The second season of Foundation starts slowly. That makes sense: the first few episodes are forced to pick up the pieces from the first season’s scattered finale, introduce half a dozen new characters, and pave the way for an entirely new story that takes place more than a hundred years after the first season is playing.
In many ways it’s like starting a whole new series – it’s just set in a world you already know, which means it also has all the problems that early series episodes can bring. But that doesn’t stop there Foundation of an excellent final batch of episodes and an excellent ending, proving that starting over every season might just be a great idea for Apple TV Plus’ Isaac Asimov adaptation.
(Ed. remark: This story contains spoilers for Foundation season 2.)
Foundation The second half of season 2 is where things really start to sing, and the final batch of episodes builds to some particularly impressive and satisfying payoffs, as the extended cast finally meets up and finds their own neat and tidy places in the story. Hober Mallow and Constant’s sweet romance feels subtle but solidly built; Hober’s plans for Bel Riose feel clever and clever in a way the show rarely strives for; and Gaal and Hari receive the second Foundation up and running feels like the series finally finds an equal position that the two of them can stand on.
Image: Apple TV Plus
Even the Cleon clones’ various machinations reach their own emotional climax at just the right moments: Dawn gets to ride off into the sunset for a fairytale ending, Day finally gets the fight he’s wanted all season (then gets defeated through an airlock ), and Dusk discovers the secrets he’s been looking for about his existence (and dies for it).
Foundation season 2 is just a really good season of television. But it’s not good in the way that many streaming shows aspire to, with sparks flying in the first few episodes. It’s HBO or Peak-AMC great, like a season of Break bad. Where streaming services prioritize their conflicts to get viewers hooked, Foundation season 2 (like many Apple TV Plus shows) takes its time, building everything from the ground up and putting all the pieces in the right place for a great finale.
It’s impressive to watch any show in the streaming age with the confidence to follow a series so purposefully, but Foundation is just the right one to get it done. In addition to widespread sci-fi technology that can create clones, robots that will live forever, and cryo-sleep that can let us jump between seasons for hundreds of years, Foundation also has the power of a phenomenal world and setting. There is perhaps no other series on TV that even comes close to the beautiful, detailed and unique production design Foundation. That makes being patient with the show as it sets up new plots each season an easy question; After all, if you sit still and look, you will see something wonderful.
Image: Apple TV Plus
This format of a new, almost self-contained story every season seems to be the only one Foundation sticks around. Creator and showrunner David S. Goyer spoke to Polygon near the end of season 2 and explained that he sees Foundation as somewhere between a serialized show and an anthology series. It is designed to tell its own complete story of the war between Foundation and Empire for each season, aided by the context and worlds of the previous seasons. But he wants there to be a “wonderful sense of closure” at the end of the season, at least for the characters who won’t be back next season.
Goyer says he enjoys resetting the table for each new season, and the challenge of creating new characters that audiences care about. He says he was initially a little concerned about whether people would connect with new characters like Hober, Constant and Bel. In the end, fans loved them.
“That makes me feel very optimistic about the future of the show,” says Goyer, “that we can introduce completely new characters that you will completely fall in love with.”
Image: Apple TV Plus
But Goyer also plans to stay Foundation‘s fans on their toes.
“We’d be foolish if we did the same trick over and over again,” Goyer says of starting each season with a largely new cast. “So if the show goes long enough, there will be some characters that we will introduce (and) that will be done in one season. And there are other characters that we can introduce in season 3, they could be (for) seasons. I just never want to fall into a rhythm where the audience (like), Oh, I know what they’re going to do.”
But Goyer also quotes Game of Thrones as an inspiration by saying, “I think it’s important to kill off characters you like.” And just keeping certain characters around from season to season certainly helps build additional attachment to make those deaths even more impactful.
For now, Foundation has not yet been renewed for a third season. But with Goyer already talking about it, and with the excellent taste of the Season 2 finale still on our tongues, it’s hard not to get excited about what Goyer and his team could try in Season 3. We’ll just know that we’re ready for a methodical start this time.