There is something to be said about a show that takes two distinct genres and blends them without one overshadowing or detracting from the other. Apple TV has seen some success recently with such shows after Widow’s Bay became a runaway hit. The Matthew Rhys-led series blends comedy with horror. And Widow’s Bay is not the only hit Apple TV show to combine two genres and still manage critical and viewer acclaim.
Several weeks ago, the streamer launched a gripping thriller that has taken over watchlists. This show is currently ranked in the top ten on Apple TV’s global streaming chart according to FlixPatrol. It can be best described as a perfect hybrid of FX‘s hit espionage thriller The Americans and Apple TV’s long-running sci-fi drama For All Mankind. It’s comparable with the former because it also takes place during the Cold War, as the West and the Soviet Union sought to outdo each other in every facet of life. One of the most heated competitions between the two sides was the space race, which is also explored in the show.
Titled Star City, it is not entirely fresh to Apple TV, as it is an offshoot of For All Mankind. But instead of focusing on a character or moving to a new location like other offshoots, Star City turns back the clock and returns to the period that started everything — the Moon Landing. Here, it takes viewers behind the Iron Curtain into the Soviet Space program that was run with great secrecy and crippling control by the KGB — and landed the first man on the moon. Instead of playing defense in suburbia, America goes on the offensive as tech and science become hot commodities.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
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🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
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You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
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You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
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You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
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You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
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You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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‘Star City’ Builds a Cold, Paranoid Persona
Critics have praised the show for carving out its own identity rather than treading in For All Mankind’s footsteps. And with how out of love most of the flagship show’s viewership have found themselves in recent seasons, Star City read the writing on the wall and pivoted to being tense, paranoid, and cold. Collider’s Carly Lane called it the “best decision” for the show not to wash, rinse, and repeat, but instead to use every advantage of its setting to become something engaging. She praised its “distinct visuals, sharp performances, and compelling narrative” in her review of Star City Season 1.
Other critics had more or less the same to say about the show, with their consensus on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes declaring: “Taut, ambitious, and impressively self-assured, Star City proves a worthy expansion of the For All Mankind universe with its blend of political intrigue and human drama.” New episodes of the show stream on Apple TV on Fridays at 3 am ET. In next week’s episode, “Awl in a Sack,” Chief Designer’s (Rhys Ifans) crew is off to their secret mission on Venus while Irina (Agnes O’Casey) tries to save Tanya (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis), putting them both at risk.
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