I seriously think half the criticism of the show is from people who don’t know this kind of important world detail because they only read the main Foundation trilogy where Demerzel, Raych etc don’t even appear.
Most people don’t realize Foundation is not 3 books but like 14
Caves of Steel
Naked Sun
Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Pebble in the Sky
Stars, Like Dust
Currents of Space
Prelude
Forward
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundations Edge
Foundation and Earth
Most people don’t realize Foundation is not 3 books but like 14
Caves of Steel
Naked Sun
Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Pebble in the Sky
Stars, Like Dust
Currents of Space
Prelude
Forward
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundations Edge
Foundation and Earth
It could be due to the gender switching and the love stories which are forced onto the plot. Gaal's story has a uninteresting climate change apocalypse theme to it. The action scenes feel lifeless.
The visuals do look good, so that's something.
Maybe just the half. I am a big fan of the books (having foundation trilogy, the prequels, I Robot, Caves of Steel, the dodgy foundation sequel trilogy -- at least 10 of those) but the show was appalling. Storytelling was tripe. I could grok a bit more by reading between lines..