‘For All Mankind’ season five is a must-watch for fans of Apple TV’s original sci-fi series

Season five of “For All Mankind” lands on Apple TV this Friday. The new episodes are must-watch TV for fans of early seasons of the sci-fi series.

The show goes from weird to gut-wrenchingly emotional to outright cinematic and suspenseful over the course of the first eight episodes. As a viewer, I can’t wait to see where this season’s finale takes us in this alt-history timeline’s future.

After six years and five seasons, however, the challenge for “For All Mankind” is very clear.

What makes “For All Mankind” work after five seasons

First, there’s the premise for “For All Mankind” season five, per Apple:

Season five of “For All Mankind” picks up in the years since the Goldilocks asteroid heist. Happy Valley has grown into a thriving colony with thousands of residents and a base for new missions that will take us even further into the solar system. But with the nations of Earth now demanding law and order on the Red Planet, friction continues to build between the people who live on Mars and their former home.

Obviously, the plot is much less grounded in reality by season five. Still, the show continues to work after six years by applying a sci-fi filter to modern life challenges. This keeps it relatable and recognizable.

Broadly speaking, the season draws parallels to a space-age American Revolution.

It challenges the idea of legacy, the meaning of family (from different angles), and reminds us that no one’s hands are clean in war — regardless of intention.

The show continues to tell the story of a set of characters, parts of a decade at a time. Then it makes major time jumps between seasons to advance the “what if” element of storytelling.

This storytelling structure means “For All Mankind” season five needs to do three things:

• Make you still care about this invented world after four seasons of television and six years of the show existing.
• Connect the original cast’s story across five seasons in a way that is natural, interesting, and relevant.
• Convince you to invest in new characters who appear in middle seasons and become main characters in the current season.

Season five meets the mark on all three challenges.

As a viewer, I loved “For All Mankind” season one and was just as invested in season two. The premise of the show combined with the set of characters it tracked kept me hooked.

Season three, I liked enough, and season four, well, I felt compelled to fast-forward during the latter half of the season just to see where things went. Those later episodes lost something, I felt at the time. Season five finds its soul again and doesn’t let go.

Balancing early-season payoff…

This season, I’m rewatching scenes in episodes just to spend more time reflecting on what they mean.

On at least one occasion this season, “For All Mankind” has flat out made me cry. I’m not always moved by TV, and I haven’t been with “FAM” since season two, so it’s a wonderful emotional callback. Another moment came close, and I’m bracing for more as the season builds.

Fair warning: I wasn’t immediately sure about the plot after the first episode of season five.

Ed Baldwin continues to be comically aged such that his appearance is more akin to Supreme Leader Snoke from Star Wars than the actor Joel Kinnaman who portrays the original series character. I appreciate the Clint Eastwood character vibes, but I was also distracted at times. “Is his mouth moving at all as he’s talking?”

Nevertheless, this imperfect character’s story rewards early season viewers in season five while his legacy adds relevance to new characters. “For All Mankind” season five includes one episode of television that I think is just beautifully written and executed.

I also felt an odd vibe shift at the end of episode one. “Wait, did this show just become ‘Law & Order: Mars Victims Unit’ or worse, that parody show inside the ‘Murderbot’ series?”

But no, episode two brings us right back to the lasting vibe of the show, and in another week or so, well, grab the tissues.

By the end of the eighth episode, it kind of feels cinematic, and the theme of family ties together all of the action and drama that’s about to go down.

The best compliment I can pay season five is that it makes me want to rewatch “For All Mankind” seasons one and two. Those episodes originally premiered in November 2019 and February 2021, and I generally don’t love to revisit much from the pandemic-adjacent timeline.

…with future story buildup

“For All Mankind” season five also ends on the same day that the spin-off series “Star City” has its two-episode premiere.

Based on the premise, I don’t expect much crossover with “For All Mankind” season five. This is the premise, per Apple:

A bold new chapter inspired by the critically acclaimed space-race drama, “Star City” is a propulsive paranoid thriller that takes us back to the key moment in the alt-history retelling of the space race — when the Soviet Union became the first nation to put a man on the moon. But this time, we explore the story from behind the Iron Curtain, showing the lives of the cosmonauts, the engineers and the intelligence officers embedded among them in the Soviet space program, and the risks they all took to propel humankind forward. 

“Star City” sounds like must-see TV before the aforementioned rewatching of “For All Mankind” season one that this new season has inspired. But first, this fifth season of “For All Mankind” must reach this epic conclusion that’s currently brewing.

“For All Mankind” on Apple TV

“For All Mankind” season five arrives on Apple TV on Friday, March 27, with new episodes appearing weekly through May 29. The first four seasons are streaming now on Apple TV.

Apple TV is available for $12.99/month after trial. Apple TV is also included in the Apple One bundle.

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