You can't possibly do a television series about a novel whose main character is social upheaval. At least you shouldn't be able to. The producers are making a valiant attempt and creating an entertaining and visually stunning vehicle in the meantime. The writers have been forced to develop characters where Asimov did not. It remains to be seen how well this will work over the 500 year span of the Foundation novels. I am hopeful that the rest of Season 1 will be as good as the first three episodes. I also hope that they can successfully follow the original story line without too many distractions.