Foundation: What the Must Watch reviewers think
Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.
This week Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell Foundation on Apple TV +. Based on the award- winning novels by Isaac Asimov, a band of exiles try to save humanity and rebuild civilisation amid the fall of the Galactic Empire.
Apple TV +
Hayley says: "Cold and mathematical"
"I’m afraid to say that even Jared Harris cannot make this interesting to me. It’s slow and plodding and deeply earnest in a bad way. I know that Asimov is basically impossible to adapt properly and even the movies that have — like 'I, Robot' — have more gone down the 'inspired by…' route.
"This one tries to stick more closely to the books but I don’t think it can ever do it exactly – the first 'Foundation' book is made up of five separate novellas with no characters in common and takes place over 150 years. It was a trilogy, then Asimov added two prequels and two sequels.
"So, even to attempt it is a lot and you need loads of money – which is why Apple are they only people that have done it – but I don’t think it works. If science fiction is going to work it needs to have a human heart somewhere and this is cold and mathematical…it’s mostly about maths."
Apple TV +
Scott says: "All style, no substance"
"Apple are desperate for their own 'Game of Thrones' i.e. a big sci-fi epic that manages to captivate the entire world. One of the people behind this, David S. Goyer who worked on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight and Batman trilogy told BBC Culture he hoped there'd be 80 episodes of this. Game of Thrones only ran to 73! Yet this series falls into the trap of being all style, no substance.
"It looks stunning and you can tell they spent an awful lot of money on this, but the book that it’s based on is seen to be completely unadaptable.
"The challenges are certainly present on screen – you have to deal with so many characters and so much sub-plot and mythology. It would be enjoyable if they had a bit more fun with it, but watching it felt like I was in a meeting."
Apple TV +
The first two episodes of Foundation are available to watch on Apple TV+ now, with new episodes launching every Friday.
Must Watch is released as a podcast every Monday evening from BBC Sounds and all other good podcast providers.
This week, the team hear from Mel and Sue about Hitmen: Reloaded on Sky Comedy and Alex Horne about the latest series of Taskmaster on Channel 4. Plus, Scott and Hayley review Foundation on Apple TV +.
