★★☆☆☆
Apple TV+’s lunar headache For All Mankind is headed to Mars for real this time. Three competing spaceships strive to make it to the red planet first to win a huge cash prize.
NASA holds some tricks up its sleeve to beat the wilier competition, but you can’t count out the Russians just yet. They’re always willing to do something stupid to make headlines. A mostly fine episode ends on a nice little cliffhanger to boot.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The first reviews for the new M2 MacBook Pro are … not good.
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.
CleanMyMac X, from Ukrainian developer MacPaw, is a decluttering app for Mac that can keep your computer in tip-top shape. It includes 49 tools to find and delete invisible junk clogging your hard drive. Cult of Mac publisher Leander Kahney swears by CleanMyMac X (instead of swearing at it, as he does with most apps).
Get CleanMyMac X today with 5% off at macpaw.app/cultcast. Discount valid until June 30.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ alt-history hit For All Mankind makes all the right moves this week, then immediately blows a 26-point lead in the last inning.
For once, the dramatic arcs thrown at Margo, Karen, Dev, Aleida and Kelly all seem pretty satisfying and not at all cheap or hyperbolic. Then the writers ensure we won’t see how any of that plays out, instantly turning this from one of the show’s best episodes into its most frustrating yet.
But hey, at least we’re going to Mars, I guess.
An episode of For All Mankind features some retro Apple tech that real people in the 1990s could only dream of: an Apple Newton with a color screen. And one that can make video calls!
A producer for the show explained the clever trick.
For All Mankind is one of the most popular shows available on streaming, according to a ratings tracker. Season three of the alternate-history sci-fi series premiered on Apple TV+ in early June, and it’s been a Top 10 show both weeks since then.
Critics praise the series, too, so it’s doubly a success for Apple’s streaming service.
★★☆☆☆
For All Mankind heads to Mars a little sooner than expected this week — and with a surprise guest in the cockpit.
Danielle and Ed, then Molly and Margo, fall out. Karen and Ed fall into business together. Aleida worries about her family from the moon. And Danny Stevens is still a little psychopath.
It’s business as usual on Apple TV+’s frustrating space-exploration soap. The highs of last week’s TV movie of the week detour are already forgotten.
The first season of the alternate-history sci-fi series For All Mankind is now available to enjoy without an Apple TV+ subscription. Watching also doesn’t require an Apple device.
The promotion coincides with the launch of season three of the series.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+ alt-history space saga For All Mankind splashes down in the go-go ’90s in its not-really-merited third season. After another decadal jump, Nirvana is king, Bill Clinton is running for office, and we’re apparently going to Mars.
This show’s absurd single-mindedness has not been softened by its premature renewal for a fourth season, by which point presumably we’ll be traveling to the sixth dimension on a rocket sled while Avril Lavigne runs for Congress. Anyway … let’s rip off this Band-Aid.
If you’re a fan of critically acclaimed Apple TV+ space drama For All Mankind, brace for impact. Apple launched the season 3 trailer Monday.
In it, the alt-reality vision of a decades-long space race rockets off to Mars.
Apple TV+ revealed that For All Mankind season 3 will premiere in June, with the alternate-history sci-fi series headed for Mars.
A teaser trailer gives a first look at the new frontier the show will explore.
Apple TV+ received nine nominations across six programs for the 27th Annual Critics Choice TV Awards. That includes Best Drama Series for For All Mankind, Best Comedy Series for Ted Lasso, and Best Movie Made for Television for Come From Away.
The winners will be announced in January.
When Apple TV+ launched on November 1, 2019, Cupertino had its sights set on creating a serious Netflix rival. Two year on, it may not have conquered the world like fellow streaming newcomer Disney+ did. But Apple TV+ continues to deliver a stream of top-notch shows — and some must-see movies.
With dozens of series and more than 20 feature films, where should you start? Here’s our guide to the best shows and movies on Apple TV+, in no particular order.
Two Apple TV+ shows won Primetime Emmy Awards on Wednesday. For All Mankind: Time Capsule won for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media while Calls won for Outstanding Motion Design.
These juried awards were announced ahead of the regular Emmy ceremony that’s happening in mid-September.
For All Mankind has reportedly been renewed for a record (for Apple, at least) fourth season, according to a post on the Writers Guild of America webpage.
The sci-fi show, which is based in an alternate history in which the global space race continued, wrapped up its second season in April 2021. The second season was accompanied by a podcast by Apple titled For All Mankind: The Official Podcast.
The Russians have taken over the moon! The second season of Apple TV+ space soap For All Mankind ends with bloody faces, broken marriages, uncertain futures, and a whole boatload of moon crime.
If you’re wondering if any of it’s handled well, read on. But you know the score by now, don’t you?
This week on For All Mankind, Russians are blockading the moon and Ed Baldwin’s going up to set ’em straight. Can old-fashioned American ingenuity prevent the reignition of the Cold War?
Be honest, are you even watching Apple TV+’s alt-history space race show?
It’s a busy day for Apple TV+ — with plenty of new material to watch on the Apple streaming video service. In addition to a new episode of For All Mankind, there is a plethora of new nature documentaries, narrated by some big names, and more.
Here’s what Friday, April 16 has in store for subscribers.
In this week’s episode, Apple TV+’s alternate-history space show For All Mankind finally gets to the big, violent “what if?” it’s been building to all season. Is it too late to make any of the fireworks they’ve seen saving go off in spectacular enough fashion to save a dreary second season?
The answer … will not shock you.
It’s a relatively quiet Friday for Apple TV+, with just one single episode of a new show on Apple’s streaming television service. Fortunately, that show is the entertaining space-age alternative history For All Mankind, now approaching the end of its second season.
Episode 8 of 10 is titled “And Here’s to You.” The preview reads: “Gordo returns to space. Molly faces an unsettling new reality. Aleida confronts her first major hurdle at work.” If you’ve not yet tuned in, this may be your chance, with just a couple of weeks to go until the finale.
Space-race soap opera For All Mankind drops a bomb this week that could ruin the chances of everybody here getting what they want — and definitely destroys whatever character work the writers and actors have done up until now.
The writers realized nothing exciting had happened all season and so just dropped a bunch of character arcs in favor of what’s convenient. I wish I was surprised.
There’s a trio of Apple TV shows that critics absolutely love, according to review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. The current seasons of each of them racked up 100% approval ratings.
The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Don’t bother they’re here … Apple TV+’s For All Mankind gears up for its historic moon handshake in typically laidback fashion in this week’s episode.
The commies are here to collaborate on a space mission meant to bring civilizations together. They’re of course mirthless, shifty cads because that’s just how Russians are written in fiction like this.
Until, of course, they get to eat red meat and drink American whiskey. Then they’re all smiles! Glad to know these jokes haven’t changed at all since the Iron Curtain went up.
The characters in For All Mankind, Apple TV+’s space-race melodrama, all try to find their sea legs … or, uhh, space legs … in this week’s tense episode. Astronaut Ed Baldwin is under the sea. And his wife, Karen, is losing her cool. Meanwhile, Tracy Stevens is on the moon, and her ex Gordo is losing his mind!
Thriller fans should brace for an Apple TV+ binge-a-thon this week. They can watch all nine episodes of creepy new show Calls, which debuted on Apple TV+ Friday, or take in the first two full seasons of M. Night Shyamalan’s gripping Servant.
The Servant season finale arrived today alongside a new episode of alt-history space race show For All Mankind.
The iMac Pro was sleek and fast and capable and ultimately … uninspired.
That’s Cult of Mac writer Luke Dormehl’s take on Apple’s recently expired pro all-in-one. He serves up a compelling “Dear John” letter to a weird period in Mac history. And it doubles as a lovingly hopeful look at what the future holds.
If you want to peer even deeper into the Cupertino crystal ball, we’ve got a hot mess of new rumors and leaks this week as we speed toward a probable Apple event on March 23. Catch up with this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it to enjoy on iPhone or iPad, or get the stories below in your browser.