Hey, everyone! How’s it going? Today I’m here to review the drama Foundation, which brings us David S. Goyer’s ambitious adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s legendary science fiction novels about the fall of a galactic empire and humanity’s struggle for survival across the cosmos.
The third season premiered on Apple TV+ on July 11, 2025, continuing the epic saga that began in September 2021. With 10 episodes per season and approximately 60 minutes each, Foundation represents one of the most visually spectacular and narratively complex series on television. The series features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Lou Llobell and Leah Harvey, creating a sprawling space opera that spans centuries and multiple worlds.
Based on the award-winning novels by Isaac Asimov, Foundation chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire. The series tackles themes of power, destiny, religion, and the cyclical nature of civilizations while delivering some of the most stunning visual effects ever created for television.
The Mathematics of Human Destiny
In the far future, mathematician Hari Seldon has developed psychohistory, a revolutionary science that can predict the future of large populations. His calculations reveal that the mighty Galactic Empire will fall within 500 years, plunging humanity into 30,000 years of darkness. To preserve knowledge and shorten this dark age, Seldon establishes two Foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy.
The genius of Foundation lies in its multi-layered storytelling approach. While following the Foundation’s efforts to preserve civilization, the series simultaneously explores the Empire’s decay through the eyes of the genetic dynasty of cloned emperors. Each storyline operates on different time scales, with some characters experiencing decades while others live for centuries through various technological means.
Season 3 introduces The Mule, one of Asimov’s most compelling antagonists, a mysterious figure with unprecedented mental powers who threatens to unravel Seldon’s carefully calculated plan. The Mule makes a murderous entrance in today’s premiere episode, ‘A Song For the End of Everything’, bringing a new level of unpredictability to the series’ exploration of fate versus free will.
Hari Seldon: Jared Harris as the Prophet of Mathematics
Jared Harris delivers a masterful performance as Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian whose calculations set the entire saga in motion. Harris brings gravitas and intellectual weight to a character who must convince both his followers and audiences that mathematics can predict human destiny on a galactic scale.
What makes Harris’s performance particularly compelling is how he portrays Seldon’s unwavering faith in his science while showing the personal cost of bearing such tremendous knowledge. Seldon knows that billions will suffer during the Empire’s collapse, yet he also knows that his plan offers humanity’s only hope for survival. Harris captures this burden beautifully, creating a character who is simultaneously visionary and tragic.
Through various technological means, Seldon appears across different time periods, allowing Harris to explore how the character’s legend evolves and how his original intentions are interpreted by future generations. It’s a complex role that requires Harris to play both historical figure and mythical prophet.
Brother Day: Lee Pace’s Tyrannical Majesty
Lee Pace commands every scene as Brother Day, the ruling clone of Emperor Cleon I who represents the Empire at its most powerful and paranoid. Pace brings both regal authority and underlying vulnerability to a character who rules trillions of subjects while grappling with questions of identity and mortality.
The 46-year-old actor lifts the veil on his “fat and happy”—and gloriously bearded—new Brother Day in Season 3, showing how power and time have changed the character. Pace’s ability to convey both the Empire’s magnificent decay and Day’s personal evolution makes him one of television’s most compelling antagonists.
The relationship between the three Cleon clones (Dawn, Day, and Dusk) provides some of the series’ most psychologically complex material. Pace must play a character who is simultaneously individual and part of a collective identity that spans centuries, creating fascinating tensions between personal desire and dynastic duty.
Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin: The Foundation’s Future
Lou Llobell as Gaal Dornick and Leah Harvey as Salvor Hardin represent the human faces of Seldon’s grand design. Both actresses bring strength and intelligence to characters who must carry forward a mission they didn’t choose while forging their own paths through an uncertain galaxy.
Llobell’s Gaal serves as the emotional anchor for much of the series’ scientific concepts, helping audiences understand psychohistory through her mathematical genius and human intuition. Her character’s evolution from Seldon’s student to an independent force in galactic events provides one of the series’ most satisfying character arcs.
Harvey’s Salvor brings a more action-oriented energy to the series while maintaining the intellectual depth that defines Foundation’s characters. Her role as a protective leader showcases how individuals can influence historical forces that seem predetermined, adding complexity to the series’ exploration of destiny versus choice.
Visual Spectacle: Creating a Believable Galaxy
Foundation sets a new standard for science fiction television with its production design, visual effects, and cinematography. Every frame feels meticulously crafted, from the gleaming spires of Trantor to the harsh landscapes of Terminus. The series creates distinct visual languages for different worlds and cultures, making the galaxy feel vast and lived-in.
The costume design and makeup work deserve particular praise, especially in creating the different evolutionary stages of the Cleon dynasty and the various alien cultures encountered throughout the galaxy. Each world feels unique while maintaining the series’ overall aesthetic coherence.
The space battles and large-scale destruction sequences rival anything seen in major motion pictures, but the series never lets spectacle overshadow character development or thematic content. The visual effects serve the story rather than dominating it.
Success on Apple TV+
Despite losing its perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, the third season of Apple TV’s Foundation is a global streaming hit. The series has consistently been one of Apple TV+’s flagship offerings, showcasing the streaming service’s commitment to high-quality, ambitious content.
Foundation represents exactly the kind of prestige television that Apple TV+ was designed to produce. With its massive budget, A-list cast, and complex storytelling, the series demonstrates that streaming platforms can successfully adapt previously “unfilmable” science fiction properties. The show has found a dedicated global audience that appreciates both its spectacular visuals and intellectual depth.
Critics and audiences have praised the series for respecting Asimov’s source material while making necessary adaptations for television. While some purists debate changes from the books, most viewers appreciate how the series captures the scope and themes of the original novels while creating compelling television drama.
If you love epic science fiction, political intrigue, and stories that span centuries and star systems, Foundation is the perfect series to immerse yourself in on Apple TV+. It’s a show that proves science fiction television can be both intellectually challenging and visually spectacular, offering the kind of grand storytelling that reminds us why we fell in love with the genre in the first place.
A masterpiece of science fiction television that successfully adapts Asimov’s complex novels into visually stunning, emotionally resonant drama that explores humanity’s destiny among the stars.
Series Details:
Number of Episodes: 10 per season (3 seasons total)
Platform: Apple TV+ (US) / Apple TV+ (International)
IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
Genre: Science Fiction Drama
Protagonists: Jared Harris (Hari Seldon), Lou Llobell (Gaal Dornick), Leah Harvey (Salvor Hardin)
Antagonist: Lee Pace (Brother Day), The Mule, and the collapse of civilization itself