The Three-Body Problem

Based on the first 8 episodes, this is a non-spoiler short review.

First off, I would recommend this to anyone interested in engaging sci fi.

Watching this show gave me the same feeling as watching the Game of Thrones premiere back in the day after having read the books. The feeling that there is nothing quite like this on TV elsewhere.

Unlike the gritty fantasy land of Westeros however, you are thrown into contemporary China, where a series of mysterious events is tearing apart the scientific community. As the mystery slowly unfolds (and I do mean slowly), your mind is put at work by a plethora of speculative science fiction concepts. It is an absolute treat.

Not only is Three Body a remarkable 1 for 1 adaptation, but stretches out and develops certain elements even further than the book. Sometimes to great effect when it comes to character development. Liu Cixin's books are often criticized for their wooden characters and this show adds a much needed dash of color to the cast. However, this also leads to it dragging on unnecessarily on certain plot threads, creating serious pacing issues in a few episodes.

I'm not very familiar with Chinese dramas and I understand there is ad money to be concerned about, but you know you have a problem when even the audiobook moves the story along at a faster pace than this show. Sequences that could be handled in 30 seconds take up to 5 minutes or more.

Sometimes not every single thing needs to be said out loud and I really wish all the fat could have been left in the editing room. I've heard this was originally planned as a 24, instead of 30 episode series and I feel even that would be stretching it.

Other jarring issues include awkward English speaking sections, as well as the omittance of names of other countries (instead of "America" or "Britain", we are bizarrely treated to "Country T" and "Country M"), I assume this has to do with censorship around contemporary politics.

The show can also suffer from the quirks of Asian drama such as poor editing and while it never falls on soap opera territory, it will sometimes come dangerously close to that line.

At 8 to 10 episodes, I'm sure the Netflix version will have a much tighter pace, though it will certainly not cover the book in the same detail. I believe making this a 20 or 15 episode series would have been the optimal choice for any version.

The only good thing about the Netflix adaptation is that it led me to discover this series. I read the books not long ago and thought that there weren't any adaptations. Those three books became one of my favorite science fiction sagas ever. So I was eager to watch the netflix adaptation, but alas, it was a massive disappointment. Now, I stumbled on this adaptation and watched it, and this is how you do a adaptation. 30 episodes that respect the viewers intelligence, doesn't rush, takes its time building scenes and plot points. Has no unnecessary melodrama and unfunny "funny" moments. Doesn't waste the viewers time, but doesn't butcher anything from the source material either.

The characters are all good and believable. No academics that act more like teens and dress and look like models. No dumbed down science or boring exposition.

The only cons, which are small cons, yhat i hve is that sometimes the special effects look too fake, the camera angles sometimes look like low budget, and the soudn design sometimes is too digital, but all those things happen so sapringly that it's more like nitpicking.

This is one of the best adaptations i've ever seen, and it's because it respects the source material, just like the 4 first seasons of GOT, when the show was good, and it respects the viewers intelligence, not trying to preach or educate. Instead, leaving the viewer to form its own opinions amd conclusions. I recommend this show and the boooks to everyone that likes scifi. You can read the book first or watch the show first. It's not gonna make much of a difference, that how good of an adaptation it is.

Loyal to the original work, restored most of the content, and made a small part of changes aimed at film and television. Except for the segment of the unscrupulous reporter, which is disappointing, other segments are very pleasant. In particular, the part about Hong'an Base starts from the original work and is higher than the original work. Even those who have not read the book "Three Bodies" can easily understand the plot with a little scientific literacy and curiosity. This film and television work may be an opportunity for you to understand "Three Bodies", Liu Cixin and science fiction works. It is very good to compare the animation of the Bili Bili version.

I have not read the trilogy. I learned about this series from my research after watching the netflix adaptation. I found the netflix series entertaining and well produced but I could tell it was drawing from source material more complex than what was presented. Thus my research to find out more about Liu Cixin. I was planning to start reading the trilogy (and I will) but saw this Chinese production.

So, I am pretty nerdy and I love more expository, detailed sc-fi. The flashy stuff is fun but give me some complex ideas to chew on and I am in heaven (think Mindwalk, Jacobs Ladder, Stalker). The Chinese production, Three-Body, has that in spades, maybe even too much. For me this series really drew out the existential crisis of the impending arrival of an more advanced extraterrestrial civilization. The motives of the various chacters are well developed as are the philosophical and scientific concepts. I found the acting and screenwriting mostly well done. The production quality was ok, though uneven (especially the soundtrack). I personally found the insights into modern Chinese culture quite fascinating as well.

I did find the subtitles to be poorly executed, often flashing too briefly to read easily. One episode had the subtitles out sync which obviously made for a tough watch. The pacing is uneven but really improves in the final 10 episodes (out of 30).

Overall I have really enjoyed the series. There is enough intellectual stuff to keep me engaged and the production is pretty good but not perfect. I look forward to reading the trilogy and then watching the series again.

This could be better than the netflix version, as it is a more faithful adaptation, but that's not always the most important thing and this show suffers with some pretty bad pacing issues because they are using dialogue directly from the book in some scenes and it seems as if they aren't leaving out a single page aside from chronologically shuffling a few things about. Not necessarily out of order overall, but out of order of how they are presented in the books.

There's a ton of exposition in the books that could actually be shortened in the show because you are actually able to show more of the things that the book had to tell you. They don't go this route. They show AND tell everything. It makes for some unnecessarily long scenes. This shouldn't have been more than 15 or 16 episodes max. I have a hard time believing that I would have liked this if I had not already read the novel.