David S. Goyerand Josh Friedman
Apple TV+
SOME TV shows leave you with trust issues. A friend recently told me she found the finale of Game of Thrones so awful that she no longer watches television.
I share her disappointment, and her words were on my mind as I watched the second season of Foundation, a glitzy space opera loosely adapted for Apple TV+ from Isaac Asimov’s novels. It offers something I have craved since Game of Thrones went off the boil: an ambitious, character-driven drama concerned with how the writing of history shapes the present and the future. Could it live up to what it promised?
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Foundation is set in the Galactic Empire, which is ruled by a genetically related dynasty. Dawn, Day and Dusk (Cassian Bilton, Lee Pace and Terrence Mann, respectively) are clones of the original Emperor Cleon, each decanted at a different age to reign as an orderly continuum.
But through his theory of psychohistory – forecasting the behaviour of very large groups – Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) has predicted the empire’s fall. In the show’s first season, he and his followers set up the Foundation, a community designed to preserve knowledge and react to potentially civilisation-ending crises.
Series two picks up with mathematics prodigy Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell) and her daughter Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), who have awoken after over 100 years of cryosleep. The galaxy is now a very different place: the outer planets have been abandoned by the empire and the Foundation has flourished in its place. But a century ago, when Gaal refused to set up a second Foundation, the original Foundation diverged from Hari’s initial plan and was set on a path to destruction. Gaal and Salvor must make things right.
This may not sound like an obvious companion piece to Game of Thrones, but bear with me. While it uses several ideas from Asimov’s cerebral novels, at its heart, Foundation is closer to epic fantasy, full of courtly intrigue and swashbuckling adventures. It mines themes of power lying heavy with those who wield it, of sex and marriage changing history and of the lowliest citizens rising to heroic status.
The show is full of characters and adds more in its second season, such as Foundation acolyte Brother Constant (Isabella Laughland) and imprisoned general Bel Riose (Ben Daniels). For much of the series, most pursue their quests in relative isolation, spread across the galaxy and time itself. But, like Game of Thrones, Foundation weaves threads together towards a seemingly inevitable conclusion: the collapse of the old order and the beginning of a new one.
In today’s TV landscape, it can be hard to trust that the creatives behind your favourite series know where they are going – particularly if you have been burned by a show’s premature cancellation or disappointing finale. It is even changing the way many people watch TV, with some refusing to start a show until it has ended, ideally on its own terms and with consistently decent reviews.
If this sounds like you, I don’t blame you for protecting yourself from a Game of Thrones-style letdown. But the show that Foundation has evolved into has renewed my faith that long-form TV can continue to compel. Like Gaal and Salvor, I have decided to trust in a higher plan – but the only thing I am risking is getting my TV-loving heart broken again.
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Bethan Ackerley is a subeditor at ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ. She loves sci-fi, sitcoms and anything spooky. She is still upset about the ending of Game of Thrones. Follow her on Twitter @inkerley
