For All Mankind and 5 other great, under-watched genre shows you should see

On November 10, this Friday, Apple TV+ will kick off the fourth season of For All Mankind, a sci-fi drama that has been consistently excellent for years now. Those who have watched the show couldn’t be more excited.

But far too many people haven’t watched the show, and it’s understandable why: in the age of streaming TV, there are approximately 300 new and returning series on the air at any given moment, and a lot of them are really good. It’s hard for a series like For All Mankind, which isn’t associated with any well-known IP, to break out.

But For All Mankind deserves to be big. In this article, we want to explain why, as well as highlight some other sci-fi/fantasy shows that deserve to have bigger audiences than they do. There’s a lot of great TV out there, maybe too much; hopefully shows like these won’t get lost in the deluge.

1. For All Mankind

For All Mankind comes to us from Ronald D. Moore, the guy who developed both Outlander and the 2000s-era revival of Battlestar Galactica. For All Mankind is just as compelling, and arguably far more ambitious.

Over the course of its first three seasons, For All Mankind covers three decades of history in an alternate version of our world where the 1960s space race between the United States and the Soviet Union never stopped. How would things have changed if we had continued to explore the final frontier? What kind of technologies would we have developed? In the third season, set in the early ’90s, humanity is in a race against itself to set foot on Mars. In the upcoming fourth season, set in the 2000s, we’ve established a colony there.

Things are also different on Earth. With the huge changes brought on by the extended space race, unfamiliar people become president. But this “what if” speculation isn’t all that For All Mankind has to offer. We also meet a likable cast of characters who we get to know over the course of their entire lives. Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnaman) goes from being a hot-headed young astronaut in the first season to a member of the old guard in the third. We first meet Aleida Rosales (Coral Peña) as a young undocumented immigrant fascinated with outer space, and then watch her develop into a top engineer at NASA. Lead characters die while others take on roles we don’t expect. It’s complex, but there’s an impressive level of consistency.

For All Mankind has never been hugely popular, but it moves with the confidence of a show assured that it’s coming back every year, and so far, it always has. With your help, For All Mankind can become the phenomenon it deserves to be with season 4.