Television

I don't think that a slavish adaptation of Foundation would be a remotely good idea. The books are very dry, the scifi elements are dated, and the characters are thin cardboard cutouts.

I do think that it's perfectly possible to adapt the ideas behind Foundation in a way that respects the source material. But you're not going to get that adaptation from a guy like David Goyer.

The problem with Foundation is that it is fundamentally uninterested in why people love the books, in spite of their flaws. So it ends up throwing away the baby with the bathwater in the process of adaptation. A science fiction series focused on the idea of the power of people and social movements in the collective over individual hero narratives would have been an incredible thing to see. Instead we got a boring, paint by numbers, save the cat and fill in the madlibs Hollywood hero narrative about Salvor Harden (a character whose catchphrase in the books was "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent") being the special magic child of destiny who solves all the problems in the show by shooting them.

It's a shame, because the stuff with the clone emperors is awesome. The whole concept of a clone dynasty is a great way to get across how much the empire has stagnated, and the actors are all doing a great job with the material. And look and feel wise, the show is very impressive. Stunning effects, cool designs, etc. But all the action on Terminus is just predictable and dull in my opinion.

Don't even get me started on weird shit like a character floating off into space because another character doesn't just turn off their mag boots, jetpack up two feet, grab them, and jetpack down again. That scene hurt my brain.