For All Mankind season 3: Come As You Are (to Mars)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > For All Mankind season 3: Come As You Are (to Mars)

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bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

mr. unhsib posted:

God this show. Killing off Thatcher. Fat Margo. I love it.

I about died laughing when that popped up, love how much this show just leans into it

# ¿ Jun 11, 2022 05:07

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 14:10

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Handsome Ralph posted:

That and not loading everyone into a shuttle as a precaution instead of waiting and seeing how the EVAs went.

Even just getting everyone to the center of the ring station would be a sufficient precaution while awaiting the EVAs. They'd be safe from increasing gravity and also already in position to evacuate quickly if needed.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2022 05:06

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Yea a lowerG space hotel would be part of the novelty. They�d advertise it and remind you constantly of the lower G. Build a basketball court so guests can have fun doing sick dunks, stuff like that.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2022 18:01

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

The Danny/Karen/Ed thing is real lovely and I�m not stoked on the inevitable Danny/Ed Mars drama. The show needs to invest in developing new characters each season so we don�t have unrealistically old people running around forever. Even Danielle is 48 at the start of this season, which is appropriate for her role but she ought to be among the oldest astronauts in the show now. Three decades into the shows timeline we have exactly two youngish astronauts, Aleida who�s story is good but she�s mostly an engineer who gets to go to the moon cause it�s routine now, and Danny who�s only here for the worst plot line in the show.

Also, I demand more Wayne Cobb! Did they just decide to graft the �concerned spouse� vibe onto Danielle�s husband and call it a day

# ¿ Jun 19, 2022 20:44

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

mobby_6kl posted:

Was there even much of a story so far? I remember she had a dinner with family scene last episode and now she's on the moon. Ok.

She realized a lifelong dream in the last episode but her son was too young and adhd to care, her developing-dementia father was more concerned about his misplaced watch, and her husband was ???

Seemed like they�re setting something up there with her family being so disconnected from her personal triumph.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 01:14

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Oh it definitely fits with the character arc to this point and I'd rather see that explored in more detail than the Danny stuff.

Hell in the last episode I'd have preferred 15 minutes of Aleida trying to fix the test engine on the moon to the drunk Ed/stalker Danny stuff we got.

But again I cry out, Where is Wayne??

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 16:39

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

esperantinc posted:

I mean, it's been two episodes and we've seen Molly not at work for 10 seconds, so on one hand it makes sense that he hasn't shown yet.

On the other hand, looking at the actors IMDB page, I don't see him listed for anything in S3, where (at least) the rest of the main cast have updated episodes counts

It just feels like they�ve abandoned the character. He had less time in the second season than the first, and now the primary role he once played (astronaut�s spouse deeply concerned about their safety) is being taken up by Danielle�s new husband.

But Wayne was good for more than just that imo. His role in getting Karen to open up and his ability to challenge Molly both seemed critical to the show.

If Karen spent more time hanging with Wayne in S2 we might have been spared the Danny storyline. And Molly seems like she could have used some Wayne time in the midst of the fight with Margot.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 20:25

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

nah Danny will murder him on Mars because that's more dramatic

# ¿ Jun 20, 2022 22:13

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Did they skip it? I'd assume that the two haven't spoken in the intervening years now, and it'll come up on Mars once everyone gets into trouble and they all have to work together.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2022 19:07

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Yeah that was soon after Ed�s racism and the conversation was pretty contentious. It would make sense if they didn�t speak again in the two years after that.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2022 19:30

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Jet Jaguar posted:

They introduced a bunch of astronauts last season, and brought zero of them back this season.

Must focus more on Ed. Always Ed! When Ed is not on screen, all the characters should be asking, "Where's Ed?"

it really is ridiculous

maybe we will at least get to know the rest of the Mars crews?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2022 02:48

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

now THAT was a fuckin episode hot drat!

# ¿ Jul 1, 2022 06:03

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

but have you considered that this show needs to recycle as many characters as possible to avoid introducing new ones for unknown reasons?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2022 19:35

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

It is a curious sort of straddling this show has taken, where overall the message is very clear that the survival of the Soviet Union has been very good for world history, but the Soviets are still portrayed largely as a menacing, mysterious, reckless force in space.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2022 23:35

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

MarcusSA posted:

Well someone is fuckin around in our current timeline thats for sure.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3543757-nasa-calls-mystery-rocket-crash-on-moon-highly-unusual/

Surely nuclear launch monitoring defense systems would pick up a rocket that big and thus would have an idea of where it came from?

# ¿ Jul 6, 2022 18:18

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Sivart13 posted:

I do like how Dev and his private sector flunkies have been properly revealed as real bastards. Not sure how that conflict is going to play out with Dev and Ed having to play-by-email their space arguments at this point. Glad they didn't arbitrarily dump part of the ship or the fuel so there will be plenty left to explode around Mars.

Karen and Bill had a mutual look of understanding when Dev hijacked the "what should we do?" discussion so I think they're gonna do something together behind his back to help Ed regain control of the ship.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2022 20:48

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Khablam posted:

No chance Danny wasn't winning this race when they did the loving Adama manoeuvrer

this part annoyed my nerd nitpicking brain because they didn't show a de-orbit burn before the reorientation

# ¿ Jul 12, 2022 01:57

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

This show is fundamentally optimistic in it's outlook (some might say to an absurd degree). Margo's secret trading was portrayed as cooperative, the two programs sharing knowledge through a back-channel. It was in some ways a point of hope and optimism, a symbol of interdependence and foreshadowing future cooperation which is sort of happening now.

All hints of nefariousness come from the KGB's involvement. Margo is shown doing this for over a decade with zero awareness from the CIA, which is laughably unrealistic. Margo doesn't fear any domestic repercussions, only what the KGB can do, and the show largely seems to support her view.

I don't think the show will send her to prison or anything near that drastic.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2022 18:57

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

She's not going to prison or even needing a pardon, that's just not what this show is. At worst she will be "publicly disgraced" and forced to step down like Von Braun in the show. And she will say "it was worth it I did what had to be done" but she'll have a big falling out with Aleida cause of the rocket engine design. As someone mentioned upthread, the Margo-Aleida relationship will echo the Von Braun-Margo relationship all the way to the end.

The real question is who will be Aleida's new prot�g� to continue the pattern?

bawfuls fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Jul 13, 2022

# ¿ Jul 13, 2022 18:38

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Spacebump posted:

Two main characters died on the moon�s surface last season. While this show is positive, this isn�t Ted Lasso. They are clearly setting something up with the Margo plot. Her actions led to the deaths of two US astronauts.

Yes, characters die doing heroic things in space

They don't get shamed and sent to prison for espionage, especially when the show has shown a bunch of KGB stuff without ever even mentioning the CIA

This show has spent 2 seasons setting up Margo-Aleida as a parallel to von Braun-Margo

# ¿ Jul 13, 2022 19:01

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

ShowTime posted:

Pretty sure Ellen is in her 1st term, but elections are coming up. It would have been a what, 92-96 and a 96-00 term? The pushed the launch date up to 96 and we are starting to hear about the reelection. I can't imagine how Ellen's secret would get out and how Ed would make it back in time to make it onto the ticket. But if the dates are a little off, it could certainly be a possibility.

Original launch date was 96 but Helios forced them to go in 94 so that�s where the show is presently, right in the middle of Ellen�s first term.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2022 22:27

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Of the two of them, Larry was always the one more comfortable living a double life. He'd have his lovers over to spend the night while he and Ellen were living together in the previous season and it was all shown to be very routine.

Ellen by contrast was kind of all -or-nothing with Pam. Once she made the decision (thanks in no small part to Deke's awful reaction) to stay deeply in the closet to pursue her political career, it's like she also took a vow of celibacy.

So it is fitting that Larry was casual enough to bone down in the Oval Office while Ellen has presumably not gotten laid in a decade.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2022 19:35

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

ShowTime posted:

But the food is there. They didn't lose any food/water during their entry. So the Helios crew landed with all their food/water, so did NASA. I think they are combined at a +2 crew. Doesn't seem like enough to need to ration food and water that heavily.

Take the food/water off the sojourner, bring to the Helios camp. It's also strange they are now all living at the Helios camp when only the Sojourner thrusters were damaged. They could operate out of the Sojourner fine, just not leave on it. I guess for ease, having all the samples on the ship leaving is convenient.

They're not living at the Helios camp, they're living at the NASA habs that were sent separately to a location nearby to where Sojourner landed.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2022 03:56

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

To put it another way, the astronaut's transmission from Mars wasn't encrypted, so anyone with a receiver listening on Earth can pick it up at the time it arrives.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2022 16:12

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Sch posted:

Didn't we see Ed's daughter doing multiple takes of her message? I think it's supposed to be a pre-recorded statement that the astronauts sent down, in which case its weird that it would go directly to some TV station and not be relayed via the NASA press office.

Again it's not an email sent to an individual receiver, it is a radio signal sent from another planet. The only way to ensure it goes to NASA and only NASA first is if it is encrypted.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2022 17:08

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

...do you think everything we see on the show is a broadcast from in-universe television?

# ¿ Jul 18, 2022 17:14

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Water is way more important than trying to eat Martian bacteria. If they have a local water source they can grow food and make rocket fuel.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2022 18:13

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

ShowTime posted:

I always thought bacteria could be used, maybe even required to some degree, to create some foods. I know fermentation, yogurts, etc, require it. Maybe they'll discover bacteria and create an insane alien beer that gets Budweiser into the space race.

Yeah but it's not like a mass-limited resource. They brought some with them already (they're shown to be growing veggies in the hab) so they can breed more from what they've got.

Water on the other hand, is not self-replicating from basic elements in the environment and is heavy to carry up and down gravity wells with you.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2022 20:06

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

fuckin lol'd at Reagan being the face of People Magazine Alzheimer's edition

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 05:36

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

it is absurd that only one of them would be listening to coms at a time like that but we gotta turn up the Danny story to 11 so here we are

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 06:14

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

they were both wearing wedding bands in that scene so maybe they're separated?

# ¿ Jul 22, 2022 06:36

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

That's twice now Danny has been on the verge of confessing something important when he was bailed out by circumstance

# ¿ Jul 29, 2022 06:25

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Sivart13 posted:

The show weirdly succeeded at making me feel a little sympathy for Danny (one of the worst people to exist) when he explained how he felt responsible for Shane's death and he's just trying to do all this space stuff out of some weird obligation.

Probably would have been a more effective character arc if they showed this a season or two ago instead of putting it in a monologue here

# ¿ Jul 29, 2022 22:05

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Now I�m just wishing we had a KSR Mars Trilogy show instead

# ¿ Jul 29, 2022 23:52

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

the soviet commander's entire personality is getting mad when Danielle issues commands to cosmonauts

# ¿ Jul 30, 2022 01:41

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Grand Fromage posted:

Anyway I am surprised they only have one MSAM but I guess the plot requires it.

This is part of what's been obnoxious about this season. Many things that are dumb but the plot requires it.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2022 04:34

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

At least now they�re bending plausibility for cool stories instead of dumb Danny bullshit. One guy living out of a Soyuz capsule for 2 years? Sure why not!

# ¿ Aug 5, 2022 06:52

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Never. Mars baby will rule Mars not Earth.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2022 16:26

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

the father is.... Mars itself!

# ¿ Aug 5, 2022 19:05

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 14:10

bawfuls: Oct 28, 2009

Cojawfee posted:

Bill didn't know she was going to be really weird about it

When they were in her garage they talked about what the FBI did to her father and he said he knew and understood her hesitance. He presumably thought she'd talk if given the chance but had to know her reaction was a possibility.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2022 23:41

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