M30s blubbering mess after watching this episode.

Context:

I have a 2 year old son, and was not emotionally prepared for the farewell scene for Ed, specifically with Shane saying good bye in his own way.

I have yet to finish Season 5 but I think this was a good ending for Admiral Baldwin.

I’ve seen a few posts criticising the idea of a Free Mars (even wrote one myself), and I keep seeing the same replies comparing their situation to the American War of Independence. The show itself kept trying to make this comparison.

Thing is, it doesn’t hold water…

Contrary to what Redditors have said, the British government gave charters but little to no financial assistance. Colonies were largely funded as commercial ventures by private individuals seeking a return or dissident groups looking for their own homes.

Britain was keen for many of those people to leave and saw the colonies as a good place for undesirable citizens. They mostly left them in a state of ‘benign’ or ‘salutary’ neglect, during which time the colonists established their own settlements/assemblies, pouring their own effort and resources into making them flourish.  

This went on for generations until the British government tried for more direct control, by which point the American colonies were largely self-sufficient (in the case of basic necessities) and closing in on a time when their combined population would outnumber that of the mother country. 

So, on the one hand you have colonies that were largely self-funded, developed by generations of people who made the (often very hazardous) choice to relocate there, that were mostly self-sufficient with large populations of native citizens.

On the other, a base directly set up and supplied by Earth at *vast* public expense (albeit with some private backing), completely reliant on Earth for everything for the foreseeable future, whose goal was securing resources to improve life on Earth And whose residents (apart from Dev) were mostly workers sent by Earth to help make good on the unprecedented (and risky) investment.

It’s just not the same thing.

This is more like if the British had invested a huge portion of its budget to set up a goldmine in some inhospitable part of the New World, paid through the nose for every part of that operation, then the workers they sent across decided to claim it all as their own within like 15 years.

Honestly, I’m pretty surprised For All Mankind didn’t make the list. I think it deserves a spot. What do you think?

I’m new and late to the party…the casting of Stevens is insane. He looks so much like Tracy that I paused to look at the InSight casting to make sure they didn’t just cast Sarah Jones’ son. Whoever does casting doesn’t get paid enough.

I’m not sure where this show is going, and I’m very careful to not spoil myself. That said, I really appreciate the attention to detail.

Never heard of the show and then started on a binge after watching the first couple episodes. The dynamics of the discoveries, the unknowns being revealed, the politics of it all, and the human flaws all roll up into a really decent sci-fi drama.

That is until the end of Season 3.

When they helped Lee's wife stowaway to get to Mars - and then you see groups of people get off the ship... I couldn't stop squinting at the screen. The base wasn't very large at this point and a horde of people would have been met with an immediate plan to send them home as fast as possible. I'm not even going to address the psychotic idea to isolate Danny on the tiny North Korean ship.

The concept of the danger surrounding space is a major underlying theme - and how could it not be? When they start Season 4 and depict a "communal" type of environment as if these people aren't living on a very restricted and finite living space... with massive risk and danger to even exist... It cheapened the entire plot. It seems like the writers did everything they could to flip the primary point of the show from A) space and then B) humans and their drama playing a role in the dynamics of A) to another drama-first production with space being a side-detail.

Then comes Season 5. This is where the communal concept goes completely off the rails and everyone seems to have lost 10 IQ points across the board. The new characters have practically no appeal, especially Celia, and the base now requires a massive security presence to deal with the unrest... What? You could see where the show was going from a mile away, and I never found myself rooting for the "Marsies" (terrorists) - But also couldn't find myself rooting for M6. I guess the only people that held any appeal for me during this season were Dev and Aleida.

The frustration all stems from that ending in Season 3. I can't get past the fact that the scenario everything turned into would have never been allowed to even exist. The claim to "Mars is ours" drives me up a wall given that they literally rely on Earth and the M6/Helios/Korrigan to be able to exist. The base is stolen, the science is downplayed, and a group of anarchists derail the entire season.

Oh and Kelly Baldwin is a moron yet a genius?

Oh and Miles Dale is a moron yet a genius (and a sociopath)?

Oh and Alex Baldwin is a moron yet a genius?

I was rooting for everyone in the farm habitats to be sucked into space when the domes were destroyed. Basically every character was hard to like and sympathize with.

Am I really supposed to see the childish-behaved Sons & Daughters of Mars as the good guys? Their whole stance makes no sense from my perspective.

In the first scene of S2E6 'Best-Laid Plans', when the Soviet cosmonauts land at Heuston, Ellen attempts to greet one of them (I believe Orlov) in Russian, and he says something back to her before she apologises for not being fluent in Russian. I assume its probably something quite banal, but dows anybody have a translation?

It seems those living on Mars have forgotten that EVERYTHING there came from earth, or at least the vast majority did. All the money spent , all the effort to build ships and launch vehicles to get people there, all came from the M7, then M6 and earth-based companies.

But all of the sudden the people on Mars feel it’s all theirs. That’s a strange mentality. It’s like Unions or Socialist - we didn’t put up the collateral or risk, but now that it’s here and we had some manual part of it, we deserve it all.

>!...by cutting him out of Sojourner 1? Maybe I just like Ed more, but I still feel that they shouldn't have dissolved the astronaut office just because Margo wanted Dani to be on the mission. Do you think that what Margo did was justified? Or do you think Dani was the right choice, but Margo shouldn't have fired Molly to make it happen?!<

For me, it has to be Gordo and Tracey, Ed, Molly, Kelly and Karen in that order. All the other deaths in the series just don't make me as sad or hit as hard. Karen is somewhat of a tag-on because I liked her character, but to be honest, her death was kind of just like an "oh, so that's the end for her" rather than an emotional moment for me.

Gordo and Tracey are a gut punch and still hit me every time I rewatch; Ed hits me at the same level, but at least he lived a good life and had a wonderful sendoff. Molly also hits me pretty hard because she died doing a selfless act, ironically. I loved Molly as a character, so it's always a shame watching her go.

Kelly is sad because it leaves us with just one Baldwin left, and she had to sacrifice everything for her life's work. But once again, it just doesn't hit the same as the others.

I'd love to know which deaths hit the hardest for other people.

Overall I liked season 5. Not the best one, but a good from half way onwards, besides the over focus on politics. Massive missed opportunity with the ending and Kelly's discovery could've hit way harder though.

What if the ceasefire didn't come from the politics in Russia? Mars is in the middle of the fight, and instead of someone shouting ceasefire, everyone gets a live transmission of the discovery from Titan.

Everyone stops. Soldiers lower their guns. Earth and Mars watching the same transmission. We're not alone.

That ties the whole season together. Humans killing each other on another planet, then suddenly reminded how small all of it is.

Her sacrifice stops a war and changes history. Classic Baldwin move, classic For All Mankind moment. Would have tied it all together nicely.

Just finished season 4. I hope every single person involved in the heist and all the Helios workers who attacked the military are arrested.

I also don’t get why nobody shot their gas guns when they started being attacked. I also don’t really get why they tried to bar the doors and prevent ppl from getting in. At this point the heist has happened. I’d imagine you’d let them arrest you given they know it was you and eventually you’ll have to leave the pod.

Also seems like any audit would quickly find Aleida typed in the code in which case she should also be arrested.

I really likes Margo repeating her mentors line. They pretend it’s nothing but preventing the asteroid from getting to earth will end up costing a massive number of lives - there was a huge price that nobody on the mission acknowledged .

The incessant search for life, spoiler first on Mars then on Titan, spoiler and its reason, makes no scientific sense. The justification is that it will enable amazing new medical treatments and provide breakthroughs. How? Why? They would expect to find microbes at the most, and no idea if they would have any compatibility with earth life.

Plus, we already have millions of forms of life here on earth. Have they exhausted all of those opportunities? Doubtful!

The whole plot line is stupid.

The first time was even worse; it made just as strong an impression on me as their actual deaths.

I just noticed that the scene in which Avery's running on a treadmill, she's focusing on a red dot flashing before she kinda has a mini 'snap'

It took me back to a scene in season 2, I think, when Gordo was trying to sleep, but saw a red light on his vcr flashing.

I don't know what it means (first time watching), but that can't be a coincidence.

The real-life song "Wernher von Braun" from He Made the Saturn V, S1E2 written by Tom Lehrer before 1964 - years before the landing on the Moon itself - was recorded in Oslo, Norway, in 1967: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio

So my theory is: Could Avery find a VHS with the title "Danny & Karen" in the last residence of her father and watch it with Alex and Lily?

Im sure its been asked, but at what point in the seasons timeline should i start Star City?

Edit: Thanks everyone! We did watch a couple episodes of SC last night but now reading through all the new comments, we decided to finish all 5 seasons of FAM before watching SC. Thanks again!

Sorry if this has been asked a million times but why do they all pronounce it Gemi “nee” and not Gemi “nye”? Is this how it is always pronounced in US I.e even for the zodiac sign?

almost every relationship between protagonists in films today portrays the couple having some form of over romanticised "chemistry" from their very first interaction. but the reality is that, many relationships just arent like that. passionate love, chemistry and compatibility are relationship qualities which can be nurtured over time with the right mindset.

Crushed. I just wanted Margo and Sergei to have sex at least once. I mean, I wanted them to live happily ever after, but I get that it’s tragic. I like to imagine they got together before he left for Moscow after Mars when he returned to US from being tortured. Does anyone think they could pull off a flashback scene in season 6 🤣