IR TV Review: FOR ALL MANKIND - EPISODE 2 [Apple TV-S5]

After the initial return on "For All Mankind" Season 5, it was just a matter of a moment to start the drama running again. The cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode was meant to spur a kind of restlessness. Ed Baldwin, now old and decrepit, is just looking for a reason to cause some trouble even if it causes a problem with his health. The person accused of a crime is the one who went to bat for him at the end of last season...and if there is anything Ed is, it is loyal. Meanwhile his daughter Kelly Baldwin (played by Cynthy Lu) is like her dad with ambition as the race continues to shift buffered by private enterprise (as is the essence in real life). The aspect that this episode gets right is concentric forms of action.

One of them is spearheaded by Mireille Enos' MP who knows something is up. She is trying to balance the hard line she has her with the politics of the situation. But like any planet there are different factions. Alex (Sean Kaufman) is likely going to be a bigger factor this season but he seems to be blindsighted by his mother and his grandfather's at times blind ambition. He is simply caught in the middle. There are again odes to "Total Recall" and interestingly enough "2010" in what motivates humanity but also what keeps them grounded. The key aspect that the showrunner continue to keep in mind is that community is mostly not a lost cause but a few bad decisions can sink a ship. As the episode concludes, there is a sense of that camaraderie especially between two men...and that is what has always fueled this show. Now it is simply dependent on outcome since one denial provides a different path to follow. B

By Tim Wassberg