During this week’s review segment, we want to take a look at Issac Asimov’s novel Foundation and the new Apple TV series based on this 1951 novel. 

I first read this series more than a decade ago, and to a certain degree, had to force my way through it. The book is a series of vignettes that look at the fall of a great galactic empire and how society collapses and then rises again in ways that can be statistically understood through a field called psychohistory. The book is almost devoid of women, except in roles as essentially pets or scenery, and it is difficult to connect with the dryly written academics who are trying to maintain the knowledge of humanity until the empire can rise again. These are books you read for the ideas that are introduced and not for the character development. The ideas are often amazing and are a master class in social engineering. The character development, well, there is none.

With its new television series, AppleTV is using the books as a scaffolding to tell a story that, by the end of its first episode, is already is rich in cultures, characters I want to see more of, and hints of how they are going to tell a multigenerational story through television without taking the literal jumps that shows like The Crown employ.

The visual effects in this series are lush. It brings to mind Metropolis and Blade Runner but updated to the limits of what is possible with television budget CGI. The costuming tells its own stories, and after a single episode, I want more of this world so that I can see both what the visual artists come up with next, and – more importantly – where the stories of these characters go next. 

I know from the books who are the heroes and villains, and I can already see that this is written so that even the villains are clearly acting in what they feel are in the best interests of the universe, and this promises to be a nuance-rich series that makes us question what it means to act in the best interests of humanity, now and in the future.

When Asimov wrote the original novel in the middle of the last century, computers were just starting to exist, atomic energy seemed to be the ultimate answer to technology, and pocket calculators were a luxury. In imagining the future, Asimov didn’t think big enough, and the book now feels out of date as folks continue to use pocket calculators rather than pocket computers or something even more advanced. In creating the show, the writers – and IMDB didn’t let me sort who might be leading the writing room – those myriad writers give everything an update. They add details to Asimov’s vignettes that include new technology, with calculators being replaced with holographic machines and shuttles to a planet’s surface being replaced with a space elevator. These upgrades make this future still feel like a future.

After just the first episode, I can already see that some critics may complain that the production team was too “woke” in casting this show. The actors are drawn from around the globe and bring myriad colors and accents to the screen, and only in dealing with the emperor’s family and staff do we see scenes with only white cast members. This amount of diversity is sadly not the norm and thus stands out. It feels normal though, and as someone who grew up in the diverse city of Boston, it feels right to see so many different kinds of people coming together in one of the biggest city-planets in this fictional universe. To those critics who call this diversity for the sake of diversity, I encourage you to ride public transportation in the major city of your choice. This is reality finally reflected on the screen.

Season one promises ten episodes, and I plan to be there for all ten. You can stream Foundation only on Apple TV+. We are not sponsored by Apple, and the account used to create this review was paid for by us, bias-free.

More Information

Foundation (Apple TV+)