Leaping forward from the mid-’90s to 2003 propels For All Mankind deeper into unchartered space, revealing plenty left to discover in the alt-history drama’s fourth season. While the original cast members continue to sport various levels of old-age hair and makeup, their thirst for interplanetary travel is as strong as ever – despite not everyone being on the same page. On Mars, the Happy Valley station has sprawled outward and downward, introducing new faces and conflicts – and it’s a tricky act, balancing established dynamics with the present lineup. However, even when certain storylines have less room to develop, For All Mankind remains one of Apple TV+’s most exciting and ambitious offerings.
Concluding the previous season by killing off two main characters (and faking the death of another) added to a growing body count while shaking up the power dynamics. Space is dangerous, but so is Earth, and there is a sense that for co-creators and showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, anyone is dispensable when the story calls for it. Maintaining this approach gives action sequences an extra edge-of-your-seat rush – nothing and no one are guaranteed to survive. Each time the For All Mankind crew makes advancements, there are sacrifices, and when anyone puts on a spacesuit and ventures out, it’s nerve-wracking.
Add to those anxieties the mental and physical scars borne by those who made it out of the NASA bombing alive. Similar to the devastating deaths of Tracy (Sarah Jones) and Gordon Stevens (Michael Dorman) at the end of season 2, skipping over the direct aftermath of this event reduces the amount of raw grief we are privy to. It is far from a copout, though: The losses of Karen Baldwin (Shantel VanSanten) and Molly Cobb (Sonya Walger) reverberate through the season in multiple ways – particularly when it comes to Ed Baldwin’s (Joel Kinnaman) arc.
As with previous seasons, the opening montage fills in the gaps via news reports, magazine covers, and other dispatches from the For All Mankind timeline. Political, technological, and pop culture events mingle in occasionally emotional fashion – I teared up at least twice. It is an economical and entertaining way of explaining how Happy Valley has rapidly grown and the various leadership changes in the private and public sectors. The new details come thick and fast, so don’t worry if you have to watch the dizzying introduction more than once.
This sequence also serves as a farewell to Jodi Balfour’s Ellen Wilson, as it was announced ahead of the season (much to my disappointment) that she would not return. It is a shame that her political journey moved her away from the core of For All Mankind – the American space program and the White House are entwined, and yet, For All Mankind struggled to keep them tethered last year despite a president who started out as an astronaut. Returning to a commander-in-chief who primarily exists off-camera gives new NASA administrator Eli Hobson (Daniel Stern) room to show his skills and frustrations with a mining venture potentially worth trillions of dollars. Asteroids in the Martian orbit are the new long-term target, containing precious resources that could kick off a 21st century gold rush. Being first comes with added financial benefits, creating a pressure cooker situation with several volatile elements that steadily build as the season progresses.
Eli is one of several new characters working alongside the series' veterans, and coming from the automotive industry gives him an outsider status that is often a benefit rather than a curse. It would be terribly dull if NASA had found someone similar to Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), and thankfully, Eli doesn’t fall into the clichéd arrogant boss category either. Stern’s layered portrayal of a man sometimes in far over his head and juggling various egos allows this character to be a team player and deploy his expertise. He comes up against not only the U.S. president but also other members of the M7 Alliance, who represent the countries and companies working and living together on Mars. It is a political house of cards, and Eli is integral to keeping it from falling.
Fellow newcomer Masha Mashkova plays a pivotal role within the M7 political infrastructure and, without giving anything away, has a magnetic and unnerving presence – particularly in her interactions with Margo. The Cold War takes a different trajectory on For All Mankind, and its pockets of turbulence impact Margo following the bombshell reveal that she faked her death and is alive in Moscow. Margo lived and breathed NASA, making for one of the most significant departures from previous seasons, and Schmidt’s depiction of the older woman’s new daily routine hammers home this isolation.
Each actor playing several decades older than their actual age faces different hurdles, sporting wrinkles and gray hairs to varying degrees of success. Costume designer Esther Marquis gives Margo purposefully drab Soviet attire and a practical knit hat that helps to age Schmidt, but the actress excels at showing how her new environment impacts her body without distracting from the rest of her performance. It might be easy to forget how tense Margo’s multi-season subterfuge was compared to the more bluntly life-or-death stakes of her colleagues’ exploits in space. However, Schmidt quickly reminds us of her heartbreaking journey to her new home, just like the American accent that colors in her Russian dialogue.
The writers don’t need to pile on the grief – it’s baked into every scene of season 4.
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Even though eight years have passed since Margo’s defection, her mentorship has left an indelible mark on Aleida (Coral Peña). The writers don’t need to pile on the grief – it’s baked into every scene. Peña is a standout this season, embracing the challenge of portraying the co*cktail of fear, anger, shame, and anguish in the longterm aftermath of the bombing. While many emotional anchors in this cast have shifted (and disappeared), Aleida’s growing bond with another For All Mankind regular is an organic, sheer delight that I wish were given more screen time.
Of the few remaining season-one regulars, it’s no surprise that Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) and Ed have some meatier interactions. “Hi, Bob” are two words that still have the power to gut me three seasons later, and Danielle and Ed’s shared history informs how they approach their work and each other. A deep connection and the shared trauma of their journeys from the moon to Mars leads to several goosebump-inducing moments, and Marshall and Kinnaman more than rise to the occasion in depicting this sometimes thorny dynamic. Ed’s choices become increasingly irritating; how his antagonistic position plays out in the final three episodes of season 4 will determine the success of Ed’s move toward an outlier's role.
A lot has changed since the first Mars landing, and the swelling Helios workforce combined with representatives of the U.S., Soviet, Indian, and North Korean space programs make for a delicate ecosystem. With this many people coexisting in tight quarters, a class system develops: those below ground form the equivalent of a working class, while the astronauts get the plush living quarters. It is an upstairs-downstairs dynamic that gives For All Mankind a source of conflict that muddies the space-exploration waters. It is a familiar and timely labor story (with several themes running parallel to HBO’s 19th-century melodrama The Gilded Age), and our sympathies are tested when core relationships begin to fracture.
Toby Kebbell, so excellent in the recently completed Apple TV+ horror series Servant, gets a whiny and combative character without much reason to root for here. Yes, Miles wants to provide for his family at home, and he feels Helios has sold him a lie. Yet, his reckless behavior earns him the “most annoying in show” title previously held by Danny Stevens – you’ll have to watch to find out what happened after Danny was exiled at the end of last season. One thing’s for certain: Humans are just as messy, reactionary, and selfish on Mars as they are back on Earth.
Season 4 can get heavy-handed with the discontent and newcomers like Miles. Thankfully, this doesn’t detract from the strengths of a series that excels when capturing the sheer enormity of its characters’ missions and their complex relationships. Jeff Russo and Paul Doucette’s score again hits all the right notes in elevating heart-in-your-mouth sequences and audacious plot developments across the first seven episodes. The second half of the season takes on a renewed urgency as different story pieces are moved into place, and while it is impossible to predict the payoff, the fourth season has already struck gold.
