I was fan-ing over the exact same thing, lol. This season has been good but there are a few storylines that are driving me nuts. Spoiler Can the Danny/Karen thing just ****ing die already? Just ****ing die. Also, they just made Ed out to be a complete b****, again. I guess his legacy is going to be the guy who got close but couldn't finish. Unless of course in season 4 they jump ahead 100 years and Ed's cyborg is finally the first, to Proxima Centauri b
Spoiler Yeah I'm not so happy about making Ed a two time loser and what I thought was going to happen at the beginning of the episode was that Danny was going to try to land to spite Ed and then get into trouble. Then I thought it was going to be Ed was going to try to land and crash requiring the NASA / Soviet team to rescue him. I think the point was to show that not only was Ed snake bit but that at his heart he is still a serious astronaut who does the right thing. He's not going to risk his and Danny's life to win the race
don't call a show where a LEO shuttle goes to the moon hard science fiction please this is as more like The Man in the High Castle
The shuttles used aren't the same as the shuttles that we know of. There is good scientific basis that you could adapt the shuttle design to go the moon and they mention that rockets they use have significantly more thrust than the ones that were actually used. They even mentioned that the Buran is refueled in LEO so that it can enter LIO. Yes this is speculative fiction but so is any other "hard science fiction". The one most frequently cited is 2001 but under 2001 and even the sequel 2010 by now we should've already had a moon base and manned missions to Jupiter. "Fiction" by definition isn't what actually happened. This is about using things like where technology exists, the laws of physics and projecting outwards. Rather than shows were you put in things like transporters and artificial gravity just to avoid dealing with the laws of physics.
They have the same names. They cannot change chemistry. They are just counting on the fact their audience is indifferent or not knowledgeable. Like Picard looking out a window and seeing a shooting star in outer space. A shuttle is a horrible design for that. I disagree with speculative fiction also. The 1980's already happened. I love the premise of the show. I plan to watch more. A moon base by 1990 was totally plausible. You didn't need magic rockets.
Spoiler The other issue I have is they just skip too many important details. WTF happened between the last two episodes where they were getting wrecked and not able to go to Mars anymore, to this past one where NO PROBLEM FOOTBALL, just cruise right up to Mars, catch up to Helios, and boom, direct descent onto that b****, dust clears for Nasa but not for Helios. Idk, that was just annoying. I like the NASA characters but I was rooting for ed and that sucked. Danny is just such a trash, POS, garbage, cocaine **** character. Can't wait till he's killed off. I hope he dies an excruciating death. Getting rolled over by a space shuttle should have been saved for him.
Spoiler I don't know if this is the last season but yes it does seem rushed. My understanding is that they figured out that they could transfer liquid hydrogen from the Soviet ship and that plus their solar sail gave them enough delta V to catch up wit Helios. There I think the writing slipped a bit as at the end of the previous episode they were saying the Soviet ship was going to explode. I'm with you that Danny is just an unlikeable character and I think that's the point of it. Generally one of the things I've liked about this show is that while there is plenty of interpersonal drama to me the characters do come off as being very capable people who should be astronauts. Danny though strains that as there is no way that he should be an astronaut and someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Ed should know that. I think they are trying to make the point that Ed has a huge blind spot when it comes to Danny.
Yes the shuttles have the same names but doesn't mean they are the same shuttles. Their is a jump in technology with things like Pathfinder and Sea Dragon which were theoretical designs but never executed. They aren't using magical rockets just bigger and better rockets than were actually developed and given that in this Universe the Lunar space program continued uninterrrupted and NASA's budgets were several times bigger it is plausible.
Spoiler Yes, it will be centered around their discovery of white holes and using them to travel to Alderaan. The year is 2190. Karen is now the head of Helios and she and Margo will battle it out for interstellar domination.
Spoiler Geezus, I hate Danny so ****ing much. So very, very much. Also, can we get back to space plots?
If you had told Adam that Apple would have taken over the world, he would probably believe you. But it begs the question, whatever happened to Adam?
Still watching season 3 and it’s a lot more uneven. I think this season forces some of the interpersonal conflict too much as compared to the other seasons. Spoiler I think they’ve made Danny too much of a bad guy. I like how they are tying back problems with his life to things that happened with his and the Baldwin family but not recognizing how dangerous his problems are seem to be way out of character. While Ed has a soft spot for Danny as an officer and one who was in charge of Astronaut assignments he should’ve recognized how bad Danny was. The drilling disaster was caused by Danny but how they got there seemed forced. They could’ve still explored how troubled Danny was without putting him in such a position of responsibility. Im also not happy that Danny survived the disaster as it seems like the fitting thing would’ve been him admitting to Ed all that he had done and then dying. None of this is enough to get me from stop watching and still think the show is good overall.
About halfway through season 2. This show has turned into way too much of a soap opera. Does it get any better?
I recall the second half and particularly the last few episodes of season 2 being much better. Unfortunately season 3 is even more uneven and pushes further into soapy drama.
I’ll stick it out. The acting is quite good and the alternate history is a lot of fun. I just need much less relationship drama.
Done with season 2. What an amazing end. Just about shed a tear near the end as those were great characters. Definitely agreed that some of the personal drama plots were really stupid. Namely the LGBT and pornhub storyline. I'm excited to see where season 3 goes with it, especially as they jump decades and what characters are still around.
Finished season 3. Good ending but not as good as the previously. Some of the plot lines seemed forced and poor resolution of the plot lines. I haven’t heard if there is a season 4 but not sure where they go from here. Spoiler Maybe because I’m just a political nerd but I actually liked the plot line regarding the lesbian President and the sex scandal involving her husband. I think it was. Good twist on the Monica Lewinsky scandal tying into the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy and problems with that. The terrorist bombing of JSC was clearly based off of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in OKC. It’s an interesting reference to actual history but that storyline seemed very rushed and under developed. The Danny Stevens storyline still is the most frustrating. This is one where I think the desire for interpersonal drama just overwhelmed what makes the show good. That the characters were very capable people. That Danny stevens was even in position to cause disaster shouldn’t have happened. That at the end they just exiled him felt like it wasn’t resolved. It was rushed but I did like the story of the North Korean astronaut stranded on Mars. He came off as sympathetic as the loneliest guy in the universe. One thing I did like too was that by the end the three now four competing crews trying to get to Mars were one crew. They were working together and willing to sacrifice themselves to save Kelly Baldwin and her child. The first human conceived and born outside of Earth. That was really the message of the show and fit the name “For All Mankind”.
