I actually signed up for AppleTV+ just for this.
Finally, the long-awaited depiction of Asimov's iconic Foundation books is here. The movie concept was batted around Hollywood for a few years now, last serious discussions were back sometime in the midst of the last decade with Roland Emmerich opting to direct. This news set the rabid fandom ablaze as they collectively thought he would fuck it up. But no need for them to worry, the picture deal died in development hell. Now we have a TV series exclusively streaming in weekly episodes on Apple's streaming service.
How do the Foundies (my name for the uber-fans of the books) feel about it? According to reddit and other social media, not too great. So many are voicing their disappointment. But mind you, the Foundies, in my opinion, are WAY more militant about what they perceive as staying true to the original than their counterparts in probably every other fandom class whether it be Star Wars/Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
Foundies would find fault with anything other than a literal translation to the broadcast or cinematic arts. But such an interpretation would likely be a snooze-fest. Especially for the palates of the new generations. The books are a lot of talk and little action. Plus, especially problematic for our inclusive times, the books are pretty much a white dudes only kinda party. They all stood around twiddling their slide rules and puffing on their burled walnut pipes. I always imagined they sounded like either Peter Cushing or Hugh Beaumont as well.
As for me, I'm lovin' it. It has the awe and wonder I loved from the books and the grand space opera of all grand space operas feel. It does take a lot of liberties with the plot of the original source material though. And I do mean A LOT. I agree with the main gripe of many Foundies that it seems like it's a whole other story sometimes. I do see in the posts I read though that it is best received by people who never read the books. And, that's the take I get too. I try not to do a side-by-side comparison to what I remember from the books but I tend to take it for what it is, a story BASED on the Foundation books.
But we're only fed an episode a week and we're just a little over halfway through the first of eight planned seasons. Nevertheless, the Foundies continue to cry about each episode.
Frankly, I've had my own share of cursing at from the Foundies for a few years now ever since I produced this fake trailer back when the never-shot movie was making headlines. Got a lot of flack for this. Certainly I can't imagine why since it was the most extravagantly edited work I'd done to that point. The quality is just so wonderful I should have got an award. Or maybe not.