The Three-Body Problem (Netflix)

[FPAlpha]

Finished it too and i liked it a lot.

What i really love is the scope of the show - humanity has 400 years to prepare for a war against a much more powerful enemy that is able to watch every single one of their moves. It's a race against time even if 400 years seem like a long time but then again the aliens can manipulate multiple dimensions and create devices that allow instantaneous interstellar communication and humanity has to catch up to that level of technology while being sabotaged by a group working for the aliens.

I try to stay away from spoilers about future books ( and will probably fail) but i wonder if the show will stick to the present with the established characters or make big timejumps to show the development and leadup to the war. Many shows shy away from this for fear of losing their audience if they change up most of the cast but i hope they do.

 

[Commander Troi]

i wonder if the show will stick to the present with the established characters or make big timejumps to show the development and leadup to the war. Many shows shy away from this for fear of losing their audience if they change up most of the cast but i hope they do.

It would make sense for them to jump forward in time. Although we know

Spoiler: Spoiler

Wade is still expected to be around because of being frozen.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Befor Sophons arrived, they couldn't instantly communicate, instead it was once every 8 years i think or so.

This is true, but even by the point when they're talking to Evans the Sophons have been on Earth for months, can apparently see everything and have created a complex narrative game. So I don't really buy them not understanding that 'Little Red Riding Hood' is a story. However I also get that it's showing how truly alien the San-Ti are.

SPOILERS FOR WHOLE SEASON

Overall I think I liked the show? I liked the big ideas and concepts and how far it goes with certain things. But it also felt like there was something missing. I wasn't completely convinced by all the characters and their relationship stuff was just "good enough" rather than compelling. Will's story probably worked the best but he's absent from the finale for understandable reasons. (I'm guessing his brain in space is somehow going to come back into play given how much time they spent on him.) Auggie doesn't really have much reason to be in the show after episode 5.

I haven't read the books but I definitely got the impression the show as rushing from plot point to plot point and I wish it had gone more in-depth at times. The stuff with the game felt like it should have been a bigger deal and I imagine it is in the books?

 

[EyalM]

Finally saw the whole season

I was a bit upset at first at the changes they did to the books' storyline. Like the ultra futuristic VR (the aliens don't share tech...). But then I realized they were doing a different take on the story, and it's just as valid.
This was a bit funny, since the show runners have a reputation of being good only when sticking to the source material. But they pulled it off here. No major plot blunders that I can think of.

My main issue now is that the show just felt... dry. There wasn't much of narrative momentum. I wasn't pumped to start an new episode. Maybe it's a story better fitted to book form?

 

[FPAlpha]

Finally saw the whole season

I was a bit upset at first at the changes they did to the books' storyline. Like the ultra futuristic VR (the aliens don't share tech...). But then I realized they were doing a different take on the story, and it's just as valid.
This was a bit funny, since the show runners have a reputation of being good only when sticking to the source material. But they pulled it off here. No major plot blunders that I can think of.

My main issue now is that the show just felt... dry. There wasn't much of narrative momentum. I wasn't pumped to start an new episode. Maybe it's a story better fitted to book form?

I can't speak to the books since i never read them but i felt the mystery buildup very cool and not dry at all. Things were adding up episode by episode and the 5th one blew the lid open by showing what it's really about. After that the show kicked into high gear as everyone was scrambling to formulate a plan to defeat the aliens knowing they are listening in the whole time - quite an interesting conundrum.

 

[Christopher]

This was a bit funny, since the show runners have a reputation of being good only when sticking to the source material.

Which is evidence of at least one of two things: 1) reputations are overrated, and 2) learning curves are a thing.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The San-Ti really do like monologuing, don't they? They remind me of the Mysterons. However, as they don't comprehend

Spoiler: something hidden

deceit

, perhaps that's to be expected.

 

[FPAlpha]

I've spoiled myself a little bit through Youtube and now i ask myself how they will do the books even remotely justice

The second book i can see being done well but at some point the storyline gets really crazy, if they ever get to tacke this it will be very interesting to see how they do it.

 

[bdub76]

I finished it. While I found it enjoyable, I still think a lot got cut from it. And if the Chinese version is only the first book, I’m going to hold off on watching more until I read at least the first book.

 

[Christopher]

I finally started watching this. The first episode is well-done, establishing a large cast of characters clearly and engagingly and raising the suspense effectively. The references to physics, and the characterizations of the scientists, are pretty well-handled. ("We were all that one kid.") I do wish there hadn't been so much smoking, though. Shouldn't that have gone out of style by now?

One bit that surprised me was when Liam Cunningham told Benedict Wong "This is your Last Chance Saloon." I thought that was a deep-cut reference to Doctor Who: "The Gunslingers," but apparently it's a common British expression based on a generic term from the Old West. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Chance_Saloon#As_a_metaphor

 

[KennyB]

Just finished and I enjoyed it.........sad it looks like chances for more MAY be in doubt considering the price tag and viewership.

 

[Skipper]

I do wish there hadn't been so much smoking, though. Shouldn't that have gone out of style by now?

Yep, I was surprised too. At one point I thought it was some kind of product placement. Even because it's a little more complicated shooting scenes where people are smoking (just think about maintaining the right cigarette length between takes).

 

[Christopher]

Yep, I was surprised too. At one point I thought it was some kind of product placement.

I don't think product placement for tobacco is legal. If you look at the credits of modern productions featuring smoking (presumably including this, though I didn't check), there's always a legal disclaimer that they didn't receive any compensation from tobacco companies.

Plus, they made a point of inserting a close-up on the warning label on the pack -- "Smoking will kill you. Quit now." Which is kind of the opposite of product placement, and was probably something they were required to do in order to get away with showing so much smoking, along with having dialogue about how "That stuff will kill you." They have to take care not to appear to be endorsing it, although that makes it annoying that they shove in so much of it anyway.

Even because it's a little more complicated shooting scenes where people are smoking (just think about maintaining the right cigarette length between takes).

I don't think I've ever seen a production worry about things like that, details that only someone detail-obsessed like me would pay attention to. I've seen so many food and drink scenes where the number of bites in an apple or the amount of liquid in a glass changes from shot to shot, say, or even where a character's hair is arranged differently from shot to shot or a shirt is tucked in differently or something. Or where there's a cut between two different angles on the same character and their facial expression doesn't match. That one always bugs me.

And these days, if they do care about that, they can just fix it digitally.

 

[Scout101]

I liked it, and hope to see more, but it felt a bit short/incomplete. Like things had just started to happen when the season ended.

 

[theenglish]

Here's an interesting bit from Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...-for-3-body-problem-season-2/?sh=2efdf8151f84

 

[EyalM]

I liked it, and hope to see more, but it felt a bit short/incomplete. Like things had just started to happen when the season ended.

I think there's a pacing issue.
The first book's climax was around the show's fifth episode. So things after that just seemed meandering.

 

[Christopher]

Just finished episode 3. What frustrates me about both the novel and the show is that so much of its science is very sound and literate, but its treatment of the thing it's named after is totally fanciful. I mean, the general idea of a chaotic 3- or higher-body system is pretty elementary, but a 3-star system 4 light years away can only be Alpha Centauri, and its stars don't work anything like the system in the book; the A and B stars are far enough apart that a planet in a habitable orbit of either would probably be stable, and the C star is so tiny and far away from the others that it would have no effect on a planet at all. All of this was known when Liu wrote the novel.

Then there's the ridiculous bit about the gravity cancelling out when the stars came into syzygy. A planet in orbit is already free-falling toward its star -- it's just falling sideways fast enough that it keeps missing. If the three stars coming into alignment had a higher gravitational pull, it would pull equally on the planet and everything on it, so nobody would be pulled away from the planet. That part was just nonsense.

It was cool seeing the "human abacus" realized onscreen, but the book did a better job explaining how it worked, how the soldiers knew when to turn their flags, which as I recall was very clever.

 

[StarMan]

Just finished it.

Engaging premise that held my attention, mostly. Unfortunately, it was hindered by some wooden performances (Auggie being the standout plank). Whenever they took a break from advancing the narrative and had some quieter, character-focused moments, it mostly rang hollow. Simply knowing these characters have history together wasn't sufficient to captivate me during their interactions. From the core group, the best characters / performances came from Jin and Will. Da-Shi (Wong) was enjoyable, as was Liam Cunningham, though he was more caricature than character.

The revelation of 400 years was both intriguing and tension-sapping. Couldn't they bump it up to 10% of C to make their ETA slightly more relatable? I don't know the book(s), so could be off-base on this one.

There are several scenes that have me questioning my attention span - perhaps giving the writers too much credit. The boat scene. What in the name of Christ was that? Why was Keiko executed? Have their motivations / intent changed mid-journey after Little Red Riding Hood, or were they always going to squash us like bugs?

Overall, I enjoyed it. But it's not something that will stick with me. I think it had the potential to be something pretty amazing. Unfortunately, there were some letdowns in the writing and acting department. The finale in particular was a bit meh.

Maybe some things need more than 8 episodes, Netflix.

At a push, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. Good enough for me to tune in next season if it hits the right numbers for the Netflix algorithm.

 

[EyalM]

The revelation of 400 years was both intriguing and tension-sapping. Couldn't they bump it up to 10% of C to make their ETA slightly more relatable? I don't know the book(s), so could be off-base on this one.

In 400 years, the aliens think Earth science will surpass their own. That is why they are sabotaging basic physics research and need the help of sympathetic humans. Cutting the travel time down makes the whole plot line irrelevant.

Why was Keiko executed?

I'm gonna use spoiler code just in case

Spoiler: spoiler?

It's about what she said to the aliens while she at her house for the last time, and it's the same reason the aliens want Saul dead (I think the show connected the two plot points, but I'm note sure)

Have their motivations / intent changed mid-journey after Little Red Riding Hood, or were they always going to squash us like bugs?

I read the first two books, and there, I think the answer was always squashing... Not due to malice, but they just concluded it's the logical (as in safest) thing to do.
In the show, it looks a lot like the opposite.

Spoiler: Book spoilers

In the books, the conversation about lying was a flashback in the second book. while the boat slicing was in the first book. I think the author didn't think about "the aliens didn't know about lying" bit when he wrote the first book. And in the book, the aliens just didn't know about the plot to slice the ship (the sophons can't be everywhere at once). Making the revelation about lying the reason why the aliens didn't help is actually kind of neat, in my opinion.

 

[Michael]

I read the first two books, and there, I think the answer was always squashing...

But … why then do the whole spiel with the VR game where they tell humans about their existence and plan to come to Earth? Seems contraproductive if their plan is to halt human advancement.

And I still can’t get over the fact that they want us to buy that in decades of talking to the aliens the concept of lying never came up. This is perhaps the single most unbelievable thing in the whole show and a total WTF moment when it happens. Also, are they really talking to the aliens all the time or just to the Sophon AI pretending to be the aliens?

It's about what she said to the aliens while she at her house for the last time, and it's the same reason the aliens want Saul dead (I think the show connected the two plot points, but I'm note sure)

Hm, I didn’t connect those at all, tbh. They want Saul dead because he becomes a “Wallfacer” (although, weirdly, they apparently try to kill him even before he’s made one). What does that have to do with Rosalind Chao’s character? And what did she say at her house? And what was the relevance of what she said to Saul when she met him? I feel super stupid for not getting any of that.