Respectfully, I find the Foundation TV series extremely disheartening. I envy those who can watch Lee Pace’s triumphant acting without being completely off put by the appalling writing choices in the show. The fundamental aspects of the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series books clashe so hard with the message being presented in this show. The entire first season doggedly trashed psychohistory’s main point by making single individuals into linchpins. Hari’s double AI clones and his contrived disease was an abomination that undercut his entire function in the story. Demerzel (R Daneel Olivaw) is utterly without connection to their character from the book. It is infuriating to see a character that spent 18 books gently and intelligently guiding humanity towards a harmonious existence be turned into a Cleon sex doll muderbot. None of that should have been possible for them. It would have shredded their mind. In what universe can this character presented be guiding humans towards galaxia or second empire. The “believe in belief” motif of the show is antithetical to Azimovs clearly atheistic writing and goes counter to the whole message of his books. Intellectual pragmatism is replaced by dice rolling space cowboys. In the same way star trek has devolved from following hyper specialized intellectual duty-bound characters to flagrantly stupid/morally reprehensible ones, foundation has made its primary characters into people who ride on luck and faith.
All of this rant comes from a place of geniune distress and I don’t mean to disparage anyone who enjoys the show. I’ve seen so much praise and it’s causing me a lot of cognitive dissonance. I can’t see how people aren’t up in arms about Demerzel and the other character assassinations. I have no issue at all with any of the actor choices, design, artistry, or extraneous changes made to update the show to be a modern adaptation. There are even some good ideas, like the clone dynasty, which serve to enrich the story, but the flaws are to many to overlook. Are there any other foundation universe fans that feel the same way or am I living alone on the moon with a deteriorating positronic brain?
Completely agree. Apple’s Foundation is an aggressive and bad adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation. It’s a mediocre pretzel of three barely related shows who blatantly ignore the source material.
Unfortunately, mediocre adaptations/remakes/reboots are the norm this century. Someone explained to me that becoming an adaptator demands specific talents, and the insistence of Hollywood execs on rehashing known franchises has led them to employ creatives as adaptators. Creatives want to make new things and become famous, they don’t want to make others look good, and hence they suck at adapting things.
That line of reasoning makes a lot of sense. The latest “adapters” have been “creative” type personalities. It does then track that their diversions from the source material are their attempts to realign their personal goals with the task they have been given. It is a sad state of affairs that that seems to be the case for this tremendously important story. I fear that it is only going to get worse over the next decade due to the write/actor strike. (Fully supportive of their fight) the repercussions of these strikes echo for a long time after they settle. The 2007 strike damaged/canned a myriad of projects.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how the next century turns out.