The Foundation : It is Here, it is Big, It is Epic

[Cikomyr2]

Yes, just like how the Watch* series wasn't a dumpster fire of an adaptation. Except it was, because gutting the story or world and inserting your own stuff isn't being a very good adaptation.

I havent seen the series, but if its a good show to watch outside the context of "did i read the books first", then it's a good show to watch. You just repeated your previous argument about unfaithful adaptations are bad because they are unfaithful.

[Willie the Duck]

Eh, you could still be significantly more faithful, or rework scenes to include more active elements.

I don't know. Asimov tried to do so in the 80s with Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, and then both he and licensed successors did so with prequels and so on and... well, they are entertaining stories (some of them), but they feel just as much like fanfic in the foundation universe as this series.

But that was what made it distinctive. The original trilogy is telling a story that is far larger in scale than any of the people in it, even Sheldon. If you can't make a Foundation TV series with that limitation then you shouldn't make a Foundation TV series.
But hey, at least we do have a faithful adaptation of great quality. Radio dramas thrive in that kind of structure, and Foundation has one

So, again, I don't think this series stopped us from having a good and faithful TV adaptation. I'm not against the deontological position that adaptations should remain close to the adapted material (in general I agree, while at the same time there are always people who can find any little difference unacceptable and I find that position untenable), I'm just saying that this series is imminently ignorable (I am firmly against notions that this thing existing retroactively degrades this other thing I love in a 'you ruined my childhood' vein) and wasn't in competition with a faithful Foundation series..

[Dragonus45]

I havent seen the series, but if its a good show to watch outside the context of "did i read the books first", then it's a good show to watch. You just repeated your previous argument about unfaithful adaptations are bad because they are unfaithful.

It's kind of not though. It manages to sit around the "just ok" mark on it's own merits. But even if it was a great show, it would still be a god awful adaptation of it's material and that absolutely does matter.

[Cikomyr2]

It's kind of not though. It manages to sit around the "just ok" mark on it's own merits. But even if it was a great show, it would still be a god awful adaptation of it's material and that absolutely does matter.

So the end product is a sort of okay show.

The big problem they have is that they tried to draw viewer by relying on the IP, and then did not properly respect that IP. I get that argument. Just like Lucifer the tv show was nothing like the original comic.. but still ended up with a fun procedural.

Its a double edge sword, and all things considered i kind of see the big lines Foundation used from the original novels that are the same. But the detail of the individual actions and story beats and behaviors are waaaay different.