The production values in this series are exceptional. The costumes and sets all look real. The action in space looks real. The oldies music is atmospheric fun. Everyone freaking smokes. And one of the coolest things this series does is intersperse real people and actual newscasts with fictional characters that, again, look totally real.
I'm sure there are websites out there that track who is real and who is not, and tell us what happened in real life versus what happens in the series, but I don't feel capable of doing that. Although I'll give links to relevant Wikipedia pages here and there. Feel free to add anything you like to the comments.
This review covers the first half of season one and includes spoilers!
1.1 Red Moon
"We stopped taking risks at NASA. And that's why we lost the moon."
The story begins with a lot of tense, angry Americans watching the first moon landing in June 1969. We don't realize at first that the reason why everyone is so tense and angry is because it's the Russians who are landing, scooping the Americans and Apollo 11 by only a month.
Our lead character is astronaut Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman), commander of Apollo 10, who should have been the first man on the moon because Apollo 10, supposedly the moon landing's "dress rehearsal," should have landed. (Ed Baldwin is a fictional character; John Young led the Apollo 10 mission.) Here, Ed gets into deep trouble by saying what he really thinks to a reporter. Can't do that.
For All Mankind is like a really good movie about the space program, except that in space program dramatizations, some of the angst is already sucked out because we already know the basic outlines of the most important events. In this series, though, literally anything can happen.
And it is so well done, so realistic, that I got sucked in from the beginning. When the Apollo 11 LEM didn't land as it was supposed to, I started getting really upset and worried that it would fail. I was also quite moved when Michael Collins, who was orbiting the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin were in the lander, disobeyed orders and refused to leave them behind. It was a genuine relief when communication resumed and we see the LEM a bit bent and broken, but Armstrong and Aldrin safely land on the moon.
The standouts here are Ed Baldwin and his wife Karen (Shantel VanSanten); Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) and Margo's mentor Wernher von Braun (Colm Feore) at Mission Control in Houston; and Deke Slayton (Chris Bauer), the former real life Mercury astronaut who was grounded by a heart condition. I also easily recognized Gene Krantz (Eric Ladin), real life flight director, Mission Control in Houston.
Our introduction to Margo Madison makes an impression: she is so ambitious and consumed by her job that she actually sleeps in a secret cot in her NASA office.
Season one also follows a teenage girl named Aleida Rosales, who crosses the border from Mexico into the United States in this episode, something of a parallel to humans crossing the border into space.
1.2 He Built the Saturn V
Wernher von Braun: "Progress is never free, Margo. There's always a cost."
It's September 1969, and the focus of the U.S. space program has changed to the "race for the base." The lunar base, that is.
Unhappily flying a desk at NASA, Ed Baldwin is considering transferring back to the Navy. I liked him staring at the wet leak in his bedroom ceiling, a transparent bit of symbolism for his unfortunate leak to the press about NASA no longer taking risks.
Because of his leak, Ed is brought in to Congress to testify about Apollo 11 and the Russians because one particular congressman is hoping for a nasty NASA exposé. When Ed won't play their game, Werner von Braun also testifies and is ambushed by devastating photos of Nazi concentration camps where his rockets were built, and questions about his role in Hitler's SS.
Thanks to her mentor/protegee relationship with von Braun, Margo Madison becomes the first woman in Mission Control. Sadly, the revelation about the concentration camps changes how she sees von Braun, and ruins their friendship.
The Soviets once again shake up the world when they put a female cosmonaut on the moon. It's not hyperbole to state that this is the second event that completely changes the space race.
Aleida's father gets a job as a janitor at Mission Control and he is worried about Aleida's dangerous preoccupation with fire.
1.3 Nixon's Women
"We're change in living color."
This is when I really started getting into this show.
The female cosmonaut on the moon and the lack of women in the U.S. space program is now a huge issue in our alternate timeline. Nixon wants an American woman on the moon and specifically, a blonde woman. An early choice is Tracy Stevens, astronaut Gordo Stevens' wife and a blonde. Tracy was a pilot when they met, but their marriage is in trouble; he's cheating on her and she knows it.
Twenty female ASCANs (astronaut candidates), including two from the early Mercury women's astronaut program, are chosen. Deke Slayton, head of the astronaut office and in charge, refuses to let female astronauts become simply a photo op and insists that they be trained like the men are. The male astronauts are mostly not accepting this. Letters from little girls all over the world, though, show excitement.
When it's down to five female ASCANs, they do a test flight of the LEM, and Patricia Doyle crashes and dies. Only four final female astronauts remain, see photo above: Ellen Waverly (Jodi Balfour), Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger), Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones) and Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), with the unfortunate Patricia Doyle (Cass Buggé) all the way on the right.
A big game changer is that the most recent photos suggest that there is ice on the moon, giving us the possibility of water, food, fuel.
Meanwhile, Ed's wife Karen gets involved but in a more traditional role for women: babysitting Tracy's two boys with her own son, Shane.
1.4 Prime Crew
Richard Nixon: "I like what I'm seeing on the news, Deke. Quite a show. Congratulations."
Deke Slayton: "Thank you, sir. I appreciate..."
Richard Nixon: "If the girl screws up, it's your ass."
This episode is mostly about the personal lives of the four women remaining in the program.
Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) thinks the crash that killed Patty is the end for female astronauts. Nixon is ready to pull the program (Molly is nearly right) but Deke, who let's remember is actually in charge, says no. Deke assigns Molly Cobb to Apollo 15 with Ed Baldwin and Frank Sedgewick. And drops Gordo Stevens.
"Women can't do what we do." Ed blames himself for Patty's death since he was training her. Ed also talks down to Molly.
Molly's husband is Wayne Cobb, something of a hippie artist. Ellen Waverly (Jodi Balfour) hangs out with a NASA flight guy named Larry Wilson (Nate Corddry) but she's actually seeing Pam the bartender at the Outpost. Margo Madison has something of a private life, too: she plays piano at a jazz club.
Aleida's dad sends her alone on a bus to Cape Kennedy to see the launch.
Probably my favorite quote from the first season:
Molly Cobb: (as Apollo 15 is about to liftoff) "Buncha people cheering for shit. I haven't done anything yet."
Ed Baldwin: "You did just strap your ass on top of a quarter million tons of high explosive for government pay. It's not smart, but it's something."
This episode ends on the way to the moon.
1.5 Into the Abyss
"How come everything's about her?"
Apollo 15 is now about finding ice for a new lunar base, and putting an American woman on the moon. Ed and Frank aren't thrilled that everything in the news is about Molly, but she does her job. And Ed disobeys Houston. He was upset in the pilot episode that NASA wasn't taking risks so when he's in command, he takes risks.
This is the point in the series where its biggest strength became truly apparent to me, and that is ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. It's a whole new space program and I love it and it's exciting. Deke Slayton in particular, the way he backs his crew when Ed changes the mission, I love it. As it turns out, Ed changing the landing site and Molly insisting on continuing down into Shackleton Crater to search for ice – again, a game changer for the space program. And a nail-biter. I kept expecting Molly to fail, to fall into the crater and die. Her courage and persistence – and Ed's support of her choices – wins the day.
Wayne, Molly's husband, is now treated like one of the astronaut wives; they all gather during missions to support each other. Wayne is honest about his gory nightmares and how terrified he is for Molly, but Karen doesn't want to hear it and even yells at him. Later, Karen has nightmares about Ed and even though she and Wayne are very different people, she connects with him. Meanwhile, on the moon, Ed and Molly confess to each other that they are not the best of spouses, putting their careers first.
Danielle's husband Clayton Poole returns from Vietnam, where he did not have fun. Danielle and Gordo, who have been assigned to Apollo 18, meet for drinks and Gordo picks a fight with Clay over the My Lai massacre.
The episode ends with a jump forward to Jamestone Base on the moon two years later: October 1973. My review of part two coming soon!
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
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