I haven’t read the Isaac Asimov series this Apple TV show is based on, though from what I’ve heard, there are significant enough changes to the source material that it wouldn’t make much of a difference. I want to like this more than I do—somewhere in this slow, careful sci-fi series, there are intriguing contemplations that aren’t quite brought out to their full potential.
Hari Seldon, a renown mathematician, has devised startling calculations that are rumored to predict upcoming catastrophes that will throw the Empire into chaos. This puts him in the crosshairs of the emperor, a one-man dynasty ruling in three parts. Hari has laid as much groundwork as he can for the grim future, and to bring it to fruition, he places much hope in a budding mathematician named Gaal Dornick.
There’s a lot of interesting stuff here that I like. I find it fascinating that the trio of emperors are all clones of the original, at different ages. While they ostensibly rule together, it’s Brother Day, in the prime of his life, who gets the final say—the young Brother Dawn is there to learn from his older genetic equals, and the older Brother Dusk is there to advise. I also like Demerzel, the AI who’s shepherded generations of clone emperors. And I enjoy Gaal as a character, someone who comes from a planet where STEM is regarded as a crime of heresy, but who is so strongly drawn to math that she risks everything to study and discover.
Those are all important elements of the show, but they only scratch the surface of everything the series is trying to accomplish. It spans many decades and involves an Ark society who debate how best to preserve civilization against the coming destruction. There’s an untouchable monolith and more than one possible Savior running around. There are political disputes and terrorist attacks, secret plots and genetic anomalies and sacred pilgrimages.
To me, it doesn’t feel like all these ideas fully come together. There’s enough that I find interesting that I’ll watch season 2 when it comes out, but at times during my watch of the first season, I just let the vibes flow over me. At others, I scratched my head trying to keep track of everything.
I came to this show for Lee Pace, and he doesn’t disappoint. He plays Brother Day, and due to the sprawling nature of the story, we see more than one take from him on the prime emperor—after a major time jump, the Day from the pilot has grown old and become Dusk, while the little boy Dawn has grown up to become the new Day. I like seeing the similarities and differences between the two, and Pace interacts well with the actors playing Dawn (Cooper Carter and Cassian Bilton at different points in the series,) and Dusk (Terrence Mann, a.k.a. Inspector Javert and the original Broadway Beast.) Jared Harris is also very effective as the meticulous but slippery Hari, and I really like Laura Birn’s warm-and-cold performance as Demerzel. Other cast members include Jairaj Varsani, who played young Davey in The Personal History of David Copperfield, the always-good Clarke Peters, and Alfred Enoch.
Warnings
Violence (including terrorism and genocide,) sexual content, language, and strong thematic elements.
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