Foundation Episode 3 Review: The Mathematician’s Ghost a Most Unexpected Turn of Apple Tv+
Director: Alex Graves
Starring: Jared Harris, Lee Pace, Lou Llobell
Platform: Apple Tv+
Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
After the astonishing events at the end of the chapter “Preparing to Live” (1×02) of Foundation (David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman, since 2021), the Apple TV + series that adapts the fascinating novels of the Russian-American Isaac Asimov for readers own and strange spectators, both of us very much needed a convincing explanation for such a terrible decision or violent impulse, about whether there are chances of survival and, if not, how they will preserve the intervention of the mathematical myth before errant of psychohistory.
There is no doubt that it was a most unexpected turn, despite some sly comment from Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) that one of his calculated predictions had not come true. As in any decent script, the same creators of this television fiction do not include phrases or hooks that do not take us anywhere. Not to dead ends to troll like in the marvel miniseries Wanda Vision (Jac Schaeffer, 2021).
The Two Dramatic Focuses Of ‘Foundation’
But David S. Goyer (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice) and Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds) seem in no rush to clear up this disruptive question in the episode “The Mathematician’s Ghost” (1×03). What they do demonstrate without hesitation is that the dying Galactic Empire, the history of its capital and the characters that move its strings, with greater or lesser impotence in the face of what is coming, are one of the main focuses of the Foundation and not only the creature of the great analyst of the future.
For which they do not disdain the possibility of immersing the public in their internal dramas, something to always be grateful for because with it the degree of complexity of the scripts rises and, thus, television series rise. Extreme that we have been able to verify again very recently thanks to the great horror miniseries Midnight Mass (Mike Flanagan, 2021), which could not stand out as it does without those brilliant monologues that mark it on the pain of its protagonists and go the sermons; not so much for their content as for the eloquent arousal of the one who pronounces them.
The Most Interesting Decadence
The sequence on imperial decay is lovingly performed , both in planning and in the score by Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead), with that catchy singing solo . Thus, the experience of the American filmmaker Alex Graves at the head of this Foundation chapter is evident. Despite the fact that his premiere in the cinema was with two forgettable feature films, Between Desire and Destiny (1993) and Encadenada (1997), almost his entire career has been developed on television, where he has directed episodes for thirty-nine series up to now.
Specifically, three from Ally McBeal (David E. Kelley, 1997-2002), no less than thirty-four from The West Wing of the White House (Aaron Sorkin , 1999-2006), six from Game of Thrones (David Benioff and DB Weiss, 2011-2019), one from Fringe (JJ Abrams , Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, 2008-2013), The Newsroom (Sorkin, 2012-2014) and House of Cards (Beau Willimon, 2013-2018) or seven from Homeland (Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, 2011-2020). And this is his first job for Apple TV +.
The second half of “The Mathematician’s Ghost” reveals to us at the end of the long journey of the psychohistorical project and the particularities of Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), it affects the great enigma of Terminus and presents us with the first threat. Of course we want to know what the heck is going on here, but they haven’t shown us anything that particularly fascinates us. The story about the imperial Brother Sunset by Terrence Mann (Sense8), whose interpretation is unmatched in this chapter by any other, is more interesting as a dramatic and audiovisual proposal. We will see what awaits us in the future.
