Foundation 3.8: Deconstructing Constructs

I said last week that I thought episode 3.7 of Foundation might well have been the best episode of the entire series so far.   Episode 3.8 on Apple TV+ tonight was certainly not in that league.

Here's some of what I really didn't like about 3.8:

[Spoilers ahead ...]

1. The conversation between Hari and The Mule at the beginning, specifically when Hari says he's been dead 300 years.  So this Hari is a hologram?  That's what most people whose comments I have come across seem to think.  But what kind of hologram has the power over the physical world that this hologram has? Maybe this "hologram" is not a living being, but he's certainly not a hologram, either.  Or, more specifically, not an entity that warrants the categorization of hologram.  I've complained throughout my reviews of this series that I find it irritating that it has characters from Asimov's trilogy -- like Gaal -- who have the names of Asimov's characters, but are almost nothing like them.  So why use the names?  And now the series is doing the same with constructs like holograms.  

2. Of the three clonal Cleons, the only one I'm now finding interesting is Dusk.  Day's story is repulsive and verging on ridiculous, some kind of grotesque fantasy that barely deserves the term science fantasy, let alone science fiction.   Dawn's story started out full of intrigue and possibilities, and now it's headed the way of Day's.  What exactly is he doing in that same room with Bayta?   The Cleonal story was and still is a wonderful piece of original, non-Asimovian science fiction, but it's quickly losing its impact and relevance.

***

About the only part of 3.8 which worked for me was Demerzel -- the Daneel part of Day's story didn't -- but we need to see more action and less talk from her (like Elvis was talking about posthumously in "A Little Less Conversion).

But I still live hope about what the Foundation story on television can do.

See also Foundation 3.1: Now We're Talkin'! ... 3.2: "The Fault, Dear Brutus, Is Not in Our Stars" ... 3.3: Dawn and The Mule ... 3.4: Cleon Knows His PKD ... 3.5: Cleaving Closer to Asimov's Trilogy ... 3.6: Finally! But ... 3.7: The Origin of The Mule

And see also Foundation 2.1: Once Again, A Tale of Two Stories ... 2.2: Major Players ... 2.3: Bel Riose and Hari ... 2.5: The Original Cleon and the Robot ... 2.6: Hari and Evita ... 2.7: Is Demerzel Telling the Truth? ... 2.8: Major Revelations ... 2.9: Exceptional Alterations ... Season 2 Finale: Pros and Cons

And see also Foundation 1.1-2: Mathematician, Man of the People, and Cleon's Clones ... Foundation 1.3: Clonal Science Fiction, Hari Seldon as V. I. Lenin ... Foundation 1.4: Slow Hand, Long Half-Life, Flipped Coin ... Foundation 1.5: What We Learned in that Final Scene ... Foundation 1.6: Folded Variations ... Foundation 1.7: Alternate History/Future ... Foundation 1.8: Divergences and Convergences ... Foundation 1.9: Vindication and Questions ... Foundation Season 1 Finale: Right Up There