Name - Foundation Series 1 Released - 2023 Creators - Josh Friedman / David Goyer
Christmas time is a good opportunity to catch up with your favorite TV shows or watch some things you have had your eye on, but didn't have the time to watch otherwise.
I have got myself a subscription to Apple TV and thought I would check out what they had to watch. I heard they have some new sci-fi shows to watch and the first one I stumbled across was Foundation. Usually these sci-fi shows can be abit dull and rehash stuff that has already been done, however, I noticed this was a title from the godfather of sci-fi himself Isaac Asimov.
If you have not read any Asimov, then I guess you are not into sci-fi, as he has written some of the best books on it. He most famous one that I have read is The Forever War trilogy which is brilliant in its own right. Foundation, whilst sounding familiar, I am not sure that I have read it.
The great thing about Asimov is that the sci-fi ideas and considerations in his books are really genius and are great to explore with him. This is what has made the first series of Foundation good for me. There are a few cheesy moments, but not so many as you would usually get in an episode of Star Trek for example.
The series still explores his ideas pretty well and the cgi is also pretty well done too. The story evolves around a galactic empire which rules right until the outer reaches of space and then there is an attack on the home planet which shakes things up pretty badly. Whilst this is happening, we see the beginnings of our protagonists gathering and calling out to the purity of maths that can predict the future and upcoming fall of the empire and coming dark ages.
Of course you need to suspend your imagination a little as of course, maths is just a language, but here it has been turned into some sort of religion, similar to like we have science today.
However, the strong points of the series are the great characters and ideas of Asimov and how they are explored. I really love the Brother Day character and of course the whole cloning idea and how it is explored. You see the power of empire, but it is not so overbearing as you might see in other sci-fi shows, you can still get close to the characters which is really well done.
Another great theme and relevant for us today is AI and robotics. There is a progressing storyline with Demerzel and you wonder if she really has emotions at times. This was really well played by the actress Laura Birn.
When they travel through warp space is also pretty cool and the creatures that attend to them are very mysterious. The storyline follows the beginnings of the Foundation by Hari Seldon. He is also an enjoyable character and it is mysterious how he comes and goes after his death thanks to nano-bots or whatever they are called.
Some crappy things about the show are some of the ridiculous lines that are dropped in on one planet that the people didn't listen to science so the oceans rose and there seems to be alot of role-reversal play which is common in Holywood right now. Masculine, dominant woman with submissive-follower type men which comes across very badly and cringe. This is epitomised in the relationship between Salvor and Hugo.
Overall though, I think that shouldn't distract you too much from enjoying this great piece of sci-fi and I am looking forward to watching season 2.
Thanks for reading.
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