Feels like there’s a lot more humor in season 2, but maybe that’s just because of characters like Poly and Marsh Mallow. Cleon has gotten in some decent jokes, though. I guess things get funnier as society decays.
Was that really Gaal at the tide pool with Hari, or was it another psycho-shapeshifter? It got me thinking that maybe the vision of dead Gaal is really a vision of dead psycho-shapeshifter Gaal.
I half-expected the heartbeat doodad to have an Apple logo on it, but at least it was the same shape as the vault.
No, it wasn’t, because I meant was that Salvor at the tide pool with Hari, not Gaal, and the vision of dead Salvor, etc.
14 hours and no one corrected me? What’s Apple spending hundreds of millions of dollars for if no one can be bothered to point out someone else’s mistake?
I was not remembering seeing either of them and didn’t want to comment until I rewatched. I’m still not seeing either of them? Her assistant there, told to not leave until he is dead, is neither of them, she calls him Venik, and I see no image of either at the very end. Unless I’m being very blind?
I also will be surprised if he dies here. Water and drowning to near death seem to be a device to force these visions “flashing” … now not just for Gaal.
I’m enjoying this season a bit more than the last. It’s still not really Foundation, but it seems to me that it is a bit less Verhoevenesque disrespectful/ disdainful of the source material than the last season. Particularly the Gaal character, who is starting to use her brain again.
The visuals continue to be absolutely stunning, regardless.
Sorry, I wasn’t talking about his death-or-is-it? scene, I was referring to the scene earlier where Hari is enjoying dipping his toes in the tide pool and is fishing with Salvor and they are talking about the other Hari who lives in the vault.
I only thought Salvor was one of the mentalics in disguise because she says, “Where did you two hide the radiant, anyway?” which seemed a little clunky, a little too on the nose especially since we know Tellem is trying to destroy the radiant. Plus, it’s a good way to explain how she doesn’t die in the future. It doesn’t really work, though, because that fight with the Mule is supposed to be 150 years in the future and even if Gaal and Salvor seem like they are going to time jump their way there, 4 episodes or whatever is still a long time for a main character to be taken over by a pod person.
Lee Pace is still crushing it as usual, not only in his speaking scenes but also the subtle non-verbal cues that he throws when someone else is talking, and I find the palace intrigue between his character and the other Brothers the most compelling storyline thus yet.
I quite like the new characters of Bel Riose and his husband, and I find it pretty neat that the actors who portray them also happen to be gay themselves in real life.
The visuals are great.
Dislikes:
The continuing histrionics from Gaal / Salvor / Hari, and how everyone in their scenes always seem to talk in riddles.
The personality of Brother Constant really grates on me. Feels like she is being edgy just for the sake of being edgy.
Umm … wasn’t the whole point of The Mule in the novels was that he was a disfigured weakling who used his powers of mind control to manipulate others into doing his bidding? I know it’s early in the season and they haven’t fully fleshed out his character yet, but seeing him as a Bane-like person with weapon gizmos attached to his suit just doesn’t sit right with me.
Ambivalent on Hober Mallow and his story as of now, but will keep watching.
Well, Tellem said a “little” death is necessary. Maybe it just so happens that Salvor here is only a little dead. There’s a big difference between a little dead and all dead.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the producers put the plotlines of all* the stories (which Asimov himself had trouble reconciling) into a food processor and hit “puree.” Then tossed some elements of their own which were determined by examining the entrails of a dyspeptic goat.
So yeah, all predictions are out the window.
ETA: I wonder if Azura is still (physically) alive. Wouldn’t put it past them.
* With the possible exception of Prelude, but I wouldn’t rule out discovering that Demerzel is actually Dors Venabili.
I agree. I was hoping against hope when this season started that it would adhere closer to the source material, since “The General” is my favorite story of the original trilogy - both the first Foundation story I ever read, and the most purely psychohistorical of the stories.
However, while my hope may have been disappointed, I have not. This has been a really good season, even if it has warped a lot of Asimov’s original ideas beyond recognition. Besides, the original plot of “The General” could never have worked in the presence of the genetic dynasty, which practically makes it impossible to have warlords fighting over the throne and emperors being deposed.
I don’t see how they can destroy Terminus and keep anything like the original plot, so I’m kinda thinking that the gang on Ignis may be influencing perceptions of what is happening in and around Terminus, which could be the start of Hari thinking “it would be nice to have mentalics on your side.”
No kidding! This season has had its ups and downs, but that last episode really knocked it out of the ballpark. I especially liked how they gave each of the Brother Dawn/Day/Dusk actors their own individual scenes with Demerzel to expand on Demerzel’s backstory, driving home the point that Cleon the First grew up his whole life with Demerzel as his secret confidante, and she was probably the only *person* that he genuinely liked.
I also found the scene where Bel Riose realizes his husband is stranded on Terminus, but he is still forced by Brother Day to give the order to crash the Invictus onto the planet, to be quite poignant. The confrontation between Seldon and Brother Day was great as well. Like you, I’m psyched to find out how these storylines end.
There is a time gap of 138 years between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2. So unless Trantorian lifespans are massively longer than Earthling ones, or Brother Day found out a way to artificially extend her life as to keep her in a state of perpetual torment inside the sensory shroud, I highly doubt this.
Even if she was alive, I don’t see how they can work her into the story though, not this late in the season anyway.
I found this snippet of the conversation between Seldon and Brother Day quite telling:
Brother Day: You never accounted for me!
Seldon: No, I’ve met outliers. You’re not one of them.
This portends to me that even with Terminus’s destruction, the forces of psychohistory are too much for a non-Mentalic such as Brother Day to overcome, and the Galactic Empire will inevitably fall no matter what actions he takes to ward it off.
The Queen asked Empire where they kept the tanks of Demrezels, so I guess people assume she’s a clone too. Hari, though, is very, very smart, so I’m not surprised he figured out the truth. He’s analyzed the galaxy’s history deeper than anyone else, and he probably realized that the Empire was being ruled by a non-human mind.
I haven’t read this thread until I watched this season. Just finished the 10th episode. I enjoyed it and I look forward to more; it’s visually beautiful and well-cast and acted, but a really wished they’d called it something else. It’s not Foundation at all.
It’s not even that I think Asimov’s books are sacrosanct. They were definitely a product of their time. I reread them all after watching the first season. Definite sausage-fest and if I had to read about one more sardonic smile, I was going to scream.
Still, there were some fundamental concepts that this production didn’t just ignore; it completely abused. Folks have already mentioned that the point of the Mule was that he wasn’t some cyborg killing machine. The whole treatment of Demerzel just kicks the laws of robotics (including the 0th) in the ass. All-in-all, I just find the motivations and methods of most of the characters completely at odds with their namesakes. I’d have enjoyed it a lot more of I hadn’t had any expectations.
Battlestar Galactica completely subverted its source material, but
(a) its source material was crap
and (b) well, (a) is enough, really.
I think when they make TV shows of books like Foundation they think they have to dumb it down and it suffers for it.
How many people will get the Zeroth law? Not many I suspect. They’d have to grok the original laws to even get there and I doubt most would get that much.
I really like this show but I don’t watch it as Asimov’s Foundation, I just watch it as a well-done sci-fi series and appreciate it on it’s own merits.