3 Body Problem (TV Series) Countdown (2024) User Reviews

The end of days?

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 30 March 2024]

It's definitely got me hooked, it's a book I read a little while back, and enjoyed, I had it explained to me by a Chinese former colleague, who detailed the significance of the book, and how big the theory was in China.

You'll have to concentrate, as there are lots of subtitles to read, and you'll need to, remembering how the story unfolds, there's a lot of detail in the early sequences.

I was a little surprised to see it actually brought to life, but it works very well, if I had one little gripe, only, it's that The British segments are so wonderfully English, we're straight back to the 1980's with those rounded English vowels, it jarred in comparison to the harshness of The Chinese segments.

I don't want to be critical, because this was a very, very fine start, it's unsettling, it's eerie, it very much feels like Judgment day is landing.

8/10.

Excellent adaptation of the novel

[jamesblevins · 9/10 · 22 March 2024]

In the Netflix series, the book's protagonist's actions are divided among several characters, which makes better use of the excellent actors in the ensemble cast. There is less exposition or interior monologues because the characters share information with one another. The plotting is now more focused and, I believe, more entertaining than the plodding 30-episode Chinese version (freely available with subtitles on YouTube, complete with Chinese advertisements for tomato soup and apparently a dating app).

The first episode of "The Three Body Problem" opens with "struggle session", humiliating an honest Chinese professor. This scene should be watched by those who think that there has been anything admirable about Maoism.

One fundamental flaw really took me out of it

[mattwilliamdavies · 7/10 · 24 March 2024]

So "science is broken" and all the particle accelerators in the world are showing the same completely impossible results. This is causing programmes to be defunded and all the physicists to be really depressed that our models appear wrong.

Aaaaaagh. This is the exact opposite of what would happen. Discovering that the existing models underpinning physics don't work is Nobel prize winning stuff. The scientists would be excited and be rushing to provide answers to make a name for themselves - finding something new is what scientists dream of and it's the whole point of research. They certainly wouldn't be moping around in Karaoke bars. All I could think is "the writers clearly did not speak to a single research scientist" and it took me out of the story.

Look, I can accept that Oxford has its own giant particle accelerator. I can just about suspend disbelief about the sky blinking at us (I mean it makes 0 sense but whatever). I can even accept the apparent age of the Chinese lady (seriously - she was at least 20 in 1967 so she is around 80 now). But scientists depressed at a new discovery that disproves Einstein? Nope.

It's a shame as otherwise the mystery is compelling.

Super-Compressed version of the Chinese show

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 25 March 2024]

I am recognizing most of the story elements, but where the Chinese show took 30 episodes to tell this complicated story, The Netflix producers are trying to ultra compress it.

The Chinese version had me actually caring about the few characters that it focused upon. This one, instead of focusing on just three basic characters there are several.

The story of Ye Wenjie, and this is the only character where they did not change the gender, nationality, or name of, is told in this first episode, and it matches what we knew from the Chinese show. Of course, Netflix added some extracurricular romance, which did not happen in the original. In the original story, Ye Wenjie was a woman totally unmoved by romantic interests. Originally a victim of the Chinese state and then one of their main operators. The Chinese version shows how she changed from the 60s to the early 2000's.

The other major difference is that the Chinese show was a period piece, occurring during the early 2000's, just prior to the onset of the first iPhones and other personal digital gadgetry. Nokia phones were still popular. This version of the story is completely contemporary, and so everybody is using iPhones instead of pre-Intel MacBooks, in my opinion this damages the story. That was one of the things that made the Chinese show unique is that they replicated how digital was in the early 2000s. This show, destroys that effect. They should have kept to the original period.

One of the other things we recognize is the character played by Benedict Wong, who is the cigarette chomping' cop "Da Shi": In the Chinese, This was "Shi Qiang" played by Hewei Yu.

And then the character of "Wang Miao" Has been deleted and transplanted into "Auggie Salazar" (Elza González)- she is the one that sees the countdown, and is approached by somebody named Tatania, who is supposed to be an analog of the character "Shen Yufei" - who initially appears to be speaking about "God" but in fact, they are talking about "the Lord" or, "Lord". Which I suppose you would have to watch this series in the original Chinese or read the novel to find out what that actually means. And it is not a religious reference, it is something insidious.

What has not been mentioned yet is the organization called "The Frontier Of Science" which Tatania/Shen Yufei and another character named "Pan Han" (whose analog has not yet appeared in this series) appeared to control.

I have only gotten halfway through the first episode, but I recognize these highly compressed story elements and characters based upon the original. What made the Chinese version endearing to me was that everything focused upon a small group of people... in this one, they had to hire a lot of the Game of Thrones stable of actors, and so the story has been shuffled across a deck of about 10 Game of Thrones actors.

Visually, this is done very well, but I don't like this supercompression of the story. The original Chinese Show took place across 30 episodes, and all of that information is crammed into only eight here, but that is the way that TV shows are made on Netflix or America these days. Nobody in America makes a TV show that has 26 episodes per season anymore. It went down from 26 to 16 to 13 and then to 10 and now 8 and 6. Only CW shows, sometimes still have 22 episodes per season.

It's just not enough time to tell a compelling story, 6 one-hour episodes? 8 one-hour episodes? Especially a story as complicated as "three body problem", a hugo award winning book.

And between the Chinese and American shows, these are only the first seasons, there are more books in this story. Which makes me very interested to see how the Chinese television industry does it, and how Netflix will respond...

A Very Good First Episode!

[nicokautto · 9/10 · 21 March 2024]

This episode was really good. I liked it quite a bit it has pretty good performances so far and looks great and at times even stunning. I think the best thing about this episode is the feeling of tension that gets slightly released in the end while not revealing anything too significant. The ending is pretty interesting and leaves me excited to see more.

The episode is also a pretty good introduction to this world and the feeling that something bigger than us is present, that is a good thing. Excited to see where the other episodes are headed and yeah overall i'm pretty suprised since I didn't expect to like this as much as I did.

A binary star system of an episode...

[fitfree · 6/10 · 24 March 2024]

So... Having read the novel, the part in China is amazing, really manages to capture the feel in my opinion, watching the first scene in 1966 I was glued, really good acting from everyone!

That's the first giant star in our binary system.

However, the second, present-day part feels like a mediocre run-of-the-mill Hollywood flick, unlikable and simple characters, the common girl-boss tropes, which belongs more in a university activist sorority than a multimillion dollar production.

This is the white-dwarf orbiting the giant...

Sometimes it felt like two completely different TV-shows, one a serious, thrilling and intriguing one, the second, another "Oo something spooky happening, but did you see that one dumb guy, lol slay"-story.

Note that almost none of these present-day characters are in the novel, yes each are based on book characters, but, how much though... Basically, when the writers, David Benioff and D. B Weiss, follow the story of the writer it's very good, when they get to write on their own the quality plummets as fast as a neutrino going through earth... Now where have we encountered this situation before...

And let's just get this over with. They took Liu Cixin's novel and wanted to adapt it for the screen, and doing so changed character genders. That's fair, can always be interesting to give your own take on things, as long as you do it with a respect to the source material. Is that what D&D does though? Well, not yet... This is just episode 1, so we'll see how it goes. But as of now, just cut, pasting the gender of a bunch of characters and similarly cut & pasting the standard Hollywood girl-boss dialogue is not worthy of praise in any way. If you can't write women in STEM without making them into the standard unlikable Hollywood feminist protagonist, what does that say about your view of women?

Anyway, they setup the main storyline and introduce one or two very interesting characters (mainly Ye Wenjie, portrayed amazingly by Zine Tseng), which will be interesting to see how they adapt Cixin's work in later episodes, the rest though, recycled tropes and common grabs. Not that interesting.

I still give the episode a 6/10 since the parts in China are well done and the main idea presented well.

Been a while since I saw a first episode of anything that was this good

[stevelivesey-37183 · 9/10 · 22 March 2024]

In a word, intriguing.

Interesting that we have to see a world based in science fact that moves into science fiction. Bravo on world building Messers Benihoff and Weiss, good to see that you learnt your lesson from the, frankly, criminal ending to Game of Thrones.

I won't go through the plot, I will let others do that. But I will say that it is well made, well written and the time jumps are effective because all parts of the story are important and relevant.

Nice to see a depiction of the horrors of the cultural revolution in China that murdered and tortured millions. The parallels of todays woke mind virus are not lost on me.

Countdown

[lassegalsgaard · 7/10 · 20 April 2024]

It's no secret that David Benioff and D. B. Weiss' next project has been both highly anticipated and met with a lot of skepticism after how they ended "Game of Thrones." In the end, that show's downfall doesn't seem to be entirely their fault, but mostly because of the direction that the story was going that simply didn't work, so I was looking forward to seeing what they would be doing when adapting a big sci-fi novel instead. And while the first episode doesn't necessarily give us a lot, it does set the stage for an epic journey that has a very solid starting point.

At first, this show seems like it's definitely taking a pseudo-realistic approach to its subject matter, bringing in real-life events to enforce its narrative. Benioff and Weiss have often signaled that they have an interest in history (just look at "The Confederacy"...), so it doesn't come as a surprise. However, the opening sequence's impact on the larger show will have to come later. And maybe it's just the skeptic in me, but they're dealing with some big things in this that it feels like they're doing what they did with "Thrones," and that does leave me a little worried. However, looking at this episode for what is in it, there's a lot of good in this. The cast is already doing some good work, starting us off with a big emotional episode. None of them are sticking out properly, but it will be interesting to see where they all go. They are already setting up certain stakes for the characters, which may be why the character played by Benedict Wong is already shaping up to have the most interesting story. It also seems like the show is playing around with time, and I don't know if this will lead to a twist down the line, but if it does, I have a pretty good idea what it will be. The ending left us off with a lot of promise, and I'm actually kinda excited to see where they go from here, and hoping that the writing is good enough to bring us home satisfied.

"Countdown" starts off this new project with a lot of potential, although the skepticism is still there because of how they finished "Game of Thrones." However, on this episode alone, the bar seems to be set pretty high and the cast seems excellent and up to the task of bringing this mind-bending story to life.

Revolution to ravelation!

[aboalhyjaa · 8/10 · 28 March 2024]

I found the first episode to be a good intro to a world where history, science, and mystery exists!. From the flashbacks of China's revolution to London in the present day, the way this episode mixes past events with our present, literally science and fiction, was good!

As the episode kept going on, I found myself drawn into the not so much alien mysteries hinted at throughout the episode. Not to mention that the pacing of the storyline literally forces you to binge the entire thing.

One thing in mind is that they maybe should've chosen an older actress for the role of Ye, as in the sixties she looked 20ish so now she should be in her eighties! Other than that, all is good!

Intriguing mystery building but underdeveloped characters

[thegreendrinker · 6/10 · 29 March 2024]

The central mystery in Three Body Problem is built upon rapidly and without too much in the way of stalling. We learn about the Chinese's secret project to communicate with aliens in the 1960s, and, in the present, a countdown timer that appears in the vision of certain scientists, an extremely immersive virtual reality game, and a blinking sky that is presumably aliens sending a message in Morse code. The mysteries all feel understandable without having to understand too much scientific jargon and are conveyed with an alarming bluntness. The quickness in which the mystery unfolds makes the audience feel like there is no time to grapple with the implications. The audience feels like they already have to play catch up which reflects what everyone on Earth feels in the show.

The characters, however, are all not too compelling so far. Most of the characters all have a similar sarcastic jerk quality without much nuance. It also doesn't help that the acting is mostly fairly mediocre- most of the actors aren't that expressive with their faces or their delivery. To be fair, the characters don't get much to do in the episode except rag on each other and stare fearfully in to the middle distance. The script also feels like it is trying to be overly clever and so much of the dialogue feels unnatural. The actors may be struggling with that.

The only two characters that had any personality were Jack Rooney (played by Game of Thrones alumni John Bradley) and young Ye Wenjie (played by Zine Tseng). Jack, at least, is distinct in that he is a massive tool, even by comparison to the already pretty grouchy group of main scientist characters. Ye Wenjie stands out by being unusually resilient, willful, and introverted. Both of their performances, particularly Tseng's, stand out.

A perfect first episode

[konstantinbg-00598 · 10/10 · 21 March 2024]

The first episode was honestly perfect, the ending of it is astonishing. Truly hope that the Netflix model of releasing the show at once doesn't dim its light and make it just a blip on people's radar.

Must see first episode for anyone who actually enjoys sci-fi and modern cinematic television, it was creepy, it was mysterious, it was fun, it was intelligent. Truly hope that the rest of the season goes well.

The one issue I and some fans had with the book was the Aliens always go to the USA/the white house syndrome early sci-fi used to have in the 90s-2000s in the case of the book China I suppose, the show has truly done its best to internationalize it and make it feel like a global problem from episode one.

Confused by this first episode

[JustHavingALook · 6/10 · 26 March 2024]

Which is not a good sign, I must say.

First of all I do agree with other reviews here (and somewhere else): the way the "setting" (or "world") of this show is presented to us is not believable at all. Now, yes it's sci fi and I'm ok with having a particle collider in the UK or anywhere else but: if you suggest that the theme might be "our science is broken" I do expect our cool scientists to go on an adventure and find new paradigms to create a "new science"! Not to go depressed, hanging out at shabby karaoke bars. This is a major weakness of the whole story and a major disappointment that is not redeemable and made me stop watching the series.

Add to this the inability to understand who could be the protagonist, the lame girlboss females with a sharp tongue and, alas, the inexpressive cop. Overall too many characters just doing things and too busy mourning their deceased friend than to show us a bit of their traits. Except the former science guy now selling chips and snacks: he's the only one who is a round character, and he's funny.

The storyline based in China during the cultural revolution is actually a surprise since it exposes a horrible part of human history that should be a warning for today's cancel culture in the west. And it flows well, it does help us to understand her. Unfortunately the secret lab is clearly there to communicate with aliens. Too predictable.

Flat photography, too many hiccups in the editing and some artificial dialogues: distracting.

The only positive note is the uber cool golden visor at the end. That's promising.

No suspension strong enough for my disbelief in the scientist couple

[anders-264 · 4/10 · 26 March 2024]

The opening scene is quite strong, and the rest of the China based scenes are not bad at all. The UK-based rom-com vibes, however, clashes terribly with the sinister grandeur of the plot and all immersion is lost. The worst offenders are the star scientist couple. It's not their look, it's their too-cool-for-school attitude that totally ruins the show for me. Every single scene with those two was cringeworthy and unwatchable.

I am not familiar with the books and the plot does capture me, so I will watch the second episode. But if acting and character likeability do not improve, it will be the last one.

Poorly written dialog

[ramjet-94488 · 7/10 · 25 March 2024]

Overall a decent adaptation, excellent job on the parts they chose to stay close to the source. It is nearly verbatim from the book. I understand the decision to change some of the characters, my issue is the dialog, I don't know anyone who literally drops profanity every other word. These are supposed to be the geniuses of our time? I don't know Marines who talk like that.

Some of the structure of the story is different, I'm interested to see how it works. Honestly it seemed like their last show fell apart when they no longer had the source material to use, probably a brilliant move by GRR to not tie himself to it.

The 3 problems with this tv show

[karinahatem · 6/10 · 31 March 2024]

Well, i didnt read the books, so can't judge if it was well adapted or not, in any case, i see 3 problems: 1 this was more of a drama rather a Syfy, 2 was sad & depressing, 3, events were jumping way too fast.

Had a slow start, when things finally started getting interesting in episode 2, and got bit of a suspense going till episode 5, when things got boring with too much unnecessary dialogue. Performance was ok, and looks like Netflix is opting to cast unknown, or rather low level actors to save few bucks. For me, too much time was wasted on the dialogue, and was so sad and depressing towards the last 2 episodes, let's hope season two will be better.

Very disappointed

[cggb-19273 · 3/10 · 30 March 2024]

From start to finish, this series fails to deliver a compelling narrative, engaging characters, and a coherent storyline. One of the biggest flaws of "3 Body Problem" lies in its direction. The directors seem to have lost their way in translating the complex and thought-provoking novel by Liu Cixin onto the screen. The pacing is uneven, it fails to hold the audience's attention. The lack of clear direction is evident in the disjointed storytelling, making it difficult to follow the plot and understand the motivations of the characters.

Furthermore, the visual execution of the series is underwhelming. The cinematography lacks creativity and fails to capture the grandeur and scope of the story. The special effects, which should have been a highlight, are lackluster and unimpressive. The directors seem to have missed the opportunity to bring the awe-inspiring science fiction elements of the story to life.

In addition to the poor direction, the character development in "3 Body Problem" is severely lacking. The actors struggle with poorly written dialogue and shallow characterization, leaving the audience with little emotional investment in the characters' journeys. The lack of chemistry between the actors further diminishes the impact of the performances, making it difficult to connect with the story on an emotional level.

Furthermore, the series fails to explore the complex themes and ideas presented in the source material. The thought-provoking philosophical discussions and exploration of humanity's reaction to an alien invasion are reduced to superficial and shallow plot points. The directors missed the opportunity to delve deeper into the intellectual and moral dilemmas posed by the story, leaving the audience feeling unsatisfied and unstimulated.

Overall, "3 Body Problem" is a prime example of how poor direction can undermine a potentially intriguing and captivating story. The lackluster execution, weak character development, and failure to explore the depth of the source material make this series a disappointment. It is evident that the directors failed to grasp the essence of Liu Cixin's novel and deliver a compelling adaptation.

Netflix should fire the people they use in adaptation

[eunbi0530 · 5/10 · 31 March 2024]

Even if you didn't read the books, you can tell this is a questionable adaptation There are these random "girl boss" moments in this episode that serves what purpose?

"Two physicians walk into a bar..." that might be a start of a good joke, but in the case of this episode it just leads to nothing. The scene would have worked in any other place, anywhere else, but it was in a bar because an average Joe could try to pick them up, only for them to reply in a matter that was rejecting the dude by saying how specific their field of work was, that was the sole reason for this being in a bar, to have a common dude turned down by two empowered women.

However, one of these empowered women, is more empowered (Auggie) than the other (Jin), because when Jin asks the Auggie if she visited a neurologist, she said she did. Great, right? Mental health is important, but when Jin asked Auggie "what did HE say?", the latter corrected her "SHE". And that can make you wonder: we haven't seen this neurologist, are her pronouns relevant to the scene? Or better yet, in a broader context, is the neurologist even relevant to the story? If Jin said "what did THEY said?", like most people do, it wouldn't have cause this unnecessary scene.

Then there is a gathering of colleagues, Auggie is there, at some point a male colleague shares some rude comments to which she replies: "I'm gonna punch a hole straight through your head." Now let's change sides, would Netflix allow a man saying to a rude woman: "I'm gonna punch a hole straight through your head"? No, right?

Right after, we have a similar case to the bar, but this time Auggie is approached by a random woman and, unlike the first scene she was approached by a man, Auggie here is very stressed out, her reply to the woman? "You seem like very nice person. I'm just not interested, ok?" Isn't it curious how she behaves differently, even under so much stress?

In the end, the young Ye Wenjie has proven to be way more awesome, the real girl boss. Ironically, it might be that Ye Wenjie is one of the few characters that was kept from the original and the "bad" ones are part of the adaptation.

A Missed Opportunity to Inspire in STEM

[edwin-42 · 1/10 · 23 March 2024]

While the film ambitiously attempts to shine a spotlight on women in STEM, its execution leaves much to be desired. The narrative, which intriguingly sets up a world where science "breaks down," unfortunately misses the mark in delivering a compelling exploration of this premise. Instead of portraying the resilience, curiosity, and ingenuity that are hallmarks of the scientific community, the film's characters seem to quickly resign to their fates, missing a golden opportunity to showcase the problem-solving spirit that drives scientific advancement.

Moreover, the film's effort to highlight the intelligence and capabilities of its female leads often comes across as more of a humble brag than a meaningful exploration of their complexities and contributions to their fields. This approach not only undermines the potential for nuanced character development but also fails to authentically represent the diversity and challenges of women in STEM.

In essence, the movie could have been a powerful narrative that both celebrates and critically examines the role of scientists in navigating and solving crises. Instead, it opts for a superficial treatment of its characters and themes, resulting in a portrayal that feels disconnected from the genuine excitement and determination that characterize the scientific endeavor.

Ridiculous

[zgddtgt · 4/10 · 20 April 2024]

An adaption of the most recent scy-fi classic.

As the positives, I would clearly name the soundtrack, the acting and the imagery.

As to other aspects: the main roles are played by two per se great actresses that were unfortunately given unnecessarily cocky and cringreworth scripts, fobbimg off some redneck in a bar by laying out their scientific or career accomplishments, and occasionally displaying dominance by retorting their peers snappily. However, both eventually, yet reluctantly, evolve into likable protagonists. Most other characters are doomed to remain shallow punny sidekicks or tokens.

For some reason, the first episode oozes anglocentrism. Why the "famous Oxford particle collider" instead of CERN? And how is pointing a finger at China for the cultural revolution helping the story? Would we be offended if we weren't the heros? Questions unanswered..

I was looking for mind-blowing Sci-fi ideas, a window through which I can escape from my terrestrial life for a night, while being greatly entertained. And yes, I'm entertained! But I'm also force-fed some half-baked cultural and political preachings, which is ironically spiced up with some good-old anglosaxon-savior-narrative - none of which I had to endure when I read the books.

Pass if you're math or physics

[trav-69596 · 4/10 · 5 April 2024]

Disappointed overall. Reminded me a lot of Dark but with an attempt to intermingle God and games and aliens and a whole cast that seems nothing like the people in the actual fields of study. Just hard to watch and predictable. And the dialogue is awful. Just awful.

Good production value. Though that kind of hurt it because it's too clean looking and some of the actresses had so much work done it was incredibly hard to look at them and not feel like they had face smoothing tech applied.

It also suffers from this contemporary writing style of shows that I hate where no scene gives a coherent whole and the episode ends with a question thereby ensuring you binge to find out the answer, because the last thing the writers want anymore is for you to actually think about what you saw. Every episode does not need to be a dramatic cliffhanger. I am over that GoT crap and will be incredibly happy when it finally dies. You know what show didn't do that and is timeless, The Sopranos. Just make a well written show with things for me to ponder, don't feed me tidbits the whole episode and end on a dramatic note and expect that to hook me because I'm an entertainment addict or something.

Be smarter and stop using this tired and boring pattern for scripts.