26th March, 2023: ‘The Sands of Ares’.
Right …
Sunday Night TV is getting to be something of a tradition.
You’d guessed that, hadn’t you?
That’s it’s getting to be a routine to watch something.
In this case … ?
For All Mankind.
Which is looking rather good.
As is AppleTV⁺’s Tetris.
That’s something for another time.
At any rate … ?
It’s Sunday, I’m going to be watching the next episode of For All Mankind …
And I’ll be telling you about it, tomorrow night!
Episode 8 — The Sands of Ares — opens with a shot of Danielle (Krys Marshall) refusing a cup of coffee from Baranov (Alexander Sokovikov) … until he reveals it’s a very posh French coffee he’s borrowed from the Helios crew.
The pair are interrupted, however … when something that feels like a landslide shakes the Happy Valley base.
Kelly (Cynthy Wu) tries contacting the joint Helios/Soviet base.
Only to be answered with resounding silence.
We also see the dust storm over the Helios/Soviet base … as Russian cosmonaut, Alexei (Pawel B. Szajda), digs his way out of the dirt … and desperately tries to find others.
Whilst desperately sending out a Mayday.
Post titles?
Post titles, we see President Wilson talking with ex lover, Pam: only to be interrupted by a Secret Service man.
It seems there’s problems: serious ones that she needs to deal with.
Problems that include her husband Larry … and the little she can help to free the trapped crew on Mars.
That … ?
Is something she’s going to have to leave to the NASA, Soviet and Helios teams.
That job… is going to take some unconventional thinking.
~≈👨🚀≈~
Now …
What DID I make of ‘The Sands of Ares’?
First things first, I’ve got to praise the performances of Krys Marshall as Danielle Poole: she’s shown us her character’s abilities as a leader, once again.
And of both Joel Kinnaman* and Casey W. Johnson, as Ed Baldwin and Danny Stevens.
Two trapped, dying people, stuck in an airlock … ?
OK, it’s something we’ve seen before, but is very watchable: Kinnaman and Stevens handled it better than most.
The real performance of the evening?
Has to be Edi Gathegi as Dev Ayesha.
Granted, the character’s based — in part — on Steve Jobs: at least in my opinion.
But, up until now, we’ve seen Dev’s presentational skills, and his nasty side.
In ‘The Sands of Ares’, we see Dev’s engineering skills come to the fore: it’s his plan, a plan to tunnel under the buried Habitation 2, that gets Ed and Danny out of trouble.
And we see a gentler side of the man, too: one that — up until now — we wouldn’t have expected to see.
Granted? Part of that is the writing for this episode.
But, just as equally?
Part of that is the skill of the actor: Gathegi does very good job!
~≈👨🚀≈~
So …
What did I see, last night … ?
What did I think of ‘The Sands of Ares’?
I’ve seen another superb episode: one that’s a race against time to save two dying men.
Granted, I may be overselling both For All Mankind, and ‘The Sands of Ares’.
But … ? I don’t think I am.
No: I’m watching a very good series, indeed, one who’s tense eighth episode kept me glued to my seat.
Yes: I’ll be watching more of For All Mankind.
I’ll be watching the next episode of Star Trek Picard — ‘Dominion’ — on Friday, 31st March: and have my written and video review up on Saturday, 1st April.
I’ll watch the next episode of For All Mankind — ‘Coming Home’ — on Sunday, 2nd April: and have the written and video reviews up on Monday, 3rd April.
Let’s not call it a date.
No.
Let’s call it you dropping in on me: to see what I thought of the next episode of For All Mankind.
‘The Sands of Ares’.★★★★
* Just as a final thought … ? I recently caught a news item on the BBC: telling us about NASA’s new spacesuits, the ones the group’s planning to use for its planned Artemis Moon missions. The fictional ones shown in this series of For All Mankind look nothing like the real new suits. But were a similar colour: although with flashes of orange. Both have pleated upper arms.
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| Ed Baldwin in a Helios suit. |
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| The new NASA suit |
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