A serviceable Foundation settles into a pattern
As it continues, the sci-fi drama has just begun to feel small.
TV Reviews Foundation
One can only watch a show built around the concept of the inevitable trajectory of pattern and behavior for so long before it rubs off on you and you start making predictions of your own. Four episodes in, it feels as though the equation for Foundation is set; an okay show that has some neat ideas and great production design but a lot of unfulfilled potential. Six episodes remain in this season, so there’s still plenty of time for the show to grow into something great, but after an exceptional first episode, the show seemed to slowly exhale and settle into its current deflated ambitions.
As I’ve already said, I’ve not read the books, so that likely makes me more flexible in my feelings for how the show approached the source material. Given the books were more or less a collection of reflective essays spanning centuries, there’s ample, fertile space to fill in the broad strokes with compelling stories, and flexibility in how they’re handled. But there’s a decided lack of originality to the execution of the show, and that’s disappointing. It feels like it could be one of any interchangeable high-concept sci-fi shows that have all bobbed along the surface of basic cable from the last 15 years.
Just as in the last episode, the best parts all belong to The Empire. Lee Pace does an impressive job playing slight variations on the same character. While each generation of the emperor may be identical genetic stock raised in identical surroundings, the external circumstances—and perhaps more importantly—the relationships they form with their brothers shade each iteration differently. The clone who was a boy when Day ordered the retaliation against the terrorist attack is now the primary. He feels that retaliation was one of many of Dusk’s decisions causing the empire to slip into chaos, and he resents him for it. This Day is more erratic and passionate than his predecessor, curious and even guilty that he allowed his own youthful fears to be manipulated into genocide. Of course, he is still the egomaniacal lord of the galaxy and is utterly unconcerned when his tantrum at a group of royal mathematicians is so severe he causes the lead statistician to suffer a fatal heart attack.
In contrast to Day, is Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton), a delicate and uncertain boy who seems at all times out of step with his brothers. When we first see him he throws himself out the windows of his chamber, only to be saved by an invisible shield that surrounds his body. We don’t know how many times he may have attempted this before. This act is only witnessed by a court gardener, who is understandably fearful for her life, just absolutely cheeses it off somewhere out of sight. Later he seeks her out to confront her about what she saw. Unprompted, the gardener offers Brother Dawn wolf’s breath, which she claims has analgesic properties. While his suicide attempt initially appeared brought on by either severe ennui or possibly morbid curiosity about the limits of the protections placed upon him, this offer suggests there is something wrong with Dawn’s health. Whatever it is goes uncommented on by the rest of the court, but must be common enough knowledge that the staff is aware.
On Terminus, Salvor has to contend with the invading Anacreons. She’s forced to let the leader through the perimeter shield, but is able to maneuver their transport close enough to the Vault to knock her captor unconscious from the expanding nul-field effect. It’s a neat application of the field, and understandable that the Anacreon would be so baffled by the giant floating obelisk that she wouldn’t be more attentive to the misdirection. Now held prisoner in the settlements central tower, the leader, Phara (Kubbra Sait) insists her people are just scavengers, hunting the system for tech. However, her ownership of a ceremonial bow informs the settlers that she’s actually Grand Huntress, a position of great power and responsibility. She still claims that she’s come for the settlers unused slow drive so that she can help her people leave their irradiated and near-inhospitable planet. But that still doesn’t jibe with Salvor. Meanwhile, the rest of the Anacreons have surrounded the settlement and have set up a big ol’ cannon to blow some stuff up.
In the midst of all this, Salvor experiences another hallucination so strong it transports her to the Imperial library. Here again she confronts the boy who’s been flickering at the periphery of her vision. He brandishes his signature knife and we understand we’re seeing young Raych. She doesn’t know who he is, but the significance of the location is not lost on her. The Vault has some relationship to Hari Seldon, though the relationship between the Vault and her remains unclear. Facing uncertainty that this connection was not factored into The Plan, Saldor agonizes that she may be the one to disrupt the entire model. Instead, she is reassured that she just might be the one to save it.
This feels very much at odds with the whole tenor of the show, and ostensibly the book it’s based on. A more fitting model for the show would be something closer to Star Trek, with an emphasis on a group of people working together to solve problems. Instead the narrative places a lot of weight onto chosen characters like Salvor to act as fulcrums against which all other events balance. Granted, this is not a novel storytelling approach, but it feels like a contradiction to invite the viewer along on a hero’s journey for the ones destined to preserve the accuracy of a galactic-scale algebra problem that repeatedly underlines it does not and cannot factor for the individual. Finding the tension between the micro and the macro, delving into how individual actions accrue toward the galaxy-tipping actions of the whole is a worthwhile aspect for the show to engage with. The first episode demonstrated this very well—on a visual level, at least—by taking time to linger on the people harmed in the various bombings and atrocities. As it continues, though, the show has just begun to feel small.
Stray observations
- And there at the very end of the episode, we meet back up with Gaal. But who is piloting this mysterious ship coming to intercept her?
- Saldor’s monologue to Phara about the suffering experienced by the Anacreons after the bombing was both affecting and too-long. For the most part I’ve enjoyed Leah Harvey as Saldor, but this one seemed a bit more than she could wrangle.
- The Empire’s anti-kinetic energy field was very evocative of Dune’s shields. Maybe I’m just excited for Dune. The circular, golden ratio pattern it made as the consort pushed her finger through was very cool looking, though.
- Also speaking of Dune, what was the significance of Hugo’s eyes briefly flashing blue as he interrogated Phara? Ah heck. It was probably nothing.
- I enjoyed the aside at the beginning showing the funeral for the religious figure and the consequence the power struggle over her replacement has for The Empire. It was evocative, impressionistic, and the conversation about it amongst the brothers afterward performed as both good character development and world building. It was a good encapsulation of the show at its best.
- Looks like Brother Day is off to Terminus!
- Also, Lee Pace raising his hands above his head and exclaiming “A mausoleum of calculus” was quality ham.
44 Comments
‘As it continues, the sci-fi drama has just begun to feel small.’Yep, they’re doing it wrong.
This seems like a common problme with giant sweeping scifi epics. Those stories always fall into the trap because the audience needs to connect with recognizable characters and settings. When you’re dealing with timespans of thousands of years and century-long time jumps, settings and characters change rapidly and it’s hard for the viewer to find anyone or anything familiar to grab on to, so filmmakers have to take liberties to keep focus. Foundation was bound to suffer from this. Previous adaptations of Dune have as well.
I will say the Genetic Dynasty stuff is a clever way to keep from having to reintroduce new emperors every episode.
That’s why I liked Lynch’s Dune better than all the others: He made the society weird, it seemed like it was 10k years removed from ours.
The clones are about the only thing I’ve heard about the series so far that seems to be a positive change.
The CGI is beyond to notch. I don’t think I seen better in films.
the Galactic Dynasty stuff, while not from the books, is a *brilliant* bit of sci-fi and simultaneously a very clever way to solve the problem with so many jumps in time. it gives the viewers something to hang on to while other things skip around. i love it, and especially episode three, with the ritual of the death of Dusk. it was so well done. i love that at the last minute, he hesitates, and Demerzel has to nudge him to get him to go into the beam. since she’s seen them all age and have to go into the beam, you get the idea that this happens EVERY time, and she’s expecting it. i suspect that, if need be, she’d bodily pick him up and chuck him into the beam, just to keep the cycle going as planned.
Yeah, the clone dynasty is not only a great way to ensure continuity across time jumps for a TV audience, it also fits with Asimov’s themes. The stagnation of having literally no new blood on the throne for centuries would undoubtably contribute to the decline and fall of the Empire.
Playing pretty fast and loose with the term ‘adaptation,’ eh?
“But there’s a decided lack of originality to the execution of the show, and that’s disappointing.”Is this the one Goyer is involved in? If so, it should not be a surprise
Yeah that was the first indication that it would be horrible. David Goyer being involved in a project is basically a flashing neon sign stating that it’s gonna be hacky as hell.
Yeah that was the first indication that it would be horrible. David Goyer being involved in a project is basically a flashing neon sign stating that it’s gonna be hacky as hell….Um, okay. If you say so.
Take a look at the films he’s written, by and large they’re hacky garbage.
You mean, like…Batman Begins? And The Dark Knight? And Blade? And Blade II? LOL…OK, dude, if you say so.
Hardin’s psychic link to the vault, and Seldon from the past or whatever, doesn’t seem to fit the story or add anything to it. They could still right the ship but this episode was not promising.
Contrary to this review and you, I found this episode a much needed pick me up from last week’s dour tablesetting. Of course a TV show has to zoom in and focus on a small set of characters. That’s a given.
I didn’t say there was anything wrong with zooming on the character. I’m saying the plot device of Hardin having visions and a psychic link or whatever with the vault doesn’t fit the story. What does it add? Everything that’s happened in the story could have happened without it.
Um, it’s super cool, maybe? End of story! PEW PEW!
I was only responding to the general sentiment that this episode wasn’t good. As for the psychic link, we only have this one piece of the puzzle –I’m sure that will be explored further down the track.
Seldon in the novels i believe left behind messages to guide the foundation. That what the monument is for.
I know. Why not just have it be that, instead of Hardin having super powers?
An interesting aspect of modern life is that because I’m not paying for another streamer, I’ll never see this. In years past if you wanted to see something you could without having to commit to some ongoing obligation. Bottom line, fuck streaming, and fuck this cool-looking show I can’t watch, haha
Loving this show and glad that it got another season, as many media critics have been somewhat harsh against it. Yes, it does not follow the books, but if it did, nobody would watch it, for several reasons: First, Asimov’s greatest talent was ideas, and from a time when sci-fi was mostly about presenting mind blowing ideas about the future – character and plot were lesser concerns. That would just not fly in today’s media environment. Second, Asimov was not the best at character building in his story’s (with a few exceptions) – Heinlein and Herbert run rings around him. But when it comes to ideas in science fiction stories, Asimov was king. The “was” is the problem, however, and the third issue – that Asimov’s ideas have been taken and used by just about every sci fi franchise from Star Wars to Star Trek, so they don’t seem new to us. Thus the series has to come up with some new ideas itself. Finally, Foundation is a very very long story that really gets into the ideas and debates about those ideas and the legal, political and ethical ramifications of those ideas…sometimes for tens of book pages…again, something that a modern viewing (as opposed to reading) audience is not going to put up with for very long. The producers of this series are smart enough to take the ideas that Asimov presents and even add some great ideas of their own (for example, the cloned Cleons is a brilliant idea). So far, I am very pleased. However, I do find it is like the early episodes of The Expanse or Babylon 5…you have to be patient, have your head in the game or you will miss the subtle details and such. Not for relaxed viewing. In this, also similar to Asimov’s works…Asimov doesn’t tolerate lazy minds and this series does not either…which may explain why so many critics don’t like it…
The Galactic Empire with a citywide planet for a capital has become somewhat familiar, due to Star Wars and Coruscant if nothing else, but I don’t think psychohistory has really been explored much since Foundation. Yes, there was an episode of Deep Space 9 with something similar, but I think it’s still a pretty obscure idea.
I kinda feel that this review is projecting author’s expectations more than it evaluates the show itself. Sure, there are glimpses of hackery, like the conflict with Lewis, but most of the choices are fine – for the start of the show at least. For example: focusing on single heroes, not on the entire community. Geeez, thank god for that. That’s actually engaging, and gives the show a chance to build the audience outside of sci-go nerds Reddit board.Saying that, I hope that once they’ll set up the stage they will deconstruct all of the cliches and expectations. Not that I trust Goyer on that, but this is an adaptation of some clever books, right? Right?
The problem with Foundation (the books) is that they are the Lord of the Rings of Space Opera. Except Asimov is nowhere near the prose stylist that Tolkien is.So you know how you can look at LOTR and say well this is all just cliche fantasy stuff with the elves and the magic ring and the dwarves living in the mountain I mean come on… and then someone taps you on the shoulder and says “uh, well with a few much more obscure exceptions, it was pretty much the FIRST fantasy novel to have all those things.”Foundation is one of the first serious Galactic Empire type stories and the first stories were published in 1942. That’s before we had orbital rocketry. That’s back when people were telling Robert H Goddard that his rockets could never work in space because there was “nothing to push against”. All the psychohistory stuff is sooooo old school now. This is before (formalised) chaos theory, hell it’s two years before John von Neumann published On the Theory of Games as Strategy (though I’m sure Asimov would have known about game theory as a thing by the 1940s).So all the ideas are fundamentally post-war, like immediately post war, like sitting in your garret typing up your sci-fi stories during rationing post war. It’s all so modernist. Centres and peripheries. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. The Way We Used to Think. And so on.All that said there is at least one upcoming character who seems ideally suited to our 21st century sensibilities…
I agree with your overall attitude about Asimov, but the whole bit about modernism and The Way We Used to Think seems a bit reductivist and prides itself on some paradigm shifts which have frankly not taken place. “Center and periphery” doesn’t describe our anthropological interests of Roman times, certainly; the smallest town in Gaul has its own power structures and social currents. Post-processual archaeology acknowledges that even a washerwoman’s choice of midden could reflect a power dynamic. Gibbon suffers from that because he’s a historian. Asimov does not because historical accuracy is unnecessary. He wants to talk about power dynamics in empires and he explores them pretty fluently.
The general observations about center, periphery, and empire hold pretty true to how Rome’s decline is studied and taught today (or at least it holds true up to 2018, when I graduated with a classics degree transferred between two universities). The broad strokes are not wrong and pretty timeless. To be honest, suggesting otherwise comes off as chronological snobbery, a weird attempt to force the past in its place just because it’s old.
Not to say stuff hasn’t dated. You suggest that The Mule (the pic) is an example of something more modern . . . but he’s the opposite. New Wave sci-fi was full of such characters (e.g. Samuel Delaney’s Nova) and plot beats, and they in turn were adaptations of stuff like the Scaramouche archetype. If anything, The Mule was Asimov bending to the tastes of the era.
I thought ‘50’s sci-fi was entirely passé, in no small part due to creative writing college teachers telling me that Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke weren’t worth exploring. With Foundation and now a more faithful adaptation of Dune in our pockets, I’m not entirely sure we shouldn’t borrow some of that attitude. David Foster Wallace wrote how the Age of Irony was deadening our senses from the top down and taking away our ability to emotionally connect. Returning to what you call modernist sci-fi, I’m enjoying its inquisitiveness, its sincerity, its avoidance of irony or artifice. It’s helping me see Wallace’s point. Maybe it’s “modernist,” but maybe a little of that older school of thought in our fiction might be good. It might be an antidote to the poison of irony.
My theory is that Salvor is the daughter of Raych and Gaal. Remember they were storing their embryos in that chamber on the ship.
Lee Pace shouting the fat maths guy TO DEATH was the best part and should be the whole show.
Played, no less, by Ian MacNeice – Baron Harkonnen from the Dune TV adaptation!
Payback for the other Baron’s flower twink heart plug
New Dawn is not just a bit emo, he is genetically different from his brothers. At various points in this episode he is shown to be left-handed (reaching for his wine glass at dinner, sketching his crush, wearing his smartwatch on his right hand), and at the dinner table Day clearly notices. This suggests that something has accidentally or deliberately gone wrong with the cloning process. I have read the books, but so long ago that I genuinely can’t remember how this plays out.
The clones emperors are an invention of the show so the books wouldn’t give any indication of how anything plays out.
The genetic dynasty is not in the books but FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE features an Emperor Cleon who suffers from a mysterious painful condition. He is described by future historians as the “last strong emperor” after whose reign the decline of the empire proceeds in earnest.
Him being different was also foreshadowed in the previous episode, when they couldn’t stop him from crying when Dusk was marching towards his own disintegration.
My bet is on the android woman (Dermezel?) being behind sabotage.
It’s been forever and an age since I read the books, but there can only be one “person” Dermezel really is. I’m just surprised they didn’t make the name an anagram of it.
The TV series that work are all chronological. They should have started with the four robot novels; Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire. Then they should have used Prelude to Foundation first, when Seldon was young. That book has him young, falling in love with his human form robot protector, she is involved in a knife fight, etc.. It has really fun source material. The original FOUNDATION novel was acutally the most cerebral and boring of the entire series
Also-also speaking of Dune, the fat statistician-guy was played by none other than Ian McNeice, who portrayed the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in both the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel Dune miniseries, as well as its 2003 sequel Children of Dune.
I’m starting to think the Goyer actually hates the books and the whole show is going to be a childish refutation of every idea presented in the books. So far, the whole show is a complete insult to everyone who is a fan of the books and the trajectory is getting worse.
Really? Not getting a bit hyperbolic there? The show has to make choices because the books can’t be transferred verbatim. Some seem to work (the Emperors), some don’t (Hardin’s magical nature).
Is anyone else constantly having to refigure which Brother was which when they talk about what another Brother did in another episode? And while the casting is great – the Dusk actor genuinely looks like someone Lee Pace could age into – eyebrow makeup may be a factor – it does feel like shrinking a foot in thirty years is a… tall order…
I about gave up watching this after the first 3 episodes, but somehow, the fourth one pulled me back in. Sometimes, it feels too fast (would’ve been nice to see Trantor a bit before Seldon’s big trial) and sometimes too slow (the long walk to the vaporizer for Brother Darkness). Sometimes, all the Aussie/NZ accents kill me. Other times, it feels good to have a diversity of accents.Guess I’ll keep watching! But as far as the books go, Asimov once wrote an intro years after the series became famous, talking about how he never expected that stories so heavily centered on dialogue would ever capture the imagination. Be nice if the dialog on this show was better (aside from Sandor questioning Phera, THAT was good – plus literally all of Brother Day’s scenes).
1) Brother Day is headed to the conclave or whatever of the religion whose leader just died in order to back the replacement candidate that isn’t proclaiming the emperors to be soulless.
2) Hugo is Thespin; those are Thespin eyes.
3) The books constantly relied on individuals and their actions. It’s accounted for in Psychohistory not as a specific individual, but like a role that needs to be fulfilled and will be. The show doesn’t really explain that very well, but it does attempt to by having Hugo tell Salvor that maybe she’s the one to save The Plan instead of disrupt it. The plan doesn’t care who does the job, just that someone will do it.
4) The previous episode’s review had an issue with the academics who are running Terminus being too nebbish and out-of-touch, despite the conditions, but that too is right from the books. It’s a hard life, but these are ivory-tower people who put all their faith in Seldon’s plan rather than being grounded in the real world. 5) That bow is the same one that was returned to the Anacreon ambassador after the executions.
The part about Luminism (not from the books) was very well done. I did casually wonder how the fundamentalists handle natural twins. That isn’t a criticism. Real religions are full of subtleties and complicated doctrines and an actual religion having the doctrine they described could easily accommodate natural twins (among other things they are distinguished by having different fingerprints).The books do rely on individuals and their actions and do explain them as roles predicted by the Seldon Plan. In fairness, we eventually discover that isn’t a complete explication, since it turns out the plan has the Second Foundation to act as shepherds (unknown to the rest of the galaxy) and the Second Foundation (unknown to them) has the robots and the Gaians.
Gotta give it up for Terrance Mann (as Brother Dusk) absolutely *nailing* the haughtiness of Lee Pace’s ep 1/2 Brother Day persona.
Also speaking of Dune, what was the significance of Hugo’s eyes briefly flashing blue as he interrogated Phara? Ah heck. It was probably nothing.It means he’s from Thespis. Remember the female ambassador in the first couple of episodes? Thespisians have bright blue eyes. He hides them somehow (space contact lenses!), presumably to avoid the kind of reactions from Anacreons that Phara displayed.