Foundation
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This is Apple TV? I will have to watch it on my phone...
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I’m first half hour into the first episode.
Please tell me it gets better.
Seems too contrived. Almost cartoonish.
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I’m first half hour into the first episode.
Please tell me it gets better.
Seems too contrived. Almost cartoonish.
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A beautiful mess: Foundation is indeed a grand and sweeping epic, but so too is a tidal wave that leaves nothing but incomprehension in its wake.
Frustrating Foundation: Apple’s Foundation patches together a dizzying number of characters, ideas and threads of backstory from throughout Asimov’s books, plus plenty of new additions from executive producer and showrunner David S. Goyer (Batman Begins), to create a frustratingly convoluted opening hour...
Indeed, for the uninitiated, early episodes of Foundation can be a chore to get through, let alone understand. (Be prepared to replay scenes in order to catch snatches of rushed, whispery or conceptually opaque dialogue.) Which is a particular shame considering how beautiful every single frame looks.
Beautiful, but: Across the full 10-episode season, no hour of Foundation passed without multiple breathtaking compositions or pieces of well-considered visual world-building. Still, I needed more mind games and machinations, fewer literal tapestries and more tapestries of woven galactic history. The show provokes myriad instances of technical appreciation, yet rarely finds a way to be truly provocative.
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Episode 6...
Yeah, it was an interesting story.
But, like so much of the series, it has little to do with Asimov's vision of "The Foundation" other than the faithfulness to the idea of Hari Seldon's goal of saving humanity.
If you've never read the books, it would be an above-average sci-fi tale. Perhaps even enjoyable.
But, I'm disappointed. Too many irrelevant shoot-em-ups. Too many characters that were not in the books.
I'll keep watching, but every episode verifies the idea that "Foundation" can never, ever, be made into a movie or a series. It's too dense, too complex, and there are too many interwoven stories.
I think "Dune" would be easier, LOL.
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@mik said in Foundation:
As much as I loved the books, I can't work up any enthusiasm to even watch the series.
Yeah, George kinda killed it for me. I got 20 minutes into the first episode and haven't been back.
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@mik said in Foundation:
As much as I loved the books, I can't work up any enthusiasm to even watch the series.
Yeah, George kinda killed it for me. I got 20 minutes into the first episode and haven't been back.
@aqua-letifer said in Foundation:
I got 20 minutes into the first episode and haven't been back.
Well, here's what's similar between the books and the TV series.
- Some of the characters are the same:
- Cleon
- Hari
- Salvor (but in the show Salvor is a black woman)
- Demarzel
- It's set in the far future
- It has to do with predicting the future
- Trantor, Terminus...other planets
- Hari dies (though differently than in the book)
Umm, that's about it.
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@aqua-letifer said in Foundation:
I got 20 minutes into the first episode and haven't been back.
Well, here's what's similar between the books and the TV series.
- Some of the characters are the same:
- Cleon
- Hari
- Salvor (but in the show Salvor is a black woman)
- Demarzel
- It's set in the far future
- It has to do with predicting the future
- Trantor, Terminus...other planets
- Hari dies (though differently than in the book)
Umm, that's about it.
@george-k said in Foundation:
Demarzel
Played by a woman, I believe?. At the risk of spoilers, in the books he's actually somebody else in disguise.
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@george-k said in Foundation:
Demarzel
Played by a woman, I believe?. At the risk of spoilers, in the books he's actually somebody else in disguise.
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@george-k said in Foundation:
Yup.
Well, I guess she looks a little androgynous...or is that androidinous?
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Since I have an Apple TV+ (part of a package) and it's only an hour, so I don't feel too guilty continuing watching it.
So, with only a few episodes left for this season, I have this to say.
What. A. Mess.
"Hey let's take the idea of someone who can 'predict' (but not really predict) the future and make a space show with TONS of cool CGI! And while we're at it, let's totally change characters' genders, introduce new characters not in the books too! And, as long as we're at it, let's introduce storylines that are totally not in the books. because fanbois will watch it whatever crap we throw at them! But the settings, special effects and costumes are way cool!
"Oh, and remember when Hair died in the early episodes? Yeah, that didn't happen because Jared Harris is so FUCKING cool, we had to resurrect him in the second half of the season."
The Expanse's final season starts in about a month...
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Finally, an episode that is not a mess.
In its penultimate episode, "Foundation" seems to bring together a bunch of storylines into a coherent tale. Actually not a bad episode, other than the hackneyed acting by some, cliches, and deus-ex-machina surprises.
Oh, and technobabble; can't forget technobabble.
It would have been a better series if they had not raised the expectations so FREAKING high because, well, "Foundation."
Hey, I'm retired, and it's not a bad way to spend an hour watching this on my computer while reading the news, etc.
Which raises an interesting point. If you can "watch" a TV show, or movie, while doing something else, how good/compelling is it, after all?
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It's really sad.
If I hadn't read most of Asimov's Foundation books, I would find this pretty engaging.
Good premise, engaging (mostly) characters, and great production values.
But...
Amazon's Jack Ryan is not Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Maybe some day they'll make a movie of Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22'.Take it for what it is, with no expectations.
