Jared Harris and Lou Llobel in Foundation Photo: Patrick Redmond
Warning: Contains spoilers for the season two finale of Foundation «.
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An evil Galactic Empire, a rebel alliance plotting its overthrow, a quasi-mystical force determining the future of the galaxy. Stop me if you've heard this before, other than the second season of Foundation on Apple TV+ became the most important science fiction series of the year. Tellingly, this loose adaptation of Isaac Asimov's iconic novels has achieved must-see status while its thematically close competitor, something called Star Wars, continues to flounder at Disney. It's as if two franchises that started with roughly the same premise could go in completely different directions depending on the quality of the writing, acting, and special effects.
Foundation is, above all, a lesson in what can happen if you take science fiction seriously. It's a sprawling space opera full of vividly drawn characters, incredible sci-fi vistas, and a rich, clear plot that requires you to lean in rather than keep one eye on your phone. This is television that treats its audience as adults, not as geeks and girls who will vacuum up any cosplay slop they are served because it has a Marvel or Star Wars name attached to it (increasingly following Disney's policy) .
It also harks back to the great fantasy series of the past like Game of Thrones and Lost, where you never know what's around the corner. This is true even if you are familiar with Asimov's novels, which he published in fits and starts from the fifties to the nineties. (Fond's last novel, Onward, Fonda, was published after his death in 1992.)
This season, for example, featured a stunning revelation of the true nature of the relationship between Emperor Cleon and his robot lover/mother Demerzel, which was both a surprise and made sense in the context of what had happened before. The fund has earned a big turnaround. Equally impressively, the show pulls off an old trick: staging the death of its main character—Jared Harris's math genius Hari Seldon—without feeling cheap and exploitative. It manages to achieve the challenging goal of «subverting expectations» (Game of Thrones' much-derided unofficial mission statement) while staying true to both the plot and the characters.
Moreover, this is a show made for the streaming age. Showrunner David Goyer told Space.com that he was approached several times to bring Foundation to the big screen, but felt the film was too difficult to work on. The binge drinking model is an ideal environment.
“Having adapted other things like Batman and Superman and working on the recent Terminator (Dark Fate) and becoming a father, I thought maybe now that I'm over 50 I've had enough experience and arrogance to think this is possible. And with the advent of streaming, it felt like there was an audience for such a big romance show. I thought the time was right, and when the opportunity arose, I said, “This scares the hell out of me, but let's try it.”
The big winner is perhaps Apple, which has quietly established itself as the home of great science fiction. That gave Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore the time, space and money to create the sci-fi film For All Mankind, an alternate-history space race in which the Russians will be the first to reach the moon (they return for a fourth season in November). Additionally, Apple has adapted the cult sci-fi novel Wool, retitled Silo, starring the excellent Rebecca Ferguson as an engineer caught in a 1984-style dark future. Last year, meanwhile, he scored a huge critical success with Severance, a novel about employees who have their memories erased every time they go to work (think Mike Judge's Office Space, scripted by William Gibson).
Apple pulled another rabbit out of its cyber hat, ending the second season of Foundation. It's an explosive finale full of thrills, spills and crazy robots that also sets up the next season and briefly introduces one of the greatest villains in science fiction history, Asimov's tragic mind manipulator, the Mule.
Lee Pace and Terrence Mann as Brother Day and Brother Dusk in Foundation, Season Two Photo: Patrick Redmond
But let's not get too far ahead. To sum it up, the three Clone Emperors who supposedly rule the galaxy — Dawn, Day and Dusk — are having a tough time as the curtains come down. More than sticky in the case of Day and Sunset, both of whom have met their maker. Dawn, however, has escaped the clutches of the crazed robot lady Demerzel (Laura Byrne). In an earlier episode, she was exposed as the embodiment of «The Empire» — ruling in cahoots with a hologram of the real Emperor Cleon, aka Brother Dusk (no one said cult sci-fi was easy).
It is revealed that Demerzel was behind the bedroom assassination attempt on Lee Pace Day (the three emperors are likenesses of the original Cleon at different points in his life) that kicked off the season. But it wasn't really an attempt on his life—just a ploy to stoke the paranoia of an overgrown child. Demerzel's long game ends with Dawn's fiancée, Queen Sareth (Ella Rae-Smith), being framed for the botched murder. This is all a ruse to prevent Cleon from marrying Sareth and producing an heir. This alliance will end the Emperor's thousand years of dependence on Demerzel, and therefore must be stopped. Oh, Demerzel, you are a bad, bad bot.
But Don (Cassian Bilton), discovering he has a moral compass and resilience, runs away with Sareth. Elsewhere, the series introduces us to Seldon, an algebraic wizard who founded the original Foundation after his calculations predicted the Empire's imminent collapse into anarchy (in the Foundation, advanced mathematics is a power indistinguishable from magic). There are now two Seldons. One of them is a projection of the Foundation headquarters on Terminus, hidden in the mysterious Vault. Another is stuck with Gaal Dornik (Lou Llobell) and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) on the creepy planet Ignis. Here they finally defeat the evil mind controller Tellem Bond (though she gets her revenge in a bloody final twist).
Laura Byrne as Demerzel Photo: Apple TV
Surprising murders, crazy robots and an epic space battle over Terminus create an ending that both touches the heartstrings and, like the best sci-fi, leaves viewers with a sense of wonder. It also serves as belated vindication for Goyer, who continued to work with the Foundation despite initially harsh reviews and hostility from Asimov's fans.
In both cases the melody changed. Reviewers lined up to call the first season bloated and boring. But it's now clear that Goyer is playing the long game. At its best, «Foundation» is as addictive as «Game of Thrones» was in its prime. Like Thrones, it moves seamlessly between multiple compelling storylines. Emperors in the imperial capital Trantor, fans of Hari Seldon on Terminus and the resurrected Seldon traveling across the galaxy with Dornik and Hardin.
But if anyone owes Goyer an apology, it's Isaac Asimov fans. Many were vehemently against the series when it debuted in 2020 (“I wonder why they even called this series Foundation? Did they even read the books?” wrote one shocked fan on Reddit).
That they were slow to come to their senses is no secret. The Goyer Foundation is less an adaptation of Asimov and more a remix. It takes the theme of a secret organization trying to guide humanity through a period of decline and renewal, and adds its own twist. The most invigorating follow-up is the three-part Emperor Cleon: Dawn, Day and Sunset. The Day part is an excellent vehicle for Lee Pace, whose full-bodied performance combines Caligula's Malcolm McDowell with Game of Thrones' Jack Gleeson's Prince Joffrey. Day is a monument to excess, stupidity and psychological fragility: he is a pompous man-child with the powers of a god.Cleon appears in one of the Foundation prequels, written by Asimov at the end of his life. But he's nothing like the preening juggernaut we meet here. The same can be said for Demerzel, a robot who has undergone a sex change and turned into a stubborn villain (she doesn't actively want to enslave humanity; her chains just command it).
The Foundation gives us a tantalizing look at what science fiction might have looked like if Star Wars and Star Trek hadn't come to dominate the genre on screen. Grandiose space battles and clashes of good and evil take place here. But the theme of decline and renewal is both fascinating and original. It's also full of morally gray characters, like Cleon's beloved general Bel Riose, who are as conflicted as the anti-heroes in Game of Thrones.
It's also surprisingly cost-effective. The budget for the first episode of Foundation was $45 million—“only” $4.5 million per episode. And yet it looks fantastic. Compare that to the $212 million Disney poured into the terrible and aesthetically tattered Secret Invasion.
Another paradox is that while the series remains in the shadows, its future is surprisingly bright. Disney is struggling to keep its streaming service afloat, ordering too many shows that are often breathtaking in their mediocrity (though the latest Star Wars spinoff, Rosario Dawson's Ahsoka, is great fun).
Foundation, by contrast, is backed by Apple, which can afford to spend millions on a critically acclaimed cult hit (a third season has yet to receive official greenlight, but is expected to return in 2025). . Then head on over to the Foundation—and think about Star Wars trying to keep up with this dazzling space opera.
Science Fiction for Adults: The 5 Best TV Shows to Stream1. Silo, Apple TV + 
Rashida Jones and David Oyelowo in the bunker Photo: Apple TV+
“Terribly claustrophobic” is how The Telegraph praised this gripping film adaptation of Hugh Howey's bestselling sci-fi novel Wool. It stars Rebecca Ferguson as an engineer living in an underground community located in a 144-level complex underground. In other words, the Big Brother house, only slightly less dystopian — but with many secrets buried in the depths along with the inhabitants of Silos.
2. Peripheral, Prime Video
Periphery, one of the most high-profile victims of Hollywood's cancellation epidemic, was greenlit for a second season only for Amazon to change course. No matter: This take on William Gibson's Westworld romance by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy is still worth watching. Chloë Grace Moretz and Jack Reynor play siblings from North Carolina who find themselves in an eerie virtual reality of London 70 years later.
3. Severance, Apple TV + 
Imagine never having to worry about work again, thanks to a brain implant that erases all memories of your day at the office. What could go wrong? We discover quite a lot in this wild workplace satire, executive produced and directed by Ben Stiller and starring Parks and Recreation's Adam Scott.
4. Space, Prime Video
This sprawling sci-fi saga, supposedly airing because Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' daughter is a fan, is Star Trek for science buffs. The action takes place in a future solar system, colonized by humanity, but subject to the laws of physics. While there are space battles, they are slow and complex looking and without the traditional «pew-pew» sounds (in space, no one can hear you firing a laser gun).
5. Arcane, Netflix
It's a cartoon, but be under no illusions: this spin-off of the League of Legends video game is intended for adults. The setting is the steam-punk city of Piltover, where the rich enjoy life under blue skies and the lower class toil in the depths of Zaun. It tells the truly emotional story of the rivalry between former sisters Vee (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Yellowjackets' Ella Burnell). Arcane is awe-inspiring, touching and captivating. And his animation style is unusual, something between anime and classic French comics (created by the Parisian animation studio Fortiche).
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