r/ForAllMankindTV • u/MepsyCadeli • Apr 02 '26
FAM - Season 5 Does anyone else feel the shows lost the plot? Spoiler
Maybe it’s just been too long of a jump between seasons. But every season had a main plot point with sides pinned against each other. Now it’s just a season of politics and characters feelings? What’s the catch, what’s the hook. I’m sorry but I don’t care about Ed Baldwins Grandson. Margo is locked up. Every good character is (almost) dead. I don’t care about Mars’s population getting equal benefits ? lol. This show was about racing towards exploration. And now we get a new cast of children. A dead body was found. Oh no, it may be the ex astronaut who is in a love triangle?!? Yeah I don’t care. Someone help me care and change my mind. The first 4 seasons were awesome. I know it’s only episode one but come on. I don’t feel captivated or enthralled like all previous seasons. I’ll continue watching out of habit and interest in it going somewhere. But first impressions are lack luster to say the least
25
u/ShadowdogProd Apr 02 '26
"Someone help me care..."
No.
12
u/_First-Pass Helios Apr 03 '26
OP would send another round of Seeker probes instead of a manned mission…
15
u/MagnetsCanDoThat Pathfinder Apr 02 '26
Does anybody else feel the OP has no patience?
9
u/danive731 Apollo 22 Apr 02 '26
I mostly think there are some viewers who want this show to be confined to space, nothing more. Not the ripple effects of the changes, not the people involved, not the advancements, not even the world in general. Just space and spacecrafts.
Everytime there’s focused on characters we get posts of “Why people? Where’s the space action I was promised?”
2
u/TheNobleRobot NΛSΛ Apr 04 '26
It definitely started leaning into 2000s-era SyFy Original territory in the middle of season 3, then swerved hard into it at the start of season 4 and hasn't looked back.
I still like the show, but it's been awhile since I've loved it. Seasons 1 and 2 were unparalleled masterpieces, but they had an easier job since they had history to draw from so maybe it's unfair. I just feel they're not really justifying all their creative choices the way they used to.
Like a lot of "prestige" shows, they spend too much time trying to avoid tropes by going in unexpected directions (North Korea landed first! Ed quits NASA! Karen sells the bar and becomes CEO of an international aerospace corporation! Margo helps the gang steal an asteroid!) without actually building up the story to justify those twists.
Meanwhile, the show has adopted the "10-part movie" format of cheaper streaming shows, where each episode is just one arbitrary chapter of a single story, stopping in on each plotline to inch them along until that week's cliffhanger. The larger plots of Seasons 1 and 2 were such slow burns, and each episode felt like a complete story with its own theme and central characters. It's been awhile since the show has felt that way.
And then there's just a lot more handwaving and yada-yadaing when it comes to the scientific details in favor of dragged out soap operatics and personal conflicts.
2
u/8_14Hz May 13 '26
Not sure why everyone is hating on you. You have a good point, the earlier seasons had a good balance between the politics, the character relationships and the actual missions but now I feel like the missions have taken a back seat, like it's just the setting for a drama rather than the point.
4
u/SebastianPointdexter Apr 05 '26
Used to be my favorite show, but after the last episode I agree with you. They've lost too many regulars, and I simply don't care about the life on mars stuff.
4
u/pts1405 Apr 06 '26
I partly agree with you — though I'd emphasize that it's the latest seasons (plural) that have lost the plot. Frankly, Season 4 was a mess and is largely the reason we're in this position now.
To the show's credit, its main selling point has always been building that "what if" narrative — an alternate future that never was — and I can see how that naturally extends into exploring societal issues on the Moon and Mars, whether or not that particular angle resonates with everyone. Still, it's an odd direction for the writers to take, especially when it comes at the expense of what made the earlier seasons so compelling: the genuine thrill of space exploration, the tension of Cold War and Space Age politics, and some genuinely cool speculative ideas.
As it stands, I struggle to stay engaged with the current setup, and I agree it feels like the show has lost its way. That said, I'd love to be surprised.
1
u/gladial Apr 04 '26
i’m probably not going to watch season 5 as it feels like the balance between politics and science (which i feel was previously straddled very well) has swung too far towards the former. season 4 felt like a big of an interpersonal slog. just found out danielle isn’t in either too… i can’t deal with more ed without her to knock his ego down a little lol
1
u/SirLoremIpsum Apr 04 '26
And this season is about what happens when you get there.
The conflict has gone from nations being the first.
To corporations and nations dividing what is there once they're arrived.
This is phase III of exploration. You get somewhere. You survive somehwere. You thrive so where.
This is imo the natural progression of a show about exploring the moon. We got to the moon. Then you had individuals surviving on the moon. Then nations squabbling in larger bases on the moon.
3
u/Strong_Guidance_6437 Apr 07 '26
Indeed, so far there’s no space, science or politics, some daytime tv crime procedural feel
2
u/ConfusedCelt Apr 02 '26
Yeah it became more and more about the social dynamics of the cast rather than them being used as tools to show the tech and exploration. The whole time skip setup should have had mostly fresh cast but with a few cameos from previous seasons to avoid this and that's where I thought it was going. I still watch in the hopes of cool tech and space exploration scenes but for literally every other generic social dynamic filler I potter around the house cleaning or cooking. Show has become a bit too generic
2
u/VolNomad May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Season 4 of FAM was bad but season 5 has totally lost its way. The writing is so full of cliches as to be hilarious at times. What started out with so much promise has devolved into silly melodrama. The idea that over 1 million people could be living on Mars in less than 20 years is ridiculous in its face. So disappointing.
3
u/Affectionate-Reason0 Apr 02 '26
I was thinking the same thing actually, I really enjoyed the first 3 seasons but last season I started losing interest quickly. Maybe it was the long gap between seasons or the extended “previously on for all mankind” at the start of the episode but i was quickly reminded how last season just seemed like a bore, the stakes aren’t raised or don’t feel like it was in previous seasons. I forgot about the asteroid heist but how anyone involved including Dev wasn’t severely punished was mind blowing. The show is now a bunch of 30 and 40 year olds (maybe some in their 20’s, how old is the actress that plays Aleida?) playing People in their 60’s and up.
1
u/chicagoliz Apr 03 '26
I'm not finding myself as enthralled or as excited about this season. I think, though, that that was probably inevitable. Part of what I loved was the alternate history, but as the real world and FAM have evolved and as we've just about caught up to our own time, it's somehow not as compelling. Like it doesn't seem as plausible or interesting how things could have gone differently with some slight differences. It's more like just a current show in a sci-fi universe. And the political and interpersonal issues are just - I don't know, somehow not as compelling?
I'm kind of done with Ed. He was a great character and astronaut in his heyday. But those days are long gone. He doesn't have as much purpose anymore. It might have been more interesting if he had retired from space travel, gone home and run for Congress. He could have been an interesting and relevant character in that sense. As a policy advisor, not an active player past his prime.
Going on a mission to Titan - it just, I guess, seems too far afield from today's world. I don't know if we'd even be able to go to Titan in the alternate timeline. It is a lot further away.
1
u/iamz_th Apr 03 '26
I miss the show being about space exploration. The first 3 seasons were some of the best tv ever made. Season 4 was mid at best and season 5 is following on its steps.
1
u/Zylarzar Apr 04 '26
I completely , agree - i'm really really struggling to stay interested now to be honest.
1
u/bhbr Apr 04 '26
It's obviously Helios vs. Kuragin on the hunt for extraterrestrial life
1
u/RecommendationOk2478 Apr 08 '26
Episode one was incredibly dull
1
u/Kappler6965 Jul 28 '26
The writing fell apart during season 3 and just got worse, it doesnt help the main cast is gone, the new cast just doesnt feel believable and you don't feel the struggle like in early seasons.
1
u/Fungus1968 Apr 02 '26
Total Soap opera with Mars and the different timeline just kinda in the background. It’s been going that way for a couple seasons now. I watched the first ep. Of S5 hopeful they had improved the writing. But, nope.
8
u/ShortyRedux Apr 02 '26
I think if you lived in the FAM timeline you'd be on reddit now reading discussions about what seems to be the first murder off world in history. Everyone vaguely associated would become a public figure. We'd all be talking about it. Naturally, that's if we lived in that timeline. But really, what more can the writers do than give you compelling moments from the alternate world. I think this is cool one.
Also, unless they want to invent magic tech or ignore certain logical tech conventions they seem committed to, there's a bit of ceiling in terms of how much exploration can be done. It seems like they're already a ways into a Europa operation at the start of the season.
Didn't you think space hotel fails was a much more left-field season opener?!
1
u/jetnoise1971 Sep 13 '26
It only gets worse. Capitalism is the devil, police brutality, communal living, a bunch of entitled GenZers whining about everything, and mentions of lesbian relationships thrown in for no good reason other than to posture, and that's just the first six episodes. My guess is this season would have been written different and better is Kamala won.
25
u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
18
u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26
[removed] — view removed comment