Why. Is. It. So. Slow? It's not as if it's high drama, filled with deep and complex concepts. Perhaps the writers think a glacial pace, filled with emoting, pouting and soul-searching makes good SF? Nah... it just exposes the gaping void at the heart where the story should have been. This hardly qualifies as science fiction, and is about as far from 'Hard' SF as you could get, as it's almost entirely devoid of any scientific basis and what there is is completely misunderstood or just plain wrong.
Picking just one (of many) egregious examples of the shoddy, hack writing - Demerzel. Again, he/she/it displays the now obligatory patch of skin removed to show it's a robot. A robot! Thanks, writers, for showing us the same thing again! We might have forgotten!
If this is a positron robot, then it's governed by the Three laws and absolutely cannot injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. This is not an 'optional extra', it's built in and cannot be circumvented without the robot destroying itself. This is the fundamental thing about Asimov's robots. Go back to the time when he wrote his first 'robot' stories. Up to that point, in every SF story that featured a robot, they would inevitably turn on their creators in Frankentsteins Monster fashion - itself, a reworking of Faust. Bored with this obvious and hackneyed trope, he wrote his robots to be incapable of harming humans, as they were designed with safeguards built in, like any tool. A much better and creative way of dealing with the subject. Along comes Goyer, who undoes all that and has reverted to the tediously predictable 'murderous robot' theme.
Before you can say "It's different to the books so they can do anything, Book-reading Hater", Goyer himself says "Asimov's Robotics Laws do exist in the universe of the show - but that doesn't necessarily mean Demerzel is presently bound by them."
Not presently bound by them? What in the name of Susan Calvin are you talking about? Is Demerzel suddenly going to discover the 3 Laws? Or.... Drum Roll.... the Zeroth Law! Daneel is governed by the Zeroth Law, but finds it so difficult to work with, he's practically incapable of doing anything. Not so Goyers Demerzel.
So we may confidently expect to see another heap of steaming garbage inserted into Goyers MCU Foundation Lite. Honestly... if he secured the money for this on the basis that he was adapting the Foundation novels, it's looking dangerously like fraud, as it's clear that from the outset he just wanted the Asimov/Foundation brand and had no intention of even paying lip-service to the source material.
Instead of a brilliant story from the mind of a master story teller, we get this vacuous, infantile, re-heated, tedious mish-mash of every other TV SF show, all packaged in a gorgeous looking Superhero Movie flavoured capsule.
As for the poor souls giving this 9 or 10 star ratings - is the bar really set that low? What on Earth are you comparing it to? Peppa Pig? Dr. Who? Frankie Drake? The Good Witch? Any of the 483 Zombie/Superhero series? If you can walk and chew gum at the same time you should be angry that the writers are treating you like an idiot and hoping you won't notice.
3 stars - because I feel sorry for the costume/makeup/production crews who at least put time and effort into their work - more than can be said for the writers.
