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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
23
Mixed:
17
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
ColliderSep 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
With so many big ideas and complicated storylines involved, Foundation does at times feel a little muddled, because the drawback to having a number of simultaneously running narratives. ... But that ultimately serves as a compliment to the series as a whole; that as big as its scope is, the viewer still gets hooked into individual characters, wanting to know their fate.
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Jul 14, 2023
Season 2 Review:
Season 2 shows why Foundation is such a revered work of fiction, exploring a layered and larger-than-life story with deep themes, all while presenting a blockbuster TV event with gorgeous visuals. This season also focuses more on more intimate character stories, which makes the macro story more meaningful by delivering compelling sci-fi drama.
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Jul 7, 2025
Season 3 Review:
The series takes itself too seriously—but it would fail to be this oddly captivating if it ever felt self-aware. It’s incredibly sincere, as if Hari Seldon himself were on the writing staff, reminding everyone in the room that the only inevitability in the universe is change.
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ColliderJul 14, 2023
Season 2 Review:
It is the emotional and thematic ambition underpinning Foundation Season 2 that pulls it all together, even as everything for the characters is beginning to come apart. It will always be a different beast than Asimov’s writing, but this second season has shown that it is a ride worth going on all the same.
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The TelegraphJul 11, 2025
Season 3 Review:
Fans of the books will be interested to see whether it can pull off the huge surprise that Asimov carried off with his Mule storyline. Do so, and Foundation will have achieved a shock up there with the Red Wedding on Game of Thrones. But even if it mucks up the Mule twist, this is a sci-fi show like no other – gorgeous, cerebral and unapologetically out to lunch.
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Sep 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Yes, it can be self-indulgent, meandering and more complicated than need be. But that feels somewhat inevitable, given the scope of the task at hand. That “Foundation” is otherwise nimble and engaging, even for those unfamiliar with the work that first inspired it, is down to its willingness to buck the Cleons’ line of wisdom and change with the times.
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Sep 24, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Even as Foundation stumbles throughout its execution, it still maintains a grip on the unconditional hope of its characters. But with an inconsistent timeline and innumerable technicalities, this epic series may take more than mathematical prophecies to grip viewers into watching week to week.
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Sep 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
For the uninitiated, early episodes of Foundation can be a chore to get through, let alone understand. (Be prepared to replay scenes in order to catch snatches of rushed, whispery or conceptually opaque dialogue.) Which is a particular shame considering how beautiful every single frame looks. ... The storytelling improves markedly beginning in the fourth episode. ... We shouldn’t have to sit through hours of TV that makes our heads spin to get to stuff like this, that entertains and challenges us. But in this case, the patience does pay off.
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RogerEbert.comJul 14, 2023
Season 2 Review:
It’s all a bit much to properly invest in. The math and science that cleverly helped create the world of "Foundation" now feels like it didn't before—it's homework. It’s amazing such a detailed epic like “Foundation” exists. But by becoming far wider, it risks stretching its power and sense of danger too thin.
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Sep 24, 2021
Season 1 Review:
This curious political unit raises interesting questions about individuality and if progress is possible without fundamental change, and it's the main source of fun in the show. ... Alas, the rest of the series lacks the spark of the royal court drama and often feels like a slog. While things get much more entertaining in the back half of the season, you may not want to trudge through Foundation's own dark period to get there.
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Jul 11, 2025TV Guide MagazineOct 11, 2021
Season 1 Review:
You might need an antacid - or whatever would remedy the tonal whiplash as Foundation meanders from cerebral contemplation of mankind's fate to a standard-issue shoot-'em-ups involving warring planets. [11 - 24 Oct 2021, p.11]
Sep 24, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Not much about Foundation sticks, either emotionally or narratively. There are cause-and-effect relationships between one event and another, but they’re stretched across long-attenuated frames, spun out over distances that are short enough to roughly remember there was a relationship there, but too long for that relationship to retain any urgency or heft.
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Sep 24, 2021
Sep 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Across the full 10-episode season, no hour of Foundation passed without multiple breathtaking compositions or pieces of well-considered visual world-building. Still, I needed more mind games and machinations, fewer literal tapestries and more tapestries of woven galactic history. The show provokes myriad instances of technical appreciation, yet rarely finds a way to be truly provocative.
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Sep 23, 2021
Season 1 Review:
Jam-packed with action, the pilot sets the stage for big set pieces in future episodes, but they never happen. Instead, we get decades-long spaceship trips and a lot of talking. “Foundation” rarely builds momentum, abandoning story lines for too long before picking them back up. Once you notice the story is going nowhere, other flaws become apparent.
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