For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

"Progress is never free. There's always a cost."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 23, 2023

July 1969. The United States beats Moscow to the moon and wins the space race. Or was it... is it... one month earlier? Maybe it's June... yes, June 1969. And it's the USSR that wins the space race when Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. The United States and NASA, staggered by the global loss-of-face and pushed forward by public pressure, begins to stage a comeback, moving its focus from a race to space to a race to diversity. Female astronauts, women on the moon and a proposed lunar base become all the rage, and all the challenge. So opens Ronald D. Moore's alt-history drama, For All Mankind, a slow-start series that gains real momentum and delivers some very profound moments with each passing season. Season One isn't exactly a start to finish barnburner, but it lays quite a bit of groundwork that, with patience, pays off and then some. If you're looking for your next sci-fi drama addiction, here it is, launching with a 10-episode volley to a standout show, currently in its fourth season on AppleTV.

'For All Mankind' dramatizes an alternate history depicting what might have happened if the global space race had never ended. After the Soviet Union lands the first human on the Moon in 1969, a series of global events is triggered that slowly but increasingly changes the course of our known history, as the Americans and the Soviets compete for dominance in space. The changes ripple outward like a rock thrown into a pond, small at first but growing larger as each wave expands and makes room for the next. The series' digs into the lives of the astronauts, their families and the world as the USSR and the United States chart very different courses from those we've come to know. 'For All Mankind' stars Joel Kinnaman as top NASA astronaut Ed Baldwin, Michael Dorman as fellow astronaut Gordo Stevens, Sarah Jones as Gordo's wife and future member of the Nixon's Women Astronauts Tracy, Jodi Balfour as Ellen Wilson, another member of the NWA club, Wrenn Schmidt as NASA engineer Margo Madison, Shantel Van Santen as Ed's wife Karen, and Sonya Walger and Krys Marshall as NWA members Molly Cobb and Danielle Poole.

Cast is king in For All Mankind. Moore and fellow writers/showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi have assembled a terrific band of actors who convincingly struggle to click until duty, country, technology, gender equality -- whatever the challenge for each new astronaut may be -- pull the ragtag bunch together to accomplish something great. There's heavy drama and pathos at the core of the series and you can feel Moore tapping into the old Battlestar Galactica portions of his creativity to fashion storylines that surprise as often as they impact and tug on emotional strings. He has a knack for character, always has, although it hasn't been in full force since the early 2000s. Thankfully For All Mankind's premise, one that's deceptively simple at the outset but quickly explodes into something far more complex and absorbing, turns out to be more than a solid hook; it's a strong foundation upon which the writers build a home where floor after floor reveals compelling turmoil, conflict, moral uncertainty and fearsome risks. The fact that it's all played so seriously, without wandering down paths of melodrama, chasing wild alt-history ideas that would no doubt ultimately fizzle, Moore and his actors deliver dialogue and performances that make the USSR-dominated '70s seem as real and ordinary a thing as the decade we know from history texts. This isn't flashy alt-history but rather a legitimate "what if" scenario that draws logical conclusions, stages believable changes to our known timeline, and follows the course of its new history with organic realism and tightly-penned, slowburn twists and turns.

But again, and I almost can't stress this enough, For All Mankind would merely be fine if it weren't for subsequent seasons. I've scored the series with that at the front of my mind. Taken as the first chapter in an at-the-moment four-chapter saga, where each season spans a new decade in history, Season One is a terrific start. Taken on its own merit, though? Again, it's... fine. Not bad. Not great (at least not until its closing episodes). On the one hand, God bless a return to slow, confident storytelling that doesn't rush to satiate audience attention spans, which seem to shrink with each passing year. On the other, those attention spans do continue shrinking. Moreover, For All Mankind will certainly draw criticism from the anti-woke crowd, who see an agenda-thumping lib-devil lurking around every feminist corner and hiding in every democratic bush. The focus on female astronauts alone shifts history and gender warfare dramatically forward, and there are some -- will continue to be some -- who will refuse to concede an inch of room in their imaginations. Even for fiction. These are the people who cried foul at Barbie, and they will haaaaate this one. So, with those two things in mind, jump in if you're willing to commit and enjoy what Moore and company have in store.

Season One episodes include:

• 1. Red Moon - NASA is in crisis as the Soviets land the first man on the moon in 1969. What follows is a dark night for the men and women of NASA, that culminates in a challenge.

• 2. He Built the Saturn V - As America attempts to bounce back from the ego blow that was losing the race to the moon, the vast repercussions of that event come into focus. Director Martin von Braun opposes President Nixon's directive, with dire consequences.

• 3. Nixon's Women - "A League of Their Own meets The Right Stuff" (Vulture.com) as Deke must recruit female astronauts after Russia lands a woman on the moon.

• 4. Prime Crew - With the Apollo 15 launch looming and pressure from the White House mounting, several of the show’s women unveil some key secrets. A training accident spurs a national debate about women astronauts.

• 5. Into the Abyss - A last-minute change to the Apollo 15 mission lends a sense of danger as Ed and the crew change the misson's landing site after lunar ice is detected.

• 6. Home Again - "Two seemingly unrelated plot threads smash together in a shocking way." (Vulture) A launchpad accident leads to delayed missions and FBI background checks.

• 7. Hi Bob - Spending three months on the moon, with no end in sight, takes its toll on Ed, Danielle and especially Gordo as the trio struggle with the extended Jamestown mission.

• 8. Rupture - NASA preps a Jamestown relief mission, while Karen waits for news at the hospital. As the risks mount, emotions fray and matters come to a head.

• 9. Bent Bird - A crisis in space puts the Apollo 24 and 25 crews in jeopardy, and "a show that begins with something resembling a mission statement about hope spends its penultimate chapter in a decidedly dark place".

• 10. A City Upon a Hill - Ed handles a trespasser; Ellen and Deke chart a new course without Mission Control. Sacrifices, it seems, are a part of the journey. Stay tuned for a post-credits scene that suggests what to expect in Season Two.

For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Another Sony TV release, another excellent AVC-encoded/1080p encode that checks every box when it comes to quality and impresses from the opening credits through the season finale. Colors are strong and lifelike, without anything resembling dips or divets in consistency or vibrancy. Skintones are convincing, as is contrast and saturation, which lend key scenes a sense of docu-drama reality. It's especially remarkable when an episode moves from the warm hues of a '70s picket-fence household at night, complete with a fire in the heart, to the cold, technical halls, hangers and control rooms of NASA. Black levels are deep and affecting, delineation is natural and (as far as I can tell) free of any crushed shadows, and only a few CG elements look lesser for the near-perfection of the presentation. Detail is striking as well, with clean edges, refined textures (particularly in close-ups and wide shots of parts-strewn NASA bays), and the lunar sequences -- on and above the surface -- look every bit as good as their big-screen space drama counterparts. The only issue I noticed was a tiny hint of banding here and there, though I should stress it's infrequent and doesn't really distract unless your job entails spotting color bands in the wild. Otherwise, there's only one way For All Mankind: Season One's video presentation could be better, and that's if Sony had released a 4K edition. Ah well. There's always Season Two and beyond.

For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For All Mankind is often a quiet, more subtle drama, full of emotional conversations, in-office defenses of opinions and tense training bay arguments. But even then, the series' sound design revels in delivering believable environments. The nuanced differences in the soundscapes of a small home versus a large hanger, or the confines of a rocket, or the bustling organized chaos of a launch room... these are apparent and immersive, drawing the listener in and utilizing excellent side and rear speaker activity to bolster the experience. Dialogue remains clean and neatly prioritized throughout as well, dynamics are terrific, and low-end output absolutely sticks its landing whenever it is called upon. Engines ignite, metal groans and steel cries out, rumbling with the thunder of power just beneath the pilot seats of a spacecraft. For All Mankind's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is every ounce the lossless mix fans will appreciate.

For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sadly no special features are included with the 4-disc Blu-ray release of For All Mankind: Season One.

For All Mankind: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Blu-ray release of For All Mankind: Season One really only has one glaring omission: special features, of which there are none. A shame considering how good a show For All Mankind establishes itself to be in its opening ten episodes. Subsequent seasons get better but this represents a solid start. And with excellent video and audio presentations, Sony's 4-disc Blu-ray release is, more than its complete lack of supplemental material suggests, worth the cost of admission.