Suffice it to say, my imagination was too earthbound. I enjoyed the premiere when I first watched it in fall 2019, but I will admit to wondering: What exactly is the show here? Another right-stuff story of cocky and troubled fly-boys with a classic-rock soundtrack? How many seasons of TV can you make out of, “What if history, but slightly different?” The United States, rattled by the thought of living under a pinko moon, shakes off its crisis of confidence, fires up the Saturn V and, after a white-knuckle landing, puts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface. It’s 1969, and a rapt world is watching the first man land on the moon - Alexei Leonov, a Soviet cosmonaut.
Apropos of its title, “For All Mankind” begins with one small step, in a different direction.
