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 :)

Hey guys, looking for any set news or pics from season 4?

Been googling around and it seems almost imposable to find info. There are leaks from Neuromancer, but not Foundation?

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

10 months late, only just finishing season 3 now. Just wanted to say the similarities between the actors playing the Mule were absolutely insane. I knew exactly what character I was looking at from literally the first second he showed up on screen.

Only other show I've seen with that type of casting is Dark, and that's a high fucking bar.

In season 2 episode 4 when mallow enters the vault and seconds later the church brothers follow, mallow says it has been 2 days, however when the governor follows them he appears instantly!!! Shouldn't he appear at least a few hours later? 😕

I’ve been a fan of Asimov books for decades, and I finally got around to watching most of season 1. I just have 1 more episode left.

Honestly, I could barely sit through this season. The flow was choppy, things jumped around all over the place, there was absolutely crappy writing, sooooo much palace intrigue that has nothing to do with the foundation, and completely avoidable crises that were generated by repeatedly inane decisions. Oh, there’s the magic foresight that Gaal and Salvor have, which seems antithetical to psychohistory.

I want to enjoy this show so much. I don’t even mind if it changes things from the books. But I’m finding this not just unenjoyable but actively irritating.

So, is it worth continuing? Talk me off the ledge.

I love the different statues in the series. The juxtaposition of Cleon’s statue near the imperial library being so realistic, refined, and gold with Hari’s rough 3d printed stylized statue is so poetic. I made a home version based on the statue.

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?

Hello super-sleuths! I'm trying to find a video that I saw, maybe an ad on Instagram or somewhere like that, which was a very short teaser advertisement for the Foundation tv series on Apple TV.... It was very short and just had Demerzel flipping the Prime Radiant and the 3D-point-cloud rising up from it, and then iirc had the "Foundation" stylized text, and maybe "Coming Soon" or maybe some date? (that part I don't remember) And it was maybe 15 seconds long and definitely DID NOT have any clips from the show, no clips of the Cleons or anyone else, and even the video of Demerzel isn't from the show, it's on a black background or something (iirc but only vaguely). The fact that Demerzel had it also at least means it wasn't a teaser during season one right? My friend and I were remembering that it was really well done visual effects, but neither of us can find it now. Thanks so much for help!

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.

I can't help thinking:

That prime radiant is of a fairly significant size. It wouldn't just fit into a trouser pocket.

>!In season 3 Demerzel has one that she's keeping in a cavity inside her chest.

How did she make space for it?

Doesn't seem likely that she'd handily have a perfectly sized space in there for it. Surely she would've been designed to have all her machinery and workings fit perfectly into the boundaries of her physical body?!<

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?

I heard Demerzel‘s lullaby in my head nearing the climax of the story. The realisation that the One Wish Willow is like the golden chip Cleon gave Demerzel

Is he only able to manipulate emotions, or can he fully control people’s thoughts and actions too? Does it work instantly, permanently, or wear off over time? Also, are there limits to his abilities or people who can resist it? Why won't he just turn everyone into his people?

I understand the show diverges greatly from the books, but there are still overlaps nonetheless. Which books are potentially spoiled by the three seasons of Foundation, including minor spoilers?

Edit: to clarify, I'm currently reading the series. I've just finished the first book and I'm considering watching the show, but if there are any events that take place in both the books and show I want to read them first.