User reviews

To me Brother Day played by Lee Pace has become as enjoyable to watch as Daenerys played by Emilia Clarke in GOT. There's a lot of confusing, boring bits and vexing characters in the show but Brother Day keeps me coming for more.

Overall it's a quality show albeit flawed. But there's a lot of unique, and daring approach that still make this show worth a watch. Every scene and every new information that is revealed about Cleons is so engaging and interesting.

If you're into sci-fi I'd definitely recommend trying this show and giving it a shot at least till season two because it actually even improves in the second season.

In an era of sci-fi epic TV series (Andor, Dune Prophecy, LOTR) this is by far the most well thought through, written and delivered of the lot. A sprawling, centuries-long chess match between a dying galactic empire and a foundation of science working to preserve humanity's future. Its immense scale is matched only by its intelligence.

Foundation is an intriguing sci-fi series that grows on you the more you watch it. At first, it can feel confusing-just as you're starting to get to know a character, they disappear, only to return much later, if at all. Then you're introduced to someone new, and the whole process of connecting with a character begins again. On top of that, events unfold across different locations, and the series makes massive jumps in time-particularly long ones between seasons.

I've completed Seasons 1 and 2. One of the show's strengths is that as each season progresses, the seemingly loose ends begin to tie together and make sense. Many odd or minor events and details-even from the very first episode-are only explained later in the season or in the finale. But if you keep your eyes and ears open, you might catch subtle clues that help you make sense of things as they unfold. Almost nothing is said without a reason. While Season 1 is built largely on suspense, Season 2 leans more toward action.

The series features numerous plot twists that help keep viewers engaged. Many come out of nowhere and aren't always happy or innocent-but that's part of the fun. In many ways, it resembles Dune, especially in tone and scale. However, one of Foundation's most distinctive traits is its pacing: at times, things move very slowly, only for the show to suddenly jump forward by decades, suggesting sweeping generational changes and the loss of familiar characters.

Foundation offers a visually engaging journey through a sprawling sci-fi universe, with scenery that helps establish its futuristic settings quite effectively. While not always flawless, the production design and visual effects create a believable world that supports the story without overwhelming it.

The storytelling is ambitious, adapting Isaac Asimov's complex saga into a layered narrative that sometimes feels dense but often succeeds in keeping viewers intrigued. The pacing can be uneven, but the series generally manages to balance its big ideas with character-driven moments, which adds some emotional weight.

Acting performances vary, with the lead delivering a solid portrayal that grounds the show's more abstract concepts. Some supporting actors bring welcome depth, though a few characters come off as underdeveloped, leaving their motivations a bit unclear.

Where the show stumbles most noticeably is in its approach to casting. There's a clear, almost mechanical attempt at ticking demographic boxes, which occasionally undermines the authenticity of the world. In a galaxy where faster-than-light travel and psychohistory are accepted without question, the most jarring fiction ends up being the idea that every institution and culture has been carefully curated for maximum contemporary optics. Rather than feeling inclusive, it often feels oddly artificial - like a diversity committee crash-landed on Trantor. Representation matters, but subtlety matters too.

Overall, Foundation is a thoughtful and occasionally compelling adaptation that sci-fi fans might appreciate for its ideas and setting. It's not without its flaws, but it carves out a respectable place among contemporary science fiction series.

While I love the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov(and the Empire and Robots series), I admit it may be a bit dated. The novels were written during the '50s and Asimov never described the visuals in detail.

It was therefore expected that any adaptation would diverge from the source material. And I don't mind it. A faithful adaptation would not be possible because we wouldn't know how the ships are supposed to look like, for example. I don't mind the gender swap in itself.

But the creators take too many liberties with the source materials to the point the story doesn't make sense for any science fiction fan. If Terminus is 55,000 light years away from Trantor and the colonists don't have jump ships, how do they travel? Why does it take 900 days to get there? That would mean they are travelling at 22,300 times the speed of light. This kind of oversight may be OK for a Marvel show, not for a show where math plays a central role.

I was also disheartened by changing Demerzel's gender. Not because of itself, but because in the books Eto Dermerzel is a very special character with a deep backstory. Changing his gender sends ripples everywhere. It's like making Han Solo or Ron Weasley a woman.

Hari's relationship with Raych is also changed for the worse, presumably to make room for Gaal. Sigh.

All these changes leave us with really impressive visuals and a weakened story. Not the Foundation I expected.

Can't rave enough about this program... from season one the show builds and weaves the multiple threads of the story through centuries of the Foundation and Empire. Traditional old school sci-fi married with 8k visual graphics and engaging story telling. Season 3 episode 5 is movie quality knock your socks off mind blowingly epic.

Please don't dilute the achievement of this production with nitpicking comparisons to the books it is based on. I truly thinks that Asimov himself would be the first to stand and applause if only he was here today.

I've been putting off watching Foundation ever since it first came out but now that I've seen it I'm actually mad at myself for putting it off for so long. I'm absolutely blown away by how much I enjoyed this. I never read the books so I can't say how close this is to them but I wouldn't care either way as long as it's a good show. The only negative thing I can't say about this amazing series is that the wait between seasons is too long. I understand series like this with all the great CGI and beautiful written stories takes longer to make and then edit but it still feels too long. Bottom line is Foundation really is one of the best sci-fi series I've seen and can't recommend it enough. I recently finished Season 2 and I can say that without a doubt that Season 2 is even better than the first. Here's hoping that Season 3 keeps up the same quality of the first two because this is turning into one of the better sci-fi series of all-time.

Foundation the TV series. It's a fine piece of sci fi television. The writing is good, the effects are good, the acting is good (mostly). Except...

IT'S NOT ASIMOV'S FOUNDATION!

Possibly the greatest sci fi anthology in history, winner of multiple awards, loved by generations, written by one of THE greatest ever sci fi authors. I've got an idea, let's use it as a backdrop for whatever hashtags are trending.

The sheer HUBRIS of the clowns who thought they could "improve" upon it, change it, twist it. There's a special place in hell for those people, alternatively they'll end up at Disney where they can wreck other much loved stories.

But you know what? It's good TV. But you have to ignore the title and every time the name Hari Sheldon mentioned pretend you heard Barry Shelton because then you can pretend that this isn't what it's purporting to be. If you can manage this feat then it's enjoyable sci fi TV but if can't do this, and you know the books, run a mile.

Apple's Foundation is like listening to your mum tell everyone her favourite Star Trek character is Luke Skywalker.

So far it has very little to do with its source material... It is barely "inspired" by Asimov novels, definitely not based on them. It has ambition to be a new Game of Thrones in space, but it is not as epic nor as intelligent. Good production value but it focuses on random stuff. A shame...

I like the TV show and I like the books, but they are not the same story. The TV show should just not be called Foundation.

The show is visually appealing, well cast, well acted and an interesting story. But it is not the story of Foundation. I can understand diversifying the gender of characters, but the other story changes were just not necessary. A real wasted opportunity.

I remember watching the first couple episodes and not being very impressed. Not necessarily hating it, but not intrigued. It felt like a very traditional sci-fi series, akin to dune or star wars. A year or two later, i tried watching again... and now i'm somehow roped in and invested and binged most of the show well into 4 in the morning.

Great visual effects, music, vfx, product and costume design, even acting. Really intriguing clone concept (and a very obvious anagram for Cleon). Fantastic world building and i appreciated the non-linear storytelling. Interested to see where this series will take us!

The visuals drew me in. Incredible settings, costumes, special effects, space action and gear. Top notch cinematography. Very artistic as well, in the creation.

I despised Lee Pace until I liked despising him.

A bit complex of a plot to keep up with casually. Seems like they strained beyond reason to cast it dei. A few main characters are annoying and don't have the elegance and quality as the overall costumes and settings . I watched primarily for the visuals.

If you put your head in a vacuum and try to watch it as if Asimov's work didn't exist, the good almost doesn't make up for the bad.

The setpieces are impressive. I think the visuals of the shows, environements, costumes and all are quite well done. It stays immersive. And its the one thing that grounds it in Asimov's narrative : very very far in the future without being completely uncanny.

You could even call the plot divergence from the original work a clever play on psychohistory paths : the show imagine a new path.

What destroys it for me is mainly one thing : character writing. We're thrown all the superficial cliches in the book. And a cliche can work, if there's some depth to it. Which there almost never is in the show.

I can't figure out for the life of me why they would make Gaal Dornick such a baby. How long is she going to be throwing useless tantrum in every scene? "I understand evolved mathematics that draws the future of mankind in a series of complex events and crisis the needs to be adressed and corrected, but I won't carry your cube in my pocket 'cause you're mean, waaah waaah!!!".

The only character I feel remotely invested in right now is Demerzel. Maybe because they felt a 11k years old entity couldn't be too shallow. Or maybe because I've read some books in the Robots serie.

In any case, outside of Dermerzel and the visuals, I'm grasping at straws.

Decades ago I read the entire Foundation Trilogy and all the Robot books and novels that wove together Asimov's great story arc. Many years ago a reviewer of these books made an incredible observation that instantly and loudly resonated. They noted than in Asimov's stories there were never clear cut evil villains but people with opposing agendas justified by the situations they were in. And the first thing that struck me about this adaptation (and disappointed me) is that the writers clearly missed that peculiarity of Asimov's plot lines and right away painted Cleon with the evil tyrant trope, sacrificing character development of both Seldon and Cleon to move on with the usual sci-fi visual tropes. It doesn't feel as sophisticated as the novels.

Who knew they still made well written & good looking series with excellent acting...!

I came upon this series by accident and found my self intrigued. The main story very promising, the backstories are well tought out and it all looks very nice. I just binge watched all episodes until s3-e1 and I can't wait until the next episode!

It has a complex story with depth and plenty of backstory which is fine for me, but I can imagine that this is not everybodies cup of tea. So be warned!

But for me I have to say: WELL DONE PEOPLE!!! I hope this series goes on for at least 10 more crises!

So if you like science fiction, a excellent story, good acting and epic scenery...Watch this :)

I wish this was more closely related to the books. This is obviously loosely based on the books, but in trying to encompass the massive scope the book covers, they invent something that in my opinion completely destroys the original intent of the stories. And the majority of the time of each episode is spent on the invention of the screenwriters, not Asimov's story.

The magic that Asimov injected into the books has been wiped clean unfortunately. I was really looking forward to this and will still watch it, but it is not what it could have been (should have been).

Well acted and great effects, which certainly helps.

This is yet another example of someone borrowing a title and character names from one story and making up a completely different story using those names. This show bears very little resemblance to the Asimov books, so if that's what you're expecting, you will be disappointed.

With that said, the first two episodes aren't bad in their own right, and this could end up being an interesting story of its own. I just wish producers would quit ripping off the names and titles of well-known works in a cheap attempt to grab a large audience.

I've seen season 1. And I love it. Very entertaining. I am always looking for good shows. And I always check out imdb-ratings. Foundation has 7,6 now. Normally not high enough for me to check it out. (I have all the shows in the world available.) Realized that a lot of reviewers are unhappy with the book-adaptaion. I don't care. I haven't read the book(s).

And, yes. I get it. I wouldn't like to see a show called "Lady of the Rings" about Frida, Samantha, Mary and Pippa either.

But it is a bit of a problem when bookreaders slam a perfectly good show.

This series deserves a much higher rating than it currently has. I suppose this shows to overall intelligence over our society at large. This series (in most part) doesn't dumb things down. The plot requires you to focus and maybe even re-watch some of the episodes to really get a good grasp of the story. If you do not have tik-tok brain. Try this and be rewarded by one of the best sci-fi series of our generation.

This series started quite mediocre. You have this part about psycho history with Hary Seldon which makes basically no sense and is unwatchable awful. To make it clear this part is on Asimov and it's by far the worst part of this show.

Then there is the good part about the genetic dynasty and the foundation itself. This part is not from Asimov especially the genetic dynasty is written by the showrunners and has nothing to do with Asimov. There might be some borrowed stuff from Ancillary Justice but it's basically its own thing and it's great.

In the 3rd season they decided something amazing to get rid of the bad part and stick with the great one. Now this show is one the best SF show you can watch.

S3 E1-5 was amazing lets hope they keep it up.

A deep, beautiful mumbo mishmash drama sci-fi series, "loosely" based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. The most problematic matters in the show are its flow and truly uninteresting flow of characters, really destroying the more or less interesting though erratic storyline plots and the dedication put into the CGI & visual effects.

Aside the character of Demerzel played "beautifully" with depth by Laura Birn, the other characters are just to extended degrees cringe-worthy cardboard characters.

You either like space sci-fi or you don't. I usually don't, but gave 'Foundation' a chance and though deep and beautiful, it did not live up to my expectations.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 6
• Development: 8.5
• Realism: 7
• Entertainment: 6
• Acting: 7.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 8
• VFX: 9
• Music/score/sound: 7.5
• Depth: 7.5
• Logic: 2.5
• Flow: 5.5
• Drama/sci-fi: 6.5
• Ending: 6.