I really, really dislike how dumb they make the Russians/USSR post S1E3.
Russia/USSR goes from having the lead in S1 with getting the first man/woman on the moon, to then immediately on the back foot in S2 with the Buran failing and requiring espionage. Which is hilarious because in OTL the Buran was actually better in some ways that space shuttle (liquid fueled, orbiter separate from booster engines) but is somehow worse in FAM ATL. Just seems lazy.
This then continues in S3 where their fusion engines fail and they have to rely on espionage, and then make the stupid decision of over clocking their engines. Which is super silly - considering if they just wanted to be first NK proved it could be done with Soyuz level (S2) tech.
I liked the Margo scenes in S4 - atleast that proved why the Russians were on the back foot (political infighting).
& Then we get to this weeks episode where >!they repeat S3 with the Russians/USSR/Kuragin pushing engines too hard or messing up calculations and failing.!<
It feels like the USSR has been on the back foot since the 70's. There's a lot of missed tension between USSR and USA in terms of tech.