The Ringer-Verse Ringer-Verse Recommends: August 2025 (Featuring 'Foundation')
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Aug 31, 2025 Rany Jazayerli, a doctor of dermatology and former sabermetrician with a flair for storytelling, joins to dive into the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's iconic 'Foundation.' They discuss the challenges of transforming the narrative into a series, emphasizing character arcs and innovative techniques. Rany also highlights a new antagonist, the Mule, and recommends a fresh take on horror cinema. The conversation wraps up with a roundup of exciting media, featuring everything from films to anime, making it a treasure trove for pop culture enthusiasts.
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Translating A Thousand Years To TV
- Foundation adapts Asimov's sprawling, vignette-style saga into a continuous TV story spanning centuries.
- The show preserves big ideas while needing new devices to maintain continuity on screen.
Using Characters As Temporal Anchors
- The series solves continuity by using recurring characters who can plausibly span centuries.
- Characters like the cloned Cleons and android Demerzel give viewers anchors through time jumps.
Psychohistory As Social Thermodynamics
- Foundation explores big philosophical tensions: collective predictability versus individual unpredictability.
- Psychohistory functions like thermodynamics for civilizations, prompting questions about free will and determinism.
