Given the ambitious reach of its conceit — to detail, over the course of decades, an alternate space race from the 1970s to the 2020s — For All Mankind has had more than a few missteps. This was especially evident in its soapier middle seasons, as the episodic churn and rocky casting challenges of managing such an accelerated timeline took hold. Overall, the decision-making hasn’t been great recently, but season five shows marked improvement, leveling up the show’s weaker characters and bringing in appealing new ones. By design, every season of For All Mankind is something of a soft reboot; on that score, season five benefits more than most from the new energy.
As it begins, humanity’s starfaring efforts have gotten them as far as Mars, where Happy Valley — sustained by a mega-lucrative lithium-mining operations — has gone from tenuous outpost to flourishing community. Indeed, billionaire leader of the Helios Corporation Dev Ayela (Edi Gathegi) has even grander designs: building “Meru,” a self-sustaining, city-sized ecosystem to accommodate even more migration from Earth. The long-time Mars citizens, or “Marsies,” have simpler aspirations, however: advocating for themselves, their rights, and improved conditions as the essential personnel of the new world. Unfortunately, with Helios holding the purse strings and the Earth’s “M6” nations wielding the political clout, the Marsies — including now-elderly astronaut hero Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and respected revolutionary Miles Dale (Toby Kebbell) — have a steep hill to climb. The class divide on Mars, already stark, is due for another shock to its system, which comes when Ed’s grandson Alex (Sean Kaufman) and Miles’ daughter Lily (Ruby Cruz) uncover a conspiracy that looks to transform the planet yet again, at the local population’s expense.
For a show often referred to as “the road to Star Trek,” For All Mankind starts to feel a little like “the road to The Expanse” in season five. Fortunately, rekindling the class warfare of the previous season is more effective this time, thanks to intelligent narrative choices and shrewd casting. The writers find common ground with most viewers by using the show’s alternate context to wrestle with two timely issues: extreme wealth inequality and “automation” (shorthand for employment-destroying AI). This gives the Marsies, anchored by winning “next generation” newcomers like Cruz and Kaufman, a relatable cause to get behind, while rightly villifying the “charismatic billionaire inventor” stereotype that Dev problematically exemplifies. On the character-development side, Coral Peña sees a marked uptick in screentime in her crucial role as the ambitious Helios CEO Aleida Rosales, raising her profile significantly, while Kebbell also finds his feet in his second full season. But the season’s casting masterstroke is Mireille Enos, who plays newly arrived cop Celia Boyd — a soft-spoken, underestimated officer who gradually becomes disillusioned with the regime that has employed her. Instantly credible, Enos brings much-needed presence to principal cast, just as key series stalwarts like Kinnaman and Wrenn Schmidt have had their characters age out of the thick of things.
For All Mankind does still have soapy tendencies, and often sacrifices realism on the altar of contrived emergency. And ugh, it really does have a rather toxic addiction to “rogue” heroes who ignore all laws and protocols in favor of selfish glory-seeking; given the unaccountable ratfuckery of modern American politics and business, this selfish message — passed down rather egregiously here from Ed Baldwin to his daughter Kelly (Cynthy Wu) — feels like a reckless one to espouse. But by and large, season five of For All Mankind is a much-needed rebound for a show heading into its home stretch. Hopefully, the planned final season will serve as an effective capstone for what has, until now, been a flawed but impressive show.
