I’ll kick off as always with Ted Lasso because that’s what I have instead of therapy. But then I’m rocking the new golden age of sci fi. FOUNDATION drops today or tomorrow, depending on the international date line. I’ve got the darker, gnarlier S2 of SEE to endure, and I’ve been saving THE EXPANSE until I’m done with THE LAST KINGDOM on Netflix. TLK isn’t SF, of course, and its not fantasy either. More like historical action/drama I guess. But it’s been my long form watch for the last couple of weeks and I’ve enjoyed it bigly. So much so that I’m glad to have something to go to when I’m done.
All the Foundation chat is about whether it becomes the new Game of Thrones, which it probably won’t because it’s on Apple TV and they just don’t have the cultural reach yet - although the free TV subscription with all the new iPhones might help. I reckon tagging something the new GoT is like anointing someone with a couple of centuries and a 47.01 batting average the New Bradman. You’re setting everyone up for disappointment.
I read Foundation decades ago as a teenager and don’t recall being blown away by it but that’s probably an advantage for the producers. As I recall it didn’t have a cast iron narrative structure. It was more like lots of ideas thrown at the wall in the hope some would stick. I think it might have been the scope and scale that made it special. We’ll see.
The Guardian has a pretty good write up of the new golden age which makes an interesting point about TV writers using SF settings to tell the sort of stores the ancient Greeks would understand.
While Star Trek, too, is thriving in the current sci-fi landscape, with no less than five series currently in production, it seems unlikely to cross the final frontier into the halls of prestige sci-fi. For Nunn, this comes down to one thing: aliens. While the golden age shows of the 90s relied heavily on prosthetics – and, in the case of Farscape, puppets – to present characters from other worlds, today’s sombre offerings dwell solely on human problems. “With Battlestar Galactica, you’ve got robots, but you haven’t got aliens,” Nunn points out. “And The Expanse is similar. So they can be read as science fiction but also dystopias, whereas Star Trek and Babylon 5 and Farscape, even Stargate, all had alien life-forms at their core.”
Foundation may include the odd alien being as set-dressing – majestic sea-monsters float under the waves of one planet, while vicious wolf-cum-lizard creatures stalk the deserts of another – but only humans have any impact on the story.
Thoughts on Ep 1&2?? I found it to be so very different to the book that it was initially a little disappointing. In the credits it said "Based on the book by Isaac Asimov" Should start with "Loosely".
I haven't read the books since the mid to late eighties. So in a sense I'm approaching the show with a blank sheet, with only vague memories of what the books were about. Psycho-history? The Mule? The Spaceship and Sun? Trantor? In any case, I am looking forward to this and thanks for the heads-up!
I'm torn about this. I devoured Foundation as a teenager and then went through all the other Asimov. I decided to reread the series about three years ago when i heard that it was going to be turned into a series. Just couldn't do it. Got through about half way on the first book and gave up. It was slow, boring and I didn't think the writing was very inspired.
My weekend TV is also sorted. Saturday 5.05 the All Blacks play, and then 8.05 Los Pumas play. It will be glorious.
Thoughts on Ep 1&2?? I found it to be so very different to the book that it was initially a little disappointing. In the credits it said "Based on the book by Isaac Asimov" Should start with "Loosely".
Love The Last Kingdom and really anything Bernard Cornwell writes.
I haven't read the books since the mid to late eighties. So in a sense I'm approaching the show with a blank sheet, with only vague memories of what the books were about. Psycho-history? The Mule? The Spaceship and Sun? Trantor? In any case, I am looking forward to this and thanks for the heads-up!
What do you think of the new Dune movie?......read that when i was 17 or so and every ten yrs or so since.....Hey from Colorado
I'm torn about this. I devoured Foundation as a teenager and then went through all the other Asimov. I decided to reread the series about three years ago when i heard that it was going to be turned into a series. Just couldn't do it. Got through about half way on the first book and gave up. It was slow, boring and I didn't think the writing was very inspired.