TV Talk: If you’re not watching ‘For All Mankind,’ you’re missing Apple TV+’s best series

In an era of too much TV, critics have to jump from reviewing one new show to the next and often don’t have the luxury of sticking with all the shows they like.

But after hearing enough good things from TV critic friends about how great Apple TV+’s “For All Mankind” became, I made a point of getting caught up. Viewers who appreciate character drama and NASA stories should do the same.

An alternative history of the American space program where the Soviets got to the moon first (and the U.S. decided to compete by flying the first woman to the moon), “For All Mankind” is one of the best series of recent years.

Ronald D. Moore, who developed the excellent 2004-09 “Battlestar Galactica” reboot, is the showrunner on “For All Mankind,” a series overflowing with fascinating, well-developed characters and edge-of-your-seat drama.

Each season chronicles a different decade in American space flight. Season one covered the 1960s and 1970s. Season two moved the action to the 1980s space shuttle era and now season three, streaming June 10, moves the story into the 1990s and a mission to Mars.

The writing, which explores social and political mores of each era, is consistently top-notch, offering jaw-dropping surprises with routine, particularly in the back half of season two.

Most impressive are all the details the show drops about differences in this imagined timeline where Ted Kennedy beats Richard Nixon to become the United States president in 1972. Ronald Reagan becomes president in 1976 and Gary Hart serves two terms beginning in 1984.

“We like to have some touchstones for the audience of the era that we’re in,” said showrunner Ron Moore in a Zoom interview earlier this month. “It gives you a grounding of where you are. And at the same time, the further we go along our alternate history track, the further away from real events we get, and it becomes more and more our own creation.”

While each season is like a chapter in a book, there is story and character development that builds, so it’s best to watch the show from the start. If you have been on board already, season three proves as addictive as season two, albeit slightly more heightened because the technology of this timeline’s 1990s is advanced beyond space-faring technology then or now.

Through eight of the 10 episodes in season three, “For All Mankind” continues to mix character drama with tension-filled sequences of space exploration gone wrong, including in this week’s season premiere featuring a private space hotel.

What’s most impressive is how the show can make human interactions as harrowing as its space-bound disasters.

“There’s a rhythm to the season as you’re going through it. If you play everything pitched up here,” Moore said, putting his hand over his head, “you kind of burn the audience out a little bit. And if you go too slow, then they get bored. So it’s really about finding a nice pattern and rhythm to the whole piece.”

“For All Mankind” married space disasters and personal drama most impressively in season two, which makes season three a bit of a comedown – but it’s rewarding to see the repercussions of characters’ past choices come home to roost in a season that feels like it might be wrapping up the series, which has not yet been renewed for a fourth season.

Moore said that’s not the intent.

“At the beginning, we mapped out a fairly large, seven-season arc and a historical timeline taking us into the future,” he said. “We’re still on the same basic track. I don’t know if we’re really going to go seven. We’ve also talked in success about going further than that. It’s a moving target at this point about what the end of the series is.”

Moore said the key to finding a fresh story for this Mars season came when the show’s writers landed on the idea of a three-way race among the Americans, Soviets and a private company.

“That’s what I’ve never seen,” Moore said. “and what invigorated the whole thing.”

Pride premieres

Timed to premiere during LGBTQ+ pride month, Netflix’s “First Kill” is a dull, predictable “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” knock-off (if Buffy was a lesbian). Streaming June 10, “First Kill” features teen vampire Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) who sets her sights on classmate Cal (Imani Lewis) who turns out to be a vampire slayer. They intend to kill one another, but then romantic sparks fly. Elizabeth Mitchell (“Lost”) as Juliette’s mom and Aubin Wise as Cal’s mom are a hoot and “First Kill” would be fresher if it centered on them.

More interesting and more successfully executed by writer Stephen Dunn (“Little America”), Peacock’s iteration of the British 1999-2000 series “Queer as Folk” (previously remade by Showtime as a 2000-05, Pittsburgh-set, Toronto-filmed re-do) proves itself a pretty good queer soap if you can tolerate how self-absorbed, narcissistic and generally unlikeable most of the characters are.

Unlike Showtime’s series, which borrowed character types and situations from the British original, Peacock’s New Orleans-set version uses only the show’s title and the name of a nightclub from its predecessors.

Now streaming, Peacock’s “Queer as Folk” is updated for the times with a greater emphasis on racial and queer diversity – still with lots of sex – with a dip into a more modern queer subculture.

But good luck finding anyone to like aside from Julian (Ryan O’Connell, “Special”), the brother of protagonist Brodie (Devin Way). PTSD is understandable after a nightclub shooting that is the series’ inciting incident, but when Shar (CG) complains her lover Ruthie (Jesse James Keitel, “Big Sky”) has changed it’s as if Shar didn’t experience Ruthie’s selfishness the way viewers did in scenes prior to the tragic event.

Channel surfing

HBO max renewed “Tokyo Vice” for a second season. … Hearst’s Very Local, an app that includes a Pittsburgh edition with on-demand programming, now also has a FAST (free, ad-supported TV) channel on Plex. … At the Tony Awards (Sunday, 7-8 p.m. on Paramount+, 8-11 p.m. on CBS) presenters with Pittsburgh ties will include Renee Elise Goldsberry (CMU), Judith Light (CMU), Patina Miller (CMU) and Billy Porter (native, CMU).