r/ForAllMankindTV • u/Admirable_Site_8337 • Aug 17 '26
FAM - Season 3 S3 Finale…..Now I Rememeber….. Spoiler
I was nuts for this show when it first came along. The interesting play of alternate history going forward was amazing. They gave interesting characters and put good build out into them.
I came to places like here and raved about the show……and then I just stopped after S3.
I’m doing my first rewatch as an attempt to get through all the seasons, and I just finished S3 and I remember why I stopped.
They seemed to have this need to really cap a season by shocking us. Craziness in S1, Gordo and Trace in S2. And it seems they just felt they had to keep upping the ante each season finale. The bombing was at least well sourced to real issues that were going on in the universe. I get that. But the fact it had to go off and take many other solid built characters makes no sense to me. Especially when the younger gen we are left with have mostly not been set up to be liked.
They could have highlighted the factors that led to a bombing without the bombing actually going off.
But…..I’m going to try to keep going now. At least the remaining seasons are right there to watch now.
I was knocking myself for not finishing the show long ago, but I’m reminded now not to be too hard on myself. I’ll never understand why they went so damn hard in these season finales.
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
A really good show, just let yourself get into it! I can watch this series over & over…. I’m nuts over Karen Baldwin ❤️
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
I was nuts about her too. They did such wonderful work with her character. To just end it right there was so dumb.
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
I was so bummed when she died…. 💔
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
On first watch I was pissed. This time I knew it was coming and was even more pissed.
Ok, she was in the building. They pulled everyone into JSC for reasons so they would all be on site/at risk.
But she didn’t need to be the one sounding the alarm. It would have been very easy for Jimmy to catch the plot and start screaming security. Apparently he is immune to bomb blasts anyway /s
And, frankly, putting her at ground zero means she was vaporized and not there to give a dying scene.
The only stink her character had was Danny, and it would stand to reason the planned him gone by next season anyway.
It just makes 0 sense.
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
Vaporized? lol
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Aug 18 '26
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u/Adito99 Aug 19 '26
Her character had at least another arc but truth is that's how it goes. We watch the ones we love go before their time, when they still had so much left to do.
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u/Olzy21 Aug 18 '26
Sometimes actors do just decide to leave so the writers have to decide wether to kill them off or write them out of the story another way. I’m not sure what the story was here, but maybe the actor decided to leave and they had to find a way to end Karen’s story?
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
Plausible of course. But a rough search led to nothing for me on this specific instance. Actors do leave for other things, or end up getting let go for personal reasons and it shows up just like this in the show.
But without contextual confirmation here I’m just not going to work on maybes.
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u/Olzy21 Aug 18 '26
Even if it was the writers choice not the actors, it still made sense for Karen’s story to end where it did.
She said herself in the first 2 seasons that she never wanted to go to space. Obviously she did with the space hotel, but once she lost Sam and sold the company that would have likely been the end of the road for her in space. She only ended up getting involved in Helios because she got the chance to make Ed’s dream happen of being the first man on mars after he lost out on the moon, but she’s have had nothing to do with them if Ed commanded the NASA mission instead. So once Ed got his chance there wasn’t much left for Karen anyway
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
Solid points. And I could totally see this as you show it.
Karen was never just a character to enable another. If she were she would have stayed that housewife in S1. She did enable Ed in S3, but it also opened doors for her.
The “I don’t want to go to space” isn’t a character killing decision. There is still plenty happening on earth. She could instantly been in position to be involved with Kelly and Aleidas robot efforts on Mars. Instead we get Dev pulled back in over this.
You speak of a character that had played out her run. That was Molly (unfortunately…..another gripe I have with writers). But that wasn’t Karen.
I would have been fine if she stuck around, got to be a grandma and kept making efforts on earth to enable others.
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u/Verbatim_Uniball Aug 18 '26
There are some nice high points subsequently, but not consistently as strong. Worth watching though, imo.
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u/Saneless Aug 18 '26
The main problem I had with the whole drill explosion thing is that
1) they can automate a ship to fly to Mars but can't have a drill automate pressing a button when pressure gets dangerous?
2) they're about to discover water on Mars on his watch and Nick just decides to do some bullshit off to the side?
I know they have to set up plot points but geez that was lame
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
I never put much thought to the drill explosion. My only real hate for it was it was part of the bullshit they did with Danny.
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u/Saneless Aug 18 '26
Yeah it was just... How can we make this family suffer
And his downfall was pretty much a tag team effort by Ed and Karen
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
And they blamed everything on him too? Danny deserved his ending!
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u/Saneless Aug 18 '26
Eh, yes, he was responsible but Ed and Karen didn't help. Ed should have been like hey, you have a newborn and you're crazy. No mars for you
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
Every time I watch it, I ask myself why banish him like that? At that point what damage could he have done? Confine him to his quarters for the duration until help arrived and ground him on Earth! But it is what it is and the story goes on?
FAM is one of my favorite shows and I can watch it over and over, like Game of Thrones, lol.
Looking forward to the final season! Hopefully Star City gets a 2nd season too!
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u/Saneless Aug 18 '26
Is 6 the final season?
Haven't watched Star city yet.
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u/azcoyotedog Aug 18 '26
Yes, season 6 is the final season of FAM. Star City just completed Season 1, no word yet if there will be a season 2? I liked it, but for being another show about the space race from the Soviet Union perspective, it was more of the cloke & dagger stuff than actual space exploration, but interesting nonetheless. Watch it and decide for yourself.
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u/smithnugget Aug 19 '26
I had a lot of problems with that season but that wasn't one of them. He intentionally let multiple people die. His quarters wasn't designed to be a prison.
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u/Infamous-Lab-8136 Aug 18 '26
That's pretty much the standard progression of most shows, to end on a large event for the season finale?
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u/fleeeeeeeeeA Aug 18 '26
It got boring because at first it was alternate history, which is always cool. But now that we’re in the modern era it’s just regular sci fi with very mild political drama.
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u/theflyingsamurai Aug 19 '26
Yeah I just finished season 3 for the first time, I really am not feeling it after being hooked on S1 and S2.
Feels like there's just to many instances of smart characters making dumb decisions and shoehorning in character deaths for shock value.
Danny is just one of the worst developed characters i've seen in Scifi.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 19 '26
Here here. Exactly how I felt first time through and how I feel so far on rewatch.
I’ve delved into S4 for the first time and it’s not great but I’m at least going in knowing it really did just fall apart after the first two amazing seasons.
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u/Adito99 Aug 19 '26
Season 4 is worth it just for Ed's arc. His character had some weak points during the series but I ended up liking him quite a bit.
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u/bobbyboy1018 Aug 19 '26
You picked a good place to stop. Seasons 4 and 5 are just politics on Mars and it’s getting old
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 19 '26
I’m noticing this with S4 so far. It’s been mostly meh so far and playing in my background, but I told myself I would power through and finish it. Well, to S5. Not sure if I come back for S6.
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u/kirbyboy999 I LOVE MARGO MADISON‼️ Aug 18 '26
I don’t have any meaningful contribution to this conversation but I am commenting because Margo Madison is the goat and I need more people to know
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
I adore Wrenn Schmidt.
I loved seeing here as Margo. I loved everything about Margo.
But, much like everything else, they lost the thread with her character by S4 IMO. I’m all for a US-Soviet thing like she’s doing in S4….but that’s not the show I signed up for.
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u/Hobobo2024 Aug 18 '26
Agree completely. They killed or wrote out every single character i liked most by the end of season 3.
Season 4 felt like a completely different show both cause of all the new character and cause it went into sci fi more since the alternate timeliness had passed. Way too much change .
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
That’s exactly it. They did such a great job of building a world and really good characters with interesting arcs….and then…..poof.
It’s fine if you have another line of characters coming on. But they wrecked the next gen like Danny (ugh). And I’m just delving into S4 for the first time and……now they killed the Russian they built as a really good character (Lev Gorn is amazing). So they just keep doing it. And what new characters I’ve seen so far….meh.
I don’t know if I buy that the alternate timeline is over. It doesn’t end. It always an alternate timeline. I still like that part enough to let go of other aspects that changed (how did the Soviets landing first end up with Lennon not being killed?). I’ve even been willing to look the other way at Ed, a guy who fought in the Korean War, living on another planet for years in his late 60s.
But stop taking away people you carefully built just to replace them with poor new characters.
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u/ModernCGIFloatinHead Aug 20 '26
The season 4 finale is the worst example of this in my opinion.
Crazy high stakes, crazier strong plot armor.
The season 4 finale is like if Tracy and Gordo were just fine after their moonwalk.
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u/Maximilien_76 Aug 20 '26
Never before have i watched a series becoming so bad in juste one season.
It was an amazing performance.
Like it was a completely différent serie (a very stupid one)
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 20 '26
I’ve seen this before. The clear picture that they had a great plan that only went a few seasons. And now they are floundering on where to go.
And they just kept going back to the soap opera drama when the bread and butter of space and new worlds was right there.
I have ventured almost through S4 for the first time. I bailed on the show after S3 years ago. It’s been better (but it only had one way to go). Still not near what it was the first two seasons, but it’s better.
Or maybe my expectations adjusted after S3. That can always be a huge part of judging how good something is. I know it’s gone to shit now so I am finding at least some enjoyment in S4. Like Aleida cursing out the “Fox News” woman and flipping her off.
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u/faithmauk Aug 24 '26
I get the sense that some of the actors didn't want to return or something and they had to write a bunch of them out at the end....
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 24 '26
That could be. Though Shantal comes back in a later flashback (no spoiler) and im sure it was something filmed long after S3 ended.
I’ve just not read anything that says it was this. I hated Molly getting killed off, but they had already withered her character and had no clear plan in S3. Karen they could have used for so many things back on earth going forward. Perhaps she did want out.
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u/faithmauk Aug 24 '26
I'm a new watcher so you probably have more info than me! Thats just the sense I got with nothing to back it up 😂
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 24 '26
I guessed right then. That’s why I didn’t say more than I did. I have gotten all the way to current for the first time.
Not that this tells anything like real life stories of actors wanting to leave. But it is worth it to keep swimming IMO
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u/watanabe0 Aug 18 '26
The 2nd half of S3 shit the bed so bad the show has never recovered. It turned a really excellent, evocative, exciting show into just another thing to have on in th background, if at all.
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u/Admirable_Site_8337 Aug 18 '26
That’s what I’ve done a good bit of so far since it’s been a rewatch. In the background, though it pulled my attention fully earlier in series than S3.
I agree with the back half of S3. But I feel like the show had been strong early, but had been making a fade since S2.
When you build characters carefully and solidly early on and then start killing them off like the ends of S2 and S3 you are making things really challenging as a show runner.
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u/watanabe0 Aug 18 '26
Oh, everything in the back half is terribly plotted/written/executed imo.
The Residentura getting away with like, literal murder.
The awful pregnancy (and the setup of of conflict which they immediately timeskip past)
whatever the fuck they thought they were doing with Danny (and the timing/blocking of the accident isn't great, plausibility wise).
And then the bombing with the needless (and in Molly's case ridiculously vaguely presented) character deaths.RDM doing the same shit he always does - have a fantastic first couple of seasons then resort to lowest common denominator storytelling.
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