IR TV Review: STAR CITY - EPISODE 4 (“Dark Forest”) [Apple TV]

After the events of Episode 3, the idea of consequence is always a question. But like "For All Mankind" using a slight jump helps to deepen the impact because it shows range and not impulse. And yet the balance of those two is what burgeons this version of the Soviet Space Program. Although this reviewer didn't track the mid-seasons of "For All Mankind" as closely as the now later season, the context of what moves this alternative timeline is based in a balance between espionage and ambition. As Episode 4 ("Dark Forest") contends, The Grand Designer (Rhys Ifans) knows what he wants to do but has to play against the house to do it. His big project, which he keeps under wraps, is a pretty ambitious and cool approach (and really reflects what could be done in real life with a certain planet...which has also been the focus of another very successful movie recently...in a peripheral way). His path requires a degree of faith but one character that enters in this episode makes that possible and yet her inclusion also requires sacrifice.

There is also an idea of perspective and placement which although key in the USA version has its own place in this Soviet angle. The party line is in essence what caused the issue that affected the outcome of the end of the last episode, but in that way it made the person who was affected directly...more aware and yet his spouse, a lauded cosmonaut simply by circumstance feels the loss in her own way. And yet all these responses are selfish and individual, nothing to do with the thought of the state. At one point before taking a drink, said cosmonaut asks her handler about the psychology of Yuri Gagarin, who never went back up into space after his famous trip...and the response is telling. The MacGuffin which runs through the episode but will likely explode in someone's face down the line all comes down to a simple but effective detail which is a beautiful reveal. It doesn't say anything…it just shows it. It is those moments balanced with the ambition of the space program here that is riveting. The political manipulation inside the Communist state is, of course, a necessary part of the story and fuels decisions but it is the moments of accomplishment and risk that are the most intense...and that doesn't have to do with politics. It simply has to do with the human experience. B

By Tim Wassberg