3 Body Problem (Netflix)

3 Body Problem 🕋

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have returned with a new eight-episode series, adapting Liu Cixin’s Hugo award-winning Chinese sci-fi novel, The Three-Body Problem, which premiered at this year’s SXSW film festival.

The story follows a group of friends in the English science community who become intimately connected to a string of deaths that have local authorities stumped, but from the shadows, a private intelligence agency begins to link the ongoing oddities to an extraterrestrial threat far beyond anything anyone could have ever imagined.

I was absolutely floored and fascinated by the scientific ideas at play in this story, but unfortunately, the execution, writing, and performances leave a lot to be desired.

Conceptually, the magnitude of the threat facing earth is so unique that this unintentionally sold me on reading the book, rather than continuing on with this underwhelming adaptation.

I’m not sure if it’s a case of too much story to cram into one season, but the humanizing elements of what’s going on end up dragging down any potential the story has to become the sci-fi epic I felt it deserved and had the potential to be.

The main reason those humanizing elements didn’t work was because of the heavily muted performances that lacked any emotion, making it hard to get invested in anything other than the looming threat hundreds of years away.

There’s this idea of the universe being a dark forest, and just because we haven’t seen or heard of a threat doesn’t mean it’s not lurking in the shadows, waiting for a branch to crack to make its first move. That idea alone left me wanting to go down a deeper rabbit hole than the show was able to.

This reminded me a lot of how I felt about Wheel of Time on Prime Video, where the story ideas are so captivating but it’s such a departure from what you’re actually seeing play out. 

On a less negative note, the conspiratorial way the threat was introduced will definitely spark the curiosity of most viewers. It has Westworld vibes that play to simulation theory, but the amount of science exposition halts the imagination from wandering beyond what’s on screen.

Two of the most redeemable parts of this watch were Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) and Liam Cunningham (Game of I Thrones), whose performances charismatically carried this series to its final seconds.

3 Body Problems fails to deliver on the fascinating scientific exploration into an extraterrestrial threat but may be the perfect gateway into the award-winning sci-fi trilogy of novels. 

Enjoy!

5.5/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 50mins

Episodes: 8

Where: Streaming on Netflix March 21st

3 Body Problem Review (2024) The Richmond Reviewer - March 19th, 2024.

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