Change Your Image
stephengould100
Reviews
The Offer (2022)
This is entertainment
This is everything you could want in a miniseries. A great plot, an intelligent and witty script. And excellent performances. That is happens to be based on true events is, in a sense, irrelevant. You could enjoy this without ever having heard of "The Godfather" - though knowing much of the background to its production did add to my enjoyment.
Bottom line: this is an extremely well-made show that is a delight to watch.
Foundation (2021)
It's a TV series not a book!
I grew up with the Foundation Trilogy and Asimov's other novels. I even visited Isaac Asimov in his Manhattan apartment. Hence I am a big fan of the books.
But I couldn't see how one could adapt the books to TV or film, as they're full of ideas. Galactic/historical sweep and exposition, and relatively little actual drama,
So if anyone is going to adapt them for TV they would have had to do some major re-engineering for it not to be a cross between C-Span and the History Channel.
I wanted to see space opera, lots of worlds, and overall a science-fiction future - and the series provides all that.
As for all the added drama - I think they did a pretty damn good job. Clever to reimagine the imperium being run by a series of clones, for example.
Do I care that the adaptation didn't follow the books as closely as, say, the films of LotR followed the book? No, because the book of LotR already had more than enough drama and plot.
Do I care that characters changed sex? That the retconned R Daneel Olivaw was now an ice blonde "female" android? I do not. The overall framework of Foundation is still clearly and majestically visible.
I'll take it.