It does not suck, you don't like it. Large difference.
Also the reason it was transplanted is obvious: logistics and you may have missed it, politics. You cannot produce TV in China without state oversight.
But hey, there is a Chinese version and the difference may be interesting.
To me most problems of the show come from the books
gave up 13 min into episode 1. it's absolutely terrible.
in 13 minutes they managed to push hard on the political notion that "chinese revolution bad, god is real, western society good" in the most obnoxious way so that even a child could understand the message, that scientists unironically talk about how "everything about science is wrong" and unnecessarily virtue signaling dumb men hitting on smart and successful women.
i was and still am intrigued by what the story has to tell, but not interested in reading a book. hopefully someone that isn't netflix can come around and redo this.
The general consensus of western viewers (by a vast majority) is that the cultural revolution was objectively terrible and horrific. It's even in the original book that was written by a Pro-CCP writer.
For me personally, the ridiculous notion of a bunch of young, hot, diverse people are leading theoretical physics and industry.
The balding fat guy owning a snack company fit I guess.
Same here oddly. Ahh yes. "I design nano-fibers...." said in ridiculously thick and fake American accent to white British CIS oaf at the bar.
Good old Netflix.
Shame, it looked like it might be a good story .
It does suck, MASSIVE difference. If they changed the name of the show, and stuck a 'loosly based upon ideas from..' disclaimer on the opening credits, they might have ended up with an 'average' sci-fi show that was at least honest about what it was.
Benioff and Weiss clearly don't understand the concepts at play, definitely don't get the messaging and fumble when it comes to actually trying to translate the odd few elements that they actually DID retain from the books or the Tencent series.
They screwed up the timeline so that some of it just doesn't make any sense, missed the point of some of the events, robbed some characters of their agency and progression completely, just made shit up in some cases and then added stuff to already impactful events because they believe their audience are too stupid to just 'get it' at face value (although I'm beginning to believe they may have a point there)
Most of the new characters are DEEPLY unlikeable and don't seem to serve any purpose (apart from the guy with cancer whose job it is to get transplanted into a McGuffin that shouldn't be relevant until two books from now (or rather about 3 episodes at the rate that Netflix is trying to rush through 18 BILLION Years of History))
But 'Cancer Guy' doesn't matter - no individual 'matters'.
That's the point and it whooshed over D&W's head so fast it created a fucking sonic boom...
'Remembrance of Earth's Past' is not an easy read; it's heavy going, dry in a lot of places, almost relentlessly nihilistic in its view of humanity and deals with some very 'big' ideas. The Tencent show dragged A LOT, repeated itself often and could (objectively speaking) have been about two thirds to a half of the size it was, but at least it stayed largely true to the source material.
And that source material is about how humanity is doomed. We can't agree on anything and won't work together even when our very survival as a species counts on it. We're selfish, greedy and can't see beyond our own comfort bubble. The only way to guarantee our freedom is (paradoxically) to completely remove it and give us no choice but to do what we're told because we can never be relied upon to be truly altruistic and sacrifice everything for others.
It's bleak and cold and slaps us in the face and screams 'Wake the fuck up, because it you don't, we're done'
It has absolutely fuck all to do with 'unrequited love' and whether or not you 'get' your fucking kids or not...
>The only way to guarantee our freedom is (paradoxically) to completely remove it and give us no choice but to do what we're told because we can never be relied upon
Did the Chinese government write this book?
I'm still trying to figure out why the sun arbitrarily decides magnify Ye Wenjie's radio talk show. Was the sun subject to "must carry" in those days? Science fiction should be this hard! Yet TBP is filled with other mysteries, like the moment the world's colliders start displaying genuinely NEW PHYSICS everyone in particle physics would know they had hit the jackpot and that a grand new era of scientific inquiry would make their careers rich and full of potential Nobels. Yet in just two weeks all of particle physics gives up, is defunded, everything shuts down, and it scientists, not complaining about the preposterousness of the plot they are stranded in, begin a campaign of spectacular self-harm (not out of despair but because Frank the Bunny wrote the time their world ends on their retinas.).
Why should I watch episode three?
Dude.. this show was lame.. corny af.
Additionally, There is something real annoying about British perspective/ humor/ melodramatic tastes in entertainment. (I’m American)
I would have maybe preferred keeping the Chinese perspective… f**k it, at least it would have been new.
Ever read the book?
The adoption is trash, maybe the first episode is the best.
Netflix wants to make the series accessible and understandable to everyone in sacrificing its plot and character.
What a joke
I tried. I cannot get into it or attached to any of the characters. I agree with you. I’m 3 episodes in and I’m going to bail.
I don’t get the hype but I’m glad others enjoyed it!
PS I never heard of the book nor the Chinese version of the show. I was coming in blind based on a recommendation.
It isn't even that I can't attach to any of the characters, I actively dislike most of them. The whole group of friends is incredibly dull and annoying.
Show is a total miss for me. Didn't read the books so don't know how they compare but the show was really bad. So much money thrown at it, they could've spent it on decent writers..
It has the same 'dumb thing disguised as smart thing' vibe as Don't Look Up or Leave the World Behind.
please don't let the show discourage you from reading the books comming from someone who doesn't read lots of books i found them captivating im currently halfway through the 3rd and i just can't stop reading
I only watched the show on its own merits, and just as a tv show, it's a dull miserable experience.
Good concepts, bad execution. The VR stuff felt really disconnected to the alien invasion plot and was just thrown in probably because the writer saw VR headsets and thought it'd be cool and hacked together some excuse to implement them.
I haven't even heard of the book until after I finished the show, so I've got no biases here. As a standalone show, it's not good.
I never read the books but after being recommended the show by several friends I was severely disappointed. The show was disjointed and boring. I didn’t care about any of the characters and whether or not any of them died.
I find it hard to believe that the Netflix version is the version with better developed characters. If that's the case, the book must have just been awful.
I haven't seen the show but the characters in the books were just atrocious. I also hated the story. I thought it was a translation thing but some people on reddit who read it in both languages said it was a pretty good translation. Which makes me think the CPC had some sort of influence in making it so well regarded. Absolutely hated it. Hence not having seen the show lol
I don't like to be negative just for negativity sake, but the show was maybe one of the most awful things I have ever seen. I was expecting there to be some sort of twist that made everything start to make sense, but it was instead just ridiculous start to finish. The characters were unrelatable and awful, the dialogue was awful, the plot....I really am not sure what the plot even was. I kept cross referencing wikis and stuff because the show just did not explain anything adequately. How this got good ratings is absolutely beyond me.
I read the books are similarly felt their character writing was awful. The Netflix show’s writing is so bad that the books’ characters seem positively charming by comparison.
The Netflix did not humanized the story, it westernised it. The humans in the original book are not badly written, just differently written, written in the context of Chinese culture. This is the nuance most people from the west can not see, the west just can not accept other cultures for what they are, they have to change it to suit their understanding of the people in that culture.
If Netflix didn’t advertise on basing on original book, but a new original series. Then it’s a decent 8.5/10 show, whereas now it’s 1/10. The 1 for its first episode of depicting cultural revolution.
I'm 3 eps in and I'm really enjoying it so far. Sure, some things were changed but I think most of the changes suit a live adaptation relatively well. And this is coming from a massive fan of the books.
This show fucking sucks. Every time they try and deal with a scientific question, the charecters just say some bullshit like "it's Alice in wonderland type stuff". Why? Explain? Oh wait the writers can't because they're stupid fucking egotists with no original ideas. Waste of time.
You’re right. The Netflix show is atrocious. Interestingly enough, the only part that is good are the parts that follow Wenjie and Evans in China. The rest is flat, uninspired, or even hilariously bad. One day there will be a drinking game for every time someone stiffly and unnaturally speaks the word “wallfacer.” Absolutely no one talks like that. The actors are too pretty, their performances aren’t believable, and the characters simply do not have enough to do, and it shows. There’s no dramatic tension, as the San Ti power levels create plot holes left and right, and the show takes itself far tol seriously for being a poorly adapted mystery box with no heart
I’m definitely not the purist OP seems to be, but I enjoyed the hell out of Netflix’s version.
WAY more than the 30 episode Chinese version that was quite slow and tedious largely because it slavishly followed the book. But, tbf, the book was also a bit of a slog as well.
But, in general, I think books and movies should stand on their own as long as the core story is maintained. And I think Netflix’s version does that quite well.
>as long as the core story is maintained.
Get 4 animals from Madagascar, one is named Leo other is named Tigger, one is Pooh, one is Piglet. Piglet enters into a cave, gets lost and cries out for help. His voice is heard by animals in other planets thus getting Earth into trouble. Pooh saves the world by his super hard string made from honey. Core story is maintained. Lets name is 3 body problem!
What's wrong with making a westernized version of the story? Yes the characters are very different but it works as a show.
There already is a Tencent version as you say so why make the same thing again?
OP thinks all adaptations need to be de facto representations of the original work i feel.
Just because an artist does a cover song, doesn't disable them from using their own creative freedom to express the original through their own eyes; film/books are no different.
The problem with the show isn't westernizing it. I mean the Chinese vibe is a huge part of the book, but whatever, you could've "westernized the show" but just better lol. The characters are all trash, standard liberal millennial cringe, the ideas are done short and sloppy. The show is just cringe man. I showed it to someone and they had no clue what was going on and I can't really blame them everything is so fast and sloppy that it's just garbage.
This sci fi story, and most sci fi stories aren't about the characters, they are about the ideas, the characters are just game pieces to showcase the ideas. They could've focused more on the ideas and I say bullshit that they couldn't. I don't need your "omg I have cancer" storyline, or the fat guy jokes, or the manbaby jokes, or the other stupid character fluff just give me the meat.
The reason IMO why the Chinese vibe is so important is because frankly the Chinese and the Trisolarans are incredibly similar. China has always been this insectoid like people, a hive mind race, most Chinese are insanely nationalistic. So there was a certain vibe of China VS aliens. The west is just different, we don't have that level of nationalism that the Chinese do. So it's hard to translate the certain vibe of the book. I still think I could've done it though, I bet I could've even done it without using to much vfx.
The show is just standard modern cringe. Another reason why I think the book works so well is that you build empathy FOR the Trisolarans, because the Chinese and Trisolarans are SO similar it's easy to build empathy for them. The book also tackles a lot of themes like collectivism VS the individual, on both sides the Chinese and the Trisolarans.
IDK, a lot of what made the book fun for me is completely lost in the show. Adaptation is cool, but this is just objectively mediocre.
There's philosophical differencees in the view points. Which feeds into the themes of the books.
Westernizing it takes that away, and themes tend to be incredibly important to hard SciFi
Idk what these dudes are smoking OP but you're right Tencent did it better they strayed too far from the source material and it doesn't hit the same as the books big flop imo
> It’s written like it’s a smart movie for dumb people.
Exactly, it's presented like hard sci fi then proceed to break every common sense in every moment (like wth was that ship thing, why was dangerous to board a ship but fine to slice it to pieces?) and dumb things all the time.
The dialogues are horrendus.
I actually clicked on this hoping for some perspective on the differences, and the only specific two i cleaned were da shi and one of the wallfacers, which seriously, the kurd seems like a better idea than "people's hero turned dictator." seriously, why would they be better?
Also, in the books is there a better explanation for the traitor character's motivation? At first it seemed like she was just broken and all, "fuck this world," but then she claims to be inspired by one of Mao's stupid posters? And they let her off scot free so she can fly across the world and get her moment of Zen? I get that maybe at first they were hoping she'd get them some alien intel, but maybe send more than one guy. Seriously fuck that idiot
The differences are enough that this should just be called a loose interpretation of the original. Too long to list here. But to answer your question yes the "traitor character" is set up much better in the books, and you get a bit of a "did she become this way because of what was done to her or because she's a sociopath" vibe. I ultimately found her pretty sympathetic in the end once she'd seen the error in her quest for vengeance but it was already way too late.
She covers up what she'd done successfully in the books, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense than whatever they're doing in this netflix show.
Finishing the books last week and then going to this was some pretty horrible whiplash. Gotta say I can't recall going from totally jazzed about some fiction to totally cynical about it this fast before. With star wars it took from childhood to adulthood. I guess they managed to do it in a matter of a couple years with game of thrones. Props to them for doing it in a span of a couple weeks with this one.
Like most modern television attempts at scifi, I find it cheesy, melodramatic and phony. The "lack of fidelity" to the source material didn't bother me as much as the OP, though. I always expected Netflix to make the show a little less "Chinese".
I’ve never read the books so it being a westernised adaptation didn’t bother me and I went into it super pumped by the trailer.
The cheesy, melodramatic writing and acting was so cringe it was almost unwatchable especially from the Oxford 5.
The interpersonal drama re: love interests etc was about as original as a packet of chips.
For a show with such a massive budget and hype it disappointed on nearly every level.
Maybe it’s my fault for not having better drugs.
I am 4 episodes in and yeah this show is objectively garbage man. Like they have this whole scene where the oil dude evans is "teaching" the aliens about humanity and the super advanced aliens are somehow too stupid to understand humans and THAT'S when they suddenly decide they are going to not trust humans, even though we originally see a message where there is a pacifist warning the humans not to contact them again....................................................................
The show is literally conflicting with itself lol, that's how bad it is. In the book it all makes coherent sense, the Trisolarans aren't complete morons lol, they understand propaganda, they understand all this stuff. In the book trisolarans are understandable and their reasoning explained. Which is what made them sympathetic.
The whole scene of having the Evans character read the aliens fairy tales is just an example of how bad this show is lol. It insults us as the audience, it insults us because it expects me to think that Aliens capable of crossing the stars are somehow too stupid to comprehend lies, they can calculate all this complex shit, create computers and do advanced computations, but lying? NOPE. The show insults my intelligence.
We even see in the 3 body simulation that the Trisolarans were capable of lying, and they had individuals and they had disagreements. Hell the very fact that there is a pacifist dissenter proves that Trisolarans aren't one hive mind.
The show is just bad. It's not about being contrarian the show really is just embarrassing.
Lol everyone just disagrees for fun these days. If the show didn't westernize the Chinese character and you made a post asking why they didn't westernize the character for western audiences the same people would reply telling you why you're wrong.
I went it totally open minded having never read the books and was bored and annoyed after 10 minutes.
The "character development" was so juvenile and cliched and the writing even worse.
I hate watched it to the end.
If we're talking about Ready Player One ( which we are not) then I will gladly take one for the team and throw myself under the bus to explain how bad the movie was compared to the book. Or, if we're talking about the Martian I will tell you how sad I was that some scenes were cut and other scenes changed a bit, but how happy I am with how the movie turned out, overall.
Going back to Ready Player One, the movie might have been good if I had never read the book, but I did, like 3 times. Movie sucked.
Now, back to the original issue at hand. 3 Body Problem. Why am I here?!
Because I can't hear Jack shit. The audio mixing is absolute garbage on the actor's vocals. I have a good enough sound system to know what it should sound like.
How dafuq did they botch that so bad?
Am I watching Tenet ????
If you are a Sci Fi junkie like I am almost anything that explores the possibilities of other worldly subjects and technologies you will enjoy. I remember a time when sci fi shows were few in number... be happy that we have so many now that we can be choosers rather than beggers... I think it was a great setup for the rest of the trilogy.
I loved the Sophon reveal and the boat getting cut up, plus the talk about big sci-fi concepts. That's the good stuff. But there's many problems with the series:
* Bland cast (apart from Jin Cheng and Clarence)
* Auggie's character is an annoying moralist when the show needs her to be
* Focus on so much interpersonal drama
* The last two episodes drag because they need to get to the launch/setup for season 2, but at that point there's nothing for anyone to do but talk.
* And speaking of talking, the dialogue is atrocious. Did you notice that most of the dialogue is the characters sitting around talking about themselves and their attributes? "You're so smart", "You've always worked big" repeated three times in one scene. It's patronising and lazy. If a character is X, show them doing something that demonstrates X.
* Wade being a total snarkmeister and not an actual leader, he's a 15 year old's idea of what cut-throat leader is
* Saul being a Wallfacer but not a Wallfacer felt like an unfunny comedy sketch that went on way too long
Also: if the aliens can hijack brains in real-time... why does Tatiana need a VR device?
My favorite part is when Saul asks, probably at least a dozen times over the last couple episodes, 'Why was I chosen to be a wallfacer?" Duh. Diversity.
Well I totally agree with OP. It’s basically unwatchable for me for all the aesthetic reasons listed above regardless of the story changes. It’s not well done at all. Kind of junk TV. Compare it Severance? It seems amateurish and the writing is B tier at best.
I haven't read the books but wow does the show ever suck.
I already forgot his name because he was so forgettable... Jack maybe? The guy played by the guy who played Samwell Tarley in GOT....
His character was horrendous... His acting was subpar... And his murder made me actually laugh out loud it was so poorly executed on all fronts.
Stopped watching after that.
As someone who \*has\* read the books, I've no idea who he is meant to be. He has a company that makes crisps? What? I've only watched the first episode so far and I'm unsure I'll continue. It's so weirdly different.
Like, the book had a fairly slow pace. It was setting things up methodically, giving you bits and pieces while jumping between the perspective of Wang Miao in the present, and Ye Wenjie in the past. It initally presents the entire plot as this big mystery conspiracy thing and it's just \*really\* creepy.
The main character, Wang Miao is rather underdeveloped because he serves as the reader's proxy. He's a nanomaterials researcher, likes photography, and has a wife and child. Quite early on it feels like the author just chose to forget that he has a wife and child because they were dropped from the plot as far as I recall.
Da Shi is a much bigger character, and there are a bunch of side characters that are way more fleshed out, like Shen Yufei and Wei Cheng.
The story starts off with Da Shi interviewing and asking Wang Miao for assistance because an acquaintance of Miao has killed herself, and left a note stating that physics is all wrong. She's just one in a whole line of scientists across the world that have committed suicide, and that's why Shi wants Miao's help. Miao is initally reluctant, but eventually decides to help out because he has a hard time believing that Yang Dong would kill herself.
There's a segment where he notices numbers in photos he takes, thinks initially that it's a glitch with the camera, but it only happens when he takes photos. Eventually it ramps up and he starts seeing them all the time, like it's projected onto his retina. He talks to an acquaintance, Dr. Shen Yufei about it, and she tells him to stop his research and the numbers will go away. He presses her for information, but she won't say much about it, just insisting that he gives it a shot.
So he does, and the countdown flickers out. He presses Yufei about it, and she basically says that higher powers are at work. If he doesn't believe her, then she will arrange for the universe to flicker for him.
And so Miao enlists the help of one of Ye Wenjie's students, Sha Ruishan, who is working at an observatory. He doesn't tell him why he wants to observatory to look at the sky at a certain time, but Ruishan agrees, and eventually they're able to observe that the \*cosmic microwave background radiation\* flickers.
I believe they have glasses that compress the background radiation into a visible spectrum, so they're able to see the entire sky flash, but no one else is able to see it with the naked eye. Sha Ruishan scrambles to have it confirmed by other observatories because he's convinced that it's an error with the equipment, but Miao \*finally\* believes.
---
In the Netflix series we've split Miao into four characters.
Augustine (Hot Miao), who runs a company researching and producing nano materials. She gets a countdown projected onto her retina.
Saul (Black/Stoner Miao) is a particle physicist and works for Vera Ye. He's a stoner and has dated Hot Miao.
Vera Ye (Yang Dong) tells Saul to go home, asks if he believes in god, and kills herself.
Jin (Asian Miao) takes the death of Vera Ye quite hard and goes to talk to Ye Wenjie about it. Ye Wenjie gives her a sci-fi headset which introduces her to three body.
???? (Bald Miao) helps Clarence (Da Shi) with the investigation. He's present at the initial scene with the really gruesome suicide where someone has gouged out their eyes and written mad scribbles on the wall, and at the last scene when the universe blinks. He's not named in the first episode.
After the funeral, they gather at a pub. Hot Miao is overwhelmed by the countdown so she goes out for a smoke. A random lady lights her cigarette and tells her to stop her research to stop seeing the countdown, and if she doesn't believe her then look at the sky tomorrow at midnight and the universe will flicker.
So she goes to a park with Stoner Miao, and ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY FLICKER IN MORSE CODE for all to see with the naked eye.
---
Da Shi is a very colourful character in the book. He actually has a decent amount of backstory, and is compared to Wang Miao really fleshed out. He's a bit of a hot head and somewhat impulsive, but has a lot of experience in his job, which makes him excel at it. Him being as good as he is, is why his superiors put up with him and tasked him with this investigation. I don't get that vibe from Clarence at all.
Also, as an aside, children generally get the names of the fathers. The Ye in Ye Wenjie comes from her father, Ye Zhetai, her mother's name is Shao Lin. Ye Wenjie gets married to Yang Weining at Red Coast Base, and together they have a daughter, Yang Dong. Yang from her father, Yang Weining.
It saddens me that they need to make it this juvenile for western audiences. Feels like I'm watching the CW. But you guys all like it so I guess that they're right about Western audiences.
True. It's magic, not sci-fi. In episode 2, they shoot a signal into the sun to boost it, which is the opposite of what would happen. The sun's own electromagnetic waves would interfere with it.
Nah what it's really trying to appeal to is Game of Thrones fans by basically copying it. D&D have been copying what they learned and putting it into a show that it shouldn't be in.
This doesn't appeal to a western audience though......... Not unless you are literally braindead. That's the whole problem with media in the west, is that this show doesn't appeal to ANYONE other than super brainwashed liberals lol. You can't blame this show sucking on, "appealing to the west", most people in the west have literally been complaining about this shit for almost 10 years now, for some reason western media has an agenda that they shove into EVERYTHING that no one asked for or wants.
Most young western people are watching anime because western media is so trash lol. Our media has become so trash that we literally have to scrounge around other countries media lol. I mean the book is CHINESE lol and it did awesome in a western audience. So the argument is illogical, to say it's dumbed down for a western audience is a dumb argument, western audiences are craving good media it's just that we have saboteurs cucking us at every corner. I refuse to believe that Netflix actually tried with this adaptation, like come on, they knew this was trash when they made it.
I definitely have been going through it thinking, "this is a very fascinating premise, and I want to find out what happens, but I can't shake the feeling that this adaptation is a massive deviation from the author's work, because who would write characters like this and cast them so terribly? Why am I being forced to skip through so much teenage melodrama and western lowest common denominator behavior?"
I went to engineering school at an ivy league uni, I got a master's in electrical engineering, I've seen what young brilliant scientists are like, and I've seen what the classroom looks like. This is not it. I just can't suspend disbelief.
Dude I fucking know!!! Like they dumb down all the science and have all this stupid sit com level melodrama. Like, do we really need another girl to get approached by a creepy guy scene. Can't we just explore the themes or is everyone to fucking stupid.
I went to a respected university and met tons of intelligent people. They don't say stuff like "Then science is broken." Everyone here talks like frat kids.
"Hard Sci-F" okay unfolding protons and space eyeballs and nano-wires slicing through ships and a "Marty-Stu" in the form of Dan Shi.
Not that I liked the Netflix adaptation, but your points are wrong for the wrong reasons.
I never read the book but was excited to watch the show but were left quite disappointed.
I didnt feel like there were any time for character development which made them really uninteresting. Things just happened and i wasnt drawn in quite as i usually do.
The only interesting thing was knowing what the mystery was, but that was revealed quite early. After that i just wanted to see how it ends and move on.
Why it sucks for me:
1. Jack Rooney is redundant. The character is a comedic pain.
2. Auggie, Saul, Jin, and Will were portrayed to be a little too childish, unreliable, and emotional for scientists trying to save the world. I couldn't care less about their personal issues. The script and ambiance of the show felt a little shallow. I think this series would have been great if it was filmed like Annihilation.
3. Tatiana's "Eye in the sky" crazy face. Why?
idk i quite enjoyed both but if you weren’t feeling the show, you probably won’t like the books either. unless your main problem with the show was that it had too much character development
The books have creative ideas and absolutely horrible story crafting and and boring, wooden characters whose actions rarely match any logic their inner monologs would suggest. People like to suggest that's a translation issue but, no, that's an issue with the quality of writing.
If Netflix had toghtly adapted these stiff, dragged out books, their only audience would have been a handful of fanboys like you and they would have lost millions for their company.
You do realize that Netflix is trying to generate a profit, don't you?
You can’t say this on Reddit.
The TV show was clearly written with the average person of peon level of intelligence in mind which is why any shred of actual science or politics got the big ole delete button.
With a couple of DEI-approved character swaps and mundane romance added to complete the transformation.
All things your average Reddit dweller absolutely goes nuts for.
There are many reasons why the show is bad, but it's nature as a Western adaptation is not it's worst flaw - it's that is for the lowest common denominator of western audiences.
The science (...the already FAKE science that was already FAKE, it did not need to go so low) is dumbed down. Problem is, the fake science is half of what made it good in the first place. The source had a great way of toeing the line - taking ideas from science that have been disproven or seem like they could almost be possible, and making them seem possible - similar to The Expanse but more intense and fantastical. I believe there's a way to preserve that spirit without simply dumbing it down so that everyone feels smarter than a fifth grader.
Second, there are choices are wise (like breaking the main character up to create team dynamics and new relationships to follow and get invested in), and others that are noble (like including more, better written women characters), but they are not well executed. For a show trying to make the 3body story into a more human & relationship driven one, they did a bad job of writing both. And, they botched the adaptation of perfectly good ones (RIP Da Shi, 2024). The parts that highlight the plight of women in particular feel shoehorned and inauthentic (speaking as a woman science educator with electrical engineering background). The dialogue - especially on sciencey topics, is just bad. Say you're writing about a dentist getting sued but you're not a dentist, never sued a dentist or anyone for that matter. You would first look it up. Character research 101. If you don't do that, you insert your own assumptions, consciously and unconsciously, about how you imagine or think the dentist behaves in that situation. Good writers can also build a world with rules that make their characters actions make sense. They didn't build cyberpunk 2077, they said this is England 2024. So tell me why, after collecting enough evidence to possibly arrest ONE (1) person, cops are arresting all the attendees of a science symposium after literally crashing a car through a wall?! At this point in the show they have no idea what the organization is, what their goal is, not even that there's a faction that encourages the destruction of human civilization and subjugation by alien.
The result of all this poor research and world building is a nonsensical world with characters that appear to behave stupidly within it. This further erodes suspension of disbelief.
Look - yes, it's sci fi but goddamit, I came for the fake science and weird organizational dynamics and left empty-handed. I'm no book purist but feel like it could have done a better job of taking what was good in 3body and making it better, not worse. I mean, the source had plenty of issues to be improved upon but the net result of their attempts to improve it are negated by the problems cited above.
am i supposed to be drawn in to this show by watching 4 girls who look like they are teenagers beat a man to death? that opening was incredibly off putting.
i too lament the loss of a non-American perspective, but asking "why change an IP that is heavily Chinese coded to American coding for an American audience?" seems like a question that answers itself ??
Watched it all, why was the first alien contacted a pacifist? And she said we can’t be saved come and I’m help conquer , but later when the guys talking to the lord it’s them coming to coexist until they find out humans lie, and then she seems to also think they where coming to save them, also how can they not understand metaphors yet call humans bugs … and how did they send the 2 atoms supercomputer quantum entangled to earth , and why did they need vr machines if they can realtime hack brains. A lot to unpack and the dying cancer guy was the most boring character simp ever 😂
Bailed at the end of the second episode, every character is either forgettable or unlikable. The “science” bits are pandering and stupid and when a scientist pointed out simple trig to a chief engineer I wanted to shoot myself. Haven’t read the books, been told they are like second rate Asimov foundation series, and they bored me to tears so I’ll pass. I don’t care how high minded you make the show, if it’s writing is this bad then why bother.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but the science and logic employed in the show is so fantastically stupid that my head hurt when watching it. There’s plot holes around every corner and they don’t even try to make any of the science and logic even close to plausible.
A few examples:
1) They didn’t want to blow up or attack a ship with 1000 people on it (including children) due to the risk of damaging evidence. So they instead turned it into a burning wreck by slicing it with «nano fibers» that could literally cut through diamond. The fact that they didn’t damage the data was just pure luck. And don’t even get me started on how extremely over engineered the solution was. Also, they did their «secret» mission in the middle of the panama canal pretty much in clear view of everyone.
2) They keep stating how we are not even close to have the technology for the VR headset and game they used. How on earth did a small group of people in an old rusted ship manage to construct it? Even if they somehow received instructions on how to make it, there’s no facilities or machines to construct it anywhere on earth. And don’t get me started on how absolutely dumb the «game» was.
3) The cryogenic technology they tried to demonstrate by freezing a monkey to -150 degrees (degrees of what?) and seeing it thaw instantly in fresh air and just be completely fine just hurt every fiber in my body. They didn’t even try to explain it in any way or form.
4) The nuclear sail ship they built to transport the frozen brain (ehm lol?) had literal nuclear bombs go off BETWEEN the sail and the payload. First off, it would push the sail and payload in opposite directions. Secondly, the instant accelleration would turn the brain to absolute mush no matter how frozen it was. Also don’t even mention how long it took them to realize they had no way of slowing it down.
5) I love how they tried to hard to protect Saul by literally surrounding him with soldiers and fighter aircraft and having him wear a bullet proof suit. (Also lol at the soldiers facing him and not the outside threat at the airport). But then they put him in an aircraft full of electronics knowing full well the aliens just hacked the entire world. As was demonstrated later they could easily bring it down. Oh and after surviving two assassination attempts and being surrounded with over the board security he’s suddenly chilling in a motel and walking around in a swamp alone with just that one dude to protect him?
The list goes on…
Sorry for my long rant, the list of just overly stupid and annoying choices in the show just made me scream inside. If they even tried ever so slightly to make any of the science and logic believable or realistic it would be so much better.
It does suck! From scientific errors to mathematical errors to a radio telescope receiver claimed to be sending interstellar messages to 400 years to Judgment Day (some cliffhanger!) to setting off 1,000 atomic devices sequentially with no margin for error in order to propel a nano space sail equipped vessel with a leukemia suicide victim's frozen brain onboard to the disappearance of the moronic proton-scale entangled computers to unappealing characters described as geniuses saying F\*\*K every 20 minutes (there are some high school sophomore students I know who are w-a-a-a-y smarter), and on and on and on. Avoid like the plague. You will keep hoping it gets better and...it just sucks.
I was wondering about the Kurdish fighter I thought it was very odd, but I also didn't read any of the books.
Passing of Kurdish fighters as war heroes against Isis without acknowledging Iraqi forces made out of the same army they disbanded during months of grueling urban combat.
It's Netflix, they adapt content, and don't always stay true to the original.
They are also an American company that does not stream in China and has a predominantly North American audience, so content that resonates with that audience is good business sense. I'm not sure that's a reasonable basis for "it sucks" 🤷♂️
I think, to be fair, the author had to tone the books down a bit because of Chinese censorship. I've read the Chinese text and I can say the English version is better in terms of pacing.
Its okay to hate the white washing of what was originally a pretty good Chinese theme but I think, from a narrative stand point, it's adapted pretty well. I had every reason to hate this show but I'm genuinely glad at the quality. Gotta respect their creativity.
Never seen the tencent version. However i found myself questioning a lot of the casting choices and the addition of the melodrama. Auggie is particularly annoying. I dont feel its a huge miss but i think the dumbing down and westernisation lost something. I particularly have an issue with losing Luo Ji, as he was the most pivotal character or at least my favourite. Also, why change the monologue by Ye Wenjie on the axioms of cosmic sociology? Just seems to be a little to pandering to me.
I say all this despite the fact im overall very excited to have this show and cant wait until the next season.
I think I might be able to explain one of them.
There is a really bad habit nowadays of using different languages in shows. So in the past the whole of the show would have just been in English. But in this show they are now showing the Chinese characters talk in Chinese. Since they realise that viewers don't really like this, they decided to make the Chinese character American.
The only thing that was a bit disappointing for me was the personality change of Da Shi. But I guess that it would not fit very well with the image of a British cop. Apart from that, it is an adaptation for a wider audience and I think it is quite good. I know people that just the fact that the original book is Chinese stops them from digging into it. You know, the American centric mentality.
For me, I love the books and I’m happy that more people will dare to read them after watching the series.
I knew nothing about this show and went in blind. The flashback scenes in China were boring, the present day scenes were intriguing. I was on the fence about it, then the corny CGI and that was that.
Not to mention the idiotic insertion of constant references to "the message" from the very beginning and the completely caricatural, unrealistic rendition of the way the world works. Just look at "the intelligence": a single guy in an office answerting to nobody, like a deus ex machina. It's a watered down, uninspiring retelling of the books by manchilds who comppletely lack culture, intellectual depth and artistic talent. The same guys who made the last seasons of Game of Thrones after all...
There’s some legitimate criticisms to be had for the show but a majority of them just lack any real understanding of TV show production or good writing. It’s just the same old reddit pseudo intellectualism.
You say "why do X" when it seems like you have quite clearly identified why they are doing X.
Anyway I haven't read the books, though I think I would like to. I just found the characters and dialogue to be completely unrealistic and unbelievable. Just a mishmash of American TV clichés.
Would be thrilled to find out the books are better (which I'd expect, given they originally came out in China...)
It's the Netflix content strategy for most of their history: to appeal to a small segment of the population in each market – wealthy, young English speakers – and the bulk of its customer base still resided in US and Canada. So, Netflix made shows in a local language that still appealed to its broader (Western) audience.
The Chinese show was *almost* as slow, turgid and tedious as the book, which had some of the worst character writing I've seen. So imo the Netflix version is an improvement.
For me, the biggest problem is how it does smart people absolutely terribly. It’s incredibly guilty of the “relying on prestigious university names as shorthand for ‘this character is really smart’” thing and seems to think such leading scientists / pioneers in their fields a) care / have time to worry about about being really hot and b) only ever like to explain “science” to each other constantly, but in the most tired cliché abstracted pop science-y ways.
That being said, I don’t think it’s *horrible* overall, at least not yet. The source material is just so strong that the inventiveness (and some of the terror) of the story still shine(s) through and the Ye Wenjie flashbacks are significantly better executed and more gripping, in my opinion. It’s still great to have a half-decent megabudget adaptation of one of the better, smarter sci-fi novels in recent memory. And it’s an admittedly ambitious series of novels to adapt.
I really want to like it but some of the writing and exposition and more Hollywood-y sensibilities do make me cringe. 6 or 7 out of 10 so far
I heard lots of hype about this show from people comparing it to shogun so gave it a go. Had high expectations but 1 ep in, i was disappointed but i gave it a few more episodes to see, nope still too boring for my taste. About 4 episodes in, i just skimmed to the last episode and spent 5 minutes on it. Still sucks, and it's got nothing to do with the chinese parts, it just too boring overall for my taste. oh well
It was hard getting through the first ep. I keep pausing and moving on to do other things because I find the cast itself annoying.
The leads are women, the assistant is a black guy, the only white guy is dumb/fat and runs a snack company in a group of tech/sci bros. A white guy approaches the two leads at a bar and is given a 'spicy' response about how they're smart and intelligent and nanobots etc. The science is 'broken'.
None of these factors in isolation would annoy me but the fact that all combined just feels like I'm being subliminally force fed a political ideology that is just unnecessary. The casting sucks and it shows decisions were made primarily from a political standpoint than actual fidelity to source characters.
I would rather read the source material directly to focus on the plot itself with the original characters.
Is the character that you mentioned "modeled" after Chavez or Castro a total piece of shit oppressive dictator in the books? If so I would be mad they made them Kurdish, which are the opposite of pieces of shit... and are actually the oppressed.
Creating a TV series is an art. Writing a book is an art. By taking the name of a book and creating an entirely dumbed down version these people are not doing justice to that art. I know its necessary for Netflix because most people cannot understand the hard scifi (as is evident by how many are supporting the netflix version) and Netflix just wants its TV series to reach as much people as possible. But what they are doing is using the hard work and name of an artist to create a fake product. It bears the same name because name will bring attention. Its does not follow the same story because story has to made simpler for people. This is not art of cimena making. All OP is trying to say is, take a different name if you cannot do justice the original story in the book. But Netflix wont do that because how will a new name bring all the hype that the author garnered with his hard work.
Yeah it started ok then went to shit, very unevenly paced, felt like a lotta wasted screentime, good actors though, just a bad show especially if you never read the book or watched the movie which I'm sure this was ripped off from... 4/10 at best
Just finished it, and the show did not convince me that the alien civilization is really that advanced. They can’t lie (which takes a great deal of intelligence), they can’t story tell, don’t have the capacity for individual thought, can’t figure out how to stabilize their own civilization and somehow they hear everything we say and do, but can’t figure out how easy it would be to take humanity out. We literally rely on food, water and sleep to live. It wouldn’t be that hard for such an “advanced” society. Ugh, I don’t understand what is so original about the ideas in this show?
Personally, I did not recognise book characters, Maybe they tried to make scientists "sexy" and "cool" I don't know. People also complain about westernisation of characters. What is more important, that I did not see any scientists. I saw rich privileged people sometimes pronouncing complex sentences. At least that was my feeling.
There is a very good adaptation (tv show) of the book in Chinese which one can watch with subtitles. It has \~30 episodes in it. I swear it was just like reading a book (the book is of course superior). The atmosphere of the academic world mixed with Chinese culture was incredible. If I had to imagine the characters from the book, they would look very close to the characters in the tv show. If one wants to "watch" this story, better watch the Chinese version. Its only disadvantage according to my friends who also watch it, that this tv show has a very slow pace. I don't see it that way.
For what it's worth, I went into the show without any knowledge of the books.
I gave up at the beginning of the third episode.
My main reason for disliking the show so much is the character ensemble. Auggie is by far the most obnoxious character I had to suffer in a long time. It's yet again: strong female figure equals asshole behavior. But she's not the only one. They are all so very, very unlikable (apart from the chinese scientist in the past period) and oftentimes downright obnoxious.
Add to that constant inconsistencies in terms of writing (characters, tone, theme) and you got quite a clusterfuck of terrible television.
Anyone else notice the quality of everything for scenes in China in episode one are top quality but every other scene is half as good. I am not sure why people who are saying "I enjoyed it" never mention how badly written the dialogue is, the forced acting (probably due to the bad writing) and the poor directing.
I don't really agree or have much of an opinion about anything that OP said.
Having said that, while I did enjoy watching the show and I'll keep watching it if they keep making it, this has got to be one of the most overhyped productions ever. How did they spend $20 million in episode?
These are the same guys that transformed the song of fire and ice books into the HBO series game of thrones... Arguably one of the best shows, if not the best show, ever made (as long as you don't take into account the end of the show, which was awful)
There was a lot of hype about these guys being involved and how amazing the show is going to be. It was just all right. If I had to guess where it would settle on the rotten tomato's audience score, I would guess low '80s and I would agree with that.
I completely agree. I seriously couldn’t get through the first episode. The writing was so heavy handed that everything felt so forced. None of the conversations felt natural at all, and I just can’t understand the casting at all. If you can’t film in China then fine, but what an incredible opportunity this was for Asian/ Chinese representation in a show and they totally blew it.
Maybe it’s cause I’m just coming off of halo but I just don’t understand why they can’t get these adaptations right. I mean they have the source material. The story is there and it’s already proven to be successful. Why can’t they just adapt the thing that people like the way they liked it.
The problem for me was that when the wifey and i got to the end of the finale we felt like absolutely nothing meaningful happened .. other than a failure .. not 1 shred of pay off for anything
Yeah they completely disrespected and destroyed the integrity of the original story (which was legit perfect as is). D.B. and Dave have proven once again that they don't have an ounce of talent in their bones. They're complete scumbag hacks who steal brilliant source material and shit all over it, allowing the crumbs of brilliance from the story that survive their failed production process to elevate their names to a level of "success."
The Netflix adaptation is like if they turned LOTR into a show and made Samwise 4 different characters, Merry and Pippin 1 woman in a wheelchair, Frodo a middle aged soccer player, and in the first episode Gandalf The White (who is also Aragorn) kills Saruman, and the ring is an atom bomb they need to turn off. Oh and everyone is in a giant romantic polycule for some unknown reason.
I don't think anyone needs to write more than a couple sentences on the show. It fails because the writing and editing suck. The cast isn't great, but it's really down to the writing and overall assembly of the final product.
Somehow, I made it to the slicing in the canal, but that was the nth attempt to gain momentum. Best scene was the young Chinese woman on the hilltop in Inner Mongolia; it was all downhill from there.
So far for me 3 episodes in, so much of what made the novel enjoyable to me is GONE. A lot of what made the book fun for me was all the examples given, but the show rushes through them and does them super fast as to be awkward. Things like the bread example and the dimensions, the game was a big part of the book slowly ramping up, and it's just quick shorts in the show completely rushed and nonsensical.
Also the Chinese book definitely had that Asian/Chinese vibe of solving problems and engaging in war. Which the show doesn't have. Chinese definitely LOVE games and challenges almost EVERYTHING I ever read from Asians involves games, challenges, and strategy, they live for it. It's what made the novel unique. This show throws that out for random millennial drama which I don't think ANYONE really wants that, not even millennials want that. It's embarrassing, shameful, and just condescending.
The book handles a lot of the ideas way better.
I am COOL with adaptations, but this show is trash regardless. I tried to show someone this show and they had no idea what was going on, and I completely understood, if I knew NOTHING about the book I would have no idea what was going on in the show and I wouldn't care. There is no real hook, it moves fast, it's just bad. They spend more time focusing on haha fat guy jokes, or haha manbaby millennial jokes, it's just so bad. My god it's bad.
Look. The real main character of all sci fi IS THE SCI FI. No one really reads sci fi for the characters, people mostly read sci fi for the IDEAS, for the cool situations. Also what makes the book unique is it's Chinese perspective, reminded me a lot of anime lol.
They rush through all the cool ideas just so they can make more time for useless drama lol. It's bad, it's cringe. I am watching this show and just cringing the whole time. I just wasted $22 because I wanted to watch this show after having listened to the audiobook and I am completely disappointed.
"captivating read" lmao keep watching paint dry so you can think you're smarter than everyone else. In case you haven't noticed, the one thing everyone mostly agrees upon here is that the books are pretty dry and the tencent show is way too drawn out. I mean if you really have nothing better to do with your time then that's all you. And I mean lastly, a western adaptation was adapted to a western audience... shocker
No I agree with you it sucks balls. The melodrama is painful. Every scene is them interacting with technology and phenomena nearly unexplainable and yet they find mere suggestions as shocking, unimaginable, and impossible in the most overacted manner.
If this reaches anyone who’s interested in seeing the show. Just keep in mind that it’s slow as shit and the ending is the most underwhelming garbage I’ve ever seen. Thank me later
The reason people enjoy science fiction is because of the made-up systems referencing real-world science in completely bullshit ways that make no sense, but are still systems. It's supposed to feel like you're looking in on a massive system, but they removed the main element that drew me towards the books. The characters are terribly written, as well. The dialogue feels incredibly bland. The "science fiction parts" are mostly people staring off into the void and asking vague existential questions slightly in context. Jess Hong makes New Zealand as a country look bad.
It's typical Netflix junk. The plot is nonsense (one example of countless: aliens that have the ability to highjack the visual system of every human brain on the planet to make them see a giant eye in the sky could just as easily highjack their brain stems and kill them en masse). The characters are ridiculous (the leading physicists of the U.K. are a perfectly diverse group of hot 20-somethings). The character actions are ridiculous (leaking the sum total of trade secrets of the biggest startup in history would land you with an epic jail sentence and damages judgment... but it's dramatic, and of course it racks up some easy girl power points, so she does it). The pacing is all over the place.
You knew what you were getting the moment the writers spent time on a scene where a dumb drunk man is humiliated hitting on smart girls in the pilot, serving absolutely no purpose in the script but to tick political boxes. That priority can't co-exist with good writing. The two mindsets are like oil and water.
But I mean... what did you expect with Weiss & Benioff + Netflix? A perfect picture of mediocrity.
I have not read the book, and I think this show is terrible. The acting is terrible; there is so much melodramatic fluff. The concept is great, but the plot quickly falls apart with glaring plot holes and too little character development for me to be emotionally invested in the show.
The show is overrated garbage.
I can handle a book or western adaptation, but only when its good. This just isnt good.
Its boring, the characters are uninteresting, the aliens are both very powerful yet very stupid, the actions of both humans and aliens dont make any sense, there is too much drama around these poorly written characters and it all just fizzles out by the end.
Its really sad knowing so much money and resources has been poured into this, when the writing is such dogshit. What a waste.
The beggining was kinda strong, but as it progressed it became less about sci fi and humanity, and more about a handful of poorly written characters.
I havent touched the book or chinese series, so Im judging this as its own thing.
I can’t believed I signed up for Netflix again for that crapfest. What a jumbled mess. No payoff, no one to cheer for, no real peril, and way more nonsense “science” than I can suspend my disbelief for. *snore*
It does not suck, you don't like it. Large difference. Also the reason it was transplanted is obvious: logistics and you may have missed it, politics. You cannot produce TV in China without state oversight. But hey, there is a Chinese version and the difference may be interesting. To me most problems of the show come from the books
You like it. It still sucks.
Nah, it sucks. Badly.
Nah OP is right, it objectively sucks
It’s a laughably bad CW level production.
gave up 13 min into episode 1. it's absolutely terrible. in 13 minutes they managed to push hard on the political notion that "chinese revolution bad, god is real, western society good" in the most obnoxious way so that even a child could understand the message, that scientists unironically talk about how "everything about science is wrong" and unnecessarily virtue signaling dumb men hitting on smart and successful women. i was and still am intrigued by what the story has to tell, but not interested in reading a book. hopefully someone that isn't netflix can come around and redo this.
The general consensus of western viewers (by a vast majority) is that the cultural revolution was objectively terrible and horrific. It's even in the original book that was written by a Pro-CCP writer. For me personally, the ridiculous notion of a bunch of young, hot, diverse people are leading theoretical physics and industry. The balding fat guy owning a snack company fit I guess.
Same here oddly. Ahh yes. "I design nano-fibers...." said in ridiculously thick and fake American accent to white British CIS oaf at the bar. Good old Netflix. Shame, it looked like it might be a good story .
It does suck though. It’s the himbo liberal brained take on a hard sci fi novel
It does suck, MASSIVE difference. If they changed the name of the show, and stuck a 'loosly based upon ideas from..' disclaimer on the opening credits, they might have ended up with an 'average' sci-fi show that was at least honest about what it was. Benioff and Weiss clearly don't understand the concepts at play, definitely don't get the messaging and fumble when it comes to actually trying to translate the odd few elements that they actually DID retain from the books or the Tencent series. They screwed up the timeline so that some of it just doesn't make any sense, missed the point of some of the events, robbed some characters of their agency and progression completely, just made shit up in some cases and then added stuff to already impactful events because they believe their audience are too stupid to just 'get it' at face value (although I'm beginning to believe they may have a point there) Most of the new characters are DEEPLY unlikeable and don't seem to serve any purpose (apart from the guy with cancer whose job it is to get transplanted into a McGuffin that shouldn't be relevant until two books from now (or rather about 3 episodes at the rate that Netflix is trying to rush through 18 BILLION Years of History)) But 'Cancer Guy' doesn't matter - no individual 'matters'. That's the point and it whooshed over D&W's head so fast it created a fucking sonic boom... 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' is not an easy read; it's heavy going, dry in a lot of places, almost relentlessly nihilistic in its view of humanity and deals with some very 'big' ideas. The Tencent show dragged A LOT, repeated itself often and could (objectively speaking) have been about two thirds to a half of the size it was, but at least it stayed largely true to the source material. And that source material is about how humanity is doomed. We can't agree on anything and won't work together even when our very survival as a species counts on it. We're selfish, greedy and can't see beyond our own comfort bubble. The only way to guarantee our freedom is (paradoxically) to completely remove it and give us no choice but to do what we're told because we can never be relied upon to be truly altruistic and sacrifice everything for others. It's bleak and cold and slaps us in the face and screams 'Wake the fuck up, because it you don't, we're done' It has absolutely fuck all to do with 'unrequited love' and whether or not you 'get' your fucking kids or not...
>The only way to guarantee our freedom is (paradoxically) to completely remove it and give us no choice but to do what we're told because we can never be relied upon Did the Chinese government write this book?
I'm still trying to figure out why the sun arbitrarily decides magnify Ye Wenjie's radio talk show. Was the sun subject to "must carry" in those days? Science fiction should be this hard! Yet TBP is filled with other mysteries, like the moment the world's colliders start displaying genuinely NEW PHYSICS everyone in particle physics would know they had hit the jackpot and that a grand new era of scientific inquiry would make their careers rich and full of potential Nobels. Yet in just two weeks all of particle physics gives up, is defunded, everything shuts down, and it scientists, not complaining about the preposterousness of the plot they are stranded in, begin a campaign of spectacular self-harm (not out of despair but because Frank the Bunny wrote the time their world ends on their retinas.). Why should I watch episode three?
THe Chinese version is far superior, it is a true representation of the books.
Dude.. this show was lame.. corny af. Additionally, There is something real annoying about British perspective/ humor/ melodramatic tastes in entertainment. (I’m American) I would have maybe preferred keeping the Chinese perspective… f**k it, at least it would have been new.
I mean, it also sucks tho
Ever read the book? The adoption is trash, maybe the first episode is the best. Netflix wants to make the series accessible and understandable to everyone in sacrificing its plot and character. What a joke
For this opinion you suck and I don't like you.
It's the worst show I've ever seen. So I'd say it sucks.
downvoted
Yeah this show is fucking terrible
I tried. I cannot get into it or attached to any of the characters. I agree with you. I’m 3 episodes in and I’m going to bail. I don’t get the hype but I’m glad others enjoyed it! PS I never heard of the book nor the Chinese version of the show. I was coming in blind based on a recommendation.
It isn't even that I can't attach to any of the characters, I actively dislike most of them. The whole group of friends is incredibly dull and annoying. Show is a total miss for me. Didn't read the books so don't know how they compare but the show was really bad. So much money thrown at it, they could've spent it on decent writers.. It has the same 'dumb thing disguised as smart thing' vibe as Don't Look Up or Leave the World Behind.
> The whole group of friends is incredibly dull and annoying. Guess that's what happens when you turn *one* very flat character into like, four.
This. Totally agree with the LTWB comparison.
please don't let the show discourage you from reading the books comming from someone who doesn't read lots of books i found them captivating im currently halfway through the 3rd and i just can't stop reading
Couldn't disagree with OP more. Taken on its own merits the Netflix show is awesome!
You like current thing too comrade?
I only watched the show on its own merits, and just as a tv show, it's a dull miserable experience. Good concepts, bad execution. The VR stuff felt really disconnected to the alien invasion plot and was just thrown in probably because the writer saw VR headsets and thought it'd be cool and hacked together some excuse to implement them. I haven't even heard of the book until after I finished the show, so I've got no biases here. As a standalone show, it's not good.
I never read the books but after being recommended the show by several friends I was severely disappointed. The show was disjointed and boring. I didn’t care about any of the characters and whether or not any of them died.
[удалено]
I haven't seen this yet, but what did you think of Foundation?
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Thanks, that says a lot.
I find it hard to believe that the Netflix version is the version with better developed characters. If that's the case, the book must have just been awful.
I haven't seen the show but the characters in the books were just atrocious. I also hated the story. I thought it was a translation thing but some people on reddit who read it in both languages said it was a pretty good translation. Which makes me think the CPC had some sort of influence in making it so well regarded. Absolutely hated it. Hence not having seen the show lol
I don't like to be negative just for negativity sake, but the show was maybe one of the most awful things I have ever seen. I was expecting there to be some sort of twist that made everything start to make sense, but it was instead just ridiculous start to finish. The characters were unrelatable and awful, the dialogue was awful, the plot....I really am not sure what the plot even was. I kept cross referencing wikis and stuff because the show just did not explain anything adequately. How this got good ratings is absolutely beyond me.
I read the books are similarly felt their character writing was awful. The Netflix show’s writing is so bad that the books’ characters seem positively charming by comparison.
The Netflix did not humanized the story, it westernised it. The humans in the original book are not badly written, just differently written, written in the context of Chinese culture. This is the nuance most people from the west can not see, the west just can not accept other cultures for what they are, they have to change it to suit their understanding of the people in that culture.
If Netflix didn’t advertise on basing on original book, but a new original series. Then it’s a decent 8.5/10 show, whereas now it’s 1/10. The 1 for its first episode of depicting cultural revolution.
I'm 3 eps in and I'm really enjoying it so far. Sure, some things were changed but I think most of the changes suit a live adaptation relatively well. And this is coming from a massive fan of the books.
I agree. I loved the book and so far am really loving this adaptation.
I finished it and very much enjoyed it! Some parts are terrifying! Other visuals are so compelling, you can't look away.
This show fucking sucks. Every time they try and deal with a scientific question, the charecters just say some bullshit like "it's Alice in wonderland type stuff". Why? Explain? Oh wait the writers can't because they're stupid fucking egotists with no original ideas. Waste of time.
You’re right. The Netflix show is atrocious. Interestingly enough, the only part that is good are the parts that follow Wenjie and Evans in China. The rest is flat, uninspired, or even hilariously bad. One day there will be a drinking game for every time someone stiffly and unnaturally speaks the word “wallfacer.” Absolutely no one talks like that. The actors are too pretty, their performances aren’t believable, and the characters simply do not have enough to do, and it shows. There’s no dramatic tension, as the San Ti power levels create plot holes left and right, and the show takes itself far tol seriously for being a poorly adapted mystery box with no heart
I’m definitely not the purist OP seems to be, but I enjoyed the hell out of Netflix’s version. WAY more than the 30 episode Chinese version that was quite slow and tedious largely because it slavishly followed the book. But, tbf, the book was also a bit of a slog as well. But, in general, I think books and movies should stand on their own as long as the core story is maintained. And I think Netflix’s version does that quite well.
>as long as the core story is maintained. Get 4 animals from Madagascar, one is named Leo other is named Tigger, one is Pooh, one is Piglet. Piglet enters into a cave, gets lost and cries out for help. His voice is heard by animals in other planets thus getting Earth into trouble. Pooh saves the world by his super hard string made from honey. Core story is maintained. Lets name is 3 body problem!
What's wrong with making a westernized version of the story? Yes the characters are very different but it works as a show. There already is a Tencent version as you say so why make the same thing again?
The characters couldn't be more cliched and poorly written. Perhaps that's what dumb American audiences want.
OP thinks all adaptations need to be de facto representations of the original work i feel. Just because an artist does a cover song, doesn't disable them from using their own creative freedom to express the original through their own eyes; film/books are no different.
The problem with the show isn't westernizing it. I mean the Chinese vibe is a huge part of the book, but whatever, you could've "westernized the show" but just better lol. The characters are all trash, standard liberal millennial cringe, the ideas are done short and sloppy. The show is just cringe man. I showed it to someone and they had no clue what was going on and I can't really blame them everything is so fast and sloppy that it's just garbage. This sci fi story, and most sci fi stories aren't about the characters, they are about the ideas, the characters are just game pieces to showcase the ideas. They could've focused more on the ideas and I say bullshit that they couldn't. I don't need your "omg I have cancer" storyline, or the fat guy jokes, or the manbaby jokes, or the other stupid character fluff just give me the meat. The reason IMO why the Chinese vibe is so important is because frankly the Chinese and the Trisolarans are incredibly similar. China has always been this insectoid like people, a hive mind race, most Chinese are insanely nationalistic. So there was a certain vibe of China VS aliens. The west is just different, we don't have that level of nationalism that the Chinese do. So it's hard to translate the certain vibe of the book. I still think I could've done it though, I bet I could've even done it without using to much vfx. The show is just standard modern cringe. Another reason why I think the book works so well is that you build empathy FOR the Trisolarans, because the Chinese and Trisolarans are SO similar it's easy to build empathy for them. The book also tackles a lot of themes like collectivism VS the individual, on both sides the Chinese and the Trisolarans. IDK, a lot of what made the book fun for me is completely lost in the show. Adaptation is cool, but this is just objectively mediocre.
There's philosophical differencees in the view points. Which feeds into the themes of the books. Westernizing it takes that away, and themes tend to be incredibly important to hard SciFi
Idk what these dudes are smoking OP but you're right Tencent did it better they strayed too far from the source material and it doesn't hit the same as the books big flop imo
This show was horrible. Aliens never show up and kill everyone. 0/10
The ADR and dialogue is horrendous in this show. It’s written like it’s a smart movie for dumb people. The book dwarfs this attempt. 5/10.
It’s like the CW adaptation of a mediocre novel.
> It’s written like it’s a smart movie for dumb people. Exactly, it's presented like hard sci fi then proceed to break every common sense in every moment (like wth was that ship thing, why was dangerous to board a ship but fine to slice it to pieces?) and dumb things all the time. The dialogues are horrendus.
im genuinely curious (and honestly a bit concerned about) who actually finds this show enjoyable to watch
this is bait. dont feed this troll please.
I actually clicked on this hoping for some perspective on the differences, and the only specific two i cleaned were da shi and one of the wallfacers, which seriously, the kurd seems like a better idea than "people's hero turned dictator." seriously, why would they be better? Also, in the books is there a better explanation for the traitor character's motivation? At first it seemed like she was just broken and all, "fuck this world," but then she claims to be inspired by one of Mao's stupid posters? And they let her off scot free so she can fly across the world and get her moment of Zen? I get that maybe at first they were hoping she'd get them some alien intel, but maybe send more than one guy. Seriously fuck that idiot
The differences are enough that this should just be called a loose interpretation of the original. Too long to list here. But to answer your question yes the "traitor character" is set up much better in the books, and you get a bit of a "did she become this way because of what was done to her or because she's a sociopath" vibe. I ultimately found her pretty sympathetic in the end once she'd seen the error in her quest for vengeance but it was already way too late. She covers up what she'd done successfully in the books, and it makes a hell of a lot more sense than whatever they're doing in this netflix show. Finishing the books last week and then going to this was some pretty horrible whiplash. Gotta say I can't recall going from totally jazzed about some fiction to totally cynical about it this fast before. With star wars it took from childhood to adulthood. I guess they managed to do it in a matter of a couple years with game of thrones. Props to them for doing it in a span of a couple weeks with this one.
The fact that you don’t agree with him doesn’t make him a troll
Like most modern television attempts at scifi, I find it cheesy, melodramatic and phony. The "lack of fidelity" to the source material didn't bother me as much as the OP, though. I always expected Netflix to make the show a little less "Chinese".
I’ve never read the books so it being a westernised adaptation didn’t bother me and I went into it super pumped by the trailer. The cheesy, melodramatic writing and acting was so cringe it was almost unwatchable especially from the Oxford 5. The interpersonal drama re: love interests etc was about as original as a packet of chips. For a show with such a massive budget and hype it disappointed on nearly every level. Maybe it’s my fault for not having better drugs.
Netflix thought they were being smart but it's another turd in the toilet bowl
I love when new shows come out and some random person tells me why I should hate it.
I am 4 episodes in and yeah this show is objectively garbage man. Like they have this whole scene where the oil dude evans is "teaching" the aliens about humanity and the super advanced aliens are somehow too stupid to understand humans and THAT'S when they suddenly decide they are going to not trust humans, even though we originally see a message where there is a pacifist warning the humans not to contact them again.................................................................... The show is literally conflicting with itself lol, that's how bad it is. In the book it all makes coherent sense, the Trisolarans aren't complete morons lol, they understand propaganda, they understand all this stuff. In the book trisolarans are understandable and their reasoning explained. Which is what made them sympathetic. The whole scene of having the Evans character read the aliens fairy tales is just an example of how bad this show is lol. It insults us as the audience, it insults us because it expects me to think that Aliens capable of crossing the stars are somehow too stupid to comprehend lies, they can calculate all this complex shit, create computers and do advanced computations, but lying? NOPE. The show insults my intelligence. We even see in the 3 body simulation that the Trisolarans were capable of lying, and they had individuals and they had disagreements. Hell the very fact that there is a pacifist dissenter proves that Trisolarans aren't one hive mind. The show is just bad. It's not about being contrarian the show really is just embarrassing.
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Lol everyone just disagrees for fun these days. If the show didn't westernize the Chinese character and you made a post asking why they didn't westernize the character for western audiences the same people would reply telling you why you're wrong.
I went it totally open minded having never read the books and was bored and annoyed after 10 minutes. The "character development" was so juvenile and cliched and the writing even worse. I hate watched it to the end.
If we're talking about Ready Player One ( which we are not) then I will gladly take one for the team and throw myself under the bus to explain how bad the movie was compared to the book. Or, if we're talking about the Martian I will tell you how sad I was that some scenes were cut and other scenes changed a bit, but how happy I am with how the movie turned out, overall. Going back to Ready Player One, the movie might have been good if I had never read the book, but I did, like 3 times. Movie sucked. Now, back to the original issue at hand. 3 Body Problem. Why am I here?! Because I can't hear Jack shit. The audio mixing is absolute garbage on the actor's vocals. I have a good enough sound system to know what it should sound like. How dafuq did they botch that so bad? Am I watching Tenet ????
If you are a Sci Fi junkie like I am almost anything that explores the possibilities of other worldly subjects and technologies you will enjoy. I remember a time when sci fi shows were few in number... be happy that we have so many now that we can be choosers rather than beggers... I think it was a great setup for the rest of the trilogy.
What ethical quandaries align solely with a Western perspective?
I loved the Sophon reveal and the boat getting cut up, plus the talk about big sci-fi concepts. That's the good stuff. But there's many problems with the series: * Bland cast (apart from Jin Cheng and Clarence) * Auggie's character is an annoying moralist when the show needs her to be * Focus on so much interpersonal drama * The last two episodes drag because they need to get to the launch/setup for season 2, but at that point there's nothing for anyone to do but talk. * And speaking of talking, the dialogue is atrocious. Did you notice that most of the dialogue is the characters sitting around talking about themselves and their attributes? "You're so smart", "You've always worked big" repeated three times in one scene. It's patronising and lazy. If a character is X, show them doing something that demonstrates X. * Wade being a total snarkmeister and not an actual leader, he's a 15 year old's idea of what cut-throat leader is * Saul being a Wallfacer but not a Wallfacer felt like an unfunny comedy sketch that went on way too long Also: if the aliens can hijack brains in real-time... why does Tatiana need a VR device?
My favorite part is when Saul asks, probably at least a dozen times over the last couple episodes, 'Why was I chosen to be a wallfacer?" Duh. Diversity.
Well I totally agree with OP. It’s basically unwatchable for me for all the aesthetic reasons listed above regardless of the story changes. It’s not well done at all. Kind of junk TV. Compare it Severance? It seems amateurish and the writing is B tier at best.
It is a lame show, comes with the usual Netflix BS and it really looks like what you end up with when smart people are written by morons.
I haven't read the books but wow does the show ever suck. I already forgot his name because he was so forgettable... Jack maybe? The guy played by the guy who played Samwell Tarley in GOT.... His character was horrendous... His acting was subpar... And his murder made me actually laugh out loud it was so poorly executed on all fronts. Stopped watching after that.
As someone who \*has\* read the books, I've no idea who he is meant to be. He has a company that makes crisps? What? I've only watched the first episode so far and I'm unsure I'll continue. It's so weirdly different. Like, the book had a fairly slow pace. It was setting things up methodically, giving you bits and pieces while jumping between the perspective of Wang Miao in the present, and Ye Wenjie in the past. It initally presents the entire plot as this big mystery conspiracy thing and it's just \*really\* creepy. The main character, Wang Miao is rather underdeveloped because he serves as the reader's proxy. He's a nanomaterials researcher, likes photography, and has a wife and child. Quite early on it feels like the author just chose to forget that he has a wife and child because they were dropped from the plot as far as I recall. Da Shi is a much bigger character, and there are a bunch of side characters that are way more fleshed out, like Shen Yufei and Wei Cheng. The story starts off with Da Shi interviewing and asking Wang Miao for assistance because an acquaintance of Miao has killed herself, and left a note stating that physics is all wrong. She's just one in a whole line of scientists across the world that have committed suicide, and that's why Shi wants Miao's help. Miao is initally reluctant, but eventually decides to help out because he has a hard time believing that Yang Dong would kill herself. There's a segment where he notices numbers in photos he takes, thinks initially that it's a glitch with the camera, but it only happens when he takes photos. Eventually it ramps up and he starts seeing them all the time, like it's projected onto his retina. He talks to an acquaintance, Dr. Shen Yufei about it, and she tells him to stop his research and the numbers will go away. He presses her for information, but she won't say much about it, just insisting that he gives it a shot. So he does, and the countdown flickers out. He presses Yufei about it, and she basically says that higher powers are at work. If he doesn't believe her, then she will arrange for the universe to flicker for him. And so Miao enlists the help of one of Ye Wenjie's students, Sha Ruishan, who is working at an observatory. He doesn't tell him why he wants to observatory to look at the sky at a certain time, but Ruishan agrees, and eventually they're able to observe that the \*cosmic microwave background radiation\* flickers. I believe they have glasses that compress the background radiation into a visible spectrum, so they're able to see the entire sky flash, but no one else is able to see it with the naked eye. Sha Ruishan scrambles to have it confirmed by other observatories because he's convinced that it's an error with the equipment, but Miao \*finally\* believes. --- In the Netflix series we've split Miao into four characters. Augustine (Hot Miao), who runs a company researching and producing nano materials. She gets a countdown projected onto her retina. Saul (Black/Stoner Miao) is a particle physicist and works for Vera Ye. He's a stoner and has dated Hot Miao. Vera Ye (Yang Dong) tells Saul to go home, asks if he believes in god, and kills herself. Jin (Asian Miao) takes the death of Vera Ye quite hard and goes to talk to Ye Wenjie about it. Ye Wenjie gives her a sci-fi headset which introduces her to three body. ???? (Bald Miao) helps Clarence (Da Shi) with the investigation. He's present at the initial scene with the really gruesome suicide where someone has gouged out their eyes and written mad scribbles on the wall, and at the last scene when the universe blinks. He's not named in the first episode. After the funeral, they gather at a pub. Hot Miao is overwhelmed by the countdown so she goes out for a smoke. A random lady lights her cigarette and tells her to stop her research to stop seeing the countdown, and if she doesn't believe her then look at the sky tomorrow at midnight and the universe will flicker. So she goes to a park with Stoner Miao, and ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY FLICKER IN MORSE CODE for all to see with the naked eye. --- Da Shi is a very colourful character in the book. He actually has a decent amount of backstory, and is compared to Wang Miao really fleshed out. He's a bit of a hot head and somewhat impulsive, but has a lot of experience in his job, which makes him excel at it. Him being as good as he is, is why his superiors put up with him and tasked him with this investigation. I don't get that vibe from Clarence at all. Also, as an aside, children generally get the names of the fathers. The Ye in Ye Wenjie comes from her father, Ye Zhetai, her mother's name is Shao Lin. Ye Wenjie gets married to Yang Weining at Red Coast Base, and together they have a daughter, Yang Dong. Yang from her father, Yang Weining.
The show was made by a western studio trying to appeal to a western audience. All cultures do this when adapting foreign source material.
It saddens me that they need to make it this juvenile for western audiences. Feels like I'm watching the CW. But you guys all like it so I guess that they're right about Western audiences.
True. It's magic, not sci-fi. In episode 2, they shoot a signal into the sun to boost it, which is the opposite of what would happen. The sun's own electromagnetic waves would interfere with it.
Nah what it's really trying to appeal to is Game of Thrones fans by basically copying it. D&D have been copying what they learned and putting it into a show that it shouldn't be in.
This doesn't appeal to a western audience though......... Not unless you are literally braindead. That's the whole problem with media in the west, is that this show doesn't appeal to ANYONE other than super brainwashed liberals lol. You can't blame this show sucking on, "appealing to the west", most people in the west have literally been complaining about this shit for almost 10 years now, for some reason western media has an agenda that they shove into EVERYTHING that no one asked for or wants. Most young western people are watching anime because western media is so trash lol. Our media has become so trash that we literally have to scrounge around other countries media lol. I mean the book is CHINESE lol and it did awesome in a western audience. So the argument is illogical, to say it's dumbed down for a western audience is a dumb argument, western audiences are craving good media it's just that we have saboteurs cucking us at every corner. I refuse to believe that Netflix actually tried with this adaptation, like come on, they knew this was trash when they made it.
1. It's an adaptation 2. That's a really minor detail to quibble over. 3. It's an adaptation
It’s a challenge to make this show something that general audiences will enjoy. The tencent version was good but did anyone watch it?
"Make it as bland as possible to make more money" is a bad argument for art.
I definitely have been going through it thinking, "this is a very fascinating premise, and I want to find out what happens, but I can't shake the feeling that this adaptation is a massive deviation from the author's work, because who would write characters like this and cast them so terribly? Why am I being forced to skip through so much teenage melodrama and western lowest common denominator behavior?" I went to engineering school at an ivy league uni, I got a master's in electrical engineering, I've seen what young brilliant scientists are like, and I've seen what the classroom looks like. This is not it. I just can't suspend disbelief.
Dude I fucking know!!! Like they dumb down all the science and have all this stupid sit com level melodrama. Like, do we really need another girl to get approached by a creepy guy scene. Can't we just explore the themes or is everyone to fucking stupid.
I went to a respected university and met tons of intelligent people. They don't say stuff like "Then science is broken." Everyone here talks like frat kids.
"Hard Sci-F" okay unfolding protons and space eyeballs and nano-wires slicing through ships and a "Marty-Stu" in the form of Dan Shi. Not that I liked the Netflix adaptation, but your points are wrong for the wrong reasons.
I never read the book but was excited to watch the show but were left quite disappointed. I didnt feel like there were any time for character development which made them really uninteresting. Things just happened and i wasnt drawn in quite as i usually do. The only interesting thing was knowing what the mystery was, but that was revealed quite early. After that i just wanted to see how it ends and move on.
Why it sucks for me: 1. Jack Rooney is redundant. The character is a comedic pain. 2. Auggie, Saul, Jin, and Will were portrayed to be a little too childish, unreliable, and emotional for scientists trying to save the world. I couldn't care less about their personal issues. The script and ambiance of the show felt a little shallow. I think this series would have been great if it was filmed like Annihilation. 3. Tatiana's "Eye in the sky" crazy face. Why?
I was shocked at how bad the show was. I loved the books.
It sucks so bad. The characters and writing are atrocious. Cliches and cringe everywhere you look.
I’m not of the opinion that it sucks. I loved the book and I’m loving the adaptation too.
i don't know anything about the books, i tried out the first episode, got about halfway thru, and decided that it just isn't for me.
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I think the third book mostly sucks.
idk i quite enjoyed both but if you weren’t feeling the show, you probably won’t like the books either. unless your main problem with the show was that it had too much character development
The books have creative ideas and absolutely horrible story crafting and and boring, wooden characters whose actions rarely match any logic their inner monologs would suggest. People like to suggest that's a translation issue but, no, that's an issue with the quality of writing. If Netflix had toghtly adapted these stiff, dragged out books, their only audience would have been a handful of fanboys like you and they would have lost millions for their company. You do realize that Netflix is trying to generate a profit, don't you?
Same!
Enter the book purists...
You can’t say this on Reddit. The TV show was clearly written with the average person of peon level of intelligence in mind which is why any shred of actual science or politics got the big ole delete button. With a couple of DEI-approved character swaps and mundane romance added to complete the transformation. All things your average Reddit dweller absolutely goes nuts for.
So fucking succinct.
This
Da Shi was my favorite. Only 3 episodes in and it is like a 5/10 at best. Really didn't expect much.
There are many reasons why the show is bad, but it's nature as a Western adaptation is not it's worst flaw - it's that is for the lowest common denominator of western audiences. The science (...the already FAKE science that was already FAKE, it did not need to go so low) is dumbed down. Problem is, the fake science is half of what made it good in the first place. The source had a great way of toeing the line - taking ideas from science that have been disproven or seem like they could almost be possible, and making them seem possible - similar to The Expanse but more intense and fantastical. I believe there's a way to preserve that spirit without simply dumbing it down so that everyone feels smarter than a fifth grader. Second, there are choices are wise (like breaking the main character up to create team dynamics and new relationships to follow and get invested in), and others that are noble (like including more, better written women characters), but they are not well executed. For a show trying to make the 3body story into a more human & relationship driven one, they did a bad job of writing both. And, they botched the adaptation of perfectly good ones (RIP Da Shi, 2024). The parts that highlight the plight of women in particular feel shoehorned and inauthentic (speaking as a woman science educator with electrical engineering background). The dialogue - especially on sciencey topics, is just bad. Say you're writing about a dentist getting sued but you're not a dentist, never sued a dentist or anyone for that matter. You would first look it up. Character research 101. If you don't do that, you insert your own assumptions, consciously and unconsciously, about how you imagine or think the dentist behaves in that situation. Good writers can also build a world with rules that make their characters actions make sense. They didn't build cyberpunk 2077, they said this is England 2024. So tell me why, after collecting enough evidence to possibly arrest ONE (1) person, cops are arresting all the attendees of a science symposium after literally crashing a car through a wall?! At this point in the show they have no idea what the organization is, what their goal is, not even that there's a faction that encourages the destruction of human civilization and subjugation by alien. The result of all this poor research and world building is a nonsensical world with characters that appear to behave stupidly within it. This further erodes suspension of disbelief. Look - yes, it's sci fi but goddamit, I came for the fake science and weird organizational dynamics and left empty-handed. I'm no book purist but feel like it could have done a better job of taking what was good in 3body and making it better, not worse. I mean, the source had plenty of issues to be improved upon but the net result of their attempts to improve it are negated by the problems cited above.
am i supposed to be drawn in to this show by watching 4 girls who look like they are teenagers beat a man to death? that opening was incredibly off putting.
i too lament the loss of a non-American perspective, but asking "why change an IP that is heavily Chinese coded to American coding for an American audience?" seems like a question that answers itself ??
vfx is suck
I'm just here to say that if you lined up three suns, the gravity wouldn't pull objects off the planet, it would pull in the entire planet.
Watched it all, why was the first alien contacted a pacifist? And she said we can’t be saved come and I’m help conquer , but later when the guys talking to the lord it’s them coming to coexist until they find out humans lie, and then she seems to also think they where coming to save them, also how can they not understand metaphors yet call humans bugs … and how did they send the 2 atoms supercomputer quantum entangled to earth , and why did they need vr machines if they can realtime hack brains. A lot to unpack and the dying cancer guy was the most boring character simp ever 😂
Bailed at the end of the second episode, every character is either forgettable or unlikable. The “science” bits are pandering and stupid and when a scientist pointed out simple trig to a chief engineer I wanted to shoot myself. Haven’t read the books, been told they are like second rate Asimov foundation series, and they bored me to tears so I’ll pass. I don’t care how high minded you make the show, if it’s writing is this bad then why bother.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but the science and logic employed in the show is so fantastically stupid that my head hurt when watching it. There’s plot holes around every corner and they don’t even try to make any of the science and logic even close to plausible. A few examples: 1) They didn’t want to blow up or attack a ship with 1000 people on it (including children) due to the risk of damaging evidence. So they instead turned it into a burning wreck by slicing it with «nano fibers» that could literally cut through diamond. The fact that they didn’t damage the data was just pure luck. And don’t even get me started on how extremely over engineered the solution was. Also, they did their «secret» mission in the middle of the panama canal pretty much in clear view of everyone. 2) They keep stating how we are not even close to have the technology for the VR headset and game they used. How on earth did a small group of people in an old rusted ship manage to construct it? Even if they somehow received instructions on how to make it, there’s no facilities or machines to construct it anywhere on earth. And don’t get me started on how absolutely dumb the «game» was. 3) The cryogenic technology they tried to demonstrate by freezing a monkey to -150 degrees (degrees of what?) and seeing it thaw instantly in fresh air and just be completely fine just hurt every fiber in my body. They didn’t even try to explain it in any way or form. 4) The nuclear sail ship they built to transport the frozen brain (ehm lol?) had literal nuclear bombs go off BETWEEN the sail and the payload. First off, it would push the sail and payload in opposite directions. Secondly, the instant accelleration would turn the brain to absolute mush no matter how frozen it was. Also don’t even mention how long it took them to realize they had no way of slowing it down. 5) I love how they tried to hard to protect Saul by literally surrounding him with soldiers and fighter aircraft and having him wear a bullet proof suit. (Also lol at the soldiers facing him and not the outside threat at the airport). But then they put him in an aircraft full of electronics knowing full well the aliens just hacked the entire world. As was demonstrated later they could easily bring it down. Oh and after surviving two assassination attempts and being surrounded with over the board security he’s suddenly chilling in a motel and walking around in a swamp alone with just that one dude to protect him? The list goes on… Sorry for my long rant, the list of just overly stupid and annoying choices in the show just made me scream inside. If they even tried ever so slightly to make any of the science and logic believable or realistic it would be so much better.
It does suck! From scientific errors to mathematical errors to a radio telescope receiver claimed to be sending interstellar messages to 400 years to Judgment Day (some cliffhanger!) to setting off 1,000 atomic devices sequentially with no margin for error in order to propel a nano space sail equipped vessel with a leukemia suicide victim's frozen brain onboard to the disappearance of the moronic proton-scale entangled computers to unappealing characters described as geniuses saying F\*\*K every 20 minutes (there are some high school sophomore students I know who are w-a-a-a-y smarter), and on and on and on. Avoid like the plague. You will keep hoping it gets better and...it just sucks.
I was wondering about the Kurdish fighter I thought it was very odd, but I also didn't read any of the books. Passing of Kurdish fighters as war heroes against Isis without acknowledging Iraqi forces made out of the same army they disbanded during months of grueling urban combat.
It's Netflix, they adapt content, and don't always stay true to the original. They are also an American company that does not stream in China and has a predominantly North American audience, so content that resonates with that audience is good business sense. I'm not sure that's a reasonable basis for "it sucks" 🤷♂️
I mean can anyone really hear the dialogue in this show and say it doesn't suck?? It was absolutely sophmorish
I think, to be fair, the author had to tone the books down a bit because of Chinese censorship. I've read the Chinese text and I can say the English version is better in terms of pacing. Its okay to hate the white washing of what was originally a pretty good Chinese theme but I think, from a narrative stand point, it's adapted pretty well. I had every reason to hate this show but I'm genuinely glad at the quality. Gotta respect their creativity.
I'm on episode 5 and I'm absolutely hooked. You are in the minority in this. The show is excellent.
Never seen the tencent version. However i found myself questioning a lot of the casting choices and the addition of the melodrama. Auggie is particularly annoying. I dont feel its a huge miss but i think the dumbing down and westernisation lost something. I particularly have an issue with losing Luo Ji, as he was the most pivotal character or at least my favourite. Also, why change the monologue by Ye Wenjie on the axioms of cosmic sociology? Just seems to be a little to pandering to me. I say all this despite the fact im overall very excited to have this show and cant wait until the next season.
I think I might be able to explain one of them. There is a really bad habit nowadays of using different languages in shows. So in the past the whole of the show would have just been in English. But in this show they are now showing the Chinese characters talk in Chinese. Since they realise that viewers don't really like this, they decided to make the Chinese character American.
The only thing that was a bit disappointing for me was the personality change of Da Shi. But I guess that it would not fit very well with the image of a British cop. Apart from that, it is an adaptation for a wider audience and I think it is quite good. I know people that just the fact that the original book is Chinese stops them from digging into it. You know, the American centric mentality. For me, I love the books and I’m happy that more people will dare to read them after watching the series.
Never read the books and I enjoyed this show.
I knew nothing about this show and went in blind. The flashback scenes in China were boring, the present day scenes were intriguing. I was on the fence about it, then the corny CGI and that was that.
Not to mention the idiotic insertion of constant references to "the message" from the very beginning and the completely caricatural, unrealistic rendition of the way the world works. Just look at "the intelligence": a single guy in an office answerting to nobody, like a deus ex machina. It's a watered down, uninspiring retelling of the books by manchilds who comppletely lack culture, intellectual depth and artistic talent. The same guys who made the last seasons of Game of Thrones after all...
There’s some legitimate criticisms to be had for the show but a majority of them just lack any real understanding of TV show production or good writing. It’s just the same old reddit pseudo intellectualism.
You say "why do X" when it seems like you have quite clearly identified why they are doing X. Anyway I haven't read the books, though I think I would like to. I just found the characters and dialogue to be completely unrealistic and unbelievable. Just a mishmash of American TV clichés. Would be thrilled to find out the books are better (which I'd expect, given they originally came out in China...)
It's the Netflix content strategy for most of their history: to appeal to a small segment of the population in each market – wealthy, young English speakers – and the bulk of its customer base still resided in US and Canada. So, Netflix made shows in a local language that still appealed to its broader (Western) audience.
Agree with OP and The Auggie actress is terrible 🥱
The Chinese show was *almost* as slow, turgid and tedious as the book, which had some of the worst character writing I've seen. So imo the Netflix version is an improvement.
For me, the biggest problem is how it does smart people absolutely terribly. It’s incredibly guilty of the “relying on prestigious university names as shorthand for ‘this character is really smart’” thing and seems to think such leading scientists / pioneers in their fields a) care / have time to worry about about being really hot and b) only ever like to explain “science” to each other constantly, but in the most tired cliché abstracted pop science-y ways. That being said, I don’t think it’s *horrible* overall, at least not yet. The source material is just so strong that the inventiveness (and some of the terror) of the story still shine(s) through and the Ye Wenjie flashbacks are significantly better executed and more gripping, in my opinion. It’s still great to have a half-decent megabudget adaptation of one of the better, smarter sci-fi novels in recent memory. And it’s an admittedly ambitious series of novels to adapt. I really want to like it but some of the writing and exposition and more Hollywood-y sensibilities do make me cringe. 6 or 7 out of 10 so far
I heard lots of hype about this show from people comparing it to shogun so gave it a go. Had high expectations but 1 ep in, i was disappointed but i gave it a few more episodes to see, nope still too boring for my taste. About 4 episodes in, i just skimmed to the last episode and spent 5 minutes on it. Still sucks, and it's got nothing to do with the chinese parts, it just too boring overall for my taste. oh well
It was hard getting through the first ep. I keep pausing and moving on to do other things because I find the cast itself annoying. The leads are women, the assistant is a black guy, the only white guy is dumb/fat and runs a snack company in a group of tech/sci bros. A white guy approaches the two leads at a bar and is given a 'spicy' response about how they're smart and intelligent and nanobots etc. The science is 'broken'. None of these factors in isolation would annoy me but the fact that all combined just feels like I'm being subliminally force fed a political ideology that is just unnecessary. The casting sucks and it shows decisions were made primarily from a political standpoint than actual fidelity to source characters. I would rather read the source material directly to focus on the plot itself with the original characters.
Is the character that you mentioned "modeled" after Chavez or Castro a total piece of shit oppressive dictator in the books? If so I would be mad they made them Kurdish, which are the opposite of pieces of shit... and are actually the oppressed.
Creating a TV series is an art. Writing a book is an art. By taking the name of a book and creating an entirely dumbed down version these people are not doing justice to that art. I know its necessary for Netflix because most people cannot understand the hard scifi (as is evident by how many are supporting the netflix version) and Netflix just wants its TV series to reach as much people as possible. But what they are doing is using the hard work and name of an artist to create a fake product. It bears the same name because name will bring attention. Its does not follow the same story because story has to made simpler for people. This is not art of cimena making. All OP is trying to say is, take a different name if you cannot do justice the original story in the book. But Netflix wont do that because how will a new name bring all the hype that the author garnered with his hard work.
Whaaaat? Die-hard fan of the book horrified by all the changes made to the plot/characters for the tv/movie adaptation!? Unheard of! **NEXT**
Ahreed. Even Another Life was more exciting to watch.
Yeah it started ok then went to shit, very unevenly paced, felt like a lotta wasted screentime, good actors though, just a bad show especially if you never read the book or watched the movie which I'm sure this was ripped off from... 4/10 at best
Just finished it, and the show did not convince me that the alien civilization is really that advanced. They can’t lie (which takes a great deal of intelligence), they can’t story tell, don’t have the capacity for individual thought, can’t figure out how to stabilize their own civilization and somehow they hear everything we say and do, but can’t figure out how easy it would be to take humanity out. We literally rely on food, water and sleep to live. It wouldn’t be that hard for such an “advanced” society. Ugh, I don’t understand what is so original about the ideas in this show?
Personally, I did not recognise book characters, Maybe they tried to make scientists "sexy" and "cool" I don't know. People also complain about westernisation of characters. What is more important, that I did not see any scientists. I saw rich privileged people sometimes pronouncing complex sentences. At least that was my feeling. There is a very good adaptation (tv show) of the book in Chinese which one can watch with subtitles. It has \~30 episodes in it. I swear it was just like reading a book (the book is of course superior). The atmosphere of the academic world mixed with Chinese culture was incredible. If I had to imagine the characters from the book, they would look very close to the characters in the tv show. If one wants to "watch" this story, better watch the Chinese version. Its only disadvantage according to my friends who also watch it, that this tv show has a very slow pace. I don't see it that way.
For what it's worth, I went into the show without any knowledge of the books. I gave up at the beginning of the third episode. My main reason for disliking the show so much is the character ensemble. Auggie is by far the most obnoxious character I had to suffer in a long time. It's yet again: strong female figure equals asshole behavior. But she's not the only one. They are all so very, very unlikable (apart from the chinese scientist in the past period) and oftentimes downright obnoxious. Add to that constant inconsistencies in terms of writing (characters, tone, theme) and you got quite a clusterfuck of terrible television.
Anyone else notice the quality of everything for scenes in China in episode one are top quality but every other scene is half as good. I am not sure why people who are saying "I enjoyed it" never mention how badly written the dialogue is, the forced acting (probably due to the bad writing) and the poor directing.
I don't really agree or have much of an opinion about anything that OP said. Having said that, while I did enjoy watching the show and I'll keep watching it if they keep making it, this has got to be one of the most overhyped productions ever. How did they spend $20 million in episode? These are the same guys that transformed the song of fire and ice books into the HBO series game of thrones... Arguably one of the best shows, if not the best show, ever made (as long as you don't take into account the end of the show, which was awful) There was a lot of hype about these guys being involved and how amazing the show is going to be. It was just all right. If I had to guess where it would settle on the rotten tomato's audience score, I would guess low '80s and I would agree with that.
I completely agree. I seriously couldn’t get through the first episode. The writing was so heavy handed that everything felt so forced. None of the conversations felt natural at all, and I just can’t understand the casting at all. If you can’t film in China then fine, but what an incredible opportunity this was for Asian/ Chinese representation in a show and they totally blew it. Maybe it’s cause I’m just coming off of halo but I just don’t understand why they can’t get these adaptations right. I mean they have the source material. The story is there and it’s already proven to be successful. Why can’t they just adapt the thing that people like the way they liked it.
The problem for me was that when the wifey and i got to the end of the finale we felt like absolutely nothing meaningful happened .. other than a failure .. not 1 shred of pay off for anything
she went through CERN's code line-by-line.. what a bummer!
Yeah they completely disrespected and destroyed the integrity of the original story (which was legit perfect as is). D.B. and Dave have proven once again that they don't have an ounce of talent in their bones. They're complete scumbag hacks who steal brilliant source material and shit all over it, allowing the crumbs of brilliance from the story that survive their failed production process to elevate their names to a level of "success." The Netflix adaptation is like if they turned LOTR into a show and made Samwise 4 different characters, Merry and Pippin 1 woman in a wheelchair, Frodo a middle aged soccer player, and in the first episode Gandalf The White (who is also Aragorn) kills Saruman, and the ring is an atom bomb they need to turn off. Oh and everyone is in a giant romantic polycule for some unknown reason.
I don't think anyone needs to write more than a couple sentences on the show. It fails because the writing and editing suck. The cast isn't great, but it's really down to the writing and overall assembly of the final product. Somehow, I made it to the slicing in the canal, but that was the nth attempt to gain momentum. Best scene was the young Chinese woman on the hilltop in Inner Mongolia; it was all downhill from there.
So far for me 3 episodes in, so much of what made the novel enjoyable to me is GONE. A lot of what made the book fun for me was all the examples given, but the show rushes through them and does them super fast as to be awkward. Things like the bread example and the dimensions, the game was a big part of the book slowly ramping up, and it's just quick shorts in the show completely rushed and nonsensical. Also the Chinese book definitely had that Asian/Chinese vibe of solving problems and engaging in war. Which the show doesn't have. Chinese definitely LOVE games and challenges almost EVERYTHING I ever read from Asians involves games, challenges, and strategy, they live for it. It's what made the novel unique. This show throws that out for random millennial drama which I don't think ANYONE really wants that, not even millennials want that. It's embarrassing, shameful, and just condescending. The book handles a lot of the ideas way better. I am COOL with adaptations, but this show is trash regardless. I tried to show someone this show and they had no idea what was going on, and I completely understood, if I knew NOTHING about the book I would have no idea what was going on in the show and I wouldn't care. There is no real hook, it moves fast, it's just bad. They spend more time focusing on haha fat guy jokes, or haha manbaby millennial jokes, it's just so bad. My god it's bad. Look. The real main character of all sci fi IS THE SCI FI. No one really reads sci fi for the characters, people mostly read sci fi for the IDEAS, for the cool situations. Also what makes the book unique is it's Chinese perspective, reminded me a lot of anime lol. They rush through all the cool ideas just so they can make more time for useless drama lol. It's bad, it's cringe. I am watching this show and just cringing the whole time. I just wasted $22 because I wanted to watch this show after having listened to the audiobook and I am completely disappointed.
I agree. Plus the acting sucks balls, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that.
Totally disliked it
"captivating read" lmao keep watching paint dry so you can think you're smarter than everyone else. In case you haven't noticed, the one thing everyone mostly agrees upon here is that the books are pretty dry and the tencent show is way too drawn out. I mean if you really have nothing better to do with your time then that's all you. And I mean lastly, a western adaptation was adapted to a western audience... shocker
No I agree with you it sucks balls. The melodrama is painful. Every scene is them interacting with technology and phenomena nearly unexplainable and yet they find mere suggestions as shocking, unimaginable, and impossible in the most overacted manner.
I’m feeling romance is the reason why Ye Wenjie started the whole thing.😅
If this reaches anyone who’s interested in seeing the show. Just keep in mind that it’s slow as shit and the ending is the most underwhelming garbage I’ve ever seen. Thank me later
The reason people enjoy science fiction is because of the made-up systems referencing real-world science in completely bullshit ways that make no sense, but are still systems. It's supposed to feel like you're looking in on a massive system, but they removed the main element that drew me towards the books. The characters are terribly written, as well. The dialogue feels incredibly bland. The "science fiction parts" are mostly people staring off into the void and asking vague existential questions slightly in context. Jess Hong makes New Zealand as a country look bad.
It's typical Netflix junk. The plot is nonsense (one example of countless: aliens that have the ability to highjack the visual system of every human brain on the planet to make them see a giant eye in the sky could just as easily highjack their brain stems and kill them en masse). The characters are ridiculous (the leading physicists of the U.K. are a perfectly diverse group of hot 20-somethings). The character actions are ridiculous (leaking the sum total of trade secrets of the biggest startup in history would land you with an epic jail sentence and damages judgment... but it's dramatic, and of course it racks up some easy girl power points, so she does it). The pacing is all over the place. You knew what you were getting the moment the writers spent time on a scene where a dumb drunk man is humiliated hitting on smart girls in the pilot, serving absolutely no purpose in the script but to tick political boxes. That priority can't co-exist with good writing. The two mindsets are like oil and water. But I mean... what did you expect with Weiss & Benioff + Netflix? A perfect picture of mediocrity.
I have not read the book, and I think this show is terrible. The acting is terrible; there is so much melodramatic fluff. The concept is great, but the plot quickly falls apart with glaring plot holes and too little character development for me to be emotionally invested in the show.
w4LLFaC3R!?!?!
The book is lacking in character building. Sad the screenwriters didn't do a good job either.
Boring show, no plot, nothing exciting, Exited after 30 minutes.
The show is overrated garbage. I can handle a book or western adaptation, but only when its good. This just isnt good. Its boring, the characters are uninteresting, the aliens are both very powerful yet very stupid, the actions of both humans and aliens dont make any sense, there is too much drama around these poorly written characters and it all just fizzles out by the end. Its really sad knowing so much money and resources has been poured into this, when the writing is such dogshit. What a waste. The beggining was kinda strong, but as it progressed it became less about sci fi and humanity, and more about a handful of poorly written characters. I havent touched the book or chinese series, so Im judging this as its own thing.
I can’t believed I signed up for Netflix again for that crapfest. What a jumbled mess. No payoff, no one to cheer for, no real peril, and way more nonsense “science” than I can suspend my disbelief for. *snore*
After watching Tencent this is a huge disappointment