So here I am, with a year to my name on this site, as well as 500 followers somehow.

I never actually intended to review anything or even interact with people when joining Letterboxd. I'd never used any social media before (and have never had the desire to) and I just thought it would be nice to have a organised diary of films watched with my ratings and make some fun lists too. Then, I realised that's not even half of what Letterboxd is about, and I started realising that there are tonnes of friendly people here who I can talk about movies with (something I can't do with friends I know in person as none of them are as into movies as me). I started writing little reviews and eventually those grew into what I write today, which may not exactly be the pinnacle of what you will find on this site (far from it in fact), but I always finish each one happy, and I love writing them.

And to everyone who is reading them, thank you, I'm very glad to have found such a nice community on here, and thank you all for 500 followers! :)

Now, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to review one of my all time favourite TV shows - For All Mankind - as I've just finished its most recent season. It's one of the longest things I've written on here so feel free to ignore it, but I love it so much that I couldn't stop writing about it. It's a spoiler-free review, if you haven't seen the show (and I believe not enough people have).

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So, having just finished the most recent season of For All Mankind (season 3), I realised that I just had to advertise it on here with a review because if you already have Apple TV+, then what are you waiting for to watch this? And if you are not currently on Apple TV+ then I'd argue that this (as well as Severance and Ted Lasso seasons 1 and 2) will be more than worth the price.

For All Mankind is about what would've happened if the Soviets beat the USA to the Moon, and what would've happened if NASA remained such a core focus in America with its own protected funding. That's the premise, at its core, but the show is about so much more than that. It's about love, about learning to move on from grief, about holding those dearest to you close but not forgetting that they have their own dreams, learning that the world is not so simply black and white, but rather a grey fog with dark spells and moments of light scattered in-between.

With an enormous cast of characters and enough genres to satisfy anyone, it's safe to say that For All Mankind aims high. Blending ingenious sci-fi, political thriller and family drama with sprinkles of good-natured comedy in between, nearly every single episode is an emotional ride and the feeling when things go right for the characters in the show is such an indescribable high that warms your heart to the highest degree. However, this show loves to do more ripping your heart out than warming it (the last episode of season 2 may be the closest I've ever been to crying at watching something). Just watched a character save someone they love? Well guess what in about a minute they will be told another loved one has just died! There are genuinely no words that could ever fully describe the emotional devastation I have felt watching this show, the love I have for so many of the characters or just the sheer scale of it all - and it's not even finished yet! (With supposedly 3 or 4 more seasons to come).

The directing behind each episode is masterful (and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Andrew Stanton had a hand in a few episodes) and the cinematography is always absolutely phenomenal, being intimate when necessary but also knowing when to let the atmosphere of the surroundings just wash over you. Everything is captured with an expert eye and it elevates an already great show to an amazing one.

That final missing piece of the puzzle to take the show up to being one of the best shows I've ever watched? The performances. Not a single performance is bad. Not a single performance is *just* good. Not a single performance is great, even.
Every performance is just damn amazing.
Joel Kinnaman is simply breathtaking in this. The script asks a lot of him emotionally and he doesn't just deliver, he serves a god damn ace. An intricate script that treats the emotions organically and lets it naturally flow through each scene is nothing without an actor who is up to the task, and I really can't imagine anyone but Joel Kinnaman as the lead. I call him the lead mainly because he is the first name to appear on the opening credits, but his character is never the only focus and probably only gets a little more screen time than everyone else, which allows the fleshing-out of a wide range of characters which means that you care for each and everyone of them thanks to the soul-stirring script and everyone's pitch-perfect performances. I know I singled out Kinnaman's performance, but everyone else is also indescribably brilliant, it's just that somehow Kinnaman transcends perfection. I would list all the other fantastic actors and actresses but I would be here forever if I did.

Continuing on, this has one of my all time favourite scores, not just in television, but in film too. With a deeply human piano that tinkles around the film's most melancholic moments, to the triumphant symphony of success, it all gels so well with the story, and is yet another element to this show that I feel deserves heaps and heaps of praise.

All in all, For All Mankind is a show that reaches for the stars (please excuse the pun) with its immensely ambitious scope, but with such meticulous craft behind each episode, it pulls it off in stunning fashion. It's not afraid to take big swings and it fully commits to its vast vision, and for that it is already commendable, but the fact that it pulls it all off? Now that, is masterful.

Please just go and watch it, you won't regret it, and while the first few episodes may feel a bit slow, trust me when I say it doesn't take long until it blows you away.
5 stars == Basically perfect.

Letterboxd is enough for me at the moment so that's why I'm not going to join Serializd, but I just had to review For All Mankind here as it is one of my favourite shows ever. Admittedly I haven't watched a whole lot of TV shows, but I can't imagine this ever not being a perfect favourite, and a lot more people should be watching it.