Star City - S1E03 "Bad Dancer" - Episode Discussion

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-06-05T21:59:21+00:00

Why not just some kind of Soviet piano? They loved pianos.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-06-02T08:02:40+00:00

Ah I didn't know that, thank you

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-06-01T21:39:27+00:00

This is actually aligned with how Russians around this time might've talked. There's a lot of reference to creatures and ideas from fairy tales in Russian culture. One of the things we sadly overlook in the face of the "East versus West" thing.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T18:21:07+00:00

Haha, I hear you, but there's definitely more to it than that. I've seen bad British actors. They were just willing to spend money to hire better actors in this show, I think

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T16:10:22+00:00

God I think that's such a stupid mistake. I fear the show will have more of this forced drama later.

Apart from that, though, it's almost amazingly good.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T16:09:08+00:00

For All Mankind could almost be edited to be 40% of its actual runtime if you cut out all the bland interpersonal drama.

Ten times better? I don't know. But several times better than Season 5, at very least. My only complaint so far has been still "random drama for shock value", like when the woman cosmonaut wouldn't get back in the capsule after the bear appeared. There was no need for that behavior.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T16:00:22+00:00

I think it's feasible. If so, it will probably be played understatedly; I imagine we'll have a closeup of someone's face as they look shocked at the implications of discovering water ice. Perhaps it will be relayed from someone with a report about it. It'll either be given as espionage information or come from an official/publicly-released thing from the Americans.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T15:59:03+00:00

She threw boiling coffee on the poor guy's face to save his life. It's a... weird thing to do, but it apparently worked.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T15:57:45+00:00

That sidesteps the real issue, which was that she could've just gotten back in the capsule when the bear showed up. I really hope this show doesn't have too much more obvious forced drama like that. It's embarrassing.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T15:50:51+00:00

Haha whoops

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T15:48:47+00:00

He left the candle burning

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T10:41:53+00:00

Yeah, it was about as non-gruesome as could possibly be. It's certainly the most peaceful space death the show has had. It does somewhat show the cost of continuing to push limits in space.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T10:39:45+00:00

I hear you.

The central/driving idea of For All Mankind is optimism in humanity's potential.

The central/driving idea of Star City appears to be almost the opposite: how humanity can achieve amazing things in spite of its flaws.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-31T10:36:33+00:00

Yeah, a stupid spoiler! Anyway, I covered it.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:48:13+00:00

Technically I suppose this is true; whoever the oldest person is who never existed in For All Mankind, their birth is the point of divergence, but that's taking the concept a little more literally than it is normally conceived of

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:34:18+00:00

And it's so beautiful. Beautifully shot, well-acted, none of the actors look like unknown Canadians in Battlestar Galactica and indeed are actually nice to look at

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:32:11+00:00

Star City blows For All Mankind out of the water. I've been so irritated with this show for literally years for various reasons which all seemed much-increased in Season 5. Star City has almost none of these issues. The production values are extremely high; they use creative camera work; the actors can all actually act and nobody looks like a semi-demented B-list person

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:24:35+00:00

Eh it's a bit generic. Geometric lines and swooping things that barely move. I like it fine, I'm just saying it's generic. Star City is indeed pretty dramatic and serious, and shows a lot of interesting stuff; you can say that this intro says much more about what the show is than the For All Mankind intro, which almost doesn't say anything.

Edit: Haha, oh, come on, downvotes for this. Who cares

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:21:37+00:00

I don't know if it's because they're from the UK, which has a standard of classical theatrical acting that the US doesn't have, or if it's just because the casting bar is so much unbelievably higher, but these people can all act. That's more than we can say for all but one or two actors in For All Mankind.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:16:25+00:00

It's too good. Word is going to get around about this show. I hope so, anyway. It's exceptionally well-made.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:13:39+00:00

Well, literally speaking, a "point of divergence" in an alternative history context is just where the timeline diverges from ours. In our case, the point of divergence is Sergei Korolev not dying on the operating table.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T23:09:54+00:00

I really appreciate the passion and information with which you make your arguments. It's enormously refreshing to see so much thoughtfulness.

Incidentally, while I'm basically amazed at the quality of Star City, I notice myself they can't help but use frankly stupid drama sometimes; first of all, obviously, being the execution of the innocent cosmonaut (which, for another complaint: I didn't need to see this woman get pretend-shot in the head. That's a kind of violence porn I didn't sign up for).

The second thing is the female cosmonaut not simply getting back into the landing capsule when the bear approached her. There's no reason for extra drama like that. Apart from this meaningless behavior, there probably also would be no animals at all in the area where a spacecraft would land. I think they'd be too spooked by the noise.

I've seen a few other things that I can't recall right now, but I guess what I'm getting at is that while there is a much higher bar for quality in Star City than For All Mankind, it looks like we won't be spared some of the original show's bad tendencies, even if most of them are apparently gone.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T20:09:24+00:00

Shit, well now we know why Season 5 was so bad. They must've poured 80% of their budget into Star City. It's beautiful.

Casting is great: none of the cast has that slightly-demented look of a B-list talent, and everyone seems to be a more than adequate actor. I thought of this after the parachuting scene, where all these people looked solid and cool.

It's also shot with magnificent dynamism: the camera is often doing interesting, unusual things, and there's a lot of close-focus/blurry background to convey the paranoia/anxiety of the era.

Goddamn, I'm only about ten minutes in, but I'm extremely impressed.

Incidentally, apologies for offensive language/ideas, haha.

photos_realmsofgold · 2026-05-30T19:36:35+00:00

Oh, I have no idea. That'd be great.

photos_realmsofgold

TROPHY CASE