Foundation is one of those series that makes you feel smart one minute and completely lost the next..
Based on the famous sci-fi novels by Issac Asimov, Foundation takes place in a ridiculously distant future where humanity has spread across the galaxy and is ruled by the Galactic Empire. The problem is, the Empire is slowly falling apart.
Hari is basically the guy who looks at thousands of years of human history, does a ridiculous amount of mathematics and says, “Yeah… this whole thing is about to collapse.” and obviously, nobody wants to hear that..
His prediction is that the Galactic Empire will eventually fall, followed by thousands of years of chaos before civilization can recover... So Hari comes up with a plan to preserve human knowledge and shorten that dark period.
That plan becomes the Foundation and from there, things get complicated very quickly.
What I really liked about Foundation is that it doesn't feel like your typical space series. This isn't just spaceships flying around and people shooting lasers at each other... The big question is actually about civilization, power, prediction and whether humanity can change its future.
The idea of psychohistory is probably my favourite part. Hari believes that although you can't predict what one individual will do, you can use mathematics to predict how huge populations might behave.
Basically, humanity becomes a giant mathematical problem and honestly, that idea is fascinating but then you have the Empire.
The ruling dynasty is made up of clones of the same emperor, existing as Brother Dawn, Brother Day and Brother Dusk.. The whole genetic dynasty storyline is also one of the most interesting additions to the show because it gives us a completely different side of the story.
While Hari is worried about the future of civilization, the Empire is basically worried about keeping the family business alive and that creates some really good tension.
Then there's Gaal Dornick, Salvor Hardin and several other characters who become important as the story keeps moving across different periods of time and that's probably where Foundation can frustrate you.
The show is BIG... Like, really big... New planets. New characters. Different time periods. Political conflicts. Religion. Science. Artificial intelligence. Empire politics. Wars. Prophecies.
The first season especially takes its time establishing the world, and I understand why some people struggled with it. Even the critical reception to Season 1 was more mixed than later seasons, while Seasons 2 and 3 were received much more strongly but once I got into the rhythm of the show, I started enjoying it much more.
And visually?.... Beautiful... Apple clearly spent serious money on this thing. The planets, cities, spaceships, costumes and massive futuristic environments make the galaxy feel enormous.
The performances are another major strength. Jared Harris gives Hari Seldon this calm, mysterious presence, while Lee Pace absolutely dominates the imperial storyline.
The biggest problem for me is that the story can sometimes feel unnecessarily complicated. There are moments where I wasn't emotionally invested because I was still trying to figure out what was happening and if you're looking for a fast-paced sci-fi show where something crazy happens every ten minutes, this probably isn't it.
Foundation wants you to sit down and actually pay attention because if you miss one conversation about Empire, psychohistory or some mysterious person from 30 years earlier, good luck... But when everything comes together, it works..
Rating: 80/100