"For All Mankind" has wrapped up another intense, breakneck season. The Apple TV Plus series takes an alternate view of history starting in 1969 during the peak of the Space Race. In "FAM," instead of the Americans being the first to land on the moon, the Soviets do.
'For All Mankind' seasons 1-4 are streaming on Apple TV Plus
The change kicks off an entire parallel history that spans the late 1960s to the 2000s, weaving together stories of Cold War espionage, setting up a colony on Mars, and mining asteroids for precious metals. The entire series has earned a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the fourth season hitting 100%.
If you’ve loved the latest installment, and can't wait for season 5, check out these shows like "For All Mankind" to watch in the meantime.
'Battlestar Galactica'
If you find yourself itching for another epic space show, check out "Battlestar Galactica," which also came from "For All Mankind’s" creator Ronald D. Moore. "BSG" has been praised extensively since it aired, with The New York Times calling it one of TV’s greatest dramas since "The Sopranos" and critic Mike Hale describing it as an “original creation [that] took TV science fiction to places it had never gone before.”
While "Battlestar Galactica" may be technically described as a “space opera,” it also blends elements of sci-fi, dystopian fiction, and character-driven drama. The show drops us into a world where cyborgs called Cylons have all but eradicated the human race and the last remaining humans grapple with their survival as they hurtle through space.
'Stargate SG-1'
"Stargate SG-1" is the perfect watch if you like the blend of science fiction and space exploration in "FAM," but want something a little lighter tone-wise. And lest anyone tell you that "Stargate" and its spinoffs don’t use real scientific concepts: Mika McKinnon brought her expertise in astronomy and planetary science to the "Stargate Atlantis" and "Stargate Universe" in order to make the scientific plot points more believable.
"Stargate SG-1" follows Air Force Colonel Jack O’ Neill (Richard Dean Anderson) and his team as they explore other worlds through a device known as the Stargate. Through their explorations, they must face off with a race of aliens, known as the Goa'uld, who are determined to take over Earth.
Watch all 10 seasons on Pluto
'Black Mirror'
"Black Mirror" isn’t for the faint of heart. The anthology series interrogates our relationship with technology. No matter which episodes you watch, you’ll be sure to get a taste of a near-future where technology has been taken to its logical, terrifying extreme.
To get your fix for space travel and high stakes, check out season 6's “Beyond the Sea.” This episode opens with a rosy version of space travel in 1969: Astronauts can do long-haul missions while their robot replicas can keep them connected to loved ones on Earth. But when tragedy strikes, astronaut David (Josh Hartnett) is disconnected from Earth and takes extreme measures to make fellow astronaut Cliff (Aaron Paul) understand what he’s going through.
Watch on Netflix
'Masters of Sex'
Masters of Sex is the show to watch if you loved the midcentury cool and boundary-breaking in the workplace in the earlier seasons of "For All Mankind." "Masters of Sex," based on the biography of Masters and Johnson by Thomas Maier, shows Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) fighting to be seen as an equal of doctor Bill Masters (Michael Sheen), an OB-GYN who turns his focus to the study of human sexuality.
The two of them use themselves as test subjects in their research, both insisting that their feelings won’t get in the way of the groundbreaking discoveries they will make. John Griffiths at US Weekly wrote: “[e]vocative and provocative, this fact-based drama is most invigorating when showing how the findings helped ignite women's lib.”
'The Dropout'
One of the key themes driving "For All Mankind" is the promise of space — and how that promise can push people to the brink and sometimes over the edge. Such is a similar theme in Hulu’s "The Dropout." The acclaimed limited series ran for just eight episodes, but it earned a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The show, based on the rise and fall of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, shows Holmes (Amanda Seyfried) as she pushes forward to achieve her goal of becoming a billionaire, no matter the cost. The series also includes Naveen Andrews (who has been in other sci-fi shows like Lost and Sense8) as Sunny Balwani, Holmes’s business partner and lover.
Watch on Hulu
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