Foundation Season 1

6.5/10 Based off of the acclaimed Isaac Asimov novels, “Foundation” sees Apple TV+ throwing their hat into the science fiction and big budget ring to mostly positive results. Created by David S. Goyer (who has a career filled with mixed results) and Josh Friedman, the plan is to have eight seasons but with a show this expensive, Apple TV+ will have to keep viewership high to justify the high production costs, of which season one were only made higher due to the China Virus/production delays. As to why this debut season largely succeeds, I have to start off by saying how this might be the best looking show on television/streaming that I have ever seen in my life. The epic scope and scale with its futuristic setting while jumping around in time is accompanied by absolutely incredible special effects to bring it all to life. Sometimes you will see a big budget Marvel movie and while 95% of the special effects will look fantastic, you will sometimes see certain shots or scenes that look off, either due to having to evenly distribute the budget of the visual effects teams or due to having to rush and make the deadline of the release date. However, there wasn’t a single moment that I spotted that looked off. The entire ten episode season is just beautiful to behold and although I haven’t read any of the Asimov novels, I am sure readers will be excited to see these worlds that they’ve only envisioned come to life. In addition to the visuals, the score from Bear McCreary is intregal to helping establish the diverse environments presented throughout the series. The opening theme music is also extremely well done. The cast assembled has many talented performers we’ve grown to love over the years (Jared Harris, Lee Pace) but also introduced me to other gifted individuals whose body of work I’ve never seen before (Lou Llobell, Laura Birn). Everyone plays their parts well and many of these characters are rich and layered. Episodes are well paced and we get proper time to develop everyone. There is a lot that needs to be established and overall the writers do a solid job of explaining everything. There were certain moments of confusion but this is a heavy plot with tons of world building and time jumping going on. As for what didn’t work, there were a few issues. My biggest complaint was that despite some impressive twists and being continuously intrigued by not always knowing what was going on, the season never truly wowed me. I was invested but not to the point where I cried when a character died or gasped in shock when a twist happened. I get that the first season of any show, especially science fiction, has to spend the bulk of its time just establishing everything but despite how long ago these books were written and their continued relevance to today, I can’t say that I was blown away by anything other than the visuals. When an episode ended, I didn’t feel so excited that I had to jump right into the following one. Hopefully now that things are established, season two will up the ante. There were also some silly/ridiculous moments where characters made extremely stupid decisions or didn’t explain why they did what they did (just to create additional tension). Finally, it wouldn’t be a modern TV show from a far left company if we didn’t get some forced political correctness that strayed from the book series. From the casting choices to adding in LGBT content, none of it was necessary or faithful to Asimov’s vision, but unfortunately, these studios and showrunners have to force it down our throats. Despite these issues, the show grabbed my attention enough to where I will definitely check out season two when it is released next year. Good science fiction is a rarity these days but with content like “Dune” and this, I think Hollywood is finally starting to lay a solid…foundation…for more strong sci-fi content.

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