On April 1, NASA launched Artemis II, a manned mission around the Moon designed in part to spot potential landing sites. This lays the groundwork for a future manned mission to the surface, and maybe even the building of a base sometime down the line.
Just imagine: mankind living on the Moon. It’s an intoxicating idea that gets people excited about scientific progress, which is something of a rarity at a time when a lot of science news has to do with, say, artificial intelligence threatening your job, or climate change accelerating to the point where it will be all but impossible to reverse. Maybe those kinds of downer science stories explain why so much of popular science fiction these days is so pessimistic…with one big wonderful exception.
The bleak state of modern sci-fi
We’re all doomed. Enjoy the show.
Pessimistic sci-fi is nothing new; Planet of the Apes predicted that humanity would lose out to sentient monkeys way back in 1968. But it’s striking how many popular sci-fi TV shows these days forecast bleak futures for the human race. In Silo on Apple TV+, the remnants of humanity must live in underground bunkers after a disaster poisons the surface. Over on Hulu, Paradise starts with much the same premise. Black Mirror has been telling cautionary tales about the horrors of modern science since 2011, and Severance is set in a strange sideways universe where corporate America uses advanced technology to make over our brains. Even Fallout, a show that at least has an ironic jaunty tone, is still set in a burned-out post-apocalyptic desert, which is all that remains of the world after we blow it up.
Science fiction is often set in the future but reflects our feelings about the present, and right now it seems like we’re feeling uneasy. And it doesn’t get much better if we look to the stars. Netflix’s 3 Body Problem is one of the smartest sci-fi shows running today, but there’s no salvation out in space, just extraterrestrials who want to squash us like bugs.
But things could be changing. Project Hail Mary is a new movie that depicts a heartwarming first contact with an alien race, and it’s a huge hit at the box office. And then there’s For All Mankind, the best (and most optimistic) sci-fi show that no one is watching.
For All Mankind is the rare inspirational sci-fi show
We are limitless
For All Mankind starts with an event that many look back on as an example of a time people came together to celebrate a scientific achievement: the 1969 Moon landing. The Artemis II mission is channeling a bit of that forgotten optimism today. For All Mankind asks: what if we rode those good vibes all the way into the present?
The show is set in an alternate timeline where the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union never ceased. By the end of the first season, we’ve already built a working habitat on the Moon, something no one has yet managed to do in our world even over 50 years later. By Season 2, which is set in 1983, multiple countries have proper bases up there. In Season 3, which is set in the early 1990s, we set down on Mars. And in the fifth season, which is airing right now on Apple TV+, we have the beginnings of a thriving civilization on the Red Planet.
The guiding idea of For All Mankind is that a non-stop space race resulted in technological breakthroughs that wouldn’t have been possible if the governments of the world hadn’t put a premium on space exploration. Characters like Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) and Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt), both of whom start the show as 20-somethings in the first season and are now in their 70s or 80s, bend their wills towards this goal, and in so doing improve the lot of all humanity. As time advances, the show cycles out older characters for younger ones, which gives a sense of movement and change. In For All Mankind, we have video calls in the ’90s and we’re mining asteroids by the 2010s. These goals are far more inspirational than “we will make AI technology so good that it will replace most human workers within five-10 years.” It all makes watching For All Mankind an uplifting experience rather than a stressful one.
Even For All Mankind has limits
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows out in space
This shouldn’t suggest that the characters on For All Mankind don’t encounter difficulties. They push back against bureaucrats, deal with greedy corporations, and handle geopolitical strife as they try to walk a tightrope wire into the future. In the current season, the characters will have to deal with the specter of AI replacing jobs, about a decade before we’re all having to think about it.
But there’s a sense that everything will eventually work out, and that scientific progress will ultimately help rather than hinder the progress of humanity. Honestly, sometimes For All Mankind can feel a bit naive in its insistence that technology will push mankind forward, but it’s still refreshing when so many other shows seem to insist that it’s destined to take us down a dangerous path.
Return to hopelessness
If Project Hail Mary wrecked you, these sci-fi films hit the same way
Because sometimes good sci-fi will have you crying into your popcorn.
The question is: will For All Mankind’s more optimistic vision of the future herald a change in science fiction more broadly? Looking at some of the new sci-fi shows on the horizon, probably not. For instance, Apple TV+ is working on an adaptation of Neuromancer, a classic cyberpunk story set in a dystopian world where corporate interests oppress everyday people, which feels like it will be a better fit for today’s anxious moment.
But that just helps For All Mankind stand out all the more. It was revealed early in April that the show will end with its sixth season, meaning there’s one more to go after the current fifth. If you haven’t seen the show before, you have a long, hopefully inspirational journey ahead of you. There’s never been a better time to hop on the rocket and take the journey.
- Release Date
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November 1, 2019
- Network
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Apple TV
- Showrunner
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Ronald D. Moore
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Michael Dorman
Gordon ‘Gordo’ Stevens
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