Jargogled Impressions.

I started and stopped watching For All Mankind a number of times given the slow beginning. But a recommendations from multiple friends led me to retry and I completed the two seasons yesterday. The alternate history verse is a rich territory for mining drama and thrill out of a historical event. The flexibility to intersperse fiction with real characters, events, and development arcs offers a fertile soil for some colorful commentary on the world as it existed back whenever. And For All Mankind does not disappoint with offering a window to view the world then, with the lens we have developed today. From space race, nuclear Armageddon, Cold War, women emancipation, racial tensions, the interminable wars, etc., FOM covered it all.

While reminiscent of Mad Men – in its build up of characters and story line, FOM lacked the depth and ironic commentaries of the mad mad world of advertising. That said, there’s plenty to think about and wonder what the world could really have been. It also reminds of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe offering a perspective on the adrenaline filled, patriarchal world of astronauts.

The series has its share of dramatic scenes, emotional scenes, thrill of jealousy and debauchery, the alienation of wars and adoption, the anguish of loss and of separation. Some scenes are deliciously crafted to tingle nostalgia of an era gone by.

By the end of it, the plots seemed to resolve themselves with a flair and impending drama. I would recommend watching it minus the expectations of a deep, nuanced, and multi-dimensional retrospective that a masterpiece like Mad Men can offer.