Foundation full season review: sprawling tale painted with masterful brushstrokes

Apple TV’s Foundation is an expensive piece of storytelling, and it shows in every beautifully conceived scene, expertly acted with standout performances particularly from Lee Pace (Brother Day), Jarred Harris (Hari Seldon), and gender-swapped (a much needed change) Leah Harvey as Salvor Hardin and Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick. Foundation’s ten episodes are sumptuous TV and showrunner David S. Goyer has successfully brought an extremely difficult book series to life on the screen, even if it doesn’t really feel much like the original source material.

I don’t want to piss off Isaac Asimov enthusiasts—considered that the novel series is really deemed the seminal work of science fiction—but it is a good thing that the dialogue-heavy original text has been reimagined by showrunner Goyer (Dark Knight trilogy) that makes the sci-fi series more engaging tailored for a modern audience. Goyer has been tasked with bringing what has been believed as an “unfilmable” series into visual perspective and for that alone, he should be applauded. What he has undertaken with this ambitious project, by designing this expansive galaxy in Herculean scope, is a visual stunner. So much so, that the author’s daughter, Robyn Asimov signed on as executive producer.

The Asimov series is more of an inspiration for the television sequence, with Goyer labeling it a ‘remix’ rather than a literal retelling. Again, this is a method for successful adaptation. Strained gently from the original source material that has given producers the freedom to derive action to bolster effective storytelling, whereas remaining faithful to the novels would have bogged down the Apple TV program in heavy dialogue. I can safely say that I enjoyed the book series and this Apple TV adaptation as separate, satisfying entities.

Foundation will likely be compared to another grand, sweeping show that also involves a multitude of political intrigue, Game of Thrones. Let me make something very clear, Foundation is not Game of Thrones.  And that is fine.

Not every show that is grand, sweeping, and glorious needs to be compared with Game of Thrones. Foundation deserves to be considered all on its own merit and it is gorgeous.

Not everything works, however, particularly too much emphasis on Gaal Dornick’s love interest, Hugo, played charmingly by Daniel MacPherson, who is likeable enough, but just unnecessary. The beginning episodes feel a bit slow, but integral for layering the story that unfolds dramatically in the back half of the first season, culminating in some surprising revelations that fascinate.

Among those, in particular, include Demerzel’s (a multi-layered performance by Finnish actress Laura Bim) 11,000 year-old relationship with Emperor Cleon, here distinctively reimagined as a triumvirate of clones: the older Brother Dusk (the musically gifted Terrance Mann from Cats and Les Misérables fame), Brother Day (a haunting Pace), and Brother Dawn (Cooper Carter as the young version, and Cassian Bilton as the impassioned slightly older young monarch). The triptych of monarchs is a particularly deft storytelling device that illustrates the massive, detached chasm between the elite emperors and the rest of the vast galaxy they preside over. The genetic dynasty device works particularly well for the series, most especially when interweaving the interactions between the three all-powerful monarchs. This dynamic also is the closest the series comes to the level of Game of Thrones type of political intrigue.

But rather than George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, Foundation has always been more closely tied to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the most seminal works of Western culture. You can perceive the link between Roman Emperor Constantine’s fascination of Christianity and Foundation’s Cleon, particularly Brother Day, with his religious  captivation in the pivotal episodes that comprise the second half of the first series. This is a dynamic shift that elevates the series from the sci fi galactic adventure story to one of dynastic machinations that provide a political underbelly—bolstered by the three gifted actors who portray the Cleon clones (watch their in-synch eating patterns)—that rises above the intergalactic action.

The essential narrative trajectory is there from the Foundation novels, namely an interplanetary empire that is upended by the revelations deduced by genius mathematician Hari Seldon, through his theory of “psychohistory,” that predicts the fall of the galactic empire. Although he prophesies the fallout will culminate in a 30,000 year-old ‘Dark Ages,’ he proposes that the creation of a historical foundation can preserve the empire’s history and mitigate the collapse of the empire’s civilization into just a mere 1,000 years. Talented mathematician Gaal Dornick helps him make his case, after traveling to the capital to collaborate with Seldon, which eventually culminates in the isolation of Seldon and his thousand followers to an isolated outpost planet of the galaxy, Terminus.

Of course the events that transpire hardly go according to plan.

All ten episodes of Foundation’s first season were screened for this review. The first two episodes dropped on Apple TV on September 24, with weekly episodes to follow. If there is a series that deserves a second season, it certainly is Foundation, and let’s hope Apple is willing to invest in seeing the show go the full 80 episodes that David S. Goyer has envisioned.