One episode down and some non-spoilery thoughts:

- Give them all the production design awards. I mean it: take all the past, like, 10 production design Emmys, set aside the next 10 and just give them all to Foundation. This show is visually unbelievable. It's gorgeous, but also so unique and so varied.
- The score is beautiful, but dial it back. Way back.
- It might be my headset, but the ADR seems very poor. I think it's the ADR b/c not all scenes' voice audio sucks.
- This show is beautiful, but it needed to be beautiful: the scope is quite literally galactic, so it (hadn't really thought of this before) had to be beautiful. It had to have such rich costumes, scenery, sets, CGI to really sell and/or match the scope.
- Jared Harris is incredible. I feel that without him, the show is, I kinda hate to say it, but space operatically cheesey. I don't think it is, but because he brings so much gravitas scenes after he's introduced that are without without him feel lacking. I also thought the term "psychohistory" as cringy and worried how it'd sound out loud on TV. Turns out, you just need a Jared Harris and it'll sound practical and serious.

On to ep 2.

Only watched the first episode tonight. Truly great visuals, and for someone who has not read the book, the makings of a decent story. I'm intrigued enough to continue watching.

The pilot needed to be two episodes...

- So. Much. Exposition. It was 75% "tell" / 25% "show" (if that). So much voice over. So much explaining of dynamics. So many questions asked specifically so that another character could give a long-winded answer. And it was especially tedious considering a decent chunk of the exposition was - because of the nature of the plot - exposition for events that were literally *about* to happen, thereby stripping the narrative of almost any tension or drama.

- To that end, we needed to SEE and EXPERIENCE the stakes of Gaal's plight on Synnax BEFORE she leaves. The teary goodbyes, the looks she gets from angry neighbors... it all meant nothing in the moment because we had zero context. Context that wasn't given to us until long after the fact for some insane reason. Split the pilot in two and even just ten extra minutes spent with Gaal on Synnax before she leaves - seeing how horrible her planet treats scientists, seeing her learn she won the contest, seeing her parents have to truly sneak her off world, etc - would have worked wonders toward us feeling immense empathy for her character, and establishing an engaging narrative from the jump.

- Then, let's live with Gaal a bit longer on Trantor, through her eyes, under Hari's wing. It wasn't two minutes into their first conversation, though, that he blurts out the real reason he brought her there, once again stripping the narrative of any mystery or tension. Give them at least a couple days together first, let Hari test her a bit more, let Gaal prove her mettle, have them share a bond, Gaal is starting to find purchase in this world, etc, THEN have Hair drop the bomb - What??? - cut to black, end of episode one, and I'm hooked.

- Also, can someone explain to me why the conundrum Gaal finds herself in - having to prove or disprove Hari's equation - explicitly lies entirely in "trillions" of people NOT finding out if Gaal does indeed confirm Hari's equation (this is literally spelled out for Gaal and the audience), yet they willing broadcast the trial - and Gaal's confirmation of Hari's equation - to seemingly the entire population of Trantor? Huh? This made absolutely no sense to me.

Anyway, I'm still somewhat intrigued by the overarching plot, and yeah, the show looks like a million bucks, which usually goes a long way with me. But the problems/fixes were so obvious in the moment that I just left frustrated more than anything, by something that otherwise has so much potential. Hopefully that potential can still be reached, though, and I'm at least encouraged by the reactions to episode two, which I'll try and watch tomorrow.

C@LAg said:

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also... holy ****, man.

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Ha, I always edit the sh*t out of my longer posts. I'll remember additional points, and then, for whatever reason, my brain proof-reads better after the post is published than it does when it's in the text edit box. So I sometimes end up reading the posted version and making one edit at a time. It's a weird, OCD-ish habit, I know, but that's just the way I do it.

So did Mass Effect (video game series) steal the jump craft from Isaac or did the show steal it from Mass Effect?

Mass Effect jump station:

Most interesting thing out of this thread for me is concluding I have no desire to ever read this series.

Faustus said:

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TCTTS said:

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C@LAg said:

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also... holy ****, man.

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Ha, I always edit the sh*t out of my longer posts. I'll remember additional points, and then, for whatever reason, my brain proof-reads better after the post is published than it does when it's in the text edit box. So I sometimes end up reading the posted version and making one edit at a time. It's a weird, OCD-ish habit, I know, but that's just the way I do it.

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I'm given to excessive editing of my posts too.

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I edit a ton. I don't like presenting myself as having poor grammar and sometimes I can be a bit more blunt on R&P or Politics, and think better about what it could mean to the uninitiated. I don't judge.

This show is beautiful but awful. So disappointing.