Foundation

[Casual Observer]

So goddamn Apple is trying to give me another reason that at some point I'll have to submit to their streaming service (using my Roku though, I won't ever buy another apple device). I almost joined when I saw the trailer for "Central Park", the new cartoon from the Bobs Burgers guy but when I downloaded the first episode I couldn't get past the opening song so that was that.

I'm a huge fan of Isaac Asimov, best most prolific sci fi and sci fact writer ever. Ever since I read Asimov's Foundation trilogy I've hoped that sometime someone would put that to screen, and hopefully do it well. Well, "I, Robot" the Will Smith movie was nothing like his book (which was actually an anthology of short stories) but wasn't horrible so I've re-watched a few times.

But the Foundation trilogy, how could that ever be a single movie with the fact that it spans thousands of years and hundreds of planets? So they're doing Foundation as a series so I'm sure they're going to play loose with the characters and plot from the books. The trailer looks as interesting as any other sci-fi trailer and the show seems due for sometime in 2021 (thanks coronavirus for the delay!!) so I'll have to give it a try. Maybe in the meantime I'll have to re-read the books, how quaint.

[RetroRomper]

The first few "books" were actually Novellas published in (I think) Analog magazine: I generally disliked the story once he moved to the novel format as his storytelling went from tight, to the point, polished and meaningful in regards to being part of this Universe, to... Floppy.

Became more bloated, tiring, and just overall boring since he no longer needed to tell a concise story and could meander all over the place. When it comes to scifi writers, the only two famous ones that managed to keep their spirit and method when diving into mediums that gave them more room to breath, were Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein.

[Jizaboz]

And here I thought we were gonna really talk about house foundations and the cost of repairs in this thread..

[The Happiness Engine]

Central Park is more like a Home Movies musical. It took me a while to get into it but it is %70 about the songs, and like %30 about making a plot for those songs.

[Casual Observer]

yeah, bob's burgers musical shit is really starting to grind.

[The Happiness Engine]

OK, so Central Park S01E05 pretty much soured me on the show again. I like what it is attempting, but I don't think it is going to succeed. I'll give it the season unless I don't but I'm not telling anyone to watch it.

FWIW I like the musical episodes of Bob's Burgers. They're spread out instead of being every 4 minutes.

[Tdarcos]

yeah, bob's burgers musical shit is really starting to grind.

Isn't that to be expected? After all, burgers are made from ground beef. Any burger has to begin with grinding up meat.

Unless you mean it's starting to come together.

[pinback]

That's not a good joke, Paul.

[AArdvark]

That would make a great cartoon though!

[Casual Observer]

The first few "books" were actually Novellas published in (I think) Analog magazine: I generally disliked the story once he moved to the novel format as his storytelling went from tight, to the point, polished and meaningful in regards to being part of this Universe, to... Floppy.

You didn't enjoy the foundation trilogy books? I was enthralled. How about the robot detective novels? I thought they were good.

Became more bloated, tiring, and just overall boring since he no longer needed to tell a concise story and could meander all over the place. When it comes to scifi writers, the only two famous ones that managed to keep their spirit and method when diving into mediums that gave them more room to breath, were Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein.

what's your feeling about Michael Crichton? He was pretty good for most of his shit I think.

Just don't shoot somebody over it though.

[Tdarcos]

I thought Asimov's Foundation books were great too. Even inventing his own meme (back before there were memes)
"Violence is the last resort of the incompetent."
This remids me of Michael Westen's comment from Burn Notice:
"Guns make you stupid. Duct tape makes you smart."
(Anyone can solve a problem with violence. A smart person will figure out a non-violent solution.)
Or as it was done in The Usual Suspects to smash "New York's Finest Taxi Service," by ripping off the crooked cops and drug dealer they were transporting, not doing any killing, and giving a big middle finger to the NYPD.

[Flack]

Most people agree that Asimov invented the meme with that meme.

[Casual Observer]

IMO, one of the best scenes in Sci-Fi, one of the most eerily cruel sentences from a SciFi Emperor. Great fucking show.

[Casual Observer]

Since Vark doesn't use sound on videos I made the best part into a gif which they've made unnessarily hard over at imgflip and Giphy. Imgflip didn't want to give a real url for the gif and Giphy didn't want to upload the youtube snippit. So had to make the gif on imgflip, download the mp4, and upload that to giphy to get this working, yay.

[AArdvark]

Thank you!

Although it makes me feel vaguely like a special needs individual

I never finished the Foundations series. Retro was right, they started to really bloat after the first couple.

[Casual Observer]

Thank you!

Although it makes me feel vaguely like a special needs individual

I never finished the Foundations series. Retro was right, they started to really bloat after the first couple.

You mean the books, right? Think you're right, his heart wasn't really into it. The show spurred me into re-reading the book and I started with the Foreward and it turns out that Asimov really was just writing this to make a little bit of money per week and didn't give two shits about it. Later on he finished it only because his publisher demanded it.