A Glimpse of Darkness

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..