Ian Penning

A rip off of Silent Running, but less interesting and delivering less return on your investment as a viewer. Tom Hanks turns in a good performance, but honestly, Silent Running did this so much better decades ago - it was deeper, darker and provided a much more profound denouement. Worth watching for Hanks, but little else

As a long time fan of Asimov's series, I took out an Apple TV sub just to watch this. It is an adaptation only in the loosest sense; the core idea is present, but it doesn't follow the plot of the books in any detail. However this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the books are hard core, old school sci-fi, and a direct adaption would really only appeal to a very limited audience, so I can accept the divergence. Unfortunately, having largely ditched it's ties with it's source material it doesn't really take advantage of the freedom provided, delivering a largely formulaic, if exceedingly pretty tale. The plot is incredibly predictable and features a cast of many capable actors delivering fairly bland characters. I did enjoy the spectacle a little though, hence the 3, and hope the second series builds into something more like actual entertainment. The Apple TV subscription wasn't a total loss though, as I can highly recommend Ted Lasso instead.