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AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
12,686
10,518
Austin, TX
Early reviews of this may be the most positive of any of the shows on Apple TV+
Rotten Tomatoes:87%
Metacritic: 65%

Discuss here!

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Huntn

macrumors Core
May 5, 2008
23,546
26,661
The Misty Mountains
First impression, a The Man in The High Castle scenario? Looked it up, alternste reality, yes:

Looking back at history, one can easily say that the last century was one of the most tumultuous times in history. Two wars that totally broke the spirit of humanity, the Great Depression that broke the economy, and the Cold War that lead to the breaking of the Soviet Union- the list goes on and on. And honestly, I can’t say that the mess has been cleared. One of the results of the Cold War was the Space Race. Because they couldn’t declare active war against each other, America and Russia busied themselves at beating the other party in all sorts of latent competition. This upcoming sci-fi drama explores an alternate reality of the timeline where “the space race never ended”.

I’d have to know more to offer an opinion. Speaking of TMITHC, that starts in 2 weeks. :) I’m not sure how worthy that will be at this point.
 
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KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,166
8,047
What’s more interesting to me is real life. Both the US and USSR made reckless moves in the desire to be “first” to the moon. The USSR was “first” with everything before and after us except landing a human on the moon (indeed, they sent a woman to space first, which “For All Mankind” envisions Nixon embracing). We haven’t been back to the moon since the risk/reward ratio just isn’t there. China is likely to be the first to Mars, which might rekindle our own space program.
 
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lantree

macrumors member
Jul 22, 2010
85
136
Watched the first two episodes for free then instantly hit the subscribe button.
If Apple keep this quality up there on to a winner for me anyway.

For the show itself, so much risk just for bragging rights of getting there first.
 

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
12,686
10,518
Austin, TX
This show is my favorite of the current batch I think. The pilot was excellent. Blurs the line between historical fiction and alternate timeline masterfully.
 
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KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,166
8,047
I haven’t seen an episode yet, but do want to know to what extent the writers are trying to impose 2019 values in a fictional 1969. It’s plausible that the Soviets could have beaten us to the moon (another Apollo 1 and it would have happened). It isn’t plausible in 1969 that we’d be as fluid in our view of gender roles as we are today, for example. Mad Men struck the right balance.
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I haven’t seen an episode yet, but do want to know to what extent the writers are trying to impose 2019 values in a fictional 1969. It’s plausible that the Soviets could have beaten us to the moon (another Apollo 1 and it would have happened). It isn’t plausible in 1969 that we’d be as fluid in our view of gender roles as we are today, for example. Mad Men struck the right balance.
One strike against “For All Mankind” is that we know that the USSR basically abandoned the goal of going to the moon after we got there first. They did other things, such as send the first woman to space, and indeed today we rely on Russian spacecraft to visit the ISS that was our idea to begin with. But I suspect that we’d also have abandoned the moon visit if we were beaten to it. Maybe we’d have prioritized Mars, or maybe we’d have just focused on our superiority in consumer goods.
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What’s more interesting to me is real life. Both the US and USSR made reckless moves in the desire to be “first” to the moon. The USSR was “first” with everything before and after us except landing a human on the moon (indeed, they sent a woman to space first, which “For All Mankind” envisions Nixon embracing). We haven’t been back to the moon since the risk/reward ratio just isn’t there. China is likely to be the first to Mars, which might rekindle our own space program.

I think Buzz Aldrin told a story about how they couldn’t get the lunar Module to fire up after their moon landing, and how he saved the day (and left Nixon’s pre-written obituary in the dustbin of history) because he used a Bic pen to fire up the engine.
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Burebista

macrumors regular
Oct 8, 2019
221
231
The best show in the launch line-up. I’m a bit bothered though by the constant hammering with all the political agenda. All that diversity matters, women rights, bad privileged white males etc. It’s in every show. Dickinson, The Morning Show, and here too. Give me a break, Tim.
 

AustinIllini

macrumors G5
Original poster
Oct 20, 2011
12,686
10,518
Austin, TX
The best show in the launch line-up. I’m a bit bothered though by the constant hammering with all the political agenda. All that diversity matters, women rights, bad privileged white males etc. It’s in every show. Dickinson, The Morning Show, and here too. Give me a break, Tim.
Best advice: Stop being so sensitive. TIA
 

Burebista

macrumors regular
Oct 8, 2019
221
231
It’s plausible that the Soviets could have beaten us to the moon

Resources allocated to the soviet moon program were 1/10 of those of Apollo’s, at best. In addition, the N1 rocket was a failure of a design which doomed the whole project. After Korolev’s death all went to **** in the soviet space industry, simultaneously with the beginning of the economic stagnation by the end of the 60s. While I understand why many people in the US might consider it a viable possibility, in reality there was never a chance of USSR winning the moon race. Such a tremendously complex task was just beyond the capabilities of highly ineffective, planned socialist economy.
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Fun fact: after loosing the Moon race, soviet propaganda explained to the population that unlike the capitalists we don’t risk people’s lives, we will explore with robots aka automatic vehicles. And indeed some successful projects came of it, such as the Lunokhod moon rover in the 70s as well as some missions to Venus.
 
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Cryates

macrumors 68040
Nov 19, 2013
3,312
5,209
I really felt like the pilot was terrific. Excited to see where this goes.
 
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unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
The best show in the launch line-up. I’m a bit bothered though by the constant hammering with all the political agenda. All that diversity matters, women rights, bad privileged white males etc. It’s in every show. Dickinson, The Morning Show, and here too. Give me a break, Tim.

Agreed. Looks like the next level of shoving stuff down people's throat. At the same time they made Werner Von Braun a positive character; the guy was a Nazi war criminal, he only got off scot-free because of his rocketry prowess.
 
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Xenden

macrumors 6502
Jun 14, 2013
265
385
Rio Rancho, NM
Agreed. Looks like the next level of shoving stuff down people's throat. At the same time they made Werner Von Braun a positive character; the guy was a Nazi war criminal, he only got off scot-free because of his rocketry prowess.

It isn’t a fun thing to admit, but the horrors that the NAZI’s commuted against people help us understand a lot about the extremes that the body can endure. The nazi’s were meticulous record keepers and helearned a lot.

Operation Paperclip was a very hypocritical this that the US did. I’m glad we did it though. We advanced science and made sure that the knowledge didn’t fall into enemy hands.


The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.

This is a famous quote from Von Braun made. To me, this is an amazingly sad quote. His life’s work was a success, yet it turned essentially into ash in his mouth.

Very Sad.
 

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Agreed. Looks like the next level of shoving stuff down people's throat. At the same time they made Werner Von Braun a positive character; the guy was a Nazi war criminal, he only got off scot-free because of his rocketry prowess.

How about giving people a chance to change and turn their lives around for good?

"We came in peace for all Mankind..."
 
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canyonblue737

macrumors 68020
Jan 10, 2005
2,182
2,697
I see that Apple only lists this show for language... do you all feel it is content appropriate for 11-14 year olds? My wife and I enjoy all kinds of material and we've enjoyed both See and The Morning Show but we would love to share For All Mankind with our kids... we mainly want to avoid nudity or heavily sexual content with them. Thanks...
 

Xenden

macrumors 6502
Jun 14, 2013
265
385
Rio Rancho, NM
Um, one sighted person could not build that bridge across that river. It would take many, working together on both sides. Apparently the blind with such heightened awareness of sound, couldn't hear anyone building that bridge that would have taken weeks, and then maintaining it, as bridges made of ropes and wood generally need to be replaced every year or 2 because the weather would ruin the ropes and destroy the wood. Also, no way the blind could build a wall of boulders on a side of a cliff, that they could use to mow down their enemy. They also weren't always making noises when they were fighting. Swinging weapons all over the place, they would be likely to kill their own people. How did the guy know that when he threw the rope up over the cliff that he would put it around the rope of his enemy and not over his own people? There is absolutely no chance of this scenario ever occurring. If blind humans over the past 200,000 years could not develop such abilities, they surely would not over a short amount of time. This show defies all logic, and if there is not even the slightest possibility of this occurring, then it's not even science fiction, it's a farce.

I’d be okay with letting 11-14 year olds watch the show.

There is cursing, drinking, a little bit of sexual innuendo. The worst scene, from a sex stand point is when one of the astronauts gets called by his wife at a hotel during a business trip. There is a woman(either a hooker or a one night stand) in bed with him. She does have clothes on (bra and panties).

You could skip the scene. The next scene is the wife throwing the husband stuff on the lawn. Just tell the kids that the husband was unfaithful and leave it at that.

The biggest problem I see with letting kids watch this show is that it might confuse them.

Just be sure to point out what parts of the show are true and which are fiction.
Some of the fiction is easy to point out, like the USSR landing on the moon. Harder things to point out are things like Apollo 11 didn’t have a rough landing. But, Armstrong did freak out ground control because he went like 30 secs longer to land than expected, so NASA was worried that the craft would have a very hard landing.

The show blends fact and fiction together so well that it could screw up their understanding of history.

Worth watching though.
 

Wackery

Cancelled
Feb 1, 2015
1,342
1,571
out of all the apple tv+ shows, it's probably my favourite.
But that's not saying much.
 

unclemax

macrumors 6502
Sep 25, 2015
289
247
Did you watch more than the first episode? He doesn't end up looking very good ...

No, I only watched the free episodes for this and "See".

How about giving people a chance to change and turn their lives around for good?

"We came in peace for all Mankind..."

I am all for giving people another chance if they are sincere about it. But regarding Von Braun, I am not sure he has ever repented. For all I know, he did what he did for his ego, in which case I see no reason to worship him, i.e. it's purely transactional. He even might have held to his Aryan supremacy beliefs, who knows? – not a stretch of imagination given the situation in the pre-civil right era South and the fact that he essentially was competing against the Nazis' arch-enemy – Soviets.
 
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AgentElliot007

macrumors 6502a
Mar 22, 2010
575
363
First impression, a The Man in The High Castle scenario? Looked it up, alternste reality, yes:

Looking back at history, one can easily say that the last century was one of the most tumultuous times in history. Two wars that totally broke the spirit of humanity, the Great Depression that broke the economy, and the Cold War that lead to the breaking of the Soviet Union- the list goes on and on. And honestly, I can’t say that the mess has been cleared. One of the results of the Cold War was the Space Race. Because they couldn’t declare active war against each other, America and Russia busied themselves at beating the other party in all sorts of latent competition. This upcoming sci-fi drama explores an alternate reality of the timeline where “the space race never ended”.

I’d have to know more to offer an opinion. Speaking of TMITHC, that starts in 2 weeks. :) I’m not sure how worthy that will be at this point.

Man in the High Castle is exactly what came to mind as I started watching this, both in terms of story and the oftentimes painful writing/direction. How is this the best show so far? I so want to love this as I love Apollo-era history and I’ll probably be in for the long haul if only for that, but goodnight, some of this dialogue is so stunted. Many of the actors aren’t helping, and the direction could certainly be better, but the writing is what it is. I don’t want to throw my Apple TV remote at the TV as often as I did with Man in the High Castle and it’s cast of utterly and completely hollow characters at least, so there’s that. But it’s early. Let’s hope they actually flesh some characters worth caring about out of this as time goes on.
 
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