Without making any specific judgments on the quality of the Foundation TV series, for what it’s worth, I think it’s always best to view adaptations as disconnected products that are separate and incomparable to the source material they’re based on.
The Lord of the Rings movies had the same problems. Much of the book content was cut or altered to make it easier for a film series, characters were consolidated or changed based on plot relevance and screen presence, and the changes upset a lot of fans of the books. However, the end result worked much better as films than an attempt to directly adapt the source material would have, and I think that is fine.
I think it’s an exercise in futility to try to make something 100% faithful to a work in another medium, because the inherent differences between mediums means that there will always be something that doesn’t translate. If someone wants to make an adaptation in another medium, may as well try to do different things with it that play better to the medium’s strengths.
Now, after having said all that, I can’t help but find it a little bit funny (maybe not funny, but interesting, I guess) that the best parts of the Foundation TV series are the original-to-show story threads that are the furthest removed from anything to do with the books. I found all of the content involving the clones of Emperor Cleon to be interesting, and couldn’t care less about what was happening with the Foundation itself. Had me wondering why not just write an original series focusing on the genetic dynasty.
Without making any specific judgments on the quality of the Foundation TV series, for what it’s worth, I think it’s always best to view adaptations as disconnected products that are separate and incomparable to the source material they’re based on.
The Lord of the Rings movies had the same problems. Much of the book content was cut or altered to make it easier for a film series, characters were consolidated or changed based on plot relevance and screen presence, and the changes upset a lot of fans of the books. However, the end result worked much better as films than an attempt to directly adapt the source material would have, and I think that is fine.
I think it’s an exercise in futility to try to make something 100% faithful to a work in another medium, because the inherent differences between mediums means that there will always be something that doesn’t translate. If someone wants to make an adaptation in another medium, may as well try to do different things with it that play better to the medium’s strengths.
Now, after having said all that, I can’t help but find it a little bit funny (maybe not funny, but interesting, I guess) that the best parts of the Foundation TV series are the original-to-show story threads that are the furthest removed from anything to do with the books. I found all of the content involving the clones of Emperor Cleon to be interesting, and couldn’t care less about what was happening with the Foundation itself. Had me wondering why not just write an original series focusing on the genetic dynasty.