Television series

For All Mankind

Name: For All Mankind
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 2019
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Wrenn Schmidt, Coral Peña, Cynthy Wu, Krys Marshall

For All Mankind rewrites the Cold War so the Soviets land on the moon first, and NASA never gets permission to stand down. Across decades it follows astronauts, engineers and their families as ambition, grief and politics keep pushing the program further - permanent lunar bases, Mars, beyond. It's soapy, hopeful, occasionally corny, and often genuinely moving: for anyone who wants history rewritten kinder, and their science fiction grounded in real engineering and heartbreak.

TVMaze rating

7.4

If you liked this

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But Darker and more mythic, heavier on war and religion, and missing the hopeful warmth that makes FAM feel like home.

The Right Stuff1983

The real Mercury program, told with Tom Wolfe swagger - this is the actual history FAM springboards off, full of the same test-pilot bravado and press-conference politics.

But Dated pacing and a much more macho, mythologising lens, with none of FAM's interest in the women left out of the record.

Apollo 131995

Ron Howard's tense true story delivers the exact feeling of FAM's best hours - engineers solving impossible problems in real time, with lives on the line.

But One mission, two hours, no alternate history and none of the decades-spanning family soap opera.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

From the Earth to the Moon1998no page yet

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But No fictional twist, some dated effects, and a more reverent, less soapy tone than FAM's family drama.

Halt and Catch Fire2014

Same instinct for ambitious people building something new against real historical currents, decade by decade, just with garage computers instead of rockets.

But A slow, uncertain first season, and the stakes are commercial rather than literally life-or-death.

The Expanse2015

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Chernobyl2019

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Mad Men2007

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But No space, no science, purely character drama - might feel like a genre swap too far for some.

The Americans2013

Cold War tension lived through a marriage and a family, with the same fascination for how geopolitics reshapes the people inside it.

But Spies rather than astronauts, colder and more paranoid, with far less optimism running through it.

First Man2018

An intimate, grief-soaked account of Armstrong and the real moon landing - the closest single film in tone to FAM's quieter, sadder moments.

But Internal and hushed rather than sprawling; it may feel slow after FAM's ensemble momentum.

Woman in the Moon1929no page yet

Same yearning to claim the moon as human destiny, imagined as pure fantasy long before it was possible - proof the dream predates the politics by decades.

Fritz Lang's silent epic imagines a lunar expedition, complete with a countdown and launch procedure, decades before rockets existed - the dream FAM's Cold War politics eventually make real.

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Strips the drama out and plays the same institutional chaos - rival branches, astronaut egos, agency politics - purely for laughs.

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But Broad workplace satire with uneven laughs and a tonal 180 from FAM's earnestness that some will find jarring.