Season 2 mashes up elements from the second half of Foundation, parts of Foundation and Empire, and introduces the Mule. This seems like an awful lot of things to cover in one 10 episode season and it is. A lot of the themes behind religion leading to trade leading to the Federation get glossed over in favor of Belirose’s arc, and a second (wholly new) arc that leads to what the viewer is lead to believe is the formation of the Second Foundation. There’s a third arc around Day attempting to revitalize the empire as well, which following the strong Empire story in the first season, continue to crib notes from the fall of the Roman empire.
I get that they got this well known actor with chops to play Hari Seldon, but it does feel like he draws attention away from some of the other characters at times in service of fleshing out his character. What we did get of Hari’s backstory though was good, so at least there’s that. What we’ve seen of the Mule so far makes me sad because the complexity of the character seems utterly missing in favor of a veiled threat of a monster lurking in the future. I hope we get to see a more interesting version of the Mule in season 3. These were my two biggest let downs of the season.
That said, there’s some real bright spots here. I like how Bel Riose‘s character was handled this season. The show really sold the character of someone who hates how Day leads, but believes in the Empire. In fact, Bel Riose, Hober Mallow, Brother Constant, and Poly Verisof were the standouts this season. We also get to see the introduction of mentalics more concretely, and the events that lead Gaal to befriend them and for her to put aside her animosity towards Seldon. Ultimately, I think this arc served it’s purpose in letting Gaal grow into the role she needs to play, but was a little bloated compared. We also get another tip of the hat to an empire in decline by creating competing claims on successorship to the throne, much like with the claims of the true successor to Rome in real life.