Foundation Season 3 Episode 1 Breakdown and Reflections on Book to Screen Adaptation

This is my breakdown of Foundation season 3 episode 1, and also the first time I’ve really started to rethink how I feel about books, especially comic books, being translated to TV and movies. Watching this show and thinking back to stuff like Ready Player One, which Ernest Cline co-wrote with Zak Penn, I’m starting to realize that even when something is adapted faithfully, it doesn’t always work on screen the way it does on the page. Episode one of Foundation Season 3 jumps 152 years into the future, introduces the Mule who can control minds, and shows the Prime Radiant hitting a limit it can’t see past. Demerzel ends up with it, and I think she’s key to stopping the Mule, which is probably why Seldon gave it to her despite how wild that seems. I haven’t read the book yet, but even so, the series is fire, and Apple TV+ continues to put out the best sci-fi of any streaming service. This is the one I’m definitely not canceling.