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Apple TV’s sci-fi series For All Mankind starts with a tantalizing alt-history premise: What if Soviet space pioneer Sergei Korolev hadn’t died prematurely in 1966, but instead helped bring his country’s space program into full bloom, extending the space race indefinitely?
If America and the world had been forced to continue the space program, our past (and present) would look quite different—at least according to this show, which jumps across decades to imagine how that might have unfolded in an alternate past. (By the current fifth season, set in alt-2012, some humans are living off-planet in a Martian habitat.)
For All Mankind is both a great, generally hopeful alt-history narrative and a grounded, compelling science fiction show. As the penultimate season races toward its conclusion on Apple TV, here are 10 other ambitious shows that follow similarly winding paths.
The Man in the High Castle (2015 – 2019)
From the novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle is a political thriller set (mostly) in an alternate 1960s in which the Axis powers have won World War II, and in which the United States is split down the middle, with Japan governing the west and Germany overseeing the east. The title’s “man in the high castle” is a propaganda film (or is it?) that offers an alternate view that looks more like our our history books. As the show progresses through its four seasons, the parallels to our increasingly fascist-friendly world only grow. Stream The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video and Netflix.
The Right Stuff (2020)
A second stab at adapting the 1979 Tom Wolfe book, this series isn’t about space exploration exactly, but about the weird, winding road it took to get there. The show starts in 1959 with the selection of the seven pilots best suited for America’s fledgling space program, individuals who brought sterling qualifications along with the butch and photogenic vibe needed to sell a multi-billion dollar program to 1960s Americans. With impeccable period style, it’s at least as much about the building of a mythology as it is about the space race itself. Buy The Right Stuff from Prime Video.
From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
Call this the alt-history to the alt-history of For All Mankind (OK, that’s just “history”). This prestige miniseries dramatizes the real events of the space program, starting roughly with the Freedom 7 Mercury flight in 1961 and rocketing along to humanity’s most recent moon landing with Apollo 17, just over a decade later. Largely an anthology, this docu-drama intersperses personal stories (the penultimate episode follows the wives and families of several astronauts) with more traditional mission drama. Executive producer Tom Hanks introduces most of the episodes, leading an all-star 1990s cast. Stream From the Earth to the Moon on HBO Max.
Battlestar Galactica (2003 – 2009)
Not a perfect match for For All Mankind in either vibe or setting, there’s nevertheless an intellectual and philosophical depth between that show and this one (worth noting that both share a creator in Ronald D. Moore). The Cylons, intelligent machines who have rebelled against their human masters, are inspired by their growing religious convictions to violently break free from their creators. Humanity is reduced to a population of just tens of thousands, and while the show dives into existential questions with surprising depth, we’re never allowed to forget that we’re seeing humankind more than decimated, surviving on a handful of rickety spaceships in search of a legendary world called “Earth.” The oppressed become the oppressors, and while we mostly follow the human characters, the series never takes a hard stand on either side’s moral superiority. Buy Battlestar Galactica from Prime Video or stream it on Pluto TV and Paramount+ starting May 1.
1983 (2018)
Sure, we’ve all wondered what would have happened if we hadn’t slow-walked our way through the space program following the moon landing, but the real alt-history question is, what if the communist Polish People’s Republic had never fallen? This political thriller is largely set in 2003, twenty years after a series of bombings ended the hope for an end to the Cold War, which still continues behind an extant Iron Curtain. In this vision of Poland, digital surveillance is ever-present; art is censored; and personal behavior and sexual morality are restricted both legally and by means of a submissive population (the similarities to our allegedly more enlightened post-communist era are not incidental; they’re the point). Law student Kajetan (Maciej Musiał) and national police investigator Anatol (Robert Więckiewicz) are thrown together in a web of conspiracy that might well result in a revolution. Stream 1983 on Netflix.
The Expanse (2015 – 2022)
Set in a somewhat near-ish future, The Expanse (based on the book series by James S.A. Corey) imagines a colonized solar system into which we’ve carried all of our old familiar problems, and then some: Earth sits at the historical and cultural center of things, while Mars colonists, by virtue of having to survive in a challenging environment, have developed technological and military superiority, and folks living in “the Belt” have had to scrabble to survive. Greed, fear, and shortsightedness make conflict nearly inevitable, even if the series isn’t quite as cynical as it at first appears. The Expanse shares with For All Mankind a practical view of human progress that never entirely gives way to cynicism; they also share a creative voice in executive producer (and frequent Ronald D. Moore collaborator) Naren Shankar. Stream The Expanse on Prime Video.
The Plot Against America (2020)
Another dark turn down an alternate path in American history, The Plot Against America asks, what if Charles Lindbergh had succeeded in his bid for political power in the 1930s, bringing to bear his vision of an America that followed in the footsteps of Nazi Germany by halting the “the infiltration of inferior blood” (by which he meant, mostly, Jewish people). Adapted from the book by Philip Roth, the series bends history, depicting Lindbergh’s successful campaign for the American presidency against Franklin D. Roosevelt, which ultimately keeps the U.S. out of World War II—which results in things at home growing increasingly dangerous for the Jewish family at the show’s center. Morgan Spector, Zoe Kazan, Winona Ryder, and John Turturro star. Stream The Plot Against America on HBO Max.
Manhattan (2014 – 2015)
A loose, but still convincing, exploration of the Manhattan Project, this mostly true story nevertheless feels of a piece with For All Mankind in its look at a critical moment in human history—as well as for its impeccable period vibes. John Benjamin Hickey stars as the scientist Dr. Frank Winter, a composite of several real life figures, with Olivia Williams playing botanist (and Frank’s wife), Liza. J. Robert Oppenheimer (played here by Daniel London) lurks in the background, with the show focusing mostly on the relentless drive of the scientists who developed technology that, for better and worse, would prove to be foundational to the space program. Stream Manhattan on Prime Video.
Watchmen (2019)
This may seem like a stretch, but for my money, Watchmen stands with For All Mankind as an all-time-great alternate history, even if this one is a bit more fantastical, imagining the impacts of Jim Crow-era racial violence on a world that saw a rise of fascist superheroes in the 1980s. A standalone follow-up to the groundbreaking graphic novel by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins, this series begins in an alternate Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a world where super-powered vigilantes exist but have been outlawed. Regina King plays Angela Abar, a modern cop whose grandparents were killed during the real-life Tulsa race massacre, an event that echoes throughout the series—it’s a dystopia that doesn’t look all that much different from our own, with masked police operating on the edges of the law, and overtly racist organizations that hold increasing political sway. Stream Watchmen on HBO Max.
The First (2018)
Set in 2031, The First follows a hypothetical first crewed mission to Mars in the aftermath of a disaster that almost ended the whole effort. Inspired heavily by the real-life history that serves as a starting point for For All Mankind, this show follows the astronauts, their families, the ground crew, and even the tech CEOs who serve to put us on the rocky road to the red planet. Given that making it to 2031 is feeling a little optimistic at this moment, it might well end up looking like alt-history in just a few short years. Stream The First on Hulu.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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