Thread by @TheSpaceshipper

[Thread] Foundation (AppleTV +): Season 1 review (spoiler-free)

I had the opportunity to see the season ahead. Now I can't wait for the second season to be greenlighted, and I'm ready for the hoped-for 8-season cycle.

Did you like the first 2 episodes? You will like the rest.

Did you find that the first two episodes strayed too far from the books? We will have to accept that this is not Foundation, the book. This is Foundation, the TV series.

(All the pics here are from the first 2 episodes, but some wonderful -2839- shots await you in the future.)

I'm really glad I didn't reread Foundation before the series. Now, after the season, is the right time.

Because the interviews didn't lie: it's a remix drawing on the whole of Foundation (and more). If the book was a puzzle, it was broken apart to create a new shape.

This is what had to be done. We may not agree with some of the narrative choices made (and there are things I didn't like, but I won't talk about them until the end of the season), but this is a really deep adaptation, from one medium to another.

Maybe I would have liked more science and math, but a handful of scenes using these concepts will remain among my favorites.

Sometimes it's brilliant. Which thrills me, since it's only a first season, an introduction to the universe.

I already loved Salvor Hardin in the novel, and I still love him/her, even though the character has similar traits while being deeply different.

Gaal Dornick (amazing @loullobell) is the other pleasant surprise in this series.

I am delighted to have spent 10 hours with them.

Casting is always important, and I'll be delighted to see @leah_harvey, Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Laura Birn or Terrence Mann for years to come.

I love all these characters.

Those who have seen the first two episodes already know that the production design, sets, cinmatography, costumes, VFX are high level. Nothing changes thereafter, The Mandalorian will have to share some Emmys next year.

What amazes me is that I loved the concept of the Cleonic dynasty, invented for the series. The Empire is not Manichean, even if it crosses time and space in unimaginable ways.

It really is the start of something, while showing that time is a character.

I have identified about ten ships, half of which will be entitled to their own ship design thread after the season airs. There are really cool designs. And I didn't feel like I was seeing something from SW, Trek, BSG or The Expanse (although sometimes...)

There are things that I didn't like that I understood at the end of the season, two or three more things that bother me but that could be explained in a future season. Some Deus Ex Machina, and some clever stuff from the novel that weren't included. But overall I am satisfied.

The important thing is not to hope for a faithful adaptation of the novel. It really is a remix. The pieces of the puzzle come together to form another Foundation ... a second Foundation. 🙃

And you know what? It's okay with me. I absolutely want to know the rest of this story.

For a first season, I am impressed. This is the start of a big saga, and sorry for the comparison but I feel like at the end of GoT season 1. I am enthralled and know the best is yet to come.

Centuries of story in 80 episodes.

The first two episodes were just the introduction to a season that looks itself like an introduction to a great space fresco. Enjoy it over the next eight weeks, the opportunity is too rare.

Oh and now I absolutely believe them when they say that they are planning an 8-seasons endgame (in the best of cases, with luck and success) and that seasons 2-4 have been thought of in advance. It shows.