Yeah. I mean, I obviously can't speak empirically (heh). I've seen the first two episodes. Reviewers are the ones who have seen 80% of the season. But I'll echo others here -- the first two, at least, are pretty great. Even if it slides qualitatively from here, it's got a fair bit of breathing room on the descent before I pull the plug. And it doesn't strike me that that's what happens since the reviews seem to be more critical of the earlier (and especially middle) chapters. So long as it finishes OK, I'm in for next year.
Are they reviewing the full season? If so, these scores aren't really that bad imo. Most highly-rated shows would be around this score if the reviewers had more to judge than the first few episodes
It's the first eight episodes out of ten. Several reviewers seem to applaud the show's direction toward the end of that eight episodes, saying it picks up momentum in a good way. FWIW.
These reviews seem bad on the surface, but all those criticism seems like things that would apply to the actual books as well. So I'm actually not too worried.
I've edited the thread title btw. If folks take umbrage with the fact that I added the word "Fresh," I'll edit it again accordingly -- I just figured, well, it's technically true.
So far the number of good actors lumbered with doing bad accents is off-putting. They struggle so much to get their mouths round unfamiliar pronunciations that there's no space left for their performance. You can even see it in the way they tense their jaw before speaking and stretch their mouths wider than needed, like children do when reading something complex out loud, because what's meant to be a completely familiar way of speaking that's been refined over decades of practice so that it needs the minimal expenditure of energy for the character now takes conscious effort for the actor.
I haven't read the book, but the first episode was pretty great, so at the very least the show seems like it might be my kind of show. I will watch the second episode after dinner.
Feels like the kind of show I would kill to be able to binge watch.
I've used my mod powers in questionable fashion by rushing somebody to make one over at the temp OT. I'd do so myself but I am way too busy this week. Press F.
I'd give the first ep 3 out of 4 stars. It is very talk intensive and the
theory that drives the whole plot is pretty loony.
But, as has been mentioned, the production values are completely outlandish and it sets the stage for what should be an epic journey. Lee Pace is also a great emperor.
Does anyone else have issues with Apple freezing on Roku TCL TVs? I end up watching their shows through the computer plugged into the TV via HDMI. Everything else runs great and streams great.
I'd give the first ep 3 out of 4 stars. It is very talk intensive and the
theory that drives the whole plot is pretty loony.
But, as has been mentioned, the production values are completely outlandish and it sets the stage for what should be an epic journey. Lee Pace is also a great emperor.
I recall similar sci-fi works that touched on this. The way they justified it was that it's hard to predict an individual's actions like if they'll go to work tomorrow because they can turn on a dime, but it's easy to predict if a population will do it en masse and dismiss the tiny percentage who don't as outliers.
I'd give the first ep 3 out of 4 stars. It is very talk intensive and the
theory that drives the whole plot is pretty loony.
But, as has been mentioned, the production values are completely outlandish and it sets the stage for what should be an epic journey. Lee Pace is also a great emperor.
Yeah, Lee Pace is killing it as Emperor. Acting overall is fine.
regarding your spoiler:
It's not that far fetched all in all considering it's "big data" and "Machine learning algorithms" taken to their absolute limits basically, the naming "psychohistory" is what makes it most loony though. Quite interesting this was written in the 40s, very forward thinking by Asimov
That's an overly negative way to state it. The books tell a massive multi-generational story spanning thousands of years with every part of that story acting like it's own stand-alone short story within that timeline and yeah that does mean that most characters won't be around for more than one story. There's nothing bad about that choice, but it does make it very hard to adapt it as a normal tv show.
Watched the first 2 episodes and it came across as big standard YA dystopian schlock which is not at all what I expected (having not read the books. Genius chosen one, shoehorned romance, etc. The first episode was pretty good though so I'll try a few more
Watched the first 2 episodes and it came across as big standard YA dystopian schlock which is not at all what I expected (having not read the books. Genius chosen one, shoehorned romance, etc. The first episode was pretty good though so I'll try a few more
It's dystopian in the sense that the story takes place in the fall of a galactic empire (and the onset of a 10,000 dark age)...but also keep in mind that these novels predate YA schlock by like, 30-50 years. They invented some of the tropes we take for granted. They are not perfect by any means (they are plot vehicles, not character), but the ideas were pretty unique for the time, and very interesting.
Wait...one of the reviews mentions robots. But robots don't exist in the Foundation universe (well, they do...but are secret, and not mentioned in the original trilogy).
They've slightly changed "robots were forgotten" to "robots were known to exist but were extinct". They've also included religion, when in the books religious beliefs were also extinct.
Also, has anyone confirmed if the events even follow the first book roughly? From the trailers it seems like it's really like Prelude to Foundation (a prequel about Seldon and Psychohistory), and not the actual Foundation itself.
Watched the first 2 episodes and it came across as big standard YA dystopian schlock which is not at all what I expected (having not read the books. Genius chosen one, shoehorned romance, etc. The first episode was pretty good though so I'll try a few more
Is there a bias against Apple TV though? Isn't Ted Lasso universally loved?
I liked the first two episodes but found them a bit tropey and plodding. And TBH the books were dry, very dry and Asimov wasn't good at writing in general, or character building. So a show would have had to have been different regardless. But the showrunners could have been wilder and more creative imo.
I think it's a fantastic sci I'd show too. But the Karen plot of her sleeping with the childhood friend of her dead son that she helped raise was excicuted very poorly and if I remember correctly the actress seemed pretty unhappy with it as well.
Watched the first two episodes tonight without any foreknowledge of the content of Asimov's series, and I enjoyed it. Seemed a bit confusing on the first episode, but the second started to get into the groove more and had a cliffhanger ending, so I'm pretty intrigued. Acting is mostly good. Cinematography and musical score are mostly good. Can't really complain too much.
I think it's a fantastic sci I'd show too. But the Karen plot of her sleeping with the childhood friend of her dead son that she helped raise was excicuted very poorly and if I remember correctly the actress seemed pretty unhappy with it as well.
Ah yes yes, that made absolutely no sense whatsoever and I filtered it out. It's pretty gross. I don't know why showrunners feel they have to include lurid daytime soap style plots to keep viewers interested.
Well Lucy Mangan in the Guardian hated it. So I knew I would like it. She's a dreadful TV critic and I tend to find I'll enjoy most things she hates. She's very into hating stuff before watching - such as Clarkson's Farm.
The book is similar where it does a hard drop into the world. You'll figure it out as it goes.
You seriously question a situation where there are trillions of people and millions of planets where some have stick houses? We live on one planet and I can point out similar disparities.
As someone who loves the original books this show was about what I expected and it feels like it could easily go either way still. I don't think the books would be very appealing if they were faithfully adapted, so it was always obvious they'd need to spice it up a bit with more character development and injected drama. In particular I think the genetic imperial lineage is a really clever way to have a character audiences can connect with across the multi-generational story. Overall I liked most of what I saw in the first two episodes except Raych who I found to be very wooden and eye rolling in most scenes.
Even though the show seems to be filling in a lot more detail, the overall general plot of each arc seems like it will still result in the same end point. I'm a little worried that by injecting so much more drama they're going to mess up the philosophical framing of what made the big moments in each section of the book stand out.
Another thing that bugs me so far.
I'm really not a fan of how they are turning the vault into even more of a mystery box. The original framing of it as an innocent seeming time capsule rather than a mysterious possibly alien monolith makes way more sense to me. I don't see how they can do the same dramatic reveal when unveiling the first crisis if Hardin already knows what will be revealed. That is assuming it serves the same purpose at all.
I viewed it as the society on the planet are kind of like space Amish. They spurn science and in turn technology as part of their religion, which is why their society lives the way they do. Some clearly go out into the stars most likely as missionaries, but I guess on their home planet they choose to live simply. Gaal going to space seems to be an exception due to her winning the Math contest.
I viewed it as the society on the planet are kind of like space Amish. They spurn science and in turn technology as part of their religion, which is why their society lives the way they do. Some clearly go out into the stars most likely as missionaries, but I guess on their home planet they choose to live simply. Gaal going to space seems to be an exception due to her winning the Math contest.
I've only seen the first episode so far, and I liked it quite a bit overall, but this was actually my favourite part. None of the societies depicted were "alien" enough that they felt unrealistic given the time and distances involved, and the idea that you'd have a technologically advanced but purposefully ascetic, faith-driven society like the one Gaal came from seemed perfectly plausible.
One thing I do find odd: there's zero consistency in the pronunciation of Gaal's name. Some people call her "Gahl" and some call her "Gail," but that doesn't seem to correspond to whether they're from Trantor or anything.
