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Topic: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

https://next-episode.net/3-body-problem

https://static.next-episode.net/tv-shows-images/huge/3-body-problem.jpg

A fateful decision in 1960s China echoes across space and time to a group of scientists in the present, forcing them to face humanity's greatest threat.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Teaser trailer looks really good! smile

More info:
Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem,’ From ‘Game of Thrones’ Creators, Gets Epic Trailer and Release Date
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/3-body … 235647076/

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Undoubtedly looking forward to this Sci-fi release in January. Of course we'll need a couple of episodes to confirm, but yes it appears to be very promising. smile

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Sadly they are not going to follow the book, they have decided to make it more "diverse" so instead of following 1 Chinese scientist, we'll be following 4 from allover the world!

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Kanga wrote:

Sadly they are not going to follow the book, they have decided to make it more "diverse" so instead of following 1 Chinese scientist, we'll be following 4 from allover the world!

Personally, I don't mind. Makes it more relatable for a Western/ global audience (- and Netflix doesn't operate in China). They seem to follow the book in quite everything else:

3 Body Problem | Official Trailer | Netflix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mogSbMD6EcY

Goosebumps! smile

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

3 Body Problem | Final Trailer | Netflix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdvzhCL7vIA

More goosebumps! big_smile <3

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

jeayyyy! big_smile
This (trailers & plot preview) looks very promising smile

Kanga wrote:

Sadly they are not going to follow the book, they have decided to make it more "diverse" so instead of following 1 Chinese scientist, we'll be following 4 from allover the world!

Well most often books have better stories and characters, so normally i like it when series stay close to the book wink
Nice example is "Game of Thrones" - love the books (still cant wait for the next one(s)), liked most of the show, they captured the book quite well and stayed close to the Martin's script, but well - then came S08 and it was just a disaster, without Martin's guidance the completely fucked the show big_smile (... and the moral of that particular story: dont start TV adaptations on ongoing book-series big_smile)

But sometimes its better to only use the books as loose guidelines. I dont know these books, but your description actually sounds as if they made a really good chance. I think a global perspective should always trump national or especially nationalistic ones ... and the trailer promises more of a multicultural one-world approach, that is definitely something i really like...


So - i am VERY curious if we get a good quality show here, best with at least 3+ seasons  big_smile

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Absolutely not my thing... sat trough the first 4 episodes and while the intention and development of the story line is pretty obvious (I did not read the books), the whole storytelling is confusing and fragmented.

Spoiler

I do not enjoy the mix between China in the 70s, modern day England and the VR world. Especially the VR world scenes are boring and make no sense at all

And I don't like ANY of the cast.

Will give it another episode or two, but just because I invested already 4 hours and want to see what will happen now. wink

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Interesting! I've only watched 1x1 so far and really enjoyed it. smile

Thankfully, they showed the brutality of Chinese history - not sure if the books also cover that (in a similar way), but for some reason the Chinese version* of this show managed to hide that history completely. wink Glory to the CCP! cool

*It was partially good, but overall too Chinese for me to be able to complete.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Yeah, I can't really put the finger on it. Just not my thing, I guess.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

I've watched both the Chinese and the Western one now, I've also read the book. The western one is not as bad as I feared and once I got past the first few obligatory homosexual characters I kinda like it, the fragmented storyline kinda works tbh, it has advantages but in the end I preferred the Chinese version.

As for not showing China's dirty past. This is perfectly true but we don't show e.g. leftwing terrorism or the countless casualties during racial protests in western media either. Civilizational bias.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

@Kanga,

I've only watched the Netflix version.
Since you've watched the Chinese version, could you, please, elucidate if it goes past the same point in the story than the Netflix one does?
I'm curious about the Chinese version, but it's 30 episodes long, so it's a big commitment.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

1x2! There's a lot to like, but what I really loved was...

Spoiler

...Jack Rooney trying the VR headset for the first time. So good.

Awesome acting!

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Side discussion split off:

Chinese media and censoring of historic events in China
https://forum.next-episode.net/viewtopic.php?id=11837

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Greyhound wrote:

@Kanga,

I've only watched the Netflix version.
Since you've watched the Chinese version, could you, please, elucidate if it goes past the same point in the story than the Netflix one does?
I'm curious about the Chinese version, but it's 30 episodes long, so it's a big commitment.

So the Western version also goes into book two in the trilogy with its 8 episodes while the Chinese 30 episodes only covers the first book but it does that while following the book near perfectly and I prefer that. The negative of this approach is that.. maybe it's not entirely interesting at all times in those 30 episodes because there is parts of the book that is repetitious to be frank and when it's on the screen then it feels even longer.

The Western version covers all the major points/happenings, it doesn't really miss anything important so I'd say for all intents and purposes it's a good adaption, better than I expected and better than what we normally see in this kind of adaptions. If I have to point to the negative then it's obviously not the book and at times I was confused in the 8 episodes because it just so quickly jumped from happening to happening.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

@Kanga

Thanks.
I guess I may as well sink my teeth into the book, in that case, since it's a long time commitment either way.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Well, I finished all 8 episodes and episode 7 and 8 were actually quite alright. Probably since there was almost no screentime with Auggie. wink

Still, I'd argue the show is overhyped and does not deliver up to that promise.

I think the review on https://mashable.com/article/3-body-pro … ew-netflix sums it up pretty well. Same for https://popculturemaniacs.com/3-body-problem-review/ or https://www.tvinsider.com/1127419/3-bod … m-review/.

All of the less than stelar reviews kind of confirm my feeling: Most of the characters are bland and uninteresting, the plot sometime super slow, on other parts rushing through it like there is no tomorrow. 

Overall, I would rate it at 3/5. Watchable, but not a show I probably will ever revisit or hold my breath for season 02.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

1x5. Whoaaaaaaaa... I haven't been this impressed by any TV show episode in quite some time! I'm hoping for two more seasons! smile

fassy wrote:

Overall, I would rate it at 3/5.

yikes

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Great show, totally hooked, lots of fun, but not sure it makes much sense...

Spoiler

...because the technology of the sophons is so much more sophisticated than just designing a better hyper drive/warp drive, that they could've just created some sort of FTL to speed up the whole 400 year space flight, and even found other uninhabited planets to live on, also there are so many other alien races that are smarter than us in our galaxy, Giorgio Tsoukalos would have a field day with this show!  big_smile  lolz

One of my coworkers said the TV series was hard to track because it's so different from the book, where Ye Wenjie, Wang Miao & Shi Qiang's storylines were spread throughout an ensemble cast, but the TV series is better than the book, produced by the guys from Game of Thrones with a spectacular budget.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Finished it! Really enjoyed it, I give it slightly more than 8/10. Now Netflix... better renew it! smile

@paisley1: The way it was explained, it was plausible to me that they didn't have the option to speed things up.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

paisley1 wrote:

Great show, totally hooked, lots of fun, but not sure it makes much sense...

I agree with all the above, I haven't read the books but I enjoyed this series.

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

What Chinese Outrage Over ‘3 Body Problem’ Says About China
The Netflix series showcases one of the country’s most successful works of culture. Instead of demonstrating pride, social media is condemning it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/08/busi … ction.html

Scholars believe that 1.5 million to eight million people died in “abnormal deaths” in the decade from 1966 to 1976, while more than 100 million Chinese were affected by the period’s upheaval.

Any discussion of the Cultural Revolution, a political movement that Mao Zedong started in 1966 to reassert authority by setting radical youths against those in charge, is heavily censored in China.
[...]
It's not surprising that [Chinese] fans of the book may have heard of the Cultural Revolution, but they don’t have a concrete idea about the atrocities that the Communist Party and some ordinary Chinese committed. That’s why the reactions to the Netflix series are concerning to some Chinese.

Yes, every good dictator likes the population lacking knowledge where it's not "appropriate" - nothing to see (or question) here, folks, move along!


The article links to
CHRONOLOGY OF MASS KILLINGS DURING THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION (1966-1976)
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence … -1976.html

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

lighton wrote:

Finished it! Really enjoyed it, I give it slightly more than 8/10. Now Netflix... better renew it! smile

@paisley1: The way it was explained, it was plausible to me that they didn't have the option to speed things up.

Yet, to me it was explained away like when a fairy godmother says "if you're not home by midnight you'll turn into a pumpkin", and from that scene on, all I could think about were all the empty planets they could colonize between us and them, and all the spaceships at S12 Tonopah Test Range that could get them here faster. wink

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

big_smile

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Re: 3 Body Problem [Sci-Fi, Fantasy] (January 2024)

Loved it 5/5! big_smile big_smile