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

Joel's acting is so one-note and glacial at the moment, his fucking John Wayne drawl in this latest Ep is putting my teeth on edge

It’ll be interesting to see how the Russians deal with the elephant in the room. Are they going to hide Margo, only for it to become obvious that it’s her when some calculations or drawings were her work, or is she going to be sitting at a conference room table?

my guess is they will proudly display Margo - she's a trophy for Irina & the soviet state & it will throw Aleida off her game

it sure as hell would

Aleida thinks she's dead, right?

she definitely does, and it's a big part of her PTSD.

This episode was more like Bore All Mankind.

better ep, glad they finally cut Ed lose
#BYEbob

Ryan Atwood’s girlfriend being 40-something really makes me feel old.

huh?

The oil rig guy who goes to Mars, his wife is played by an actress last seen on the OC.

Ah! She only pops up now and then in a 5 second video call though, right?

Cmd+F "Ed Planet"

This show seems to be getting maybe a little ridiculous, probably not intentionally, but I think we're on board for it.

Indeed so many ridiculous things going on this season. But, shrug, it’s still an enjoyable show

Episode 2 is ridiculously unsubtle but I appreciated the ‘91 coup Swan Lake airing.

First few episodes of this season were kinda meh but I like the way it’s ramping back up now. am here for the ridiculousness

guessing Dev's endgame is to be King of Mars in a Silicon Valley Techno-Utopianism style (hence the scene with Danielle saying "this is my base and I'm in charge") but not sure how he gets there

With the guys all ready to unionize but then finding out theyre not even using Mars for the asteroid mining anymore, I'm waiting for the Mars riots, which ties in nicely with Babylon 5's history lol.

I’ve been binging this show over the last few weeks and have finally caught up to the latest episode. Fascinating to watch Ed evolve from heroic rogue to spiteful old man. Character traits that have been there all along have turned him into an absolutely loathsome crank.

I was trying in vain to figure out where Sergei’s scenes were supposed to take place. The license plates, road signs, and newspaper were all sort of correct but didn’t line up to a coherent answer. We’ll call it Anytown, Midwest

Well the diner is in Burbank if that helps, lol.

Burbank, Texas, whatever

I haven’t watched at all this season, is it starting to be worthwhile, is that what I am seeing?

This season doesn't have the lows of various Stevens brothers, but it also feels the most low-stakes of the four seasons so far. What stakes there are feel, more than usual, like they were baked in a writers' room. Even though it's the 2000s and there is a "President Gore" on the periphery of the story, the show has otherwise totally diverged from actual history and now it's basically just a sci-fi show.

slooooow going this week, hope all the setup pays off

I think the season as a whole is solid and very watchable, though "low-stakes" is accurate (so far?)

Syncing a Cat Power song and it’s not “Rockets” pshhhh

This season feels like a continual series of bottle episodes with the directors seemingly running out the clock. Perhaps another minute of screen time blown on Sergei deciding what to do at the I-35 onramp?

Was the budget for this episode blown completely on the orbital zoom-in on Korolev Crater?

Huge alternative history reveal in the new episode. Danielle says she plans to make her granddaughter watch “all three” Star Trek series, meaning that two spinoffs didn’t get made. Sorry Scott Bakula, I have to assume you’ve been erased.

the strike storyline* was lame

*if you can call 20 minutes a storyline

I was trying in vain to figure out where Sergei’s scenes were supposed to take place. The license plates, road signs, and newspaper were all sort of correct but didn’t line up to a coherent answer. We’ll call it Anytown, Midwest

Yeah, no doubt it was Cali-for-Iowa.

Sergei fate was predictable, but as for the show itself ... no idea where it will land this season. I do think Kelly's kid will be grown up and space-y in a future season. Maybe to honor his late grandad and, at this rate, maybe mom, too.

I'm holding out hope for a bonkers "there's an underground Mars civilization of living rocks" finale and Trekkie Cmdr Danielle recognizes them as Horta, then Ronald Moore steps from behind the curtain, clapping slowly, "you passed my test, not just for yourselves but...

...FOR ALL MANKIND"

sure, why not

Does the next season start as Ed and Less-Annoying Elon Musk finish up their prison sentences?

This season blew, apart from Margo, it was impossible to give a shit about any of the characters, or who got the stupid asteroid. So many boring, underlit grey sets, I felt like I was mired in the middle of season 3 of Battlestar Galactica.

An insult to Galactica! (On my recent rewatch, knowing what was coming the decline wasn’t as sharp as I remembered.)

Aleida > Margo > Dev > Eli > Irina > Asteroid > Dani > Ed > Miles > Kelly > have already forgotten the other characters

The plot structure in the finale was odd, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was interesting but things that you'd expect to be pivotal points were undercut by other points: Dani gets shot and almost dies but is fine, Aleida/Margo sabotage the mission but (I think?) it didn't matter anyway because of the override thing on Ranger. Plot also didn't make much sense ("I am totally guilty of entering the code despite not being anywhere near a computer, you'll have to take me at my word and there is no possible way to check") but I can live with that.

In the end this season was worse than s3. Last season had some dumb characters but this season the plot was so cluttered and they ultimately didn’t fully embrace Ed’s treasonous turn. The fact that other characters suddenly switched at the end to agreeing with him was lame. Like, he was absolutely not the hero and was not right about anything he did. But in the end he basically got what he wanted and didn’t really suffer any consequences. (Also, was his daughter/grandson even in the final episode? I’ve already forgotten, but in any case they were due for a real confrontation, especially over the way he turned his grandson into an accomplice. But it never came. No one ever truly challenged how ego-blind he became this season.)

^agree. The Stevens kids sucked but S3 was otherwise pretty good. This season had so many plot holes, dead ends, failures to deliver consequences (like how are Ed and Dev not sent back to earth and put in jail for stealing the asteroid??), and the stupid fake out with Dani. It’s too bad because there are so many potentially interesting storylines within the alternate timeline they created. Sometimes they hit upon one (like role of private businesses in space, striking grunts on Mars, treason vs progress FAM) but they get drowned out by the stupid plot lines.

just caught up. this season has been nothing but discarding consequences for some pretty egregious actions, again and again, over and over, despite the cost of lives, injury to others, multiple murder and sabotage attempts. on and on. I can't even figure out how Ed has been allowed to roam free this entire season, let alone comprehend all the ridiculous plot holes they've ignored and serious suspensions of disbelief they have demanded. Even for a sci-fi show.

So you guys are confirming my decision to bail without watching any of it?

Like for one thing I always felt Ed worked best as a foil for someone else, be it Gordo, Karen or Molly. Ed untethered, Ed unbound, not nearly as interesting.

He might have worked in this season had his character had a clear or consistent motivation. Greed? Rebellion? King of Mars? Shaky-hand stoner? Pride? Self-destruction? All of the above?

We chuckled a lot during this episode, for the wrong reasons, but my favorite might have been Ed sneering at Dani something like "you're still tied to that little blue planet!" and she immediately responds "of course I am!" Because what the fuck is there for anyone on Mars?

So Dani is still a good character at least?

She pretty solid in the first half of the season and then gets jerked around by the plot

Ugh. Sounds bad.

Cancel this and devote the CGI resources to an adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy.

^^^^

Cancel this, go back in time and give us another season of ROME.