Review: ‘3-Body Problem’ Puts a New Spin on a Renowned Book Series

What happens when the co-creators of Game of Thrones adapt a world-renowned science fiction novel? You get eight episodes of cosmic intrigue, fantastical technology, and just a touch of gore.

3 Body Problem, which hits Netflix on March 21, begins with a young scientist in 1960s China named Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao). Ye watches her life and her future go up in smoke as the Cultural Revolution sends scientists to brutal reeducation camps, and a split-second decision Ye makes ends up having world-changing effects. In the present day, research facilities like particle accelerators start spitting out nonsense. One researcher, Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), starts seeing a phantom countdown that seems to have been implanted in her brain, and a mysterious visitor assures her that she doesn’t want to find out what happens when it runs out.

Then things get really weird.

3 Body Problem is based, of course, on the novel The Three-Body Problem by Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu. The novel and its sequels are a tour de force of computing and theoretical physics, plus a bracing sociological study of Earth and its hypothetical neighbors. What will a civilization do to survive when it’s wiped out again and again by a stroke of cosmic bad luck? What happens when the universe is such a hostile place that the briefest moment of contact can mean annihilation?

The Netflix series could have focused on the first book, but instead, it weaves in elements of the second and third books, The Dark Forest and Death’s End. The result is a story that’s swifter and more streamlined than the source material. It mostly works as a TV series, if you’re not into the old school hard science fiction of Liu’s novels. Fans of the books may be disappointed at how much of Liu’s scientific thought experiments have been compressed and softened.

What really makes the series work is the characters, and although they may be slow to grow on you, you’ll be rooting for them by the end. The series focuses on a group of friends and scientists called the Oxford Five: Auggie, Jin (Jess Hong), Jack (John Bradley), Will (Alex Sharp), and Saul (Jovan Adepo). Their bond is the connective tissue of the first season, as they deal with an increasingly disturbing series of events: a colleague’s gruesome fate, an inscrutable VR game, and a chain of events that spirals into global panic. Will’s story is particularly engrossing, as he receives life-changing news that leads him on an unexpected odyssey. Jack provides plenty of comic relief, while Jin and Saul’s stories emerge as a slow burn throughout the season.

Ye herself, played in the present by Chao and in the past by Zine Tseng, is complicated and charismatic, scarred by trauma and driven by a questionable vision of how to make things right. Some of her actions are objectionable, yet everything she does is understandable, and both Chao and Tseng play her with nuance and heart.

Benedict Wong plays Da Shi, an ordinary detective caught up in extraordinary circumstances. At one moment, he’s investigating occurrences wilder than any human has ever encountered; at the next, he’s trying to figure out his son’s video game. Liam Cunningham plays as the ruthless Thomas Wade, who works with Da Shi and comes up with an audacious plan to fight the forces threatening humanity. Throughout the series, an eerily tranquil AI (Sea Shimooka) becomes increasingly menacing.

3 Body Problem is very different than the books it’s based on. Is it as good as them? Maybe not quite, but I’m still looking forward to season 2.

3 Body Problem, created by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Alexander Woo, premieres on March 21 on Netflix.

(featured image: Netflix)