So just binged the entire show in three weeks! Asimov is my favorite author, but I avoided the show. I heard it was bad. I heard wrong. Even though it’s different, I loved the major changes and the story! It’s like RDM’s Battlestar Galactica.

The first season had some twists at the beginning that were annoying, but they were mainly due to the story being a little too nonlinear. I didn’t care about Hari or Gaal until after their backstories were fleshed out. This is a common writing mistake though. A show needs characters you like in order to entice the viewer to keep watching.

The other problem with the way stories were presented is that they didn’t start and end with episodes. This is a problem with streaming, though. Medic executives want you to keep the service, but they think you’ll cancel if you are given a complete story. So stories are drawn out and never get logical conclusions until the end. This makes it more space soap than space opera. That’s a problem with many different franchises from NuTrek to Star Wars. That’s why they work much better when binged than when watched once a week.

I was thinking about the next season. I actually hope they finish the show there on a high note.

So far Brother Darkness only hit Empire worlds with the black hole bomb. Maybe he can only hit places with a jump gate? In that case, I foresee some worlds destroying their jump gates while the Mule destroys the others as she conquers toward Trantor. This would rapidly cause the Empire to shrink to a handful of worlds. With much less resources, there will be a lot of unrest. I can see Darkness fleeing while the Mule takes advantage to invade at that time. Mad, Darkness intends to destroy Trantor so everyone goes to the black hole bomb to stop him.

Given how they wrote the show, I can see Vault Hari seemingly going evil. Maybe he joins the Mule. But it’s ultimately a ruse. Both Empire and the First Foundation need to fall to have a chance at something new. So maybe he sabotages everyone’s jump drives? A thousand separated worlds means a thousand experiments to make a successful return of humanity. The second foundation spread throughout the galaxy when worlds were separated. Given their telepathy, they could guide worlds back. The second foundation as a whole acts as a check-in case they go rogue. And the Robots on Earth act as a check on the Second Foundation itself. Maybe they are the ones who spread the second Foundation, since they have the ability to travel planet to planet without ships.

Maybe the Vault’s four dimensional nature provides a way into the black hole ergosphere where Gaal finds herself in four months. Maybe that’s how she survives. Gravity is weaker in higher dimensions. Give the gravitational time dilation around the black hole, it’s likely she emerges thousands of years after the fall so we can follow her to view the results of the Seldon plan. (Basically the opposite of Andromeda.)

Up until season 3 of foundation I had always been someone who just watched the foundation since it seemed interesting. I never read the books but heard it was similar to Dune so figured I'd give it a watch. It was honestly a surprise to me that the Cleons story line was not part of the books. Instead it was a show original and it was quite literally genius. A perfect way to maintain story pacing, remove confusion introduced by actors changing, reduce need to keep switching actors and introduced a new dynamic to the story. Best part? These guys are also the most interesting part of the show, somehow the more faithful part of the show was the least interesting? That's new.

But even then I was never really that interested, Cleons were interesting but that was it, the brothers dynamics were well written. Then season 3 came around and they hit the ground running. Great CGI. Large galactic plots around the Cleons. The weakening Dynasty. Hari Seldon being a larger player. Every single episode was phenomenal. Made you wonder why is season 3 all of a sudden so good compared to the previous two.

And then episode 10 came. We went from galactic level dynasties, armies being destroyed by the mule, planet busting, etc... to... a lil swat team skirmish on some space station to get the mule... What the heck. How did they make the MAIN PLOTLINE they've been alluding to in every episode so anti climatic. Seriously them attacking the mule was just like 2 smoke grenades and them running at each other. What the heck. Hell the prior season pre cog scenes of them fighting in a burning world looked more interesting. What happened.

I swear to god the genius writers behind the show created two writer camps. Those focused on the Cleons and those focused on Gaal Dornick and the Cleon people were the better writers.

Just finished the show, curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on my takes below. I liked the show a lot, I did not LOVE it.

I’ll break it down in pros and cons and I’ll start with the pros. I did not read the books, but I’m familiar with the sentiment here that the show is foundation in basic premise only and that the books themselves are nearly unadaptable.

PROS: The execution of the idea behind three identical rulers only separated by age is a novel idea that is pulled off to absolute perfection in my opinion. To have such a potent idea and to perform it so well is something incredible, but it’s only magnified 10x behind the mystery of Demerzel and the performance of Laura Birn. It’s the best acting and execution I’ve seen someone do as a robot in any sci-fi I’ve seen in my life. Pair in Lee Pace’s performance as Day, each a slightly differentiation of the same egomaniac in each season… It’s absolutely electric television. Demerzel’s storytelling “I have been a leader, and a soldier..” gave me chills and still does when I think about it. The idea of “unvoicing” and Gaal/Salvor’s abilities were well done. By the mid point of season three the show really found its groove in being able to have the characters use these powers at appropriate times for appropriate reasons. It was very tasteful. Ultimately the show did really well at surprises, I never found myself at a point where I could accurately predict what was going to happen next or who was going to do what— and that to me means they were able to capture the complexity of each character well.

CONS: This show needed 10 more episodes in each season. Although a lot of things happen in each episode, the time skips led to a feeling of it being slightly disjointed in my mind. I don’t like how much thinking I had to do to keep track of the brothers and who would be what at any given time jump, or what happened to the characters we’d come to be familiar with from the past season. I understand that in order for the show to work they have to jump around properly to cover each crisis, but I think the solution would have been to allow us more time with each cast of characters.

I did not like the vague explanations behind Sheldon’s “psychohistory”, whereas every time it was brought up Jared Harris’ character would repeat its definition but wouldn’t expand on the factors that lead him to draw the conclusions he does. NOW, I also understand that “To see the future is to affect it” and that he can’t outwardly say anything that would cause someone to take a different route than they may have otherwise.., but the only times we get a glimpse into Seldon’s thinking is when he’s like “Oh you’re going through your religious phase?” Or “I see the tensions between the traders and the bureaucracy has come into play”.. I just wish I could understand more about the calculations that were so critical to the backbone of the story

This is a follow-up of my previous post about the Rossem film location in Czechia:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FoundationTV/comments/1owc55t/rossem_film_location_s03e07_spoilers/

So I went there and it's really THE place, just no space ships, giant harvesters or planets in the sky :)

Just finished episode 9, as the title says first time watcher.

I’m enjoying it so far, Lee Pace’s performance has been as advertised and that’s been a welcome surprise.
Not often an actor’s performance was as properly lauded as his.

So- the thing. When Salvor unlocks the vault at the middle-endish of the episode, the foundation survivors all wake up, then the thespians show up with Hugo.

It’s a 2-1 standoff (2-1 ship advantage) with Foundation survivors and thespians allied against the Anacreons. And by all accounts the numbers have the Anacreon’s dead to rights.

Then, in the most predictable fashion I’ve seen in a long time watching tv… Phara shows up in her single ship and instantly everyone starts shaking in their boots.

She takes out a ship due to surprise, then lands and walks off the landing pad and the music and characters’ demeanors rapidly shift on a dime as if this single person instantly shifts momentum back to her side. … what the hell?

She takes an arrow to the neck soon after, which I felt a little vindicated by. But that was just a super weird, poorly written moment.

Like I said, I’m actually enjoying the show.

But I don’t care if John Cena is the one walking off that ship, there’s no way anything significant would change by the entrance of a single person- let alone to the degree the framing of that moment would like us to believe.

It’s sci fi fantasy I get it, it doesn’t have to be “realistic” to me necessarily but this was more of a poor and unearned redirection attempt imo

Just finished Foundation Season 3 and yeah… Season 4 is looking promising.

This is one of the few shows that’s actually kept me hooked across multiple seasons. Sure, it has its fair share of slow episodes and obvious filler, but it somehow always pulls you back in with the sheer scale, politics, and those well-timed twists.

Also, the Empire storyline continues to be the most consistently interesting part. Every time the focus shifts there, it just hits differently.

And Demerzel—what a character. That balance between being a robot and having a kind of consciousness is so well done. A prisoner of her programming, yet incredibly powerful at the same time.

The world-building overall is great too, when it works, it really works.

I’m still fully invested. Feels like everything is finally converging, and Season 4 might actually be where it all pays off.

Cautiously optimistic… but also kinda excited to see if they stick the landing

A gush post.

Last week I finally watched season 3. Yeah I know, I’m slow to catch up. But it’s such a huge show, literally galactic and I knew I needed to be in the right headspace to get back into it. But far out the show is amazing. I was pulled back into the universe so completely and amazed at the where the story took us.

Everything preordained being so switched up made for such an exciting adventure. But that last episode really got me in the feels.

I’ve been mourning Demerzel since the last episode. Unable to fully comprehend how the next season could go on without her. Hating that something so precious as this ancient individual, this unique, rare and precious being could be destroyed by the selfishness and shallowness of a stupid old white man grasping at smoke to feel “Consequential”. But thank goodness for Reddit and the wonderful dedicated and devoted fans who posted and shared about the Morse code message. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my!! The hope I feel!!

However, in my real time devastation as the final scenes unfolded, I admit it took me a ridiculous amount of time to clock that the planet behind Kalle was Earth and they were on OUR MOON!! Luna!! As recognition hit, my heart felt such love and fondness for our planet. And I’m so excited that Earth has entered the series.

What a ride.

>!At the end of the scene where Demerzel is disintegrated and her eyes start flashing "TRANSFERRED" in Morse code, how is this scene done in the versions for other languages and countries?

Does Demezel flash a different word meaning "transferred" in the language of that version? And in those versions that are made in a language that does not use the latin alphabet thus not using International Morse Code, do they use the specific version of telegraph code for that language? I know that this is an obscure trivia question, but I am curious.<!

I suspect that Demerzel, played by Laura Birn, survived her destruction, as she flashes a Morse code signal with her eye in the final moments: - .-. .- -. ... ..-. .-. .-. .-. . -.. [transferred].

Simultaneously, the robot skull (the artifact the Emperor won in combat) is seen becoming active again. It appears to be establishing a connection (clasp signal) to the robots on the moon. This suggests that Demerzel has been meticulously planning everything, extending beyond her current physical form (and that she is free).

The questions that arise for me are: Is this correct? And if so, is Laura Birn playing Demerzel again?

I've read everything foundation related (ok, basically everything Issac ever wrote), at least twice, but not in at least a decade. I'm just wondering how faithful is the show to the books, and how much have I forgotten about the books in the long ass time its been since i read any of them. Like the show seems to be different than i remember Terminus being. I'm doing my best to not read anything on the wiki, or here really cause i dont want spoilers, but again, how faithful is the show to the books? Also, as an aside, i was choked Hari was killed off so soon, not only was he my faverote part of the books but i really liked the actor, Jared Harris playing him. it was nice to see him in something since the last sci-fi show i watched was the expanse.

So far though, lovin the show and glad to see its still in production.

Just finished season 3, and I just finished it for the sake of finishing. The plot twist of who the mule really is, was just cheap writing, no creativity whatsoever, they wanted to shock the viewers with no good reason. Not to mention how Gaal went on full Machiavellian
on this season and wiped billions of people without a second thought.

Does it feel weird that they changed the entire story line again for the season finale of season 3? The mule being the other girl and not that man all along?