Foundation - TV Series (2021)

arknor said:
It's like HBO films and cast all the trantor stuff and BBC does the foundation side :S
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Scarily accurate description of the show. :cry:

I do harp on about this a fair bit but it's so damned irritating, the Empire parts are largely fantastic but the rest is so hit and miss with I'd argue the exception of Jared Harris as Harry Seldon and one or two others.

Kyo said:
Am I the only one that's finding it difficult to follow this show?. New characters just pop out and half the time l am left bewildered how we got here thinking did I miss half the story?? I must be not paying enough attention.?!

Is the show doing a good representation of the book?
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I'm not 100% on the books but it diverges a fair bit, the show does feel very disjointed at times. It does take a little keeping up to deal with the numbers of characters that get introduced, at times for short or minor periods. That said, the biggest issue with that is as mentioned, it feels like two totally different shows in terms of pacing/quality stuck together. The Empire part is the only reason I'm still watching to be totally honest, if you struggle with the two sides of things overly I'd not torture yourself with it.
 
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I was curious what lee pace looked like when he was younger (bare in mind this pic is probably edited to death and likely a modelling shot with perfect lighting)
dood coulda been in the inbetweeners with that look imo...
gvlf2ah.png


imagine going from that to looking like this at 45
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what a gigachad transformation
 
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Kyo said:
Am I the only one that's finding it difficult to follow this show?. New characters just pop out and half the time l am left bewildered how we got here thinking did I miss half the story?? I must be not paying enough attention.?!

Is the show doing a good representation of the book?
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I haven't read all the books but would say no, not really. It has taken Asimov's premise then gone off at a tangent, even allowing for the fact half the story was written in the 1950's. Doesn't mean the show is unenjoyable but unlike, say, The Expanse novels, the books will not help you with where the adaptation appears to be going.
 
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Not a fan of last week's episode...

I don't think blowing up, even indirectly, the whole of Planet Kalgan sat well with Asimov's original vision of what the Foundation or even Second Foundation were about.
Nor would the book Mule have gone to that extreme an action.
Both the Mule and Second Foundation achieved there goals by mental (telepathic) influence and subjugation, not by violent actions.
Seems to me the producers just wanted the big planet killer explosion.
 
arknor said:
I was curious what lee pace looked like when he was younger (bare in mind this pic is probably edited to death and likely a modelling shot with perfect lighting)
dood coulda been in the inbetweeners with that look imo...
gvlf2ah.png


imagine going from that to looking like this at 45
41z59ya.png


what a gigachad transformation
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It's called exercise bro :P

Reminds me I need to catch up on Foundation, my lunchtime workout viewing!
 
Getting a bit dry again, lot of nothing punctuated by a story beat or too.

Feels like GoT or Walking Dead, whole load of diddly squat then a burst of action to wake you up and watch the next one.
 
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This is definitely not the Foundation of the books any more (not that it ever really was). Completely OTT as regards The Mule and his actions/ability. In the book he was defeated
simply by a stronger telepath from the Second Foundation sitting across the table and mind fudging him

As I said after previous episodes, basically the producers wanted big space battles and Blade Runneresque cityscapes and to hell with the actual story.
 
God...is this gonna get wound up in season 4 because this is sadly boring.
Even with intergalactic world killing mega weapons it's like...meh ok...
 
I did try Apple TV and enjoyed Masters of the Air but I didnt have time to check Foundation. I read the books back in the 60s and can still remember the plot but it sounds like I didnt miss much.
 
Efour said:
God...is this gonna get wound up in season 4 because this is sadly boring.
Even with intergalactic world killing mega weapons it's like...meh ok...
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Thought it was a decent enough episode personally.

DD_Crash said:
I did try Apple TV and enjoyed Masters of the Air but I didnt have time to check Foundation. I read the books back in the 60s and can still remember the plot but it sounds like I didnt miss much.
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It only uses the books as a general framework though it has the major plot points - personally don't think the books would translate to screen very well directly far too much exposition and other quite dry content and long sections on how people were feeling, etc. etc. aside from 1-2 characters most of the rest are the book character only in name with a whole new background and story drawn from the world building of the books.

I think the biggest problem is that it feels like you've got 2 sides to the show as someone else said it feels like the Empire stuff is a HBO show while the stuff surrounding it is BBC show level, with the result that some of the characters fall a bit flat and for some like Gaal who are kind of important to the original story that is a bit of a problem.
 
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From a promising start it seems to have descended into deeply lazy storyelling. Not having read the books I don't know how much of this is the showrunner's fault and how much the source material. Either way, once you cop out with ridiculous mind control superpowers (because .... 'mutatations'), ludicrous secret intergalactic megaweapons and immortal robots and key characters warping around all over the place, chances are the rest of plot and characters no longer really matter. Will the universe end as predicted or will someone save the day? Does anyone really care? Yawn.
 
Cern said:
From a promising start it seems to have descended into deeply lazy storyelling. Not having read the books I don't know how much of this is the showrunner's fault and how much the source material. Either way, once you cop out with ridiculous mind control superpowers (because .... 'mutatations'), ludicrous secret intergalactic megaweapons and immortal robots and key characters warping around all over the place, chances are the rest of plot and characters no longer really matter. Will the universe end as predicted or will someone save the day? Does anyone really care? Yawn.
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The books were much more cerebral and less action based, the show has now moved far away from that up to including and keeping alive very minor characters but turning them into major players (like Gail Dornack).
 
Cern said:
From a promising start it seems to have descended into deeply lazy storyelling. Not having read the books I don't know how much of this is the showrunner's fault and how much the source material.
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Don't want to potentially spoil it (I've not watched the leaked episode either) but there is a massive twist at the end of this season if per the books, but so far the writing doesn't suggest they've used it, but if they did use it then it would necessitate a bit of what appears like lazy story telling.

Overall the books would be very clunky to directly make a show from, but they have hit most of the story beats so to speak with a bit of changing things around - some of it more needed than others.
 
Feels like there is a scene missing from the middle of the last episode. Also with the twist wonder if that is their version of it or still keeping the final version of it to play out later.
 
Been watching every week as I'm still enjoying, good final episode and glad season 4 is happening. I've never read the books so cannot compare.
 
I'm not loving it but still compelled enough to keep watching because of the sci-fi spectacle, particularly as said around Empire and also for the themes of robotics that are more cerebrally engaging but explored extremely slowly. Having not read any literature around this (shame on me) I can see the potential of exploring the (by now mostly quite familiar to sci-fi fans) ideas but the show is at best, disjointed in its execution of them, especially the more unique concepts not often seen (e.g. psychohistory, mathematics).
 
Rroff said:
Feels like there is a scene missing from the middle of the last episode. Also with the twist wonder if that is their version of it or still keeping the final version of it to play out later.
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Im just hoping that they havent killed the show/shot themselves in the foot by removing possibly 3 of the only actors keeping the show afloat imho
 
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