Television 3 Body Problem

Redplane

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Will wait to see how much chatter this generates before I decide to pick it up..enough good shows out there ATM to keep me busy and so far I haven't seen too many truly glowing reviews about this show yet.
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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Two episodes in, unsure at this point but will continue. The characters and casting just seem a bit stupid. Namely the glamorous model who’s supposed to be a genius scientist, and the other genius scientist who seems to be constantly womanising and getting high. The rest of the modern-day characters seem to have the vocabulary of a 14 year old.
That’s how I feel after 1 episode.

Who are we meant to follow/identify with/root for, the model? Or her dumpy boyfriend with zero charisma and zero chemistry between them? The model’s friend who wears the helmet first is more interesting and a better actress.
 
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Dan

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That ship scene is fecking wild.
 

Big Andy

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Just saw that John Bradley from Game of Thrones and a massive United fan is in this, and his character is named Rooney. There was no Rooney in the book, so I’m viewing it as a badge of fandom.
Until he puts his laptop on with a Man City screensaver, the heathen.
 

Beachryan

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Just finished the books ahead of this, one episode in and am very confused. This is a pretty liberal adaptation!

As someone that hated everything Weiss and Benioff did post the SOAF books, am pretty worried. Then again, love everything Rian Johnson has done and he's somehow involved. Will keep plugging away.

If you've not read the books do, they're spectucular for me particularly the 2nd. The author is seriously bright.
 

PepG

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Just finished the books ahead of this, one episode in and am very confused. This is a pretty liberal adaptation!

As someone that hated everything Weiss and Benioff did post the SOAF books, am pretty worried. Then again, love everything Rian Johnson has done and he's somehow involved. Will keep plugging away.

If you've not read the books do, they're spectucular for me particularly the 2nd. The author is seriously bright.
Rian Johnson did the worst Star Wars movie ever: TLJ so i cant stand his subverting expectation style anymore..thankfully he is only producer here, alongside Brad Pitt and Rosamund Pike..The GoT duo is in control here and it shows for the good and of course for the bad things. I am on ep 5 right now and their style is so obvious that even the genre is different the vibe is the same as their old show.. so far so good..
 

noodlehair

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I liked the first half of the season. Then after the boat scene and "let us tell you all about our secret evil plan for no reason Mr Bond" moment, the second half it just seems to start going down silly dead end rabbit holes and really not making much sense.

Havent read the source material so maybe it's all building to something in season 2.

Still fairly solid overall
 

WPMUFC

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A big misstep for me was the VR scene when the Trisolaran plan was announced. I thought when we started getting the alien stuff such as the pacifist message and then the explanation for conquering earth it would've been a moment to focus on their tech/society/biology. The conflict as to why there were pacifists and totalitarians. However as the show went along all that stuff seemed to fall into "mortal kombat-esque attractive woman tells us stuff".


I couldn't shake the image from my mind of Morena Baccarin as the lizard alien in V.
 

lsd

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After the mess they made of thrones i don't think i could watch anything they were involved in anymore
 

noodlehair

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A big misstep for me was the VR scene when the Trisolaran plan was announced. I thought when we started getting the alien stuff such as the pacifist message and then the explanation for conquering earth it would've been a moment to focus on their tech/society/biology. The conflict as to why there were pacifists and totalitarians. However as the show went along all that stuff seemed to fall into "mortal kombat-esque attractive woman tells us stuff".


I couldn't shake the image from my mind of Morena Baccarin as the lizard alien in V.
That's where it started going downhill for me. Most of it from that point on just seemed a bit pointless. It seemed to almost forget about the aliens completely (apart from exposition lady) and focus on human characters and stories, but the characters and some of the acting were nothing particularly spectacular. The intrigue from my point of view is based around the sci-fi/alien element
 

Raven

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I really liked it, I liked that it had a bit of silliness to it as well.
 

dinostar77

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How can a chief scientist look like the are in their late 20s. Why do I not give a crap about the young people and their angst crap.

Edit: apparently none of them are in the book. That explains it
 

noodlehair

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How can a chief scientist look like the are in their late 20s. Why do I not give a crap about the young people and their angst crap.

Edit: apparently none of them are in the book. That explains it
Probably because there is no character development with any of them and most of their characters are either annoying or difficult to actually like.

From what I know of the books (never actually read them but have listened to a podcast and don some reading o the background/sci fi element), its stuck mostly to the story but messed around a lot with the current day characters. Also the last five episodes felt very much like just finding a way to drag the series to a convenient ending point. The story side actually gets a lot more interesting but its difficult to see how they'd adapt that to screen on a netflix budget. Hence the focus on the angsty almost teenagery/uni student stuff I found a bit of a concern.

I liked Wong's character, Wade was interesting. In fact it was only really the friend group/main antagonists I wasn't keen on.
 

Big Andy

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I like the sci-fi element of this, with the aliens coming and all associated with that, and the plan to build the nuclear bomb powered sail ship and the brain in a jar plan, but I can't be arsed with any of the other stuff outside of that, I don't care about any of the characters.

I suppose to really know what is actually going on, I'll have to read the books because I'm fecked if i'm waiting years for a conclusion
 

lsd

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How can a chief scientist look like the are in their late 20s. Why do I not give a crap about the young people and their angst crap.

Edit: apparently none of them are in the book. That explains it

It's netflix im suprised they are not in their teens. Netflix just casts the same people in every show based solely on looks and age. Acting ability never comes into it
 

noodlehair

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I like the sci-fi element of this, with the aliens coming and all associated with that, and the plan to build the nuclear bomb powered sail ship and the brain in a jar plan, but I can't be arsed with any of the other stuff outside of that, I don't care about any of the characters.

I suppose to really know what is actually going on, I'll have to read the books because I'm fecked if i'm waiting years for a conclusion
The same for me.

The sci-fi element is also the main strength of the books. From what I've read a lot of the characters in the series aren't even in the books or have been heavily adapted/changed. Also didn't like how they used Mortal Kombat exposition lady to explain the intentions of the aliens. Thought that could have been done better.

The second and third books don't really lend themselves to the way the series focused so much on the characters. Outside of two or three of them. They're very much just a vessel to tell the sci-fi elements of the story (which gets a lot more interesting)...Which is probably why the characters themselves and their problems seemed so pointless.

I enjoyed it more than enough to watch a second series, but the second series will primarily have to be the second book, which will be tricky to get right, and then if they venture into the third book even more so
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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Have they dumbed this down as much as the trailer suggests?
More than you can imagine.
After the mess they made of thrones i don't think i could watch anything they were involved in anymore
That would keep you in good stead. I think those two have shown they haven’t got a fecking clue what they’re doing. If Netflix continues this, I will be shocked.

I watched episode 2 last night. It was better than the first one but still felt cheap and lazy. They get some credit for having the Chinese characters in the flashbacks speak Mandarin, but I think their choice of main protagonist was ridiculous.
 
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noodlehair

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It's netflix im suprised they are not in their teens. Netflix just casts the same people in every show based solely on looks and age. Acting ability never comes into it
My main worry with this and it being Netflix + who the producers/directors are is they'll stray further and further from the source material bacause of this.

Not that I thought all the acting was awful but the more relevant they try to make the characters and their pointless in-drama, the more the series is going to have to stray from the actual story, and as we know from GOT that is not a good thing.
 

Jev

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I hated the last two seasons of GOT too but it surprises me how little credit Weiss and Benioff are given for the first six seasons. People really don’t grasp what it takes to make compelling TV if they think that’s all down to GRRM and the source material.
 

PepG

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I hated the last two seasons of GOT too but it surprises me how little credit Weiss and Benioff are given for the first six seasons. People really don’t grasp what it takes to make compelling TV if they think that’s all down to GRRM and the source material.
Exactly. GoT got that big not only because of GRRM's source material but because of the GREAT adaptation of these two. Benioff and Weiss are outstanding adaptors but terrible CREATORS as the last few seasons of GoT suggested to us. So yeah, i am pretty sure that 3 Body Problem is actually in very save hands and it will be a successful show overall. I loved the first season and already cant wait for the second.
 

Bobski

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The Oxford 5 are annoyingly me greatly and for some reason the constant swearing. Normally I barely notice it is other shows but in this for some reason I can't quite identify it has me rolling my eyes constantly, maybe because you have a bunch of characters in their early 30's they are trying to do late teen angst stories with and it just comes across as annoyingly fake.
 
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lsd

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More than you can imagine.

That would keep you in good stead. I think those two have shown they haven’t got a fecking clue what they’re doing. If Netflix continues this, I will be shocked.

I watched episode 2 last night. It was better than the first one but still felt cheap and lazy. They get some credit for having the Chinese characters in the flashbacks speak Mandarin, but I think their choice of main protagonist was ridiculous.

Interesting i have heard that the main character in the books isn't actually in the show which even for those idiots making the show is surprising
 

Berbasbullet

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Loved this! Agree that it gets weaker after the reveal and the big eye, but otherwise a great show.
 

Bebe

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Am I right in saying that I'd be doing myself a massive disservice by not reading the book first? I've had it sitting on the shelf for at least a couple years now. It sounds like I'd be better off reading the actual author's work before watching this dumbed-down, Netflix'd version of the story?

That's the impression I'm getting from reactions to the show thus far.
 

afrocentricity

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Am I right in saying that I'd be doing myself a massive disservice by not reading the book first? I've had it sitting on the shelf for at least a couple years now. It sounds like I'd be better off reading the actual author's work before watching this dumbed-down, Netflix'd version of the story?

That's the impression I'm getting from reactions to the show thus far.
Yes
 

Wing Attack Plan R

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Am I right in saying that I'd be doing myself a massive disservice by not reading the book first? I've had it sitting on the shelf for at least a couple years now. It sounds like I'd be better off reading the actual author's work before watching this dumbed-down, Netflix'd version of the story?

That's the impression I'm getting from reactions to the show thus far.
I read the first one and about 150 pages of the second one. The first one is an interesting story that is not told well, if that makes any sense. Like, if someone tried to give you a synopsis of the book, you'd say that sounds great, but when you go to read it, the prose is pretty lifeless and it is extremely longwinded. The second book is translated by a different person, and that person's style is even worse, so I couldn't continue.

So it's a draw: read the book if you want to understand all the things they are glossing over, but watch the show if you want whatever details do remain to be exciting.
 

Fingeredmouse

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I read the first one and about 150 pages of the second one. The first one is an interesting story that is not told well, if that makes any sense. Like, if someone tried to give you a synopsis of the book, you'd say that sounds great, but when you go to read it, the prose is pretty lifeless and it is extremely longwinded. The second book is translated by a different person, and that person's style is even worse, so I couldn't continue.

So it's a draw: read the book if you want to understand all the things they are glossing over, but watch the show if you want whatever details do remain to be exciting.
Yeah. I got through all three but it became a slog at points. It's got some really great ideas, you want to keep reading because the slow build of revelations is captivating and it is genuinely chilling (especially the dark forest stuff, which I think I can allude to in such an oblique manner without spoiling anything), but the prose style is painful.
 

Jam

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Am I right in saying that I'd be doing myself a massive disservice by not reading the book first? I've had it sitting on the shelf for at least a couple years now. It sounds like I'd be better off reading the actual author's work before watching this dumbed-down, Netflix'd version of the story?

That's the impression I'm getting from reactions to the show thus far.
Depends. Even a lot a book readers are saying some of the streamlining is for the better.

I’m not a fan of the “Oxford five” element of the show, in this global event these five university friends are central to it in their own ways. It was better as separate characters but I get the angle they’re going for adding further connections and emotional weight. But it probably harms it overall.

The general streamlining of the narrative is a net positive though, and bringing forward elements of the second and third books make sense.

The books can often take the long road round and gets lost in itself and the technical aspects of the story. Which sometimes is great and sometimes is painful.

Honestly it’s one of the better hard Sci-Fi book adaptions that manages to be faithful while still changing plenty. It doesn’t feel like change for change sake, or the show runners putting “their” stamp on it - the changes make sense. Even if you don’t like a change you can understand why it was done.
 

MiceOnMeth

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Gave up at episode 6. Love sci fi but the awful dialogue and stupid characters was to much in this one
 

MiceOnMeth

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Exactly. GoT got that big not only because of GRRM's source material but because of the GREAT adaptation of these two. Benioff and Weiss are outstanding adaptors but terrible CREATORS as the last few seasons of GoT suggested to us. So yeah, i am pretty sure that 3 Body Problem is actually in very save hands and it will be a successful show overall. I loved the first season and already cant wait for the second.
Game of thrones needed to be 10-12 seasons not 8. Not sure why they didn't just hand over the reigns to another showrunner when they were sick of it and wanted to do star wars
 

Sylar

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Watched four episodes and have enjoyed it so far. Haven't read the books so like shows like this, lost, manifest etc