Foundation (2021)

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1. 

   Siskoid

   In the year where we get a big budget Dune adaptation, it's interesting that we also got a Foundation television series. The trailers looked gorgeous (and indeed, that's true of the series), but despite producers' claims that they'd finally found a way to tell that story cinematically, questions remained as to how it could be done. I guess the answer was to put the books in a blender and broadcast something completely different. I'm not too precious about adaptations; I only ask that the spirit of the original be part of the equation. In this case, while Foundation is a perfectly fine science fiction series with big ideas, its desperate need to keep a fairly intact cast ends up, I think, making the books' OPPOSITE point. Seldon may have put things in motion to subvert history, but he's still a predictor rather than a mover and shaker (at least if you're not gonna use the Prelude books). Even exceptional individuals are doing what they do within predictable social movements, which doesn't give much power to exceptionalism - I'd even go as far as say, what with the Mule from later stories - is a dangerous thing for human history. Here, not only is exceptionalism "good", but it's genetic in nature. Which makes no sense because the failing Empire is represented by an Emperor that clones himself and sits on three generational thrones, as manifest genetic destiny. I suppose this is writer-producer David Goyer's obsession with "magic blood", something you'll find in most of his work. Following the Emperor(s) as their world crumbles is interesting, but complete invention in regards to the books. Someone pitched this at the height of Game of Thrones fever, perhaps. To keep actors employed, the show also introduces Fate as a force quite outside what psycho-history should be able to do, which again, shows a misunderstanding (or wilful ignorance) of the root material. Collapsing the timeline seems wrong-headed when you're supposed to be telling a 1000-year story (Asimov barely broke 500 himself). Salvor Hardin's original solution to the first Crisis is referenced as an evil of the Empire, while the show does something else entirely. And I would have thought a homogeneous Empire was part of the book series' point, abandoned for a more interesting setting, I'll admit. So it kept me interested, and often because I wanted to see how elements would be mixed in, but is it really Foundation? Probably not. in other words, the "unfilmable" story remains unfilmed.
   
   Season 2: There's no denying Foundation's second season is more exciting than the first even if it leans into two things that are suspect in terms of adapting Asimov's seminal series. One is that it prefers action and spectacle to conversational solutions, as I think is proper for a "filmic" television series. There's no denying the show looks amazing and the Imperium offers varied locations and peoples. Of course, when you consider Hober Mallow's actual solution to the Second Crisis in the books, it's ridiculous how "active" he is. The other is that they go through some pretty insane convolutions to keep the same cast employed, even if they do sacrifice SOME. One side-effect is to blow the secrets about the Second Foundation way too early, but needs must. Another is to pursue the notion of exceptionalism that psychohistory would seem to deny, or at least, condemn. Ironically, it's the tri-fold Emperor's plot - a complete invention of the series - that seems to integrate the books' themes best, as there's nothing they can really do to stop history from happening. That said, Season 2 shines brightest when it's focusing on its new characters - Riose, the general trying to save lives, and his husband thought lost; Mallow, the con man turned hero; and Constant, the frank and touching monk in the Foundation's "church" - she had me breaking into tears at the end there. I know I make a lot of comparisons with the books, but Foundation does stand on its own by this point and works on its own merits, where perhaps Season 1 was a little slow to set things up in comparison. 2 years 5 months ago
2. 

   Cynicus Rex

   Does Hollywood know any other colours besides blue and orange—blorange? The sex scenes are redundant and boring as well.
   
   Other than that, pretty enjoyable. 2 years 5 months ago

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