Star City

I almost skipped Star City, because the parent show For All Mankind got kind of stale last season, but I checked it out and I am glad I did, it’s terrific!

This look at the franchise’s alt-history space race from the Soviet Union’s point of view is a cracking good Cold War thriller. I never had any particular interest in what went on behind the Iron Curtain, but I always liked Gorky Park—and Chernobyl was mesmerizing.

Like Chernobyl, there seems to be a lot of attention to the drab, brown details of Soviet life, and the terror, absurdity and loneliness of living in such a system.

My dad told me he once took a trip to Eastern Europe, and he was shocked that the moment he crossed over, it was like the color drained out of the world. There were literally no bright or warm colors—it was all brown and gray.

Totalitarian states: bad for humanity, good for drama!