FOUNDATION

Foundation is an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Saga on Apple TV. While I'm not familiar with this 'novel', I'm hoping this tv series will do justice to the original idea to an extent. The plot of this series follows Dr. Hari Seldon, a mathematics professor, who through science predicts the end and fall of the galactic empire in the nearest future. He and his followers are exiled and tasked to develop a way to save the empire from total destruction. It stars Jared Harris as Hari Seldon and Lee Pace as Brother Day.

Foundation is a high concept sci-fi series that feels very familiar because it's 2021 and we've seen tonnes of this type of concept by now. We've seen Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and many more. However, Foundation is not a new idea, the chronicles were published between 1944-1993. Why did it take this long for this sci-fi to hit screens you might ask. Well, there was actually a cancelled movie that was in development in the early 2000s. If you ask me further, I'll say it was worth the delay because when you see this movie. you'll realize how much effort was placed into making this series. The visual is a cinematic marvel. If someone told you 10 years ago that we will be seeing high-quality tv series production like Foundation in 2021 you might be skeptical or doubt totally this fact but here we are in 2021 and we have this tv series that some movies will barely catch up to in term of costume and CGI. 

Going beyond the visuals, one thing I heard about Foundation that has made the development take this long, is the fact that the chronicles didn't have major characters but instead focused on different characters and the Foundation itself is the consistent character or thing throughout the chronicles. So, it might prove a little difficult for movie audiences to have to buy that if it's directly adapted that way. Nobody really wants to watch one or two episodes then we're introduced to the new set of characters in the third. In essence, this tv series has settled for a traditional form of storytelling than the ones found in the chronicles.

The first episode is about an hour long and it serves as a prologue for the story and things to know. It does well to introduce the audience to some key players that we might be seeing through the course of the season. At first, the information thrown at the audience is a little bit overwhelming but by the time episode one reached the end of its run-time, you'll be able to grasp one or two things about what is going and what is to come. This series is going to be a weekly episodic release with ten episodes in season one. So, it'' take a while before the first season is concluded which should be in November. 

From the look of things, if Foundation is not cancelled and does well, it's going to be a long-running series from the impression I got from the first episode. You might still be wondering if this series is worth investing your time in. Well, I can't give you an exact answer yet but so far. I like what I'm seeing and I'm ready to invest my time into its lore. I'll also add that you give the first episode a try, you might be impressed too.