baldwin goodbye is some of the strongest part so far for the season.

#forallmankind, #forallmankindseason5, #forallmankindreview, #homeepisode, #edbaldwin, #kellybaldwin, #alexbaldwin, #aleidarosales, #margomadison, #devayesa, #milesdale, #lilydale, #pkboyd, #palmer, #sojournerone, #titanmission, #happyvalley, #marscolony, #marspolitics, #appletv, #scifiseries, #tvreview, #episodereview, #spacedrama, #season5

Rating: 80/100

Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.

Permalink·Open on PeakD ↗·Posted on scrobble.life