Foundation Season 2 review: A grander, more epic tale than ever

Epic battles and a fast-paced opening for season two

Set 138 years after the season one finale, Foundation's season 2 sees the galaxy teetering on the edge of the darkness foretold by Hari Seldon. The Genetic Dynasty of Cleon I is unravelling, while Gaal and Salvor are forced to confront the biggest crisis ever facing the Foundation — war with Empire.

To make things worse, events are already diverging from Hari's meticulous plan, and everything threatens to spiral out of control. If they fail to rise to the occasion, when the age of darkness comes, it may not ever end — as Gaal warns Salvor. If you haven't yet seen the trailer, now's an apt time:-

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The first episode, In Seldon's Shadow, never misses a beat, picking up with a thrillingly choreographed assassination attempt on Cleon XVII a mere six minutes in. Cleon XVII is the latest in a long line of genetic clones, all played by the inimitable Lee Pace. The scenes with Empire, as the Cleons are known, remain one of the most enjoyable in the series.

Pace is a commanding presence on screen, alternately brooding and smoldering. He is a force of nature to be reckoned with — when the assassins come for him, he rises to meet them, an arrogant smile on his face as he dispatches them in hand-to-hand combat.

With multiple parallel storylines going on at once, Foundation can be an unwieldy beast to contend with, especially as the story literally spans centuries. However, season 2 remedies the almost sluggish pace of the first season with an action-packed premiere. From the attempt on Empire's life to Gaal and Salvor's efforts to retrieve the latter's ship from the bottom of the ocean, there is never a dull moment.

Hari himself gets plenty of air time as well, clearly not quite dead even after being killed by Raych. With a copy of his consciousness trapped in the Prime Radiant and struggling to escape, this clearly isn't the last we'll see of Hari.

Making Asimov’s timeless trilogy work with a familiar cast

Apple TV Plus' Foundation has already diverged considerably from its source material. Asimov's books span hundreds of years, with each book introducing a new set of characters, leaving its erstwhile heroes behind in the dust. Instead, showrunner David S. Goyer has had to invent new plot devices to keep the same characters alive over the sheer expanse of time.



Gaal and Salvor have availed themselves of cryopods, awaking a century later still in the prime of youth. Similarly, while Hari may be dead, his consciousness still lives on. The genetic dynasty is also quite a literal interpretation of Asimov's novels — a reification of an empire that has existed for millennia, incredibly powerful, rigid, and absolutely refusing to relinquish even an inch of power.

These devices have allowed us to continue with the same cast of characters in season 2 — characters we've already familiarised ourselves with. With singular heroes and villains, the show hits differently from the books. After all, it's far easier to get behind a few heroes battling to overcome crisis after crisis, transcending space and time to forge a better future for humanity. The man standing in their way is no less fascinating — an emperor who has cloned himself over and over to artificially extend his dynasty, desperate to hang onto power in any way.

Find out more about the cast in our brief interview with them!

Adapting the legacy for the TV screen

In many ways, Foundation is about the idea of legacy. As Cleon continues to clone himself to prolong his rule, Hari has also cheated death with copies of his consciousness, still ever-present to pull the strings and beat back what should have almost certainly been inevitable anarchy. Both men have refused to be contained by anything as quotidian as a mortal lifespan, shrugging off the restraints of lesser men to impose their will on the galaxy.   

While Asimov's books won me over with their scale and ambition, the TV adaption of Foundation feels just a hair smaller, and ever slightly more intimate. The Foundation novels have always felt distant, a disinterested chronicle of a revolving cast over the centuries. Foundation the series helps us grow attached to the same faces, each with their own unique motivations.

The galaxy is vast, wide, and dark, but the journey across the cosmos is easier when you've got company you're used to.

If this piqued your interest, new episodes are coming out every Friday and we can't wait to see how it carries forward the story. Don't forget you can play the first episode for free if you've not yet started watching Foundation, but the rest requires an Apple TV+ subscription.

Read Next: An interview with the cast of Foundation Season 2

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