I haven’t read the books, though I understand they’re almost unfilmable at any kind of reasonable budget and Asimov’s character work was kind of beside the point. Sounds like a faithful adaptation would be… inaccessible. There’s always a spectrum on these things, but I reckon this skews way more towards Sci-Fantasy space opera than the books did. That’s fine as far as it goes, but I do feel sympathy for those readers who dare to hope their beloved property will be the exception. Seems the only thing you can really do is pull an Expanse: write it as pot-boiling space opera to begin with, so your actual sci-fi ideas can be slipped in without scaring the suits too badly.

The show is fine, I guess. Its version of Psychohistory is basically magic; it’s a plot device rather than a complex idea to be dug into. The show is more interested in exploring themes of legacy and what it means to be family and what it means when “family” betrays you, alongside of some court intrigue soapiness. There’s a healthy dose of prestige-TV’s obsession with the “drama of paranoia” that’s not badly done, but I admit I’m kind of personally over it. Pointless secrets, poor communication, and obtuse scheming are as key to modern drama as they were to Seinfeld.

Anyway, the Gaal/Salvor/real(er) Harry plotline is still joyless and ponderous and the worst of the three despite being tasked with the heavy lifting of being presented as the “complete” one, but the other new characters actually bring some humanity and occasionally a hint of fun (is that allowed?). Poly, Constant, Hober, Bel, Glawen, Sareth, and Rue are all outshining the S1 cast, though Lee Pace finally gets to have some fun in E7.