Kevin C. Wong

TV Show - Foundation s1 (2021) [+]

Foundation is an Apple TV+ drama based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation books.

In the far future the Galactic Empire riles a good portion of the galaxy. It is ruled by Empire, a clone of the greatest emperor Cleon I and now the system is Dusk (Terrence Mann), the outgoing emperor, Day (Lee Pace), the current emperor, and Dawn (various people) the new emperor. Sort of a grandfather, father, son dynamic though the point is to have the exact same upbringing, habits, and thought patterns as Cleon I to make it seem like it's an eternal emperor even though there are inevitable differences.

Then Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) comes with his psychohistory research saying that the Galactic Empire is on the brink of downfall leading to a ten-thousand year age of darkness. Empire banishes Seldon and his followers, including newcomer and mathematical wiz Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), to Terminus, a bleak world in the Outer Reaches. It's all part of Seldon's plan to establish his Foundation, dedicated to making sure that the Dark Age lasts one thousand years instead of ten thousand.

The first season focuses on a few decades later, The First Crisis (of the Foundation). The Terminus colony is still rather rudimentary. Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) is the chief Warden (like a Sheriff or Ranger) and a bit of an outsider as she doesn't quite believe in Seldon's master plan. The crisis starts when Terminus is invaded by a warband of Anacreons, a race decimated by the Galactic Empire, and they're here to use Terminus and the Foundation as part of a revenge plan against Empire.

Meanwhile Empire has to deal with his own crisis. The head of the Luminist faith (the largest religion in the Galactic Empire, about 1/3rd of the people are Luminists) dies and of the two rival candidates one is old-book Luminist, one of the key principles being that cloned people are not actually people because they have no souls. Besides the Luminists it turns out the current teenage Dawn (Cassian Bilton) has a deep secret and if his brothers find out he'll definitely be recycled...

Anyway, it's a very high concept show. Not that much in terms of action though there is action but it's more about talking and machinations and maybe setting things up for future seasons. The plan is an 8-season show if Apple funds it all the way which hopefully they will. I like Foundation because it is high concept lots of thought, seems somewhat close to the books from what I remember, and different from other science fiction shows.