Originally, I thought the show had a promising start and hoped that it'd work itself out, but after watching all 8 episodes, this is a huge disappointment. I am now submitting my revised review.
Why certain things were changed from the source material is just astoundingly baffling. It's not unusual these days to just throw in some unnecessary woke elements that have absolutely no significance to the story, but there are major story elements that were changed for no apparent reason. I could understand if certain things won't come across well on screen or difficult to capture, but they just simply appeared to make ad hoc changes when there was nothing wrong with the source. What you end up with is just a terribly paced mess with most of the scientific material removed and replaced with "feelings" and "intuition". Even the little bit of science they managed to keep in the screenplay, they screwed around with that, as well. Apparently, no one read the book!
This production squandered a great opportunity with a terrific international cast and a big budget. I can see why so many reviewers are infuriated and torching this show.
Why certain things were changed from the source material is just astoundingly baffling. It's not unusual these days to just throw in some unnecessary woke elements that have absolutely no significance to the story, but there are major story elements that were changed for no apparent reason. I could understand if certain things won't come across well on screen or difficult to capture, but they just simply appeared to make ad hoc changes when there was nothing wrong with the source. What you end up with is just a terribly paced mess with most of the scientific material removed and replaced with "feelings" and "intuition". Even the little bit of science they managed to keep in the screenplay, they screwed around with that, as well. Apparently, no one read the book!
This production squandered a great opportunity with a terrific international cast and a big budget. I can see why so many reviewers are infuriated and torching this show.