Two cosmonauts for every boy: STAR CITY on Apple+

Rhys Ifans & Anna Maxwell Martin in the Russian alterna-universe spinoff of For All Mankind.

No Bob, No Gordo but a whole lotta wood-paneling, Brutalist architecture & Soviet grimness! Wee!

Episode 1 was pretty good imo! Looking forward to watching more already.

Bookmarked thread. Haven't gotten to this yet

Episode 2 was great, confirmed that I am very much into this show

Although: I realized I don’t actually know a ton abt the Russian space program - didn’t know Chief Designer was a real guy named Korolev, or the moon gal w arranged marriage Tanya Markelova seems based on Valentina Tereshkova, the first Russian woman in space who herself had an arranged marriage to cosmonaut etc
so I am def going to seek a few library books and go rabbitholing :)

great story so far

Oberg's Red Star In Orbit probably still the best book out for the early history: https://archive.org/details/redstarinorbit0000ober

Also Asif Siddiqi's books: https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/peaks-ak5l4

I bailed on For All Mankind halfway through season 2 for a) focusing too much on boring Earthbound relationships over cool space staff and b) being waaaayy too goddarn American.

Maybe I'd like this one more?

And is it sufficiently standalone for me to try?

Also Asif Siddiqi's books: https://www.asifsiddiqi.com/work/peaks-ak5l4🕸

I have requested the second siddiq book (they didn’t have vol1) so we’ll see! or I might try Oberg

great reveal at the end of Ep 3, and that space docking sequence was pretty tense.

And is it sufficiently standalone for me to try?

I'd say so, as long as you're familiar with the general premise - alt universe where the Russians made it to the moon first. There are a few characters who also appear in FAM but so far it hasn't been necessary to know who they became later, just interesting to see their younger versions.

Wait which ones? I hadn't noticed that.

Irina Morozovsza!
The fresh faced spy girl!

I think they referenced Chief Designer & the engineer guy too but I don’t really remember them

Soviet engineer Sergei is Margo's love interest

Oh duh that’s right <3

I didn't know why Tanya was marking her record plays so it was really fascinating to learn about bootlegged "bone records", made out of discarded x-rays that you can only listen to a few times before they warped:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/29/bone-music-soviet-bootleg-records-pressed-on-xrays

Ok I finally watched ep 3 & was not expecting THAT ending. Dang.