It’s easy to start a war, but it’s almost impossible to stop one.

Here we go again! A whole new season, another decade or so into the future; this time after a new release, not back to back with previous seasons.

This series kicks off well after the capture (and kidnapping) of the Goldilocks asteroid. Happy Valley is thriving. A whole new Baldwin (Kelly’s son Alex) is taking the stage–although Ed is still kicking along, ever older. Everything seems to be going so well…

So of course things are going to fall apart.

War is simply politics by other means.

It’s a season with a lot of politics. Mars coming into its own. Tensions between Marsies and Earth. Tensions between Marsies and the police. Tensions between the USA and USSR. Tensions between civilians and corporations.

It’s a mess and it’s honestly a surprise that any of them made it out alive.

The people up here, they trust you. So for the first couple of months, you had the support of almost the entire base. People were cheering you on, celebrating you. How you guys were fighting the tyranny of automation for an independent Mars. But now? Six months in? Food’s being rationed, money system’s breaking down, maintenance issues are piling up. Reality has set in. And this is when you find out who your real friends are.

Overall, the further For All Mankind diverges from our own Earth, the more interesting and harder to believe it becomes. We know how the real world went over these decades–and of, to have had a colony on Mars by now. But it’s hard to believe that so much could have changed after so little. As each season goes by, we’re moving more from alternate history to straight up near future scifi. Which works, it’s just a different feel.

Characterwise, Ed it still fascinating to watch, but man is he still hard to like. Kelly is in a lot of ways the same–willing to risk it all when either of them know that they’re right. Margo is still there, but mostly out of the plot. Dev seems oddly unused for most of this season. Aleida is still solid–and I really think one of the most sensible people on the entire planet at times.

We are really starting to run out of original characters though. Which, given that we are half a century past season 1… makes some sense.

Among the new generation, I do like Alex, even if he’s super passive at times. Working in the shadow of his mother and grandfather would have to be hard. Miles (from last season) and his daughter Lily are a big draw of the season, trying to drive Mars to what it could be.

Overall, I still love this show. I’m curious to see how scifi it gets in another decade (hopefully that’s only in universe, man these seasons take a while)! And in the meantime, there’s Star City. Onward!