The original Asimov source material is, like the Dune universe, a mind-bending epic spanning centuries and thousands of light years. Not to mention that it's sacred text for millions of fans. Small wonder various adaptations before this collapsed under the weight of both expectations and financing. The Foundation series is, above all else, a story about the triumph of science, logic, mathematical precision. Ideas. That is both the saving grace and the downfall of this admittedly handsome adaptation. Realizing they couldn't be entirely faithful, the writers opted to keep the skeletal structure, but add plot threads and maximize minor characters, all in the vain hope of adding GoT-like action to propel the ideas. As a result, it's near impossible to follow, jumping back and forth in time and place. Nice that they trust us to understand, sure. But it makes it impossible to care about any of the characters, who are all short-shrifted in playing time. And it's still confusing! Ironically, the very ideas that capture a reader's imagination are rendered so literally that we're lost in a sea of both technobabble and authentic math and physics. The series is wondrous to behold. It's difficult to fault the strictly physical aspects of production. But it lies there on the screen, inert, and so turgidly paced. A noble failure.

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