Dan Rye

Read the books, watched the Chinese TV version on YouTube and then here comes Netflix's big budget version: I thought it was ok, a lot has been condensed to fit into 8 episodes and I do feel it loses a little because of that. Found the dialogue and script a little weak. A bit of a Hodge podge of styles and ideas which means the show lacks its own identity or style. At times feels more like a young adult/kids show rather than a contemporary adult drama. One of my favourite parts of the books it how it all unfolds like a good mystery and that is completely absent in this show,

EDIT: HAVING WATCHED THE LATER EPISODES THIE SERIES HAS KIND OF STEERED ITSELF BACK ON TRACK. MY BELOW COMMENTS STILL STAND BUT CHANGING TO 3 STARS AS THERE IS A GLIMMER OF HOPE THAT THIS SERIES MIGHT DO THE BOOKS SOME JUSTICE. It looks beautiful but it has no substance. They have taken the plot and ruined it, 2 of the central characters have been changed to women (which is fine) but they have turned them into heroines when the original characters were flawed individuals but this flaws served a purpose. Rather than lean on Psychohistory and all the intriguing back room politics that made the novels so interesting they have turned into a sort of star wars like "force" mumbo jumbo. So many tropes rolled out (we are stuck on a ship and now have to get to central control room whilst navigating the crystal maze) and timeline is all over the place. In the books I loved all the flawed characters and then as the story unfolded you started to see why these people were needed as part of the plan. Why is Salvor Hardin a Warden in the show? In the books he/she was a bit of a canny politician and managed to become Mayor or Terminus and later on you realise that is exactly what was needed to survive the next big crisis. Why hasn't the vault opened yet in the show? In the books they open just before each major crisis yet in the show the first crisis is here and the vault is still just some mystical mumbo jumbo. It looks like they have tried to change some of the roles and insert strong female leads but forgot that they also need to have the same flaws as the original characters rather than just being a Mary Sue. Such a shame as it's beautifully shot and I think they nailed a lot of the visuals and aesethics well. Really each season could have focused on a different time (as the books spans hundreds of years) but the producers have tried to squish too much together and missed the point of the books imho.