I hated the book Three Body Problem enough that I skipped the rest of the books in the series and I haven’t decided yet if I’ll watch either series, but this is an interesting issue. There are going to be simultaneous duelling interpretations of the novels on two different streamers.
I don’t understand the issue. The version Peacock just release is the same one that’s already been out on Prime for a while. Good for them I guess, but it doesn’t seem likely to drive anyone away from the Netflix version.
How did both end up with the rights?
Netflix got permission to make an English-language version. Probably with some exclusivity deal. Peacock and Prime just got distribution rights for the Tencent version (in Chinese), and presumably didn’t demand exclusivity.
I was about to make a confident prediction about the outcome with two competing streams both trying to attract viewers. If there are three, we will need to borrow a supercomputer.
A friend of mine is watching the Chinese one, but I’m waiting for the Netflix one to see how they did.
It is really weird, agreed.
What didn’t you like about the first book in the trilogy*? I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am in the middle of The Dark Forest, which I am also enjoying.
*Odd thing: the name of the trilogy is Remembrance of Earth’s Past, which is not the name of any of the books in the series.
I mention some reasons in this thread, when the book was years fresher in my mind.
I feel like this has to be along the lines of sounding like Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past”, but it’s not clear to me if that would be an act of the novelist, or of the translator. Either way, my sense is that it’s more common to have a series where the name doesn’t reflect a single book title, rather than the other way around… Lord of the Rings etc.
While we’re ranting, I don’t recommend watching The Wandering Earth.
As one of the most successful Chinese films of all time, and somehow labelled as “hard” science fiction, I’m sure many here might be tempted before/after seeing the three-body problem.
But, in fact, the science is painfully stupid, none of the humor lands (by Western tastes), and 90% of the runtime is “tearfully wasting time” (if you liked the scene in Armageddon where Liv Tyler is delaying pressing a button on which billions of lives rest, to do a very slow tearful farewell with her father…well, you’re in luck, because this film is absolutely filled with scenes like this).
I tried the first few episodes of the Chinese version last year and it wasn’t for me, so I’m waiting for the Netflix version. Even with a long book, 30 episodes is a lot. I like slow-burn series, but this was beyond slow.
One of the things I liked about the book was the difference in style and themes in Chinese sci fi versus my usual more Western-based novels. But I just couldn’t appreciate the show and what I understand is typical of Chinese television. This bit from a NYT review hit the mark for me:
There’s no getting around the science, though, and the series hasn’t come up with a more interesting way of dramatizing it than having characters repeat the same speeches they make in the book. Onscreen, with a cast that mostly doesn’t rise above adequate, that’s not very exciting…
On a more fundamental level, many American viewers not accustomed to Asian series will be bemused by the stilted, nonidiomatic quality of much of the crowdsourced subtitling. And they will notice that while there are some lovely images of nighttime Beijing and the surrounding country, the overall production quality — the staging, the performances, the use of music — is beneath that of the usual prestige series.
…“Three-Body” displays the propensity, common in Chinese TV drama, for telling a story as if reading a book to a child.
I’m actually enjoying the Chinese version so far.
Reviews are starting to come out for the Netflix version, they seem decent enough.
I’m searching for a thread on Netflix 3 Body Problem, found this one, read your comment and after finishing, I literally looked at your name/avatar to see if it was written by me!
I agree with everything you say about that movie - it stunk.
MiM
I just finished watching the Netflix series. Overall I enjoyed it. Though it did feel oddly rushed in places. I would’ve liked to see them dwell on certain areas even more, and expound on the science-y goodness that the books were rich in, but I get that that doesn’t exactly make good TV. However there were a few “whiteboard” scenes and other exposition that got the points across (and FWIW, I love a good “whiteboard” scene, unlike a lot of people, I find them fun when done well).
I read the trilogy a bit ago and really liked them, though even those felt odd in terms of general storytelling and characterization. But I had chalked all that up to my western ears reading a Chinese-to-English translation. I was kind of, secretly, hoping the series would smooth that stuff out, but it still hit those weird notes for me.
Anyhow, I recommend it to anyone who’s read the books, or just generally enjoys some really out-there, science fiction with some fresh ideas. I can’t wait to see the seasons that are assuredly lined up for the future… it’s gonna get epic… and bleak.
As for the “Oxford Five” characters, here’s who I think their book surrogates are:
(spoilered since some characters are amalgams and/or characters from future books, and it can come as an interesting surprise while watching, as well as spoil their fates if you’ve read the books):
Auggie Salazar = Wang Miao + AA
Saul Durand = Green Glasses + Luo Ji
Will Downing = Yun Tianming
Jack Rooney = Hu Wen
Jin Cheng = Cheng Xin
Ah good to finally find someone else that I can complain about that movie to.
Actually, I did write a longer rant at the initial time of seeing, the one here was just a quick reminder to people not to watch it 
I found the first book interesting. A bit weird here and there, but readable. I assumed the strange bits were due to the Chinese way of SF and, perhaps, the translator or the editing for the US version.
The second book was OK, though it stretched the suspension of disbelief a bit too much. Somewhere around the last third at the latest I started losing the plot, or the plot got lost all by itself.
The third book was thoroughly disappointing, and the denouement even more so. Reading it till the end after the first two volumes reminded me of the sunken cost fallacy.
I did briefly mention it in that other thread. (I have no more input on the movie because I knew to avoid it, and did.)
I finished watching the Netflix series without having read the books (I think I browsed a Wikipedia summary over a year ago).
Overall I liked the cast and some of the ideas were interesting. Personally I find that having antagonists with poorly-defined nigh-omnipotent superpowers undercuts some of the tension they’re trying to build up, since there’s seemingly not much stopping the bad guys from winning other than “plot armor”. (I had the same criticism of the HBO Watchmen show as well.)
Are you including the concept of the Wall Facers in that? Because that right there is the tension - what will they come up with before the aliens get here, and what will the aliens do to try and stop it?
It seems like the sophons can go up to anyone (including the wallfacers, presumably) and drive them crazy or project illusions into their minds or blow up to the size of a planet or a million other things. Or maybe not, maybe they can just tell their minions to shoot people? It’s really not well-defined in the TV series, but maybe it’s spelled out more specifically in the books.