Foundation turned out to be dogshit. Not quite Raised By Wolves dogshit, not quite Lost In Space Season 2 dogshit, but real close. Everyone insists I need to see Ted Lasso, which is a real good goddamn reason for me not to watch it. For All Mankind, on the other hand, is one of those vanishingly rare works of art where the creators took the money and made something for themselves. Watchmen the movie is this. It's a fan making a movie for fans who doesn't give a fuck what anybody else thinks. Cyberpunk 2077 is this. CD Projekt Red took all the money they made from Witcher 3 and piled it into a passion project they'd been hammering at since 2012. I'm pretty sure Ron Moore has wanted to do a worm-logo NASA alternate history since Challenger exploded. And he dragged along all his Star Trek: TNG buddies. Ron Moore et. al. managed to make a marquee sci fi series in which the mutherfucking Sea Dragon features prominently. it is a #kleinbl00batshittery tour de force. Season 1 finale post-credit scene (no spoilers):
Was there ever a chance that Foundation wouldn't be dogshit? (And I say this as someone who hasn't watched it and probably won't.) I guess one of the things that I find difficult to imagine about adapting it is that the only real character in the series is Hari Seldon, and everyone else are basically cogs on a wheel. I've read the first three books in the series and the only characters I remember besides Seldon are the Mule and Han. And I only remember Han because I read Asimov long after I saw Star Wars. I remember plots and situations and lots of other things about Foundation, but characters just never seemed to matter. And in a highly character-driven format like serialized TV, I just don't see it working without threading a really tight needle. Then again, I know fuckall about screenwriting, so take that opinion with a grain of salt.
It looked really pretty. And I enjoy Lee Pace, and I enjoy Jared Harris. I would go as far as to say Jared Harris was the best thing about Mad Men and the best thing about The Expanse. But they kill him off in like Episode 2. Foundation was Gibbon fanfic. It reads like Gibbon fanfic. And yeah it was gonna be crap but I mean, at least everyone acknowledges that the source material is unadaptable so do what you want with it. They didn't do good stuff.