Over the last several weeks, FOR ALL MANKIND has focused on new characters to awful results. The show has been a drag as politics have taken center stage, and the exciting space thrills have run out of air. While LENINGRAD doesn’t add much in the way of space thrills, it does return to focusing on the series’ main characters – Margo Madison (Wrenn Schmidt) and her protégée Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña). That focus makes the show much more watchable, even when we get ridiculously contrived scenes and plot threads that will make the audience grimace.
The Margo moments play like a 1970s Russian spy thriller, complete with wire taping gone wrong. That espionage thrill ride and the explosive re-teaming of two lead characters should encourage audiences to tune in again. However, the season is six episodes in, and we are just getting to the main plot threads. This is the slowest of slow burns, with an infuriatingly bad last few episodes. I have zero faith that FOR ALL MANKIND will stick to the landing. And once this season ends, I’ll abandon ship and return to Earth’s orbit to watch other shows that are more consistent.
It’s available to stream on Apple TV+.
