Are you a fan of Liu Cixin’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy? Did you think season 1 of “3 Body Problem” did it justice? Are we ready to forgive David Benioff and D. B. Weiss (NO)?? Let me know what you think about this new Netflix series!
Think season 1 did alright. The book had weak characters to begin with. I think Chen and Will Tianming's story vastly improved. The big issue was Auggie and Ye was a slight issue. Problem with Ye was they cut the entire faction war which also cut a lot of the story that went into Ye's complicated motivations of turning against the aliens. Problem with Auggie is Wang's story was split to different characters, but while everyone else had other character's story mixed in, Auggie just got like 1/4 of Wang's story and nothing else.
Definitely ready to forgive them for the awful GoT finale. I loved the books and I think the series did a fantastic job maintaining the essence of the books. I definitely believe that the show does benefit from the deviations from the books. The Three Body Chinese adaptation was an almost shot for shot adaptation of the book which made it extremely long, slow, and a bit confusing. So knowing that, I most definitely appreciate the changes. Also, the fact that they are making this a series that will follow all three books and have already combined several characters and story lines from all 3 books (not just the 3 body problem and dark forest) was a smart choice and will allow for things to develop quite nicely over several series without having to be as long as so as to loose the attention of the audience.
The Auggie character is just a plot device. She's there to challenge the all-out response to the threat which (metaphorically) breaks a lot of eggs. Unfortunately, with her griping, pouting, and stomping off, she doesn't really come off as a world-class scientist.
I don't know, maybe you have a too strict preconception of what a ""word-class scientist" looks like and behaves. I believe it's very improbable that a world-class scientist is beautiful because it's like winning 2 independent lotteries at once, but it's a movie - we know everyone looks better and speaks more clearly than in RL.
Auggie took me out of the story. Dressing the character in tank tops with no bras, but then putting her in a bra and panties to run around drunk, was humiliating. We need more female showrunners.
@@blaubeer8039 Thought of what would actually happen if resources was properly put to use in our world, using the who knows what hidden and factories not in use, 3d printers, assembly line of threading like how we make metal wiring? Like what would happen if a factor had focus instead of many parts working their own agenda. :)
@@blaubeer8039 they did not synthesize it in the lab, they tested its potential and strength on the square in the machine forboding for what to come, we will see those wires again. Think of it slightly how carbon fibers are made or how a spider produces silk. With resources such can be setup really quickly. Heck we now have silk worms producing kevlar silk threads by altering their genetics. 🤗
I discovered Benedict in Covenant. His role was small, but something about him captivated me. I've followed his work ever since, and was thrilled he was cast in this show. ❤
I totally agree with your take on the characters and the unnecessary romantic tension between 4 of them, it was so out of the place and teen drama, which unfortunately became such a drag for me to sit through. I have never read the books and I could see that somewhere from ep 4 onwards the series started to flop. Things started to get ridiculously surreal (resources access way too easy, consensus between countries reached in a matter of days, and you know, the quality of those screws in billions dollar projects etc.). So after binging all 8 episodes, my only thought is that maybe I should read the books instead 😂😂😂
I feel a little differently but ultimately came to the same result of feeling stuff was missing from the books. I don't mind some romantic tension but my issue is that it doesn't go anywhere. Auggie just seem so indirect with Saul and Saul just seems so unbothered it and about everything really. Will had the most emotional punch but felt like that's the only reason he is there and his relationship with JIn seemed so late in the game. My issue with the group as a whole is they all felt lacking urgency besides Jin later on. I would think they would have a bit more scientific curiosity in what's happening. The later parts is ridiculous on a logitics standpoint but I actually like those parts more given that it started the ball rolling in treating these events with some urgency. My issue is really Saul still acting so unbrothered about everything.
@@phantomzxro1 the thing is romance subplot in itself isn't a problem. The problem is that it wasn't done well and only there for the tag and soap opera drama. It's shallow and kind of reinforcing the idea that in a sci-fi/fantasy-focused show, romance element isn't important. I'm sorry but when done well, it's icing on the cake, and when done badly, it could ruin the whole show, in the case of me and my friend. Auggie basically keep Saul as her backup bitch, ok. She calls when she need and gets jealous when she found him fucking someone. And Saul is just simp lord behaviour. While, Will tho. "I have never seen anyone who love Jin as much as you do". And you think women don't know?? Dudeeeee. It makes the whole "I realized I love him" after his death a bit surreal and just there for the plot drama. Tbh, terrible woman figures in relationship
I could not agree more with the way the Oxford 5 characters were written and indeed miscast. Does anyone believe even for a second that Eiza Gonzalez would be a nanotech wunderkind or that you’d have a philandering acid dropping weed smoking black theoretical physicist from Oxford? Have the writers ever met real theoretical physicists? I don’t think so and thats why these characters are not believable, not to mention just flat. Worse is that the audience is constantly reminded in dialogue how much the ethnically diverse characters (Jin, Auggie, and Saul) how brilliant they are but the compliments are conspicuously absent for Will and Jack. It’s obvious why. Moreover, these are Oxford PhDs, the audience knows they’re smart and don’t have to be reminded every 30 seconds. Show us how smart, don’t tell us how smart.
I found these character far more entertaining than the book characters. The characters in the book were just props to move the big story along and were amazingly flat. So I give them props for at least giving them some life if even if stereotypes.
@@michaelebert9163how is it that a character that keeps waking up with women in his bed, always smoking weed or talking about drugs, “breathing life” into a character? You think anyone reading an alien invasion story wants to read about this guy running around and screwing all the time? I’m sure average looking guys like the character portraying him just wake up feeding themselves with hard bodied redheads all the time. It’s like a gooner twitch take on 3 Body. 🙄
I personally could not stand auggies character, she was always annoyed or angry at someone, especially towards the end when she declined Saul's phone call. It felt like they tried to do too much with her character but it fell so flat.
Before I started watching the series, I was already warned that book 2 and 3 would be included. I fully expected to see the next centuries at the end of the season and was relieved that they "took their time".
@@luzekiel9343 it was on point imo, is full of Chinese proverb references and historical periods and figures, those are concept that it can be seen boring for Dumb and Dumber who barely know how to read.
Maybe since the Chinese tv show was so overlong (it was longer than the audiobook), they compensated in the wrong direction? I did miss a turkey animation, lol.
I adore the book series and the tencent first season was great. I absolutely love this version. The changes to condense the epic story were all pretty smart.
@ImpressionBlend that's tough... the tencent version is much closer to the book, but that's not necessarily a good thing for a TV show. It's a lot of epsiodes, I found it to be at least 6 episodes too long. Honestly I think I prefer Netflixs version. The books largest weakness was the characters imo, and I think they did a great job at not only remedying that, but accelerating the plot by splitting one character into 5, and giving us some continuity by merging some of those 5 with characters that appear much later in the books. I remember being bummed when I started the dark forest and none of the characters I had become attached to were around anymore! I'm really looking forward to sticking with these characters for the rest of this version. The only thing that worries ME is the eye in the sky event. In the books of course, that event happens TO the san-ti ... which carries such massive implications I was totally confused why they changed that to the san-ti doing that to humans... 🤨🤔
@@ImpressionBlendthe plot moves slowly, really slow, watching chapters 8 to 18 doesn't feel like there is much to see as there are only slight clues of what is happening but after that, everything begins to fall into place. The build-up for the last 4-5 chapters is pretty epic, I got more involved with the characters and their motivations in the Tencent Version, also watching Chinese actors is pretty good as I imagined being that way, I like how you can feel their WorldView collapses fragment by fragment. How everything began to move in a spiral that stirs the calm water of the ignorant human civilization, there is the feeling of Great Scale, meanwhile Netflix Adaptation I feel like is too small as it's shallow like I don't even care of what is happening to them as they are the classical Western heroes that will beat the aliens in an Independence Day Way, like, is totally the opposite narration.
The Tencent version is 30 1 hour episodes with a ton of exposition and people talking in rooms. Considering the attention span of the average person today (TikTok), I totally understand why Netflix’s version is the way it is. Quinn Streams’ channel his latest video goes into detail what this adaptation does well.
I totally agree......The chinese version was better..... They mixed and split the characters, they omitted crucial points ( e.g. the revelation of the true form of the tri-solarians ep.30 of the chinese version ) , they went to the second book very quickly......The timing for everything that was happening was just not right......As a fan of the books, ( although I believe that from the second half of the second book the writter struggled to finish the trilogy ), I will wait for the second season and I hope things will get better......
chinese was too long, 28 episodes, each an hour just to get to the ship slicing part, and beating around the bush for weeks as if audience doesn't know it's aliens comm the base is being used for
It's a good show, but the chinese version is exceptional, especially about the character's development and about how they let the story grow. This condensed netflix version makes it more accesible but it leaves many things behind, like the Red Coast base, that works like another character in the books and in the chinese series. Here Ye Wenjie goes from being a prisoner to getting access to the antenna in the blink of an eye, we have no mistery about the base and no Wenjie's character's development there. On the good side, some character's interpretations are really good (Da Shi, Evans, Wade, Jin), I loved the dynamic between Jin and Wade, both characters from the 2nd book but very-well integrated into the first season of this show. Tatiana is a new character that works really well being a younger but more radical version of Wenjie, kind of replacing the adventists/redemptionists counterpart present in the books and in the chinese version, the two faces of a movement that follows a fake god. What worries me is that they condensed the story too much, in the 5th episode they were done with the 1st book...at this pace most of the season 3 stuff will be written by Benioff and Weiss, and that's bad news, that's for sure. I strongly recommend reading the books, and if a slow-paced story is not a problem for you, watch the Tencent chinese version, it really worth it.
I have a different opinion, the first book dragged on, even for the murder-mistery style it went for, the chinese series managed to drag it on even more and introduce even more inconsequential characters. Liu is not great at writing characters, just by giving them all a connection at the start, the series already managed to up the emotional weight by a lot and down the line it will be a lot more impactful to see the future events. I will miss wallfacer Rey Diaz tough
@@ElMarcoh really? Doesn't it make the show smaller? Like U.K and the 5 Oxford rangers depicted that early is going be tricky to introduce new global character.
@@snowshock8958yeah, I think they dropped the ball on the wallfacers reveal, but that could be solved easy by making the real wallfacers be "secret" besides the black dude, and the ppl shown are just decoys. I would love to have deep dives on their stories and their interactions with the wallberakers, they could make it like a sort of spy movie, adding to the paranoia, there's potential. Also in the books the only real new character is AA, no nothing is lost I think.
By far the best review on youtube. I got same feelings about the character building and their interactions. I guess it is more for the production purposes that they merged the characters from all three books into one small group. It is easier to follow one leading character (Jin, she is already the merge of part Wang Miao and Cheng Xin, I bet they will even down play Saul, Luo Ji in the second season and put Jin still on the lead) than following 3 totally different characters for 3 seasons, and it is much easier to find casting.
Netflix has yet to upload content to bring me back, nearly a year now that I've been unsubscribed and it should have been longer. The majority of content being released on most streaming platforms these days, is just mediocre in my opinion and I'm sort of glad that they're helping me save money. (money being spent on older books, blurays and video games 😅😂🤪)
Id give the show a 9/10, really enjoyed it but Auggie was driving me mad. Felt like she was combative and antagonistic towards friends and coworkers without reason. Going through Jack's stuff on the way to the bathroom, snapping at saul for "being with someone" how she shut down/destroyed her "lifes work" seemingly on a whim only to turn back around and start it back up. Etc etc. At some points it felt like she was intentionally trying to ruin Jin and Raj's relationship even though it seemed to be a very healthy and functional relationship, even with their conflicting ideals they could talk about it, but not Auggie. Its her way or the high way. EVERY TIME.
Here's why I understand why they split the character Wang up: As a whole, the "meat" of the story is the Crisis Era and beyond. The events with Wang in the first book are merely setup for the actual, proper story covered in books two and three. If season one started with a single Wang character and Da Shi, there would be no real connections between the major characters in the later books. In order to make the series a cohesive whole, these major characters must have an anchor in the first season. It was a logical decision considering the first book feels so disjointed from the other two. As for being so abridged, that's just the nature of adaptation with source material of this breadth. To properly adapt all narratives from the last two books would require ten times the running length of the estimated 24 remaining hour-long episodes - an impossibility given the cost and time. As long as the major events and ideas from the books are successfully adapted, then it serves its purpose. People that want to go deeper will read the books. As for the flatness of the characters - with the scope of the first book established, this gives them room to evolve and grow as the series progresses. They're blank slates gradually being painted as events in the story unfold. My bottom line is that this series is meant as an abstraction over the books meant to appeal to the widest audience possible. If people want to get more in depth, then they can read the books. And they will.
Fun Fact: the Producers spoke with Liu Cixin about an adaptation and it was Liu who suggested what the D&D producers were already thinking that making the main characters diverse and even gender swapping would reach the widest audience.
It was too many characters. And nobody in the real world has such a diverse friend group…except maybe rich and famous ppl. It’s probably why they alluded to weed, LSD, and Xanax in the movie. They were all a bunch of drug abusers that found each other through their pusher.
haven't read the books and I enjoyed the show (which made me start reading the books) and although even without reading the books I agree that it could have been better, I don't think D&D are to blame here, but that Netflix is the biggest and main culprit. Netflix isn't interested in a 6 seasons show and they want there shows (whatever the genre) to be the most accessible/mainstream possible to everyone and everywhere and be done with it in 2 or 3 season tops. that's the "memo" D&D had to work with if I could say ;) I sincerely think that the show would have been way different and probably better (less condensed as you said and more developed) had it been made for any other streaming service (max, apple, amazon...) Have you watch the 2023 Chinese adaptation ? it's on RU-vid, I intended to watch in the next few weeks.
Hated this. It was jumbled and not engaging so everything you are saying makes a lot of sense to me about it’s flaws. I would add that the pacing also really blows.
Nah, I loved it. They made my favorite book of all time alive. And with all the changes it was more interesting to watch. And Oxford Five was great, although I didn't like Auggie that much.
I prefer the tencent version though it was a bit long. Da Shi, Wang Miao, Wenjie, the titular characters were done a lot better. I get the changes cultural differences directed and can see how it would work for English/western audiences.
I cannot agree more with your comments on the character design. As a book reader, post-Ep5 is still interesting, but I don't think it can amaze non-readers. Auggie's design is a complete mistake as she only shows her upset side to the audience. I feel bad for the beautiful actor taking such a shallow character. It's evident that Auggie is adapted to Will's wife Zhuang Yan in the book, but again, this is another shallow character. I hope the writers of the 2nd season (if any) could read your comments and come out with a solution.
Havn't read the books. I mostly agree with your sentiment on the characters. The boat sequence was definitely the highlight. Last two episodes were kind of a slog to get through. Not really sure I will continue with season 2. I didn't hate it but I just wasn't feeling it.
As a non book reader, I found this series to be one of the most captivating, thought provoking, emotionally impactful series in a long time. Cried more than once... But nonetheless I realize some parts seem rushed (especially how fast they got this space mission going in the end). But the character moments are beautifully paced and impactful (and as far as I get an improvement from the books, where they apparently are pretty bland and underdevelpped in favor of the big ideas the series neglected by the series). Hopefully I find the time to pick up the books some day...
There's a Chinese version called Three-Body on Peacock and free on Plex that is 30 episodes long with a higher production value that is really good for anyone interested. It's subtitled just fyi.
I’m not sure if the production value was higher, but there’s definitely more content there - the sub is better than the sun so it’s like re-reading the book, but the Netflix avoids that problem by being in English.
@@ImpressionBlendI'm only on episode 4 so overall I can't say. I have a friend who loves the books and watched both versions and he preferred the Chinese one.
The bell curve representing the speed at which a show can burn and still retain enough viewers to be profitable means that stories like this can’t justify a pacing that will satisfy the sort of viewers that watch channels like this (I mean that as a compliment). Cancelled shows like 1899 are evidence of this. Most people want something that turns its pages quickly and Netflix focuses on meeting their needs more than ours. Having said that, I really enjoyed this show and am now reading and enjoying the books. Kind of glad I did it in this order.
The Chinese tv series was way too slow （30 eps, all on the 1st book). While the netflix was way too fast. There are good and bad acting on both versions. The problem I have with the Netflix version is the character development. I did not feel the hopeless despair that Wenjie felt that led to her decision to reply to the trisolarians. The love child between her and Mike Evans was completely meaningless. The coolest part of the first book for me was how the sophons and the multiple dimensions were explained. The show completely skimmed through it. I think we can all agree that this show is trying to be a thriller, rather than sci-fi.
I was mindblown when i read the novels, now i can see there are many plot holes. If the santi wanted to kill Saul, why couldnt they easily do it with the sophons. They disrupted wade's flight, they can make magical numbers appear to anyone ffs, they even made the whole sky flicker! Also, using the micro threads for destroying judgementday ship to extract the hard drives seems like a very stupid idea. With all the explosions happening in the ship, the hard drive was only saved by the writer's plot armour.
Not to mention the larger logical plothole of the overall story that this is an alien species that is apparently unfamiliar with the concept of lying, but whose entire existence is predicated on "lying" to the rest of the universe that they don't exist, or are not a threat to more powerful species (obviously, book spoilers for the farther parts of the story).
Since I haven't read the books, my comparison is based solely on the Tencent series, which I've watched. I appreciate both adaptations for their individual merits and strengths. Tencent remained faithful to the first book, "The Three-Body Problem," with its 30-episode arc. While Wang Miao largely navigated his journey alone for his sanity, Ye Wenjie's narrative, though less brutal than Netflix's portrayal, was spread out over the first season. Netflix condensed much of her backstory. Interestingly, Netflix used the original novel's name for the aliens, "San-Ti Ren," before it was translated to "Trisolarian." I also appreciated Netflix's depiction of the Judgement Day tanker, showcasing it filled with families and children, while Tencent portrayed it as carrying criminals like mercenaries and Mike Evans, the traitor to humanity. These are just a few observations, highlighting the differences between the two adaptations.
@@elmohead The same is valid with the source. From what I know of the four Wallfacers, the American is a traitor; the Swiss went about the wrong way; the Venezuelan was killed by the people, while Luo Ji, the Chinese, is the savior of humanity. Perspective is who is telling the story.
Moreover, in the original work, Ye Wenjie never had any intimate interactions with Bai Mulin or Evans; she was also never a bitter character driven by motives of hatred. The alterations made in the Netflix adaptation have completely destroyed the depth and complexity of this character.
I think the point on pacing is really relevant. The story progresses at a quickened pace at the start of the series, which I kinda liked to be honest. I thought it was well executed But then you get to episodes 6 and 7 and it feels like it slowly WAAYYY down and almost nothing at all is happening.
FOR === GREEN ROOM 2015 === A GIRL REVIEWING SUCH A FILM IS SOMETHING FANTASTIC BECAUSE I LIVE IN A COUNTRY CALLED ROMANIA AND WOMEN HAVE A STRANGE SENSIBILITY, WOMEN IN ROMANIA AVOID THIS KIND OF FILM, IN OUR COUNTRY THE MAJORITY WATCHES SOUTH AMERICAN LOVE SERIES AND COOKING SHOWS. I RESPECT YOU A LOT FOR HAVING STRONG NERVES. FOR EXAMPLE MY GIRLFRIEND QUIT WHEN A CHARACTER WAS STILL BREATHING BEING BITTEN BY THE FACE OF THAT DOG. I LOVED THIS FILM EXTRAORDINARY, THE SHOCKING FOR ME WAS THAT I ANTICIPATED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING UNTIL THE END. THE CHARACTERS WERE NOT SPARE, THEY WERE ELIMINATED AS IN THE TARANTINO GENRE, EVEN HARDER THAN THIS. I WISH ONLY GOOD IN YOUR LIFE
OMG when Jin Cheng said "What are we, some kinda Oxford Five tryin to solve some kinda three body problem?" I got goosebumps, it was a genuine avengers assemble moment right there. Whose ready for sequel ''Four body problem''
Oxford Five...Assemble. Nano tech armors, Iron Legion, Hulks truly real scientist powers. Cannot wait for that epic scene that need to be depict in s3 whoa.
I thought it was decent to strong adaptation for a medium that strives for wider appeal - a solid B. I agree with your points about over-simplification. But the midway point was great TV. The books and Tencent version were committed to the high philosophical/hard sci-fi - which is not for everyone. Your review was insightful.
I loved the books, and I suspect that I will feel the same as you do about it. Your negatives were my concerns going into it, so I haven't actually sat down and watched it yet. But I will watch it in a week or two just to check it out. More than likely, I will just want to read the trilogy again.
Sounds like my kind of show! I'm glad it's good. Edit: As someone who knows nothing about 3 Body Problem I really enjoyed this show. The only negative sides are that I don't feel emotionally involved with these characters, even though they each have their characteristics, I don't find myself rooting for them to win or care if they die. The other negative aspect is that time seems to move incredibly fast, to the point that it's always difficult to tell how much time has passed in each century. Still I think this is a solid 7/10 and I hope season 2 spends more time establishing the characters.
They did the same thing with Frank Schätzing's "The Swarm". If the author walks away from the miniseries you already know it must be bad. And it was. Sad that "The 3 Body Problem" met the same faith. I love the novels, but i had to fight through the series.
I don’t think people will understand the Netflix version unless they watch the Tencent version which follows the book more closely. And, omg, how are they going to film the dark forest ?
I think they had to include parts of the later books because the first book was slower paced and really a set up for the scary later books. The one character i thought was unnecessary was jack.
remembrance of earth's past is one of my favorite books. I watched the chinese tv show as well. Gotta say Netflix did not do a bad job at all. There were changes but they were made for a reason and mainly to make the adaptation better. Not to mention the chinese show (that people point to in every review) has quite a lot of changes as well.
The characters are far better in the show. I have read all three books multiple times and most of the characters are extremely flat. The series is more about the high concept and the show is making it more relatable to a larger audience. If people think this show is boring then they will not be able to get through the books.
Maybe as an experiment watch the 30 part Chinese adaptation that's free on RU-vid. Now tell me again is was necessary to change the plot. I guess it's necessary for US audiences w a tik tok attention span but really it isn't. This adaptation is mediocre but I guess that's what we can expect at best from NF
Well I haven't read the book but I enjoyed the show. Yes I felt that it was rushed the part where they set up nuclear bombs to the rocket. But then I thought that well only end result is what matters so they did okay. I think readers of any story will be ledt unsatisfied if it adapts in a compressed manner. Those who haven't read it will be cool with it but those who have read it and especially science and physics enthusiastic will without a doubt feel unfed.
I'm not a fan of westernizing the story. I will say that splitting the character of Wang Miao, into "the Oxford five" seems to be trying to set up all of these characters for primary roles in the later books. It also gives something for all of these characters to do in the present day. I suppose that introducing all of those characters in the first season allows the story to progress in a more linear fashion, with fewer flashbacks but all of that assumes that these guys get to do a second or even a third season. In any case, the Tencent version of 3 Body Problem was better in my opinion. For anyone who's interested, it's available on Amazon Prime, last I checked and may even still be available on RU-vid. It's very close to how the book story and I think it actually improves on the characters by making them more human without dumbing them down. It doesn't even shy away from the Cultural Revolution stuff much (the Netflix version does include one particularly visceral scene that the Tencent one doesn't).
I like every change they made. A much more close adaptation would have been really boring. Imagine 20 minutes explaining the fluctuation in the cosmic microwave background radiation you can only see with special glasses and why it is impossible. Blinking stars: everyone understands that it's impossible without explanation, the wtf factor is guaranteed, and it works the same way in the story. Using more characters than in the book means they can talk and interact with each other, making the story more alive.
The change about the Lie thing is a bit dumb for me, as if they wouldnt know humans lie. Its like the main trait of Humanity ffs. Surely they know how horrible we are to each other.
I found myself phasing in and out of this series. I didn't really like many of the characters that much (Saul, Auggie and Will seemed off to me) ... there didn't seem to be much to them and the episodes with their scenes seemed to really drag. The episode with the ship was awesome however... overall I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10... still can't believe they spent $20m per episode... A lot of the CGI seemed dated.
I'm very torn on their approach to the VR. On one hand it always took me out of it that a world with otherwise largely modern tech had fully immersive virtual reality. Like...they just had it. And it was apparently popular despite how much people playing Call of Duty definitely don't want it to feel like a real war. On the other hand, Trisolaris would not provide their technology for something on this order. They just wouldn't
@@TheanHooYew Wouldn't go that far. It's never confirmed that it allows for anything more than collecting data, and ultimately you have to participate in even that of your own volition
@@rudolfambrozenvtuber The VR headsets are able to read minds and stimulate the users' five senses, allowing the users to move about in the VR worlds, seeing and hearing and touching things while sitting down in the real world. That's a lot more than collecting data. The sophons have shown their capability to produce images in someone's vision. I don't think it's a stretch for a sophon to read someone's mind if they could build a VR headset with that capability. And who built the headsets? Humans? Sophons? For Wallfacers to ignore even the possibility is just bad writing. The writers could have used a regular VR setup, like the one in the Tencent adaptation, and avoided this inconsistency altogether. Bad writing.
Wasn’t like that in the book. They just turned it into a macguffin in this tv show…they made the aliens too powerful and the tech too godlike. It’s going to end with a little girl stabbing the night king in the back with the greatest of ease. 😆
@@TheanHooYew 1. "Regular VR setup" What the fuck do you think modern VR is capable of? It can't do Three Body. As the show actually mentions (one of the things I appreciate) that sort of full feeling is well beyond us. 2. You just repeated what you said the first time more extensively. That doesn't make it any less unsubstantiated by the media itself 3. Saul never put on a helmet anyway far as I remember so...what of it regardless?
But I have to say they did a good job with the Yun Tianming / Will Downing character. It is the only character that reflected the depth of the novels. In fact - I would begin the whole Season 2 with the fairytales of Yun Tianming and the meeting he had with Cheng. Shoot the fairytales he told in SFX and let the audience ponder wtf do they mean.
Some of the episodes written by them do have examples very skilled choices chopping down a huge body of work to 8 episodes. Not the work of obvious hacks. But once they start to fill it out themselves after the changes, they start to show their season 8 reputation. Frustrating. Liam Cunningham as Thomas Wade is the stand out. The guy you absolutely would want in charge of planetary defence. Extremely smart, runs circles around his "employees" ruthless, brutal.
Have to disagree. The characters have been condensed in such a way as to make them WAY more fleshed out than in the books. I like what they did, looking forward to more seasons.
I haven’t read the books yet(going to be picking it up hopefully soon) but I do have a lot of basic knowledge from Quinn’s Ideas videos on them. For me I generally love the show but I wholeheartedly agree with your criticisms on the Auggie character for me she was by far the worst part of the show. I get why they did some of the decisions with her character to build what they think is moral conflict and drama but for me most of her decisions came off as dumb emotionally selfish childish and in conflict with her supposed goals which is even more annoying given these five are basically made out to be some of the most promising scientists. I also found it frustrating how easily she would go back on her decision especially the one Will helped influence especially in his condition for the greater good. I really also disliked how they tried to make her decision at the end out to be a good decision and positive when we all know by her doing that and not using her talent elsewhere she is essentially crippling the hope humanity has. Bar that I don’t mind them dipping into the other two books to establish thing I think they did it for ease and familiarity sake as it could be jarring for viewers to have to see these events as flashbacks in later seasons and I personally loved Will his story was tragic beautiful and moving and he felt like how I would expect these promising scientists to act in this environment especially with his self sacrifice physically and emotionally so that everyone was where they were needed.
I know the show came out, didn't watch it, because I want to read the books. It's not necessary I know but in this case I want to and see if I will enjoy the books series. So that I can added to my book collection to expand sci-fi genre.
You told that showrunners didn’t capture in the show what made story compelling (for you) but you never told us what it was. At least I didn’t get it. Yes, they compressed three books into one season but it’s only logical, because they start roughly at the same time and events in them are parallel. I’ve heard Liu Cixin wanted to construct the story the same way. It also adds depth to personality of main heroes as they are interconnected now. In books characters were more shallow. As to compression of timeline and packing it into several month instead of years I think it makes sense also, because it’s alien invasion we’re talking about, no time to waste! I bet in reality we would’ve switched totalitarism and fast-paced war production in a week (the same way one of the ships crew converted in 5 minutes in second book).
Read the books and loved it, but disagree in that the books were ‘far superior’. The writing in the books were mediocre at best, characters were flat and uninteresting, and all the flashbacks were confusing at times. The appeal of the books were the ideas, the science and technology. Lui Cixin was an engineer, so it completely makes sense that his writing and characters were not strong (not to mention we’re reading a translation), so to say the books were ‘far superior’ is typical book reader elitism. So far, the show is better than the books in every way: characters are more interesting and likeable, story flow is better and less confusing, and all the major ideas of the books are captured and conveyed quite well.
Death's End is my favorite mindfuckest sci-fi book of all time. This makes me one of the harshest critics of the series. Having seen the first 5 episodes, I'm not happy. I don't understand the high ratings on Rotten IMDB. I try to imagine not having read the books and the plot is all over the place that new viewers would get confused, i.e. why is there a fucking VR game and what does it have to do with anything? I don't think the show is accessible or focused, totally miscast and the standards seem to be so low to have such a high rating.
Became allegic to new movie adaptions & have seen only short clips of this one, so don´t take my thoughts too serious. Visualy it looks great, but I do not like the changes they did to the story. A movie adaption always needs changes, however what has to be altered is always a matter of the expectations of the audience that changes with the times. With the possibillities of CGI the audience expects spectacular visualisation, storytelling nowerdays is action. A slow pacing means loosing audience to a competing series & a risk of loosing the production costs. At least in the minds of Hollywood producers. Eastern productions proofed that this idea is not true & I have the strong feeling that the concept of an audience that has an attention span of a goldfish is wishfull thinking of ignorants that want to nudge us into that because it would make success more predictable for their small minds.
you DO know that last few seasons of Game of Thrones didn't have books to work from ... right? the "condensed" feel to this show is more Netflix - the budget for this had to be through the roof and I'm sure they want to make sure there is an audience for it ... I HATE what D&D did to the last season of GoT ... BUT ... I'm aware of why the issues were there - the last few seasons they were flying by the seat of their pants - the last season they just wanted out and we saw that result ... I actually like these characters actually ...
A bunch of murdered kids is the best episode??? 🤢. That’s the most disturbing episode and it’s not faithful to the book. This is just dumb and dumber’s red wedding variant. The two idiots just can’t get past the GoT crap.
I can’t help but think if they had better producers this show would have been spectacular. Its still good to watch and worthy of praise but in my fantasy cast, I think the producers of the old 4400 series would have done a more stellar job and if its like its a sci-fi tv channel series.
❤I had hope and give it a chance and I also read the first book 📖 I like the characters . Also first 🎉also did watch the trailer also I know they changed a lot in tv show . I also like sad shows also put that with alien 👽 I enjoy it .
Someone please tell me if I should give the books a try. About me: I haaate long technical explanations, which is why many modern books of the genre are not my thing at all. But I love the early sci-fi novels by H.G. Wells and Mary Shelley because they focus on ideas and implications rather than technical details and know how to hook me emotionally. Nothing turns me off more than a 10 page (or more!) description of a space ship. I've watched only half of the Netflix adaptation but so far I'm liking it and have already thought about getting the audio book but I don't want to get into a story that at some point will only get lost in logical explanations I don't really care about. If that is the case with the books, I guess I'll be better off just watching the show?
Hmm that's tough. I would say if you watch the show and you want more details or have questions - read the books. Personally I think the books are absolutely brilliant, instant all-time favorites for me, and the way Liu Cixin writes science and ideas is very easy to understand, even when they're pretty complex. There are no excessive technical descriptions of things, but there is a lot of science (once again, very digestible the way it's written). They're the kind of books that expand your mind and make you look at things differently, but it's not because of the characters. I would suggest at least giving them a try, especially since after watching the show you'll have some visuals in mind for what's going on. Hope this helps.
I read the book together with Litcharts chapter summaries; after I finish reading every chapter in the book I read that chapter's summary. It really help me visualize and understand the hard science and it's what made me see the genius of the story. Give it a try!
Yes - the books are entirely focused on the sci-fi concepts and have some of the poorest character writing and development that I’ve ever read. The characters just exist to explain and do things, the story isn’t actually about any of them.
I never saw a lengthy description of a spaceship that I couldn’t skim over on my first reading without ruining the story. Just try the books and if a few pages bore you, fast forward your eyeballs to the next section
