The episodes usually take up 60 minutes of your time and I’ve read on more than one occasion that people find it too slow going, that it seems forever for an episode to end, but I don’t have that experience at all! I usually get so engulfed in a particular episode, the 60 minutes literally fly by. Almost every time I am surprised when I see the end credits role over the TV screen.

For me, the most intriguing part of the show is Empire. Season two shows the viewer more exciting Empire storylines, we learn about the history of Demerzel (Laura Birn), that she was locked up for centuries in a hidden chamber in the palace. We learn she is even older than we thought she was, and we also learn that she is most likely even more powerful than Brother Day (Lee Pace). Lee Pace as Brother Day is just phenomenal, an almost perfect looking man, his stature, his smugness, very dangerous, he feels he is omnipotent, a can be a real tyrant. The way he speaks, his tone, the way he rules not only over his brothers Dawn and Dusk but also over his people. He wants to usher in a new hierarchy for the empire he reigns over with his fellow clones of different ages, Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) and Brother Dusk (Terence Mann). He is considering marrying Ella-Rae Smith’s steely Queen Sareth of Cloud Dominion, who is investigating who murdered her royal family members. Yes, as a viewer it is hard to like the guy, very hard, but Lee Pace plays this character with gusto, that’s for sure.

This season we see Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) in the company of Gaal (Lou Llobell) and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) together in most of the episodes. Hari becomes human again, they crash land on the planet Ignis. The trio is brought before the telepaths' leader, Tellem Bond, who reveals Ignis to be a refuge for telepaths or Mentalics, and she already seems aware of their plans for a Second Foundation. They want to prevent the second Foundation. Tellem Bond is probably just as bad a person as Brother Day, my god, what a witch! She tries to kill Seldon, imprisons Salvor and wants to take over Gaal’s body. Rachel House apparently is an exemplary actress because I really hated her character Tellem Bond. Without saying too much, I don’t mind the fate she received.

In season two we see a few new characters: Dimitri Leonidas as Hober Mallow, a roguish trader and con man who plays an important role in Seldon's plan. I thought a bit of him as Han Solo or Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly), the way he behaves, not afraid to act, even against Brother Day. Really liked this character, who is a tragic hero. Isabella Laughland as Brother Constant, a novice cleric and traveling "magician" spreading the gospel of Hari Seldon. She manages to stay alive the whole season even though she gets into the clutches of Brother Day. Kulvinder Ghir as High Cleric Poly Verisof, Brother Constant's superior and companion, who was a child at the dawn of the Foundation. Ella-Rae Smith as Queen Sareth, the ruler of Cloud Dominion and bride-to-be of Brother Day/Cleon XVII. Sareth is convinced that Day murdered her whole family. She is to be married to Brother Day, but she has sex with Brother Dawn. As discussed earlier, Rachel House as Tellem Bond, the leader of a community of Mentalics on planet Ignis. Ben Daniels as Bel Riose, an admired general who was imprisoned for disobeying Empire. In the final episode he again goes against his empire, which results in a massive fight with a very nice twist in the end.

Perhaps Foundation is not for everybody, I do feel that season two is more accessible than the first season. As I described earlier in this blog, it is less cerebral. I also could understand that people who’ve read the books, may find that this is deviated too far from the books, which I can understand. I didn’t read the books yet, so for those like me, who haven’t read it, don’t expect anything from it. As with season one, the show looks fantastic, I’ve learned that they have a budget of around 4.5-5 million per episode, much less that what Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has, but it doesn’t show, the CGI is breathtaking, the sets and the film locations are also breathtaking. It certainly is not comparable to any other TV show set in space, in that sense, it is quite unique.

Final Word:

As I told you in my season one first watch blog, I am still a bit struggling with writing blogs for heavy story-arced TV shows like this one. I tried it a different way as I did with season one, personally I find this better than my first season blog, I hope you’ll find it an interesting read and perhaps I got you at least curious about this show. Currently the third season is finished but it recently has been renewed for a 4^th season which most like will be available for streaming late 2026 or perhaps even early 2027.

Screencaps taken from TheTVShows.us/Foundation