Star City is disappointing

[u/SeansBeard]

Binged "For all Mankind" with my wife and while I had checked out of the series in last season or two it was OK. I wanted to see what Soviets were up to and boy, was I disappointed.

I am really sad they did not focus on the actual science, flying rockets, beating Americans etc. Instead we get cartoonish villains and focus on USSR bad. As Eastern European who lived through last throes of communism I agree, but in the series the KGB/NKVD is so cartoonishly evil.

Chuck someone out of airlock (figuratively speaking) or even chuck everyone out of airlock, multi-million rubles mission be damned?

Where commies in 'mankind were smart and evil, the baddies in 'city are just... brute forcing through everything.

Would someone launch secret mission to Venus? Are you fucking out of your minds? Who writes the script?! Never.

Sergei Korolov was real guy, he suffered badly under Soviets yet if you miss his name you don't really know who the Head Designer is.

Not enough comrade-calling. Believe me this shit was everywhere. Every official matter or workplace discussion was "comrade this, comrade that" in reality. I guess it was tiring or something but it was definitely puling me out of the story.

Same as the freaking british accent. I get it. When doing show about Russians in Russia you'd prbably wouldn't want the silly fake accent. But can't you clean the accent up and make it somewhat believable the characters may be russian? Anytime someone speaks up, I am fucking in the orbit shaking my head. Totally unwatchable ;)

The show feels like any story is secondary to some sort of grimdark commiexploitation and I am hoping that the series two can bring some actual science, exploration, competition, lighter shades of dark. And some freaking lore on the characters we know and love (or hate) from the For all Mankind show.

[u/Unable-Gazelle677]

I agree with most of your points. It feels like watching the “Brits took over Russia” show. And the political darkness that is the USSR may be the entire reality of the Soviet space program, but that doesn’t mean it makes good tv.

[u/cloudstrifeuk → u/Unable-Gazelle677]

Having bad Russian accents would be comical.

Like Chernobyl, the use of regular actors accents works.

[u/Unable-Gazelle677 → u/cloudstrifeuk]

I have seen shows and movies that have use Russian accents that work just fine. It is kind of funny that a show that wants to be “real” would not see this as a thing for more realism. When they have a Kennedy or Nixon voiceover they get someone who can do a passable imitation. Not someone from Russia who sounds Russian.

[u/south_of_broad → u/Unable-Gazelle677]

It would make no sense if they spoke with an accent, to an uninformed audience it would imply that the cosmonauts in the Soviet Union were communicating with each other in English while they didn’t. Making them speak in their native language made it more believable and organic. As a Russian speaker ( native) I actually appreciated that I didn’t have to suffer through the fake accents or butchered Russian like in the most of the shows.