Let's say I wanted to take an epic series of books known to have inspired the whole of the sci-fi genre; get the title, character names, a general idea (coz prophecies are cool, yeah?).
Then I'd throw in two very competent actors and a bunch of straight up bad ones. A screenplay writer who either haven't read the books at all, or haven't understood a thing. Make the dialogues as boring and uninspiring as possible. Force bad actors to play even worse with either no or way too much displayed emotion. Oh yeah, make a cool font, yeah baby.
Then it's sci-fi, so obviously make some quite stunning visuals (it's okay, most of budget can go there). Mix all of this together into a slow, boring mess which apparently has a main goal of demonstrating diversity 20,000 years into the future.
I mean, I probably don't mind a female Salvor Hardin, and likely don't mind all the racial changes; certainly don't mind a female Demerzel. What I do mind, however, is complete butchering of the story that has left multiple generations in awe. Obviously, some TV adaptation is expected; in fact, the Empire cloning idea is pretty sick, at least 1 of the stars is for that. However, both the spirit and the very essence of the Foundation, what it would become and how it would evolve is simply not there. As a result, we have a series that has an epic name, an epic scope, tries to look and feel epic but is empty and hollow. Shame.
P. S. Some other reviewers compared this to The Expanse. Well, if you liked The Expanse (which IS a brilliant sci-fi series, probably one of, if not the best) - run and don't look back.
