For All Mankind Season 5 Review

For All Mankind (2019-2027)

Season 5 - 10 episodes (2026)
Rent For All Mankind on Amazon Video (paid link)
Created by: Ronald D. Moore, Ben Nedivi, Matt Wolpert
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Toby Kebbell, Mireille Enos, Edi Gathegi, Cynthy Wu,  Coral Peña, Costa Ronin, Sean Kaufman, Ruby Cruz, Wrenn Schmidt, Ines Asserson
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer

Plot
In an alternative version of 1969, the Soviet Union beats the United States to the Moon, and the space race continues on for decades with still grander challenges and goals.

Season 5 takes place in 2012. The Mars base has expanded to house thousands. Mars wants independence from Earth and their "Earth first" policies, while Helios explores farther into space.

Verdict
I'm continually impressed by the scale and scope of the show, but this season's story follows the familiar beat of a colony seeking independence. There are fewer big 'space' moments as interstellar exploration is less important. Those missions always provided the season with a drive and destination. I love this show, and due to that this season is absolutely worth watching, but the season by itself isn't as strong as prior seasons.
It depends.

Review
I love this show. While the first season of For All Mankind begins in the 70s, each season jumps ahead a decade. We're now in the 2010s. Changing one small event, has a ripple effect on the world. The series has been renewed for a sixth and final season set to premier in 2027. Star City (2026) is a spin-off series that portrays the space race from the Soviet Union's perspective, starting in the 70s.

In season 4, Earth’s governments wanted to redirect the lucrative Goldilocks asteroid into Earth’s orbit for easier mining. Mars wants to claim it to cement the planet as a viable colony. Helios runs the Mars colony, but the grueling conditions and empty promises lead to a riot. Margot Madison took the fall for Mars 'stealing' the asteroid, with Ed and Dev's help.

E1

The first episode provides a quick summary of the last ten years. Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) was found guilty in absentia for the theft of the asteroid. James Bragg becomes the 43rd president, serving two terms. He wants to stop funneling money to the Moon and Mars since he claims Earth gets nothing in return. Jay-Z and John Lennon perform at the Grammys. The Montreal Expos relocate to Portland. The introduction for each season is a lot of fun, showing us a world that never happened.

Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) is in prison now. She was a pioneer in NASA as the first woman on Mission Control. She committed treason, went into hiding, helped steer the asteroid to Mars, lost immunity, and ended up in an American prison.
Ed Baldwin is still kicking around, now over eighty years old. He's had more than his share of adventures, being one of the original astronauts that launched into space and now living on Mars. His grandson Alex (Sean Kaufman), the first baby on Mars, graduates.
Last season we saw the commodification of Mars. Now we see it's been commercialized. Domino's Pizza has a store and Blockbuster is looking to open a location. Miles (Toby Kebbell) went from bootlegger to business man with a restaurant. He's in an independence group with Ed. They want representation and an equal say on what happens on the planet. The plot of the season kicks off when Alex finds a dead body while exploring the surface. It's soon ruled murder.

Jung-Gil (C.S. Lee) is arrested for the murder. Why? He was the first human on Mars, and he was instrumental in securing the asteroid. Ed manages to get into the holding cell and talk to Jung-Gil, discovering the government on Mars, M-6, wants to take Jung-Gil back to Earth for trial. Ed's not going to let that happen.

M-6 officer Celia Boyd (Mireille Enos) doesn't buy the story about Jung-Gil. She starts her own investigation. That leads to Helios competitor Kuragin. They got the contract for a space elevator, but their undertaking suspicious surface explorations that are prohibited. Boyd witnesses a shipment at the space elevator and everyone at Kuragin denies it. We know she's going to keep looking and that will be trouble.

E3: Mireille Enos plays Celia Boyd

After organic compounds are detected on Saturn's moon Titan, Ed Baldwin's daughter Kelly (Cynthy Wu) argues for a manned mission, and she wants to be on that team. If Helios doesn't send a team, Kuragin will. Kuragin announces their launch days ahead of Helios. Are they spying? How do they know so much? Aleida (Coral Peña) flies to Mars to assist the Titan mission. She's the CEO of Helios, formerly at NASA, while Dev (Edi Gathegi) is the company's creator. They decide to pull an old ship out of storage to speed up their launch date.

Meanwhile Dev hires Alex to work at Helios. He gets special treatment, as Dev doesn't adhere to convention or decorum. It seems a bit too easy that Alex stumbles upon this automation file, especially being so new. Either way he uses Mile's daughter Lily (Ruby Cruz) to leak the information that Helios plans to make Mars almost completely automated and ship everyone back to Earth. Dev either knew or was directly behind it. He wants to cut costs to fund his utopian city. Dev criticizes Alex for leaking the information, citing selfishness. Alex retorts Dev is the one that's being selfish, which is true. It's a wild conversation considering the disparity between the two of them. Dev knows what he did. Is this dialog for people that aren't paying attention? Dev wants his vision built, and he doesn't care how. If he ships everyone off, who will live in his perfect city?

In episode four we're introduced to Avery Jarrett (Ines Asserson). She's a Marine interviewing for a spot in a group exploring off planet. She's the daughter of Danny Stevens who caused a catastrophic mining disaster in season three.

This season isn't as good as prior seasons. I like the ideas, but some of the writing leaves a bit to be desired.

I like the dichotomy between Miles and Lily. He's asking her to reveal who gave her the document, and she refuses. Miles gave in to pressure more than once during his time on Mars. He claims it was to protect his family, but it's more fear. The Mars inhabitants grow restless with the governor enacting a curfew to reduce tension. It doesn't work. While the base cops enforce it, I don't buy it. The cops live on Mars too. This automation plan affects them. They wouldn't blindly follow orders at this point. Where's the nuance? Tensions boil over in episode six when the independent group takes the governor hostage. It's an ill-formed plan, but they realize the real way to get what they want is to stop iridium shipments back to Earth. U.S. President Bragg speaks on behalf of M-6 and states Mars will be completely cut off, and that's the start of the stand off. Can Mars be self sufficient? It's time to find out.

Six months later and neither side has conceded. The few remaining cops are conducting hit and run raids on the independent group. The Kuragin group, which launched first, experiences a tragedy. Earlier in the season there was a question about whether their calculations were based on accurate information. It seems they were not. Helios doesn't want their mission to face the same fate. Kelly wants to continue, the mission commander wants to abort.

E3: Cynthy Wu plays Kelly Baldwin

I understand the Alex and Lily romance. It's the new generation on Mars, but it seems so unimportant when there's an active hostage situation. It seems part of that was just to make a dome breach more dramatic. Dev was the one that ordered that attack. He wants to break the dissenters and end the standoff so he can build his city. While he didn't mean to hurt anyone, you can't separate that from his actions.
In a parallel story Kelly in essence sabotage's the Titan mission to force the ship to continue to Titan. That's a breach of trust, though the ship successfully enters Titan's atmosphere and it's easily the biggest moment of the season. I just don't like how this uses Kelly to set it up. Later the commander Walt thinks he screwed up. We and Kelly know he didn't, and it's just manufactured drama.

In episode eight a military ship with Jarrett is en route to Mars to take it back Every time we see Earth talk about Mars, it's always with a bias describing them as terrorists or radicals when they're not. The independents don't want to be forced off their home. To counteract the Marines, Mars plans to destroy a docking platform so the ship can't land. That situation spirals out of control.

By episode nine the Marines have breached the compound. They immediately start killing inhabitants. I wondered if their orders were to take the base and kill all locals. It seems like it. This could be the end of the Mars colony. Miles sets up a choke point to attack the Marines. I get why, but what good is going to come of this? There are too many dead on both sides for either of them to forgive. Even then, Mars needs supplies. They aren't self-sufficient. Alex and Jarrett get a moment together to talk about the war and show us how there is common ground. While M-6 finally orders a ceasefire, I'd have to think tensions would still be quite high.

The Titan mission finds life, but they also find other issues from personnel to transport.  It's a nice final episode, though my opinion is swayed by prior seasons. Season 1 was great, but season 2 and 3 were even better. Season 4 was a step down, and this season isn't bad but it never had the drive and focus of prior seasons. I wouldn't hold this show in such high esteem if I had only seen this season. It's coasting.