📺 3 Body Problem (The Netflix version) was a great introduction to the topic for my non-science-fiction-reading spouse, but of course couldn’t even begin to approach the depth of the original. Some unordered observations:
- The first season of the show encompasses the entire first book and a part of the second. I didn’t mind that as much as I thought I would, though huge chunks of the parts I liked were cut out.
- The plot had more handwaving then I remembered from the book, which I believe was the result of the above cutting but I’ll have to re-read the books to be certain.
- The signature blandness of Netflix shows works in its favor for the VR scenes and is muted in “the real world” for a net positive effect.
- Several key (Chinese) characters from the book were combined and re-sliced into an unlikely team of five Oxford buddies who have an oversized role in the future of humanity. I hope that’s the worst we see of the show runners' interventions.
- I liked the intro and loved Ramin Djawadi’s theme song but Netflix decided to show the whole thing only in the first episode and cut it down to 2 seconds in all the subsequent ones. Thumbs down for that.
- The first season was the easy one. I hope technology catches up to make Death’s End feasible to film.