While not perfect, I actually really enjoyed the FAM finale - for me it struck the landing and did a great job drawing together themes of ethical compromise and trying to resist the mercenary nature of state actors (when seemingly mercenary individuals give up their own selfishness). Maybe you are right that Ed is purely selfish, or seek…
While not perfect, I actually really enjoyed the FAM finale - for me it struck the landing and did a great job drawing together themes of ethical compromise and trying to resist the mercenary nature of state actors (when seemingly mercenary individuals give up their own selfishness). Maybe you are right that Ed is purely selfish, or seeking legacy, but around him there is the hope of a new society, not one bound to the trillion dollar aspirations of governments and ruling cliques - something very foundational and familial. Even for Dev it is something more esoteric and dreamlike that he pursues - and I think the show made a good choice to show him acting almost as an uncle too.
The show hasn't done such a good job with newer characters, I agree, who exist more as sketches - it also strangely often seems to drop Kelly (who alongside Aleida should be better defined) at key moments (what was her reaction to Ed's plan, what about her robots, etc?). However, I found Miles a warm secondary lead this season (I'd say he wasn't purely selfish, but focused on his family and recovering a sense of decency he had lost by almost losing everything he valued at the start of the season by being threatened with divorce and endless joblessness).
Also I empathised very much with the below decks crew, and it reminded of an interview I heard earlier this year during the strike. David Weddle or Bradley Thompson was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about their role as a union captain or rep - I can help but feel the path to the strikes played a role when writing this season last year, or makes a strange echo?
Big problem is that it's never really clear why disgruntled Helios workers, including Sam and Miles, are going along with Ed and Dev's plan. Alan's point about Miles, but broader.
As you note, Dev and Ed have grand ideas about Mars as a future colony and personal legacy. And it makes sense that they might risk the easily foreseeable legal repercussions of their plan being discovered (even if successful at capturing the asteroid): "Mars colonization advances, even if I'm in prison on Earth".
But we don't see any such grand visions as motivations for dissatisfied Helios employees.
First part of S4 presents quite well, through Miles, that life as a worker on Mars isn't glamorous. Get past the initial excitement, and it can be a rather crappy - and sometimes dangerous - job. The Helios workers are more or less akin to offshore oil platform workers (who just spend a much longer period in their "off-Earth" rotation). Mars is a temporary job posting for them, not a calling.
Their understandable complaints are tied to pay and working conditions. Makes sense that leads to a strike, when Goldilocks provides leverage to the Helios workers. A strike that should have been extremely easy to settle, by the way. Offer a total of something like $50 to $100 million in 1-time bonuses to these 100(?) employees ($500k to $1 million per person), plus guaranteed jobs mining the asteroid in Earth orbit. It's a rounding error when numbers in the trillions of dollars are being thrown around.
While not perfect, I actually really enjoyed the FAM finale - for me it struck the landing and did a great job drawing together themes of ethical compromise and trying to resist the mercenary nature of state actors (when seemingly mercenary individuals give up their own selfishness). Maybe you are right that Ed is purely selfish, or seeking legacy, but around him there is the hope of a new society, not one bound to the trillion dollar aspirations of governments and ruling cliques - something very foundational and familial. Even for Dev it is something more esoteric and dreamlike that he pursues - and I think the show made a good choice to show him acting almost as an uncle too.
The show hasn't done such a good job with newer characters, I agree, who exist more as sketches - it also strangely often seems to drop Kelly (who alongside Aleida should be better defined) at key moments (what was her reaction to Ed's plan, what about her robots, etc?). However, I found Miles a warm secondary lead this season (I'd say he wasn't purely selfish, but focused on his family and recovering a sense of decency he had lost by almost losing everything he valued at the start of the season by being threatened with divorce and endless joblessness).
Also I empathised very much with the below decks crew, and it reminded of an interview I heard earlier this year during the strike. David Weddle or Bradley Thompson was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about their role as a union captain or rep - I can help but feel the path to the strikes played a role when writing this season last year, or makes a strange echo?
Big problem is that it's never really clear why disgruntled Helios workers, including Sam and Miles, are going along with Ed and Dev's plan. Alan's point about Miles, but broader.
As you note, Dev and Ed have grand ideas about Mars as a future colony and personal legacy. And it makes sense that they might risk the easily foreseeable legal repercussions of their plan being discovered (even if successful at capturing the asteroid): "Mars colonization advances, even if I'm in prison on Earth".
But we don't see any such grand visions as motivations for dissatisfied Helios employees.
First part of S4 presents quite well, through Miles, that life as a worker on Mars isn't glamorous. Get past the initial excitement, and it can be a rather crappy - and sometimes dangerous - job. The Helios workers are more or less akin to offshore oil platform workers (who just spend a much longer period in their "off-Earth" rotation). Mars is a temporary job posting for them, not a calling.
Their understandable complaints are tied to pay and working conditions. Makes sense that leads to a strike, when Goldilocks provides leverage to the Helios workers. A strike that should have been extremely easy to settle, by the way. Offer a total of something like $50 to $100 million in 1-time bonuses to these 100(?) employees ($500k to $1 million per person), plus guaranteed jobs mining the asteroid in Earth orbit. It's a rounding error when numbers in the trillions of dollars are being thrown around.