I stopped 3/4 through the first episode after I realised the "alternate history" doesn't really serve any larger fantastical/fictional arc (like Man in The High Castle for example). At that point it just seemed like a waste of time - watching several hours of men making stern expressions and raising voices to deliver solemn speeches for what purpose, to what end? It's a tale that doesn't lead anywhere. It doesn't teach you history, doesn't reflect any real struggle that revealed interesting side of human condition, and as a pure fiction it's just hours of Kinnaman's constipated face for no particular plot gain whatsoever. What would happen if Americans lost space race? Nothing. In fact, for all intents and purposes they lost space race in our timeline. Sputnik 1 was the first man made object in outer space for the Soviets. Gagarin was the first man in outer space for the Soviets. Tereshkova was the first woman in space for the Soviets. Luna 2 was the first unmanned craft on the moon for the Soviets.
US moon missions obviously had more hollywood flair and were delivered with better PR tube, but it was that kid who's really ecstatic about his third place medal - it was all done and achieved by then. Moon missions didn't change anything in space race, they didn't produce any viable advancements - we stopped flying to space and stopped reaching for the skies ever since, we lost the ability to send men so far into space shortly after and never ventured outside of earth's orbit with a manned mission ever again. All American moon missions ever gave us were tons of conspiracy theories and a Apollo 13 near disaster story to warn other space crews not to overdo it.
So, a show that shows America "loosing space race" (for the third place) to the moon. What would change? Nothing. It's an alternative history show about nothing. I won't spoil much if I speculate Kinnaman will eventually beat Russians to some other milestone achievement. So I'm out.
