Foundation (TV Series) A Glimpse of Darkness (2023) User Reviews

The Mule and his impact on the Foundation Universe

[orenolti · 7/10 · 21 July 2023]

While I understand why they are deviating from the book, trying to introduce the fall of the empire, the every day of the Foundation and the establishment of the Second Foundation, they are missing the point of so many things, that I am beginning to question their commitment to the source material.

The first season did a very great job introducing the characters and the lead up to the first crisis of the Foundation. The second season leaps away a bit too much for my taste.

The Mule is not something they could predict, he is not something they could plan for. That is the point in the book, that there will be things noone can predict. That is why they need a second Foundation. The real foundation, that serves, not rules.

If they will be leading up to the conflict with the mule, and they are aware of him, and prepare for him, that defeats the purpose of him in the book. I understand that it will give the audience something they can anticipate, but it defeats its purpose. So when finally they will meet him and we all know they prepared for him, but he also prepared for them, and finally we still win, what will be the lesson we learned? I might be wrong and the writers know what they are doing, but this episode does not leave much to the imagination unfortunately.

I hope this does not happen, but it does annoy me, when they so blatantly disregard the source material's intentions.

Looks hopeful

[therealjaysmoke · 6/10 · 25 July 2023]

2 episodes in and I don't understand jack 😁😁😁 but I am loving it. When the first season dropped, I fell completely in love with it, the cinematography, the costumes, the story, the technology, etc but the ending was one of the worst climax in a series ever. That wasn't enough to kill my excitement upon hearing that Season 2 is out, and it looks like they've learnt from their errors, hired better editors and story tellers (even to my dismay cuz I don't get it). Even with subtitles, I still don't understand half of what they are talking about. The terminologies are out of this world 🤣 buuuut it's really moving faster than the first season and I love that. It means they must have alot they want to unpack in this season. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out, hopefully far better than the one.

So far so good.

Me and my love of swearing

[ajtomo · 7/10 · 15 October 2023]

Me - I swear like a trooper. I don't believe that it's indicative of a limited vocabulary, but rather acts as an augmentation to it, and can be a great emphasiser and emotional release, as well as sometimes even being funny. I am also struggling to think of a single time that "bad language" has ever bothered me in literature, film, TV or theatre. In fact in the hands of a master such as David Mamet it can be positively exhilarating. It kind of gets on my nerves when I read reviews complaining about such language as unnecessary or offensive to their delicate sensibilities. It's part of our language, and so it should be reflected in our dramatic media.

Why am I telling you this?

Well I've not read Asimov's original books, though I doubt they're littered with F-bombs. Also I can't recall hearing any swearing in the first season of Foundation. But suddenly this season every character seems to be F-ck this and F-ck that, totally out of the blue, and (I can't believe I'm writing this) it really grates. Everyone sounds like a child experimenting with new swear words, and it keeps pulling me out of the show because of how unnatural it sounds and how ubiquitous it seems. I know that Empire's behaviour is corrupting due to genetic pollution, and the first Foundation has evolved into a much different kind of society, but Gaal has pretty much only just woke up from some kind of cryo-sleep/hibernation. It just doesn't feel as though it's a natural part of anyone's vernacular - especially after the first season.

Like I said, I'm a pretty big fan of "foul" language, especially when used creatively, emotionally or humorously, but this just feels forced, like some executive producer decided, "Right! We need more f-cks to make this more relevant!", and it just seems so out of place in "high" science fiction such as this.

Other than that with regards to the show, so far, so flipping good.

Beautiful show

[moviesfilmsreviewsinc · 10/10 · 17 September 2023]

In Season 2, Hari Seldon emerges from the Prime Radiant, shocking Gaal and Salvor. Salvor's plan is to seek Hari's help to rescue their ship. The second episode follows the mother-daughter duo as they attempt to fly out of Water. Hari helps them after scolding Gaal for trapping him inside the Prime Radiant. Together, they successfully fly out of Synnax and embark on a new journey. The visuals in this season are impressive, leaving the first season behind. Episode 2 focuses on Hari Seldon, the prophet and second foundation he hopes to connect with. The second foundation is more complex to explain than initially thought, as it is assumed to exist but is not due to Gaal's failure to allow it to happen. In Trantor, Brother Day invites Queen Sareth to lunch with him and his brothers Dawn and Dusk to create an emotional attachment for their alliance. Queen Sareth questions Brother Day about the assassination attempt and wonders if he would be replaced with a similar-looking clone. Queen Sareth is an interesting character in the season, but her true intentions remain unknown. The upcoming episodes may reveal the answers, but defeating the Empire in his own home is challenging. In Sivenna, Brother Constant and Poly Verisof, true followers of Hari Seldon, are spreading the word of their prophet on the planet. They receive a message that Hari Seldon is returning and are called back to Terminus. Poly Verisof, who started his journey with Hari Seldon and witnessed him alive, is asked to manage the crowd when he returns to Terminus. The concept of a second foundation is complex for Gaal and Salvor, and they attempt to navigate through their visions using Prime Radiant. They discover that they are not the only telekinetics, as Mule appears in the future. Gaal discovers a mysterious name, Hober Mallow, which later appears on Terminus on the Vault, where Hari Seldon was expected to appear. Season 2 moves slowly, with no regular time jumps, but time works differently on each planet. The series hints at a planet within their reach that might have answers about Hober Mallow, a mystery. The Prophet, Dr. Hari Seldon, was supposed to appear on Terminus, but he did not, and Hober Mallow stole the show.

I heard Apple gave the show runner notes...

[GarrisonLXVI · 3/10 · 25 July 2023]

... and apparently one of them said "Make it more like Star Wars". This was not a good note.

From pointless action sequences to over the top villains, this episode embodies the slippage from the serious science fiction of the First Season to goofy sci-fi tropes in the Second.

There's magic in the air in the form of telepathy, visions and projecting oneself into the future (taken straight from Yoda's Mentoring Luke to do list), as well as religious magicians who do their missionary work in Tucson, apparently. By the end I was waiting for the Ewoks or Boba Fett to show up.

The unintentional funniest moment of the episode? When the Warden makes this ridiculously bombastic speech at the base of the Vault and then bursts into flames. Hilarious. Oh, and here's the major spoiler of the episode- the Foundation's second crisis? It's this season.

Worst episode

[mr_thewizard · 5/10 · 21 July 2023]

This is by far the worst episode in this tv show. Its becoming like star wars. Instead of talking about math and predictions and AI, its now someone can see into the future, and read the minds. And the guy flying on his own and making people fly. Then Empire is dead. What is going on here?

Honestly i loved this show, but turning this show upside down like that is not good. We are talking now about super heroes? And Hari is now a prophet and people are believing in him?

Also Gaal needs to be drawning to see into the future? I don't understand a bit of what is going on here. It's like season 1 was building a great show and now season 2 is ok we need to do something here but we don't know what is it.

Bad and likely will get worse....

[bendiksendan · 2/10 · 21 July 2023]

It is well established now that this show has veered so very very very far away from the prey fun and interesting source material, as to now have less than a homeopathic relationship to Asimov's books...It has also been my understanding that some people have still enjoyed the show on its own merits, but how is that possible after this incoherent blob of storytelling, long and tedious exposition scenes that are supposed to explain the whys and whos but just keep on stumbling around the expensive sets and production values invested and wasted on this mystical mumbojumbo. Shame on all involved in this nonsense. I give it two stars for now as I'm certain it hasn't hit rock bottom yet.

Worst sci-fi show on TV right now

[terrylarosa · 1/10 · 24 July 2023]

The first season was mildly entertaining but this second season is utter dreck trash. Characters are just spouting nonsensical sentences that no one lucid could care about. The first episode was horrific but still I thought I'd continue but after several days trying to watch this tedious, boring nothingness I just gave up. The show is just a bunch of random scenes featuring the most uninteresting people I've had the displeasure to watch. I've seen hundreds of sci-fi shows in my life and this has to be one of the worst. At least with these production values. For every good show on Apple they throw at least a dozen lousy ones to sift through. Adios.

What is this BS?

[unnamed-32145 · 2/10 · 25 November 2023]

Sorry,

what the heck is going on? The story is just a mash-up of different phantasy movie tropes. What does this has to do with SF anymore? No, sorry, SF is gone. We get some magic, we get some fairy talles, we get some religious stories, which might work on their own, I mean it worked quite well in the last century for other shows but ONLY IF DONE RIGHT. And this thing does NOT feel right. This is mostly drama and feelings, sometimes without explaining the background and sometimes just overdosed, shoved down your throat.

And it does not even make sense. The obvious technical challenges which act as a plot device in the beginning are suddenly washed away and are never mentioned again. This is just an offense of viewer's intelligence and is the last episode of "Foundation" for me. The first of season 2 was creepy nonsense - but this one is FUBAR. Enough is enough.

Nice CGI, though. At least that is done right nowadays..

Massive drop in quality

[jon-oivind · 1/10 · 25 January 2024]

I am shocked at the drop in quality through the two first episodes of this season. The "Gaal and Salvor "-show is still absolute rubbish, but even worse than before. Writing and acting is absolutely appalling.

The Empire is still more classy in terms of acting apart from the princess who absolutely blows.

Then there is the sudden f-bomb explosion. What gives? They all of a sudden speak completely differently, all of them.

This is the greatest disappointment in a very long time. At least the production values are still top notch most of the time. I really hope it picks up again, this was just rubbish.

Is this a new Marvel movie?

[plamen_xp_lv · 2/10 · 23 February 2024]

And there I thought it can't be worse than episode 1 of this season. Took me about 2 days to finish this episode, because every few minutes of it I needed to step away for my own sanity.

Empire (particularly Day and Dusk) have been one of the few positive things going for this TV show since season 1, and even they are a parody now. The actors are still as good as ever, but the script and dialogue they are involved in is just trash. They are openly bossed in their own palace by a random boss gir...sorry, "queen". All of the women on this show are now the same stereotype of a sarcastic, know-it-all maidens with little to no additional personality. The dialogue is cringe, particularly between Salvor and Gall, and everything relies on magic, prophecies and intuition. To call this a massive disappointment would be treating it kindly.

it's just bad fanfiction.

[zordanto · 1/10 · 7 May 2024]

It's just bad fanfiction.

Asimov's books can definitely be improved, and there are definitely things that can be updated. But it would have been necessary to maintain at least the main structure and not completely distort the meaning of the main characters. Demerzel's character was already ruined in the first season, but in these first two episodes she has already done actions that would have led to her death in the book. And if we give credence to Gaal's vision, the Mule is about to receive the same treatment.

I'm not talking about the way Hober Mallow was introduced because it is pure trash.