Foundation (2021) - Season 1 (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

First trailer just dropped -- written by David Goyer (The Dark Knight Trilogy), and starring Jared Harris (Mad Men, HBO's Chernobyl) as Isaac Asimov's iconic character Professor Hari Seldon:




Love that opening shot of Trantor (with the space-elevator). Lead girl looks real good, Lee Pace is always a gift, visuals are off the hook. It should be interesting to see how they execute this one, since Asimov's first three Foundation novels are so episodic (originally written as short stories and novellas back in the 1940s for John W. Campbell's Astounding SF magazine, and then collected in book-form in the '50s).

Like Denis Villenueve's upcoming Dune, it appears that they've gender-swapped one major character in particular (Gaal Dornick), but I have absolutely no problem with this.

 

[Walter Kittel]

It has been at least 40 years since I read the trilogy, but I don't remember the books being quite so action packed.

Actually I don't remember very much about the books, but the inclusion of Jared Harris is definitely a plus. I don't have Apple TV and probably will not be getting it since there are only so many hours in the day; so I don't have a dog in the fight. Nice to see more SF adaptions though.

- Walter.

 

[joshEH]

It has been at least 40 years since I read the trilogy, but I don't remember the books being quite so action packed.

Well, to be sure, the books DO have quite a bit of action in them (like during the fall of Trantor, the battles between the Foundation and Anacreonian fleets, etc.), but Asimov almost always kept the action "offscreen" while he focused on the psychological stuff between individual characters (such as between Salvor Hardin and Wienis during the first book).

That one shot of the city burning is definitely right out of Isaac's stories, depicting either the sacking of the Imperial capital-world, or else maybe a glimpse into the alternate future described by Seldon in the books where the Interregnum caused by the Empire's collapse (without the Foundation onhand to steer things in a less-violent direction) lasts 30,000 years instead of just one thousand.

Also interesting to see what is apparently a female actress portraying R. Daneel Olivaw/Eto Demerzel. It could be that the actress playing the role is going for a more-androgynous/"Tilda Swinton-y" approach, but that Daneel might still end up being male like in the books. Guess we'll find out, here, and she certainly resembles Daneel otherwise in most physical respects.

 

[ChristopherG]

Makes me want to read the trilogy again.

 

[Philip Verdieck]

More details here:

Apple gives us our first glimpse of Foundation, adapted from Asimov series

Apple gives us our first glimpse of Foundation, adapted from Asimov series

“The empire will fall. Order will vanish. This massive event is rushing to meet us.”

arstechnica.com

The concensus there is that without changing it up, it will totally drag for today's audiences. Someone else quoted Asimov as saying much later, when he reread his original work "Not a lot really happened"


I remember Foundation being a really slow read, and didn't finish the trilogy. This as someone who otherwise read a ton of Asimov.

 

[TJPC]

These “Foundation” novels are treasured possessions that I have read multiple times. My only caveat is that many movies and TV shows have covered the same types of things, making the originals seem already re-runs. I am afraid they could be creating another “John Carter”. This last movie imo was a wonderful film (one of the best for home 3D), that people were not willing to give a chance.

 

[Johnny Angell]

@TJPC I agree with you about John Carter except it was the studio that didn’t give it a chance when they failed to give it an adequate ad budget.

 

[SamT]

 

[Sam Favate]

This looks terrific. I hope it's a cut above the Childhood's End miniseries from a few years ago (which was good, but not great).

 

[joshEH]

Yeah, and although it appears they've added/altered a couple of things from the novels (like the "Cleon Genetic Dynasty"), this still looks amazing, and hopefully most of Asimov's key ideas are retained in the final series.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Enjoyed reading Asimov's Foundation books and Robot books in the 1980s, and it's a real treat knowing this show will be here soon.

 

[benbess]

Looking forward to this, even though the novels in some ways are difficult to imagine as a miniseries. So far I like the changes I'm seeing in the trailers. Good casting.

 

[SamT]

 

[KeithDA]

When will the 4k discs be released…?

 

[SamT]

So this is the story of Wikipedia?

 

[KeithDA]

When will the 4k discs be released…?

Sorry, I should have said we need to use psychohistory to predict when a release will happen...

 

[Brian L]

We just sat down to watch the premier, and ATV+ seems to be having server issues. Downdetector is currentky showing a spike in ATV and ATV+ problem reports.

Edit: Looks like it is back online.

 

[joshEH]

Big Math™ definitely funded this show as a way to get us to buy more math.

Yeah, this was pretty great -- gonna be rewatching these two episodes again very shortly, here, just to soak it all in. Love that they're even using material from the authorized non-Asimov-written books like the Greg Bear/David Brin/Gregory Benford Foundation-trilogy (i.e., the destruction of the space-elevator), and there are plenty of awesome nods to the greater Asimov-legendarium here for hardcore fans that were thrilling to finally see put onscreen (like Eto Demerzel being a robot, and probably a certain robot in particular; Raych Seldon's knives, etc.).

Jared Harris and Lee Pace are terrific, and the actress playing Gaal Dornick also does a very good job. Harris brings a stark humanity to Seldon missing in the early books. Absolutely loved the opening future-narrator's mentioning of Star's End, Hober Mallow, and the Mule as upcoming stories. The execution of the Mule's storyline in particular is going to be crucial.

Although I'm gonna wait and see how they integrate the changes they've made to FTL travel in the Robots/Foundation-universe, which are pretty much the exact opposite how it's handled in the books -- indeed, Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica-reboot basically ripped it off wholesale from Isaac's stories (one second, your ship is sitting in one part of the universe, and the next, you're ten sectors away in an eyeblink). But that's just a quibble. And my God, the money is all right up there onscreen -- this is one of the most cinematic, lavish-looking SF productions I've seen in ages, whether feature films or television. Just sumptuous.

Also, seeing Alexander Siddig from DS9 as the Trantorian prosecutor during Hari Seldon's trial (which more or less plays out exactly as it does in the first novel, with Siddig getting to be suitably menacing) was surreal, but wonderful (along with Reece Shearsmith playing another character from the books). They've definitely got me for the long haul with this one.

 

[Sam Posten]

Digging it. This is one Asimov series I never read tho.

 

[David Weicker]

I really enjoyed the first two episodes. The first more than the second.

I think the cliffhanger for S2 threw me (I'm not sure what exactly is happening)

Spoiler

and since it varies from the books, it seems an odd tangent.

Spoiler

Eto's reveal seems odd, because it foreshadows/ruins the big twist from the later books.

One thing that pulls me out is the way Lou Llobell (Gaal Dornick) looks. In the beginning she looked like a teen or pre-teen, which would fit her character (I don't remember how old Gaal is supposed to be in the books). And she is treated as a child prodigy when she shows up. However, this makes the developments in the second episode creepy. I know the actress is in her twenties, and that would fit the S2 storyline, but she still looks too young.