Episodes viewed: 9 of 10
Streaming on: Apple TV+
As a certain disgraced boxer once declared, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” For Jared Harris’ Hari Seldon, who foresaw the demise of a galactic civilisation and set in motion a plan to temper the fallout, that punch comes in the form of the Mule (Pilou Asbæk, recast from Mikael Persbrandt’s brief appearance in Season 2). A maniacal telepath who can bend enemies to his whim with a thought, the Mule crashes into Foundation’s third season as an agent of absolute chaos, single-handedly laying waste to an entire armada in the season’s show-stopping opener.
Swivel-eyed and openly homicidal, he’s an unusually traditional villain for a decidedly non-traditional show. Upon its arrival in 2021, Apple TV+’s Foundation established itself as byzantine, uncompromising and sometimes disorientatingly dense series that made little allowance for dwindling attention spans. Building on and expanding Isaac Asimov’s series of millennia-spanning novels, it presented itself as a dizzying cocktail of wild ideas — prognosticating mathematics, an eternal cycle of clone emperors, four-dimensional objects casing ‘shadows’ into three-dimensional space — that quickly established itself as some of the most exceptional sci-fi around.
The Mule might be less ambiguous or subtly drawn than Foundation’s other characters, but his disruptive influence serves as a catalyst; one that drives characters old and new to extremes as both the faltering Empire and the emergent Foundation find themselves crushed under the newcomer’s boot.
Despite the internal shuffle, Foundation has lost none of its bite.
Chief among those affected is the threefold face of Empire, which remains a series highlight. A trio of clones based on the original Emperor Cleon, these roles have been repeatedly reinvented to feel distinct with each new series, and this latest batch (for plot reasons involving DNA-tampering that we won’t go into) stray even further from their initial template. Brother Dawn (Cassian Bilton) is disaffected and rebellious, turning to the empire’s enemies for help; Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), once dubbed ‘the conciliator’, has become bitter and twisted, wrestling with his own waning mortality; Brother Day (Lee Pace), on the other hand, has gleefully entered his Lebowski era, now sporting Jesus locks and puffing happily on hallucinogens while wandering the palace in a bathrobe and stroking a ferret. A far cry from the composed, regal figures who stared down kings, queens and prophets at the peak of Empire’s power.
Refreshing the wider cast (something of a necessity in a show that routinely skips ahead centuries) are an assortment of pleasing additions, including space TikTokkers Toran (Cody Fern) and Bayta (Synnøve Karlsen) — taking a playful swipe at vapid influencer culture — imperial concubine Song (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing), Foundation ambassador Quent (Cherry Jones), and deaf Mentalic overseer Preem Palver (Troy Kotsur). The show’s secret weapon, however, remains Laura Birn’s Demerzel, the galaxy’s sole remaining robot, whose inability to reconcile her programming imperatives with her spiritual beliefs, coupled with a deep loneliness as the last of her kind, place her in a constant state of existential torment — the tragedy of which is only occasionally punctured by acts of chilling, calculated savagery.
Derailment by the Hollywood strikes and subsequent news of creator David Goyer stepping back from his showrunner role after budgetary disagreements cast something of a dark shadow over this season’s production. But despite the internal shuffle, Foundation has lost none of its bite. The series continues to build a compellingly complex narrative upon a dense lattice of interplanetary politics and brain-tickling concepts, while underpinning its ideas with an engaging spread of similarly complex and engaging characters. Even the Mule, for all his panto theatrics, is underpinned by a humanising and quite pointed backstory. This may not be the most accessible show on television (a rewatch of the first two seasons is all but essential), but if you’re prepared to put down that second screen and strap in, this is one of the most rewarding shows around.