Critic Reviews

It's world-building without the world having already been built in countless other movies, TV series and comic novels. Watch and you have the feeling that you are at the outset of a momentous journey. ... Spectacular.

The journey, far from over, remains worth it. .... A review of what’s been seen thus far can’t begin to describe the brilliance that is “Foundation.” It needs to be experienced. It truly is that good.

Continues to put the rest of its small-screen genre brethren to shame with its momentous, magnificent third season.

With so many big ideas and complicated storylines involved, Foundation does at times feel a little muddled, because the drawback to having a number of simultaneously running narratives. ... But that ultimately serves as a compliment to the series as a whole; that as big as its scope is, the viewer still gets hooked into individual characters, wanting to know their fate.

Season 2 shows why Foundation is such a revered work of fiction, exploring a layered and larger-than-life story with deep themes, all while presenting a blockbuster TV event with gorgeous visuals. This season also focuses more on more intimate character stories, which makes the macro story more meaningful by delivering compelling sci-fi drama.

Foundation season 3 delivers on the promise of an epic-scale sci-fi story with the tone and pace of a blockbuster movie.

“Foundation” sometimes falls short of that same lofty ambition, but there’s more than enough here to make it a universe well worth occupying beyond this initial season-long glimpse.

It is the emotional and thematic ambition underpinning Foundation Season 2 that pulls it all together, even as everything for the characters is beginning to come apart. It will always be a different beast than Asimov’s writing, but this second season has shown that it is a ride worth going on all the same.

“Foundation” already has enough to recommend it, thanks to rich, textured visuals and concrete world-building; married with purpose, the show may finally fully realize its aesthetic promises on the back of much-needed dramatic immediacy.

The series takes itself too seriously—but it would fail to be this oddly captivating if it ever felt self-aware. It’s incredibly sincere, as if Hari Seldon himself were on the writing staff, reminding everyone in the room that the only inevitability in the universe is change.