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?
I agree with you wholeheartedly. You articulated your argument well, with concise criticism and well thought out arguments. It was a pleasure to read. As for the show; I’ve only read the first book and it didn’t follow it as faithfully as I wanted. I understand artistic license because of constraints, but to veer from the vision of Asimov is heretical. That being said, I still love the fact that an attempt was made. You should review more. Communication skills like yours are sorely needed in today’s world 🌎
Thank you very much for your kind praise. I too am thankful that an attempt was made. It means that people have a desire to adapt his works, which are timelessly relevant. Fingers crossed that it means a future adaptation tackles the series with more reverence for the source material.
If your interested, research Cliodynamics. A guy named Peter Turchin is actually trying to engineer psychohistory using social dynamics and historical trends. Note: the future of mankind does not look good.
Thank you for the reading suggestion. I’ve just downloaded a book on the topic of Cliodynamics.
https://annas-archive.org/md5/feff580c973dc5199a69c4594c66be0f
I’ll give it a read. It looks terribly interesting. I see a few by Turchin as well, which I will download also. I’m a PhD student in research Psychology, so it’s a definite cross disciplinary boon to know about this subject. I truly appreciate the reference.
Also see “Shaping the Next One Hundred Years: New Methods for Quantitative, Long-Term Policy Analysis”, pdf here: https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1626.html especially chapters 1-3.
I’d recommend looking into behavioral economics. It’s in very infant stages but has a lot of potential imo. And there is bleed over into experimental psychology.