What a Show About Mars Gets Exactly Right About the Contracts You Sign on Earth

For All Mankind is an alternate history series on Apple TV+ built on a single premise: what if the Soviet Union, not the United States, had landed on the Moon first? From there the butterfly effect is in full force. The show traces fifty years of consequences — political, technological, cultural. (Sports fans: there is a Sports Illustrated cover in the series that is a particularly cruel shot at Red Sox fans in our real time.) It has been among the better things on television since its debut in 2019.

Season Four launched in 2023 with a different focus — more on regular people than astronauts and techies. That has carried over to Season Five, which started a few weeks ago.

And since early in Season Four, the plot has relied on a most definitely non-space issue.

A contract clause. Really.