Kudos to the writers for stitching a compelling show, despite some liberties.
I'm also not a fan of the writing style, though that seems to be a common trend among many new movies/shows. The constant vulgarity/quips/banter aren't very pleasant to watch. I'm not sure why so many shows/movies feel the need to add characters that are constantly swearing, drinking, doing drugs, cracking constant jokes and back and forth "smart" sounding sarcastic humor. It comes off too strong, like they're trying to sell the notion that this media is for adults, as if they don't believe that that notion could be sold off the content itself. But it feels like it has the opposite effect, like teenagers writing dialogue for what they think adults with freedom should be acting like.
That being said I think if someone 100% knows they will never read the books, the show could still be recommended and they will probably enjoy it for the ideas alone. So I think in that sense, it's not terrible. I'd dissuade potential readers from picking it up but if you don't like reading, or aren't a diehard sci-fi fan, the Netflix adaptation is good enough.
Arguably, it's not a lot about war and bad evil guys, but that's how i perceived it in the show.
There is a strong sense of scientific progress in the books which is really lacking in the TV show, probably due to inventions getting limited screen time.
Oh and the big plot twist of the first book, the confirmation of things, comes at the end of the book, so you were never sure, but in the show it gets thrown in your face, which did take away from it.
It was hard to adapt, so they did a decent job. I'm terribly afraid that the protagonist of season 2 will not be up to the protagonist of tge second book. Liu Ji (Seul in the show) is an extremely deep character that you get to know very intimately in the book, I doubt they will be able to pull that off.
Aside from that, it's a watchable show. I found myself way more engaged watching Severance, same for my wife even though she hasn't read the books.
There were a bunch of scenes that really screamed "American made", like when the lady shows up on the airplane, threatening, it felt somewhat disappointing.
SPOILER FROM NOW (scroll past my comment if you don't want to read)
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trisolarians never considered co-existing with humans.
Only when sword holder was established they changed their mind, and the moment swordholder changes they reversed cooperation stance.
I love to see how netflix will handle it, the books are quite misogynistic.
In the books Liu Ji (logic) is contrasted with emotional and unreasonable women.
I read the books too.
They despised humans for having stable planet and squandering the potential.
I am blanking out a bit on that part it was quite few years when i read it, but if thats what you are referring to. Wasn't it just an concentration camp and later on a zoo of savage caveman in a nutshell?
That is maybe fate worse than extermination.
But I keep interpreting that as very scientific: they have very detailed specifications they have to match and they don't care if it's ruthless, they will proceed. But they could have easily exterminated them instead.
In the end the "other race" proceeded to erase the whole solar system without blinking and with no possibility to recover. By comparison, the Trisolarians are nice people
I interpreted it as very effective way to self-gather humans into one spot where they start killing each other (due to lack of resources) and at the end they can wipe off the remaining few survivors.
> In the end the "other race" proceeded to erase the whole solar system without blinking and with no possibility to recover. By comparison, the Trisolarians are nice people
causing brutal genocide and keeping sentient population at neolithic tech levels doesn't sound all that nice, in comparison to instant death due to artificially caused supernova
Overall I agree, it's pretty good. I may need to watch the 8 episodes again, because I was distracted by comparing it against the book and the Tencent/Chinese adaptation. Some scenes which I could tell were supposed to be emotional or shocking weren't as impactful as they could be, because I knew what was coming.
The biggest change was the Oxford Five, which gave character continuity from 3BP to the Crisis Era, and I think it worked ok. Unfortunately that aspect was also detracting, giving a "small world" sense that they all knew each other. The books sorta had that same issue but to a lesser extent (e.g. Da Shi was involved with all sorts of things that I would have expected was beyond his role as an investigator, even ending up on security detail for Luo Ji, ignoring his radiation poisoning from the first book).
I've been impressed with recent adaptations, like 3BP and Dune Part 2. Villeneuve changed a lot of little details but the story was still intact and impactful. Similarly 3BP/Netflix kept the cool ideas from the book while simplifying parts and dropping some complicating subplots -- e.g. ETO factions, Ye Wenjie cutting the rope at Red Coast Base.
One thing I wish they hadn't cut out was Ding Yi's analogy of the cigarette/pipe filter during his discussion with Wang about the sophons. It was helpful to me to imagine the unfolding of higher dimensions. In the Netfix show, they just seemed to expect everyone to understand that the unfolded particle would look like a mirrored surface.
A note about Tencent adaptation: The CG and acting by the non-Chinese actors were kind of subpar, but the nano-filament scene was awesome and just as good as the Netflix version. I was looking forward to the Netflix version to see if they could top it, but it was pretty much the same.
Speculation: I wonder if Raj will turn out to be the Zhang Beihai character, continuing on to the Battle of Darkness.
Last week when the tomguide review came out, he mentioned about a "Red Wedding" moment midway in the season -- but I know the real "red wedding" is in book 2, and nothing compares to that. What was he talking about? Jack's death?
In fact, it seems like they rearranged the exposition from the books just to lay some groundwork for the later seasons. I don't know if this series is supposed to go three seasons, but if the book 3 fairy tales don't come until season 3, it's cool that they set that up in season 1.
I feel like this is sci fi written by the writers of NCIS for the audience of NCIS. I don't know how much of this is due to the script writers or the original source material. It makes me want to read the books just to answer this question, not so much because I like the story.
(spoilers)
- So much time was spent on the cancer story, only for it to lead no-where. Especially toward the end of the show, increasingly more time was spent with the characters doing nothing and sitting about, still refusing the call to action. It was bizarre seeing there were only 2 episodes left to go, and still no-one was doing anything or even really caring.
- The video game was odd. I'm supposed to believe only advanced scientists can solve it, but actually only one of the levels seemed to be solved with actual science. The rest were just deductions about the society - I really doubt many people would struggle passing through it.
- After the reveal that it is aliens, the show seems to just wander about not knowing what to do with itself. Only the reveals about the cult are really consequential after that, and when it's all revealed you're basically spent just following this rocket story that only 1 character really cares about. Again everything takes too long here too.
- The show didn't seem to care about the interpersonal relationships of the characters at all, but then toward the end spent an insane amount of time forcing us to watch them. The actors couldn't sell it, and the script was bad too. The show only really shone during the sci-fi stuff, but drips it out at a snails pace.
- The ending was silly and didn't land for me. My boyfriend and I laughed at the head going off course because it was just so bizzare, especially as the show had forced us to sit through the the pondering and fake in-fighting about the decision to choose the cancer guy as the candidate. What was it all for?!
- The ship nano-wire scene was insane. Like an amazing sequence we were "holy shit!"ing our way through. But after it all happened and the ship is utterly destroyed it's like.. was I really meant to believe this was better than a missile to disarm it and swatting the place?
> I'm supposed to believe only advanced scientists can solve it
Only advanced scientists will realize that solving the problem is intractable. Regular gamers will assume that there is a solution to be had. They probably only invite advanced scientists, however, so there's probably some selection bias.
> After the reveal that it is aliens, the show seems to just wander about not knowing what to do with itself.
Yeah, this part of the books, if I recall, talked about the various opposing factions of humanity that developed from this revelation. The show turns that into interpersonal drama, mostly.
I, personally, recommend the show, having read the English translation of the books. But I obviously experience it with some additional depth and anticipation as a result.
The big deal about the ship, which the show failed miserably to deliver, was that nobody could have noticed what was happening. It was meant to be a stealth action and they took particular effort to measure where the hdd would be so that it wouldn't be affected. Nobody noticed anything because people did not "explode" like in the show, no alarm rang, nothing. It was an incredibly stealth action, way better than a missile.
But yeah, Hollywood and all that
The https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547948/ version seems to be closer to the book, but Netflix's version is good even though seem to deviate more from the book.
I started off liking the opening of the show. Amazing depiction of the cultural revolution and realistic acting from lesser known Chinese actors.
Then came the blatantly imported cast from Game of Thrones, who resemble their GoT characters too closely to be standalone characters. We had.. degenerate Samwell Tarly, Davos if he was cast as Stannis, the Faith of the Seven priest from GoT (character completely unchanged), and on the other hand some LA girls trying to do their best Good Will Hunting impression. I feel like few of the actors truly understood their character and the stakes behind their decisions. Furthermore, the latter half of episode one, and episode two had all the fingerprints of Benioff and Weiss and their run-of-the-mill Hollywood archetype: that cheap game of thrones final season feel, highlighted by snappy, unrealistic conversations that end in punchlines. My taste for the show quickly soured at that point.
Episodes 3 and onwards got progressively better. The writers kept the most thought provoking scifi aspects of the book and those premises really carry the show the rest of the way. Towards the end there are some really good drama and emotional stakes involved too, so pleasantly surprised there.
one of the main women (salazar) had some pretty aggressive lip fillers that I couldn't not see anytime she was on camera.
de-gen samwell is close enough to the STEM neckbeards that I know.
but there had to be GoT style egregious nudity that wasn't even in the main plot. like i'm not complaining, but they could have showed all of the concepts without it just as easily, and the books didn't spend any time on those things.
Even, when also must admit, it is slightly boring, to repeat events from book on screen :)
But for me also interest part visualization of physics concepts, like how will multiple dimensions and dimensions unfolding look like. This is even more rare than just good SF.
Chinese graphics of multiple dimensions and sophons was not bad, even graphics looking slightly outdated (like in few years old computer games, not like on specially rendered movie).
I also wonder, if somebody will create game engine to play with all these wonders more.
Station Eleven remains my favourite recent sci-fi (ish). 3BP seems amateur-ish in comparison.
The terrifying idea of the book was the helplessness of knowing the final battle won’t happen for 300.
So for 300 years all of history is on pause. Nothing important can happen.
It’s really a terrifying idea. But one mostly absent from the show.
wouldn't it be a wake up call? wouldn't things of real importance start to happen?
we're insanely capable creatures, but most of our energy is wasted on in-fighting and getting in our way.
Stuff like, “Developing pilot training techniques for starships won’t exist for 200 years.”
The drudgery of and paperwork of war, but without any actual action or knowledge of it.
I find it a brave project, given well-established U.S. tastes in video and movies. It can be said to courageously appeal to an audience not proven to exist.
> I never thought the books could be replicated for television, but I have to admit — this is pretty good work all things considered.
I agree it's pretty good work, but I don't think the original books are represented, much less replicated. This is commonly said about adaptations, certainly true here. I avoided disappointment by not expecting the book narrative to appear on the screen.
Personally I hope this project succeeds in finding a sustainable audience. I say this because rather than pandering to low taste (insert obligatory H. L. Mencken quote here: "Nobody ever went broke ..."), it instead { aspires to / imagines } a higher taste and intelligence than most Netflix fare.
But a few notes. The scene in which people are sucked away from the ground by an unexpected gravitational change (i.e. a tidal force) isn't physical. I understand sci-fi grants some license, but not for things as quotidian as the relationship between pedestrian and sidewalk, both of which would be sucked into the sky together in a realistic portrayal.
As to the commonly misunderstood property of entangled particles that they grant instantaneous communication over any distance: It's not so. Entangled particles don't violate causality. Again, it's sci-fi, but when you employ as a plot device a named property of real physics, there's a certain obligation to portray it accurately.
But the Netflix creators aren't solely responsible -- one of these errors (magic entanglement) is in the original books as well.
On the other hand, the nanofiber slicing / Panama Canal ship sequence is a must-see. Even if you plan to complain that Three Body Problem can't really be made into a video, watch the ship-slicing sequence first, then lodge your protest. Although it depicts massive loss of life, the care the producers took to get it right deserves praise for realism (about something unreal).
When I read the ship episode in the original books, I could picture it but naively thought there was no way it would ever be attempted by video producers, much less done well. Wrong.
I imagine to someone who hasn't read the books, it could be confusing. But that can be avoided by reading the books, problem solved. ;-)
I'm right in the middle of the Chinese version[1] (just watched episode 17 of 30), and am enjoying it, although it is dragging a bit.
Once I'm done with that, I'll watch the Netflix version -- then I'll read the first novel.
I didn't find the first 5 episodes as engaging as the last 3, but that's likely because I enjoyed the second book the most and was excited to see some of the wallfacer storyline.
It also seems like their 1080p stream is more like 720 upscale, rather than 4k down.
Overall, Netflix has been really excellent for Anime, but meh for live. Will finish the season at some point
Childish characters. Oh no we are smart females and a male spoke to us, we must be confrontational so we seem strong. Later, crying like little girls about having to do adult stuff.
Contrived moral questions where they talk like viewers are children. Oh no that would break a treaty, other character baby talks why it's ok to break a treaty to save mankind.
Massive parts don't make sense and are logically stupid, don't remember the books leaving that open. They could kill everyone somewhat instantly, it's not explained or questioned why that's open.
The one scene I wondered if they would do well from the first book, they shot very well (badly explained why it was done). This episode is the highest rated on IMDB and probably why the series is rating ok.
It's great they didn't shy away from adult themes that Gen Doomers are told they must struggle with on fictional TV, suicide, smoking, violence to kids, drug use, animals dying.
The Chinese version is free on Youtube [4K], English subtitles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-UO8jbrIoM&list=PLMX26aiIvX...
but nonetheless, thank you for the YT link, will give those a deeper look.