For All Mankind: An Underrated Masterwork of Sci-Fi
In the golden age of streaming, where shows like The Expanse, Star Wars, and Stranger Things dominate sci-fi conversations, For All Mankind has quietly flown under the radar.
At first glance, For All Mankind might look like another slick prestige drama—space suits, Cold War tension, and that Apple TV+ polish. But look closer, and you'll find one of the most thoughtful, daring, and emotionally resonant science fiction series of the past decade. It hasn’t always grabbed headlines like its genre cousins, but that’s part of its power: it doesn’t shout—it builds, episode by episode, into something extraordinary.
In fact, it may just be the best science fiction show you’re not watching.
What If…?
The show kicks off with a simple premise: What if the Soviets landed on the Moon first? This idea spirals For All Mankind into a thrilling alternate timeline where the space race never ended.
From there, the show boldly reimagines NASA’s trajectory—not as a relic of the past, but as a dynamic institution accelerated by competition, diversity, and global stakes. Instead of slowing down after the Apollo missions, NASA pushes further—to permanent lunar bases, corporate space programs, Mars missions, and beyond.
What makes this premise work so brilliantly is how grounded it is. Everything feels believable, plausible, and deeply tied to the political, social, and cultural shifts of each decade the show covers.
The technology progresses faster than in our world, but that in itself is also believable. There’s an argument to be made that if the space race had never ended, our technology might be 30 or 40 years ahead of where it is today.
For The Ages
One of For All Mankind’s greatest strengths is its dedication to long-term character development. Unlike most series that unfold over a short span of time, this show explores the lasting consequences of its characters’ choices. With each season leaping ahead roughly a decade, we witness how these individuals grow, evolve, and carry the weight of their decisions.
We see astronauts age, relationships strain, and new generations step up in the ever-expanding story of humanity’s journey into space.
The show doesn’t rely on cheap thrills or constant cliffhangers. It builds emotional investment slowly but powerfully, and by the time you reach the later seasons, you realize you’re fully attached to these characters and their legacy.
Organic Commentary
What truly distinguishes For All Mankind is its seamless integration of social issues into the fabric of its storytelling. It engages with gender equity, LGBTQ+ rights, Cold War tensions, corporate overreach, and generational conflict—not with a heavy hand, but through the natural momentum of its alternate timeline.
By reshaping history, the show creates space to reimagine how these cultural battles might have unfolded under different circumstances. What if NASA had prioritized inclusion from the start? How might the face of space exploration—and society—have changed?
It’s a smart, layered examination of progress: its possibilities, its blind spots, and the price often paid along the way.
Realistic Speculation
Unlike many sci-fi series that lean heavily into the fantastical, For All Mankind thrives on realism. The series offers a stunningly detailed portrayal of NASA, with the set and ship designs being incredibly detailed. The spaceflight sequences are tense, with painstakingly rendered zero-G, mission control politics, and realistic hardware. And the risks of space travel—decompression, radiation, human error—are presented with terrifying precision.
When disasters strike, they feel like they could genuinely happen. And when victories are achieved, they’re hard-earned.
What Makes Us Human
At its core, For All Mankind is about ambition—personal, political, and planetary. While it grounds itself in gritty realism and richly drawn characters, what sets it apart is its rare, unwavering sense of optimism. It imagines a world where progress is hard-won—never guaranteed, never tidy—but still within reach, thanks to the perseverance of deeply human people striving to do better.
It’s not utopia. There are betrayals, tragedies, and setbacks. But the show has a remarkable way of using speculative history not to revel in dystopia, but to ask: What if we had just tried a little harder?
The best science fiction reflects not just our anxieties, but our aspirations. For All Mankind forgoes aliens and apocalypses in favor of ambition, resilience, and human vulnerability. It’s a series that asks what the world could look like if we refused to give up on progress—or on each other.
The characters face impossible choices—family vs. duty, safety vs. exploration, cooperation vs. competition. It’s humanity in all its flawed glory, wrapped in the thrill of space exploration. It constantly asks: how far should we push? What are we willing to sacrifice to be first, to go further, and to make history?
