My 11 year old has complained about the severe lack of airplanes and rockets. It's a lot of John Glenn being a poitician and guys having tense moments with their wives.

This is to space streaming series what the 2001 Pearl Harbor movie was to World War II flicks.

Drama >>>>>> Action

I'll keep watching because I watch space stuff, but I doubt it will be an all time series when it reaches its conclusion.

There's some sexual situations in episode one. I'd watch it first so you know when to skip. Some of it will probably a little hard for him to follow as well.

gomerschlep said:

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Is this at all kid friendly? My 10 year old loves all things space program but probably wouldn't care much for a historical adult drama....

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I would say that it is NOT kid friendly at all. Some language, sexual situations in nearly every episode, infidelity, excess drinking, etc. On top of that, it's all drama (so far anyway) and little to no action. I commented to my wife multiple times that I was surprised this was on Disney +. I may need to figure out how to set up permissions within the platform. Each member of my family has a separate profile, but I have no restrictions in place at the moment.

That being said, I'm enjoying it. I'm not sure how accurately each character is being portrayed, but it's an interesting "behind the scenes" look at the beginning of the US Space Program.

So what's the big deal about Shepard's niece? Yawn.....

Well there was this one time Alan Shepard was flying a plane. While he was landing one of the wheels fell off. He walked away and the rest is history.

Yoda said:

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Can you share a few of those stories?

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I'd rather not, as most if not all of them are deceased now. Needless to say, lots of drinking and adultery. There were a few of them who were real wild cards, and would have never flown a mission in todays age of twitter and instant news. Those guys were like kings in Houston at the time and probably could have gotten away with murder. Also, who knows how much of it was true. I would also imagine there is plenty she took to her grave.

Yeah this show gets worse the further into it you get. I'm pot-committed now though so I'll finish it out. But if you haven't started it yet, feel free to go ahead and skip it.

One episode left - I'll watch it, probably.

Incredibly disappointed.

About 30 seconds of F-104 action. No space action at all.

The plot - Al Shepard screws around. John Glenn doesn't - he's a boy scout - but a political boy scout. That's about 90% of the series. Ugh.

Seems so low budget (it's a National Geographic production).

Only one episode left? Damn. Guess they want multiple seasons, unless they jam a whole lot into the last one.

I didn't realize there would be follow on seasons. If they actually covered the Mercury flights, and maybe even the Gemini missions some of those guys flew on, there could be redemption. Shepard, Grissom, and Schirra were all around for Apollo.

Wish they could go back to the test pilot days at Edwards and cover Crossfield and Yeager and all those guys.

I don't know if there are more seasons or not. But I doubt they can get all 6 flights in one episode.

I finished watching this last night.

I enjoyed it overall, generally speaking, as a different take on the story. While I did appreciate the deeper dive into some of these guys' lives than the original movie gave us, I didn't find any of that pertinent to the story.

I never knew there was a group of women attempting to form an all female astronaut corp, and I don't recall any reference to that in the novel. So was this put in for some political point, or just to serve as a cause of stress between the Cooper's? I did like the brief mention that the Shepherd's adopted their niece, but found it curious that I did not see the girl present in the Shepherd home while the family was watching his launch (perhaps I missed her). Not something that really added to the story, sure, but a nice touch with him purchasing those Barbie dolls for Christmas and the conversation he had with the girl about her name (ridiculous on the naming of the kid); this did humanize Al Shepherd a bit against the otherwise ***** depiction of him in this series.

What frustrates me the most about this series is all the time it spends on these side stories. It is an 8-episode series, and it takes them to the final episode to get Shepherd into space. Presumably there will be another season; hopefully they don't take an entire season to get Grissom into space as well.

This show was just pure awful on too many levels.

Original = Great.

Book = Great.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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I finished watching this last night.

I enjoyed it overall, generally speaking, as a different take on the story. While I did appreciate the deeper dive into some of these guys' lives than the original movie gave us, I didn't find any of that pertinent to the story.

I never knew there was a group of women attempting to form an all female astronaut corp, and I don't recall any reference to that in the novel. So was this put in for some political point, or just to serve as a cause of stress between the Cooper's? I did like the brief mention that the Shepherd's adopted their niece, but found it curious that I did not see the girl present in the Shepherd home while the family was watching his launch (perhaps I missed her). Not something that really added to the story, sure, but a nice touch with him purchasing those Barbie dolls for Christmas and the conversation he had with the girl about her name (ridiculous on the naming of the kid); this did humanize Al Shepherd a bit against the otherwise ***** depiction of him in this series.

What frustrates me the most about this series is all the time it spends on these side stories. It is an 8-episode series, and it takes them to the final episode to get Shepherd into space. Presumably there will be another season; hopefully they don't take an entire season to get Grissom into space as well.

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There was a group of women that passed the same tests the Mercury 7 did. It wasn't official, and nothing really came of it. Not sure if Trudy was part of it or not.

We're they test pilots?

There is a Netflix doc about the early effort to create a group of American female astronauts, if you'd like to learn more.

"Mercury 13"

https://www.netflix.com/title/80174436?s=i&trkid=255824129

aTmAg said:

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We're they test pilots?

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No.

TXAG 05 said:

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aTmAg said:

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We're they test pilots?

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No.

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Then they weren't qualified.

Finished it yesterday. Agree too much time spent on marriage dramas, and I think they made John Glenn way too unlikable. Got tired of watching his sour face every time something happen he didn't like. Thought the catchy 50s music between just about every big transition was way overdone. I would have liked to see more about the technical challenges, rather than just mentions and a few quips from a drunk Von Braun at a bar.

On the bright side, I thought the actor who played Bob Gilruth, Patrick Filscher, was the best cast of the bunch. Gave the series some weight that many of the others lacked.

Considering they didnt actually fly it, being test pilots didnt matter.

Hence why the Germans didnt make a window.

Series was meh but just watched a new documentary called 'The Real Right Stuff' on Disney+ that is mostly archival footage and interviews and is WAY better