For All Mankind Review: Red Moon (Season 1 Episode 1)
Gathering around the world to watch the making of history brings a somber note on For All Mankind Season 1 Episode 1, “Red Moon.” This isn’t the history we know, and this is not the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
Like Joel Kinnaman’s Ed Baldwin, For All Mankind Season 1 Episode 1, “Red Moon,” finds the urgency of moving past frustration and getting down to what’s really important: the work. Though the episode spends a lot of its time on leisure, the ideals of family and camaraderie in the face of professional failure, it’s in its boundless enthusiasm of pushing on where the episode finds its most potency.
Ed’s revealing of NASA no longer having the guts that it once possessed is perhaps the most honest statement of the episode. It’s perhaps too honest, but he unwittingly sparks that fire, that anger and frustration, that is only felt but not seen beforehand. His comments may hurt him, but it does ignite something more powerful: to prove him wrong, in a sense.
The offer to Karen, his wife, to convince Ed of reversing his comments in order to secure his spot on Apollo 15 is a great moral dilemma. Ed’s stubborn from what we’ve seen so far, and so giving up his honor for his future sets up a question of what kind of character he will become from here on out. Taking back his truth would likely be a burden on him.
The relationship between Ed and his wife Karen is the kind of relationship that a show like this needs. Though they may have their disagreements and some touchy spots for their marriage, it’s the kind of bond that can’t be broken. Karen claims having difficulty getting things out of him, but she knows Ed better than he does himself, with how she considers his virtues of honor, duty, and integrity so seriously.
But it’s not only the men who are standing strong. The women band together themselves during the Apollo 11 incident to show the strength needed in continuing on under the shadow of worry and confusion. But it’s with Margo where the episode finds its largest strength, of a woman in a man’s world striving to prove herself.
Margo’s relationship with Wernher is a strong thread, where a father figure is pushing her to reach her full potential. Margo’s hesitation over correcting a man in the control room is a hard reminder that progress is not quite ready in the show’s world yet, despite her instincts.
Wrenn Schmidt is the performer who stands out the most on the episode, and so seeing where her character leads will be exciting.
The Apollo 11 mission turning to near-tragedy is a clever way of using our sense of history against us. Those four hours of signal loss are a worry that although this is alternate history, this may go down as a darker history. With Russia first to land, anything can happen now, good or bad. But For All Mankind is going for optimism, in the long run.
It’s a feeling rather rare on television, for a show to strive so strongly for optimism. While that may interfere with dramatic tensions if taken too far, For All Mankind appears to have them well under control.
For All Mankind Season 1 Episode 1, “Red Moon,” effortlessly ties the family and the work together as equally important components to lives striving to reach farther than any that have come before. The wonders of what lies beyond, and with the fact that the alternate history means anything is now possible, makes For All Mankind incredibly recognizable, but full of limitless potential.
Some pieces, like Aleida and her father crossing the border looking for a new life, have not meshed into the overall story yet. But it’s easy to feel like we’re in good hands, with the comfortable writing and careful storytelling. If it hasn’t connected yet, surely it will soon.
For All Mankind is making a larger point of how this space race is touching lives from all over, how it’s a cultural touchstone that ties everyone together. The American push to catch up and exceed will be a difficult one, and Ed may be the very voice needed to exceed. Or perhaps it’s in other voices, still silent but ready for a chance, that will rise to the occasion.
What did you think of this episode of For All Mankind? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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For All Mankind airs Fridays on Apple TV+.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.