I come in peace... three times a night -- FOR ALL MANKIND (Apple TV Plus)

can you re-state it in a less oblique way? sorry to be dim but idgi

Sorry I was obfuscating. Just feel like the characters aren't just stranded in their fate in the alternate timeline past. There is some bit of self-awareness in them under the uptightness. Which seems to have been done pretty carefully, so they seem both of their time but more up to date as well. I imagine this becomes more apparent later, I am only in the episode after "Hi, Bob." Don't know if I have explained any better this time around, sorry.

Maybe I just don’t watch enough tv these days and every show already does a good job of avoid this trap 🪤 I imagined while I was suffering from space isolation

Or, to paraphrase what I think JM said on this thread or maybe it was the other, I came for the tech fetish but stayed for the characters.

Okay, maybe I didn't want to go there, but I am especially relating to some of the stuff about being married and being a parent, the way it is handled.

the parenting / marriage stuff is so good, and it just gets more impressive/affecting/devastating as it goes

i know Moore only had a hand in writing a few episodes but careerwise his strength as a show runner & writer has always been his ability find the humanity in characters over beating you over the head w tech/concept

the writers are never so locked into the era/concept that they ever deny a character’s ability to respond like a human person

it’s a really underrated quality

i bawled my damn eyes out over s2e3, let alone s1 — will need tear duct surgery soon if they keep it up

Roger, VG, you are go on that TMI.

Showing the consequences on the characters' personal lives is a strong theme, and I think it's handled very well. Sci-fi as a genre doesn't have the best track record with it either

Watching this episode now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clvrPmTx4n4

Also wanted to say it was driving me crazy wondering who that actor was until I saw in the credits it was James Urbaniak.

So my ickiness at Tracy ogling Danny gets doubled down on in s2e7 when Danny kisses Karen.

Just you wait

Just finished S1. Now to see what this S2 is all about.

I get the impression that the creators of this show definitely watched Halt and Catch Fire. And it’s not just the parallel Gordons.

Just you wait

Hah ikr. Also, s2e8: THAT ENDING. OMFG talk about nightmare fuel.

S2E1 was kind of big adjustment for me but now getting into it

yeah its weird getting used to seeing Ed wuth a few extra pounds & riding a desk

I get the impression that the creators of this show definitely watched Halt and Catch Fire.

Another show I completely adored

wow yeah the gordos are definitely of a piece

Love this show, I feel one of the connections with Halt & Catch Fire is (for me) unfortunate and that's being a bit bashed over the head with seemingly unconnected period music, HEY it's the SIXTIES! Sitars!!! Jumping Jack Flash!!

Although that one Petula Clark song they chose was rad.

yeah some of the music cues have been kinda dumb

can’t remember which ep it was but early in season 1 i got in an argument w mr veg about a better song choice for one of the cues & he was basically like “why are u like this” lol

I would speculate that it could be because they're mixed way up and positioned in this slightly obnoxious, Good Morning Vietnam sorta fashion.

Fully expected Gimme Shelter to appear at some stage (well, S1 EP9), it's like the Helvetica of period film music.

love to hear what John Lennon would have thought about a moonbase

iirc that's what the song "Jealous Guy" is about

I didn’t get the burn right
And made you miss
The TLI

I didn’t want to burn fuel
Until the LOI

Finished S2. Generally, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as S1, for the more bureaucratic orientation of the action, which was nearly all backloaded into the final 2-3 episodes, while all the melodramatic swerves were a little overwrought (the whole Karen/Danny thing was -_-). Even in episode 9, the maneuvering to set up the climactic finale felt heavy-handed, with some very unsubtle foreshadowing that made all the military characters seem like trigger-happy idiots, where every problem has a gun/missile solution. BUT -- jeeeeezis that finale turns things around. I'm not sure I buy Ed's sudden turnaround to fire on Sea Dragon, but the Stevenses? Right in the feels. However, the reveal that Sergei is being forced to try to turn Margo felt heavy-handed too, but I think that's my intense desire for a happy (or more accurately speaking bittersweet) ending.

Okay, settling into S2. Agree about some of the musical (mis)cues I guess, but it doesn't really bother me that much for the most part.

Lking some of the incidental original music though. Just heard some nice Philip Glass-style strings that seem to occur quite often, during an important discussion at the Baldwin house.

S2 Gordo reminds me of C or D: Emitt Rhodes?

The period music thing feels a little more toned down in S2.

yeah def

I feel like the cliche is that 70s period music lends gravitas, whereas 80s music does the opposite. I'm sure there are many counter examples to that (The Americans had a few), but that's my general impression as someone that watches way too much TV

I mean that across all TV/movies, not this one specifically, but might explain why they would use less period music in S2

It’s just the LOI, watch out
It’s just the LOI, look out, babe
It’s just the LOI

S2E6Loving this discussion about Laika over what seems to be a Ramones song I can’t hear loud enough to identify

Also liked Tracy talking to Deke’s memorial/burial site

.

Made it to the end of S2.

My reaction roughly similar to Leee’s, perhaps I will have more to say later

What to watch next after this, The Patriot?

Also I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but still am at all the completely convincing non-Americans in the cast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OGzlpkH74

Kinnaman’s father was from the US and he spent some high school time here so even though he grew up mostly in Sweden he naturally speaks with American accent, but Jodi Balfour is from South Africa, Michael Dorman is from New Zealand and Sonya Walger (not in the video) is basically British, born in London to an Argentine father, although she is now a US citizen.

Wrenn Schmidt is from South Carolina so she comes by her accent pretty naturally, although I’d guess she amps it up for the character.

Patriot is a black comedy, very different show, but Michael Dorman is also great in that. Halt and Catch Fire has some parallels to FAM (computer pioneers rather than space pioneers, takes place over different time periods, with heavy focus on their personal lives) but no alternate history, basically. I know Man in the High Castle IS another alternate history show but I haven't seen it

I don’t want to admit how far into this show I was and the sense of loss I felt when I got to the end of S2. Except maybe others like VG and JM already said something similar, I think.

Even though I nearly stopped watching when Margo was getting ready to go to work to the tune of "Rockit"

Man In High Castle is great (but also can be maddening & make you want to throw your tv out the window at times).

The Imposter is another good alternative reality show (on prime)

Right around when you start reaching for things to throw at the TV.

So speak of the devil, it turns out someone in my family just started this, so I popped in and watched an episode from the first season with them. Boy, it's just such a clever, well-executed conceit, packed with surprises due the way it tweaks and subverts expectations. I guess it was inevitable it couldn't keep the concept going, but those first couple of seasons ...

OTM

not sure much happened but moving pieces into place I guess

we have baldwin and stevens scions rolling into the last holdout together, at least

I’ve enjoyed the last few episodes a lot more than early S5, at least they’re doing some space stuff again!

I ended up watching the rest of S1, and even knowing/remembering much of what comes next, it stood up as great television, especially watching with someone that was seeing it for the first time.

Also, it was kind of wild to see so much set up as early as the first season, even if I didn't like where the show ultimately went with it all.

Oh, and I had no idea there was a spin-off. Is that out yet? The Soviet-focused one?

Not yet - May 29 iirc

Feel like FAM always has just enough there to keep me watching it, but talk about a show that doesn't play to its strengths anymore. Bland lead characters, and so much emphasis on soap opera stuff. You're on Mars, people! Do we have to focus on whether these two teenagers will hook up? (I did enjoy the finale though.)

Finished this thinking it was the last ever only to see that they've now renewed for another season rmde. I didn't really get what the tease at the end was indicating (other than to remind people to watch Star City I guess?).

yeah same, nashwan. before I go look it up, my guess was that spacecraft are all automated in 2020?

looks it up

lol, I'm completely wrong. Mars-94, the ship we see at the end, was the Russian ship they had to abandon in S3 because the ship was becoming radioactive. I saw a theory that the ship had some wake-up code that has now been enabled after years of floating through space

Gave up on this season but the first ep of Star City is promising. Quite grim.

Looking forward to S6 continuation of
- Farming redemption arc
- Protomolecule Kelly
- Alien franchise crossover
- More descendants of S1 characters doing more of the things

Star City rules? Go/no-go for a new thread?

Yeah I wasn't sure if the spinoff needed its own thread or not!

Ok I did one:

Two cosmonauts for every boy: STAR CITY on Apple+

My daughter cruised through season 1 and 2, which means I got to rewatch lots of it. Holds up! But I kept thinking, as various characters were introduced, about all the future plot dumbassery. And indeed, watching an episode from S3, maybe mid season, I kept seeing certain characters and just groaning (to myself). Oh yeah, this asshole. Oh yeah, this stupid subplot. Oh yeah, this is why S3 and S4 suck.

Yeah once Margot got shipped off to Moscow the show kinda lost its way, I feel.

...shipped off to jail, that should say! I think I'm conflating this and The Americans lol.

Yeah we’re crawling thru S5 and there’s so few anchors, acting-wise or even character-wise. So that plaid shirt Miles guy from s4 is still one of our heroes? Spare me.