Is Apple's Epic Sci-Fi TV Series 'Foundation' Any Good? Here's What The Reviews Are Saying
The Isaac Asimov classic sci-fi series is notoriously hard to adapt, but did Apple's "Foundation" succeed or fail in making a notable new entry in the sci-fi TV landscape? Here's what critics are saying.
In The 'Foundation' Universe, The Future Can Be Predicted By Math
Mathematician/psychologist Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) creates the field of psychohistory, in which the future can be pathetically predicted — not for individuals, but humanity in general — and has discovered the horrifying truth that the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire is going to fall, beginning a new dark age that will last 30,000 years. It can't be stopped, but it can be reduced to a mere millennium by creating a repository of human knowledge to become the foundation of a new civilization.
[Gizmodo]
[T]he first season of the series begins relatively simply, with a young woman named Gaal (Lou Llobell) leaving her watery homeworld to travel to the galactic center, having won a math competition that gives her the chance to work with renowned scholar Hari Seldon (Jared Harris). However, when she arrives, she's informed that her future does not contain a life of peaceful academia, because Seldon's study of "psycho-history" has predicted that the Galactic Empire is about to collapse, and that for humanity's knowledge to persevere, extreme measures must be enacted.
[Collider]
And If You Didn't Like Math In High School, We're Sorry
Fittingly, for a show about math, it was often cold and sterile. Seldon, in particular, feels very detached from the very people he's trying to save. It doesn't help that there's just so much math talk in the show. People say things like "math doesn't take sides" and "people lie, numbers don't" with a straight face, and Gaal is constantly reciting prime numbers in order to relax. At one point, when the Foundation is discussing which parts of various cultures they need to preserve, Gaal goes on a long diatribe about base 10. It's like being back in high school.
The Scope Of The Source Material Provides Many Challenges In Adaptation
The first "Foundation" book alone is made up of five separate novellas that have no characters in common, and take place over 150 years. Very, very few of those characters are developed because we spend so little time with them. They're not the story — the Foundation is, and how it develops over time.
[Gizmodo]
[T]his is also the challenge of "Foundation" itself. Its premise and Asimov's blueprint suggest a story that needs to unfold over centuries, shuffling cast members in and out, focusing more on larger systems of society than on individuals. Serial TV, on the other hand, relies on audiences connecting to specific characters over the long haul.
The Show Seems More Interested In Ideas Than Characters
[L]ike many so many heavyweight adaptations, "Foundation" is definitely not light on its feet. It takes itself very seriously indeed and evidently feels that it has Much To Say at all times. Which it undoubtedly does: about the corrupting nature of power, the inevitability of imperial decay (a favourite subject of Asimov after he read Gibbons' "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"), and humanity's unwillingness to face unpalatable truths even in order to mitigate them.
Though Selden and Gaal are nominally the leads, "Foundation" struggles to present engaging characters to root for. The intergalactic cast means the series hops around just as you're getting into each character, and not all of the characters are fleshed out enough to justify drawing you away from other stories.
[CNET]
And The TV Series Often Struggles In Grappling With The Book Series' Gargantuan Narrative
The 10-episode first season looks appropriately epic but struggles to tame a centuries-spanning, complex plot that feels lost in space — dazzling to look at and confounding to follow. The sweeping nature of the narrative has invited comparisons to other adaptations of literary epics, among them "Dune" and "Game of Thrones." Yet "Foundation," for better and mostly worse, feels very much like its own unique challenge, and doesn't in this form conjure the sort of characters that the latter did to draw viewers, providing a rickety foundation in terms of becoming invested in this elaborate fantasy world.
[CNN]
Beginning as a series of short stories in 1942 and expanding to a lengthy series of novels, prequels and sequels, "Foundation" is a vast cosmic saga. So, of course, the show opens with a voiceover, followed by onscreen captions telling you the names of three planets in just the first eight minutes. It flashes back 35 years, then a flashback rewinds 400 years, then another goes 17 years forward. Look, there's dense world-building that rewards viewers' attention, and there's presenting a story in a way that's just confusing. Foundation is filled with interesting stuff and big ideas, but it could present them in a more accessible way.
[CNET]
But Hey, It's Pretty
It's hard to put into words just how good this show looks, thanks to a directing team of Rupert Sanders, Alex Graves, Jennifer Phang and Roxann Dawson, some incredibly detailed production design, and the best visual effects artists money can buy. (Not to mention space battles!) It's an expensive show and you see every dollar on the screen, from the intricately designed foreign cities to the breathtaking intergalactic vistas. Of all the television I've watched over the last several years, this one is the first in a long time that made me yearn to see it on the biggest screen possible — do yourself a favor and don't watch "Foundation" on your phone. If any show deserved the theatrical release treatment, it's this one.
[Collider]
The images are certainly arresting. There are spacecraft with interiors like art installations; alien worlds with beringed and bemooned skyscapes; and some sort of mysterious giant lozenge that floats near the Foundation camp like a portentous piñata, promising to burst open and spill forth plot twists and dei ex machina.
Finally, The Million-Dollar Question: Is 'Foundation' A Succesful Adaptation?
Goyer's "Foundation" isn't Asimov's "Foundation." It's not an adaptation, and it's so different that calling it "inspired by the works of Isaac Asimov" still feels like a stretch. Maybe it truly is impossible to bring this seminal work of science fiction into another medium, but other shows could still do a hell of a lot better job than this.
[Gizmodo]
[T]he individual parts of this "Foundation" equation add up to something that's very pretty and slightly dull. Asimov's books have long been considered impossible to adapt. This version is a noble effort that can't quite solve the problem.
TL; DR
Austere and slow-moving, "Foundation" may not boast characters that immediately grab you. But this stylish, serious series lays a solid foundation for an intriguing sci-fi diversion.
[CNET]
Watch The Trailer
