Other People's Babbles

There were severa new onesl I enjoyed a lot, like Alien: Earth and Pluribus, with the later being hands down the best new series I saw in 2025. And Andor, some minor (for me) nitpicks aside, ended superbly, plus unfortunately more current day politically relevant than ever. But my favourite series in 2025 was Foundation, season 3. And here are some reasons why:

For the third time, this show managed to present a new ensemble of characters per season (plus the few recurring ones) and made me care about them. Now I remember several shows that were originally intended to be "anthology" shows - the one that immediately comes to mind is Heroes - i.e. where the idea was to present a new cast of characters every season - and which when the first season was a success changed their mind because the audience had fallen in love with these characters. Unfortunately, this also meant that the subsequent seasons showed there had been no plan, not even a vague character arc kind of plan, for those characters, and the show quality rapidly diminished, making me wish they'd stuck to the anthology concept. Now Foundation, to me, found a happy medium between the "anthology" concept which its intended huge time spam demands and the fact that most viewers do want some characters to remain attached to, or at least interested in, who are around for more than one season. And they manage it twofold: courtesy of in-universe plot devices, there are in fact some characters around through all three seasons so far - Gail Dornick, Demerzel and sort, kinda, Hari Seldon ( in a spoilery fashion ). And there are three more actors araound through all three seasons playing different characters who are at the same time variations of the same character, i.e. the Cleonic Dynasty exponents, clones in different stages of aging. (It's not unimportant that they play clones because the stories and developments each Cleon takes in each season are richer and more interesting if you have other Cleons to compare them to.)

But, and this is an important but: the show also offers characters who are around only in one season/era the show takes place. (Or two at most, sob.) And manages to make them interesting and different from each other. Here I would argue the show grew from season 1 - where there were some interesting, memorable characters around, like the Luminarian priestess, but also some which for me didn't work in the way they were intended (the Huntress) - to season 2, where basically every single new character was interesting - Constant, Hober Mallow, Space!Belisarius etc.. In fact, I was so attached to the s2 newbies that I kept wondering whether the show would manage to do it again after the next time jump, and the first s3 episode or two left me a bit sceptical on that count - but then I changed my mind. Granted, I still am lukewarm about Pritcher, but Toran and Bayta were great (not just due to the spoilery thing at the end of the season, though it makes the rewatch of s3 I just finished even more rewarding), I loved Ambassador Quent, and the First Speaker as well.

Another reason: s3 offered the pay off to several long term mysteries and developments - from who was responsible for the destruction of the Star Bridge (and why) to why ( a spoilery for s2 thing happened ) - , wrapped up one of THE major storylines of the show ( which is spoilery for s3 ), and did it in a way that was both unepected yet made perfect character sense, and set up enough new questions and storylines which make glad there is a season 4 already secured: ( For example, Spoilery Questions asked )

And then there's the superb long term character development. bimo commented s1 Gaal would be horrified by s3 Gaal's actions, and yet they are perfecty ic due to the development in between and bring things full circle, in a way. Rewatching s3, I noticed ( spoilery things about Demerzel in particular. ) And the Cleons! That Lee Pace is excellent is almost a given, and s3's Day's development went from seeming comic relief to absolutely shattering, but s3's Dusk and Dawn both got more to do than in previous seasons, and both Terence Mann and Cassian Bilton ran with it. In fact, when I find the time I'll do a poll asking about everyone's favourites Day, Dawn and Dusk, if such a thing exists, taking all three seasons into account. Speaking of things paying off even more upon rewatch, Dusk's first scene in s3 is watching the recording of other Dusks becoming Brother Darkness and "ascending", which, yeah. S3 does a lot not just with the confrontation with mortality, but also the search for meaning especially for the long term characters. ( Hari Seldon related spoilery observation )

And there's the way the show asks questions the books couldn't, lacking the concept of the Cleonic Dynasty. ( Demerzel and the Cleons: A Tale in Three Seasons )

Lastly: I loved s3 for the way it gave us new combinations of long term characters. ( Which are spoilery. ) And for being such an acting showcase for both recurring actors - Terence Mann certainly owned those last three episodes when he was on screen - and new to the show ones: Synnøve Karlsen as Bayta first and foremost, with again rewatching letting me additionally admire what she does there. (Though this time around I knew she was the same actress who had played Clarice Orsini in I Medici and young Cassandra Austen in Miss Austen, I forgot all about it again when watching her on screen. "We're good at making people love us, you and I", as she says to Magnifico. Indeed.


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