Weekend Plans Post: The Three Body Problem
One of my buds told me that I needed to watch The Three Body Problem on Netflix. I admit, I was skeptical. But, when over there for dinner, he made me watch the first episode for dessert.
The show opens with a struggle session during the Cultural Revolution. I am pleased to say that I was hooked from the first dunce cap.
After a handful of scientists are corrected, we jump to the modern day where we see a physicist commit suicide by drowning in a Cherenkov tank. And then we’re slowly but surely introduced to a friendly group of students of the dead physicist and we learn that the friendly students are all kinda interesting and all kinda irritating. Maribou asked me which was my favorite and which was my least favorite and her picks were completely different than mine and she theorized that this was written in such a way that three or four people could watch and each could easily have a different favorite character.
We learn that many scientists have committed suicide after starting to see a floating countdown in their vision.
We see a cop who is investigating the scientist suicides and see that he’s working for a cranky old guy (who, seriously, is the best character on the show).
We see one of our characters start seeing a countdown too. We see someone advise her about her countdown and give what I think is one of the strongest lines in the show: “Don’t let it get to zero. Nothing good happens at zero.”
And then the show *REALLY* starts going nuts.
Quite honestly, I found myself watching in the first four episodes and thinking “I have no idea what is going to happen next.”
The original book was written by Liu Cixin (in Chinese) back in 2006 and it wasn’t translated into English until 2014 (where it pretty much immediately started winning tons of awards, including the Hugo). Chinese story tropes are just different enough that I found myself wondering how I was being led around by the nose and how… like, if this were originally an American story, we’d recognize the tropes. These tropes are somewhat alien and I found myself having to just go along for the ride instead of figuring out what they were building up to.
I understand that the Netflix version Americanizes the ever-living heck out of the story but, even so, I found myself charmed and confused and wanting to argue about what happens next.
Now, there’s *SOME* irritating things about the show. The character Jack makes a decision in episode 3 that is 100% completely different than the one that his character would have made (seriously, I’ve known a handful of Jacks (though with less cash) and none of them would have made that decision).
There’s a setpiece in episode 5 (the nanofiber thing that probably cost half the show’s budget) that is visually stunning but there is *NO* way, shape, or form that the scientist involved with nanofibers would have been invited to watch the nanofibers at work. The conversation would have, instead, gone like this: “We’re taking your nanofibers.” “What for?” “To help orphans in 3rd world countries learn how to farm sustainably.”
And even if they had let her be there to make sure that the stuff works or something, they *NEVER* would have let her observe the aftermath up close. And the thing they were looking for was intact instead of blowed up after being cut in half.
But I got over all of that and wanted to keep watching to see what happened next. Oh, there’s a Chekov’s (spoiler) introduced in Episode 2 that doesn’t go off until Episode 7 and, seriously, I was blown away. That was a great setup.
Maribou and I finished episode 7 last night. We have a date on Sunday to finish the season.
If you haven’t watched it yet… maybe watch the first episode. Have a bowl of ice cream during. I think you might dig it.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is “New Toy”. Photo taken by Maribou.)
I read the whole series a few years back. I think somebody here, but possibly at Outside the Beltway, recommended it. I loved the books. I didn’t come away feeling like I needed to watch a TV series, because I think a lot of stuff will inevitably be lost in translation. If they plan to do the follow-up books, I really don’t imagine a TV series doing them justice.
I did finish up watching Shogun. I listened to the audiobook last year (and the rest of Clavell’s Asian Saga) and I watched the original miniseries. I thought the new miniseries did a good job as an adaptation. It made some significant changes, but it the kept the intent of the book intact for the most part. I could probably nitpick a few choices, but I was happy with it.
There was a pivotal scene that happens in the beginning of the book, and I was surprised it was left out of the miniseries. It nagged it me the entire time I was watching the series, because it was such a turning point for Blackthorne. Then I watched the finale, and they moved the scene to the end, and they put it in a slightly different context, and I said “ah ha, now I realize why it wasn’t there.”
The book also ends with Toranaga thinking about what is going to happen next, basically providing a summary of what happens after the book ends. In the miniseries, he tells it to somebody who is about to die. I thought it was a clever way to adapt it to a visual medium without an awkward voiceover.
I think my biggest complaint was that I felt like they underplayed the romance between Blackthorne and Mariko. It was clear the emotions were there, but very little time was spent showing them together. It made it seem more like and unrealized love from afar, where the book lets them have some time together and really develop the relationship.
If this leads to similar quality adaptations of the rest of the Asian Saga, I will be pretty happy. I get the impression a lot of the previous ones were a bit underwhelming, though I might try to give King Rat a watch at some point.Report
Shogun, the book, is one of my favorite books, and I’ve read it several times in the last forty years. I liked the series in general, more so than the original series. I have a couple of nitpicks, and one serious criticism, though.
The big criticism: in the book, Blackthorne starts picking up and learning Japanese very early. It’s probably not made clear enough in the series, but before landing in Japan Blackthorne already speaks fluently at least four languages: English, Dutch (he is sailing as a senior officer in a Dutch fleet) , Portuguese, and Latin (in the book it’s made clear that many Japanese understand Portuguese, so he and Marino speak Latin when they want to express their more private sentiments). In addition he has enough Spanish to at least read the rutters. He’s quickly able to have basic interactions with most people, like the gardener, without Mariko doing the translation. Yes, he still mangles it, like the pheasant episode proves. Likewise he picks up the behavior (when and how to bow, for instance) very quickly.
The series made him more the stereotypical ugly White Guy, frequently angry and agressive and raising his voice, about to jump and punch someone, fresques lost about what was going on, and rarely saying a word in Japanese. The few scenes where it’s hinted he can be on his own (buying charcoal in Edo) are too discontinued for us to appreciate Blackthorne’s assimilation into the culture.
And then suddenly, in the last episode, he can speak a lot. To Fuji, to Toranaga, to the villagers. And the viewer is like “when did that happen?”. To me, it’s a disservice to the character, and the reason most viewers liked Blackthorne the least. 2024 Blackthorne stands up as a sore thumb.
And this brings me to my first nitpick. In the book Toranaga says that he appreciates the Anjin (Blackthorne)as his friend, the only friend he can have, really, because the Anjin will always be an outsider, and will never be able to compete with him. In the TV show, because Blackthorne doesn’t niponize enough, it really can’t build that relationship with Toranaga, and in his exposition to Yabushige Toranaga says that the Anjin is expendable, making it as Mariko saving Blackthorne’s life on her own. In the book, Toranaga is keen to protect the Anjin and get him out of Osaka alive, because the Anjin IS his friend.
The other nitpicks are about the characters of Omi, Kiku, and And Nagakado
Omi is a very large character in the book, probably larger than Yabushige, and we see how he leverages the fortuitous arrival of the Erasmus to his village into a meteorical rise in status. I know it’s difficult to get 1,000 pages into a TV season, but I miss the loss of Omi’s point of view.
Kiku, first, I think the actress was poorly chosen. She doesn’t exude the out of this world beauty and refinement that I expect of Kiku. TV Kiku is there as a backdrop for other people , OMI, Mariko, her Mistress, to express themselves.
TV Nagakado is another failed character. Book Nagakado is as hot headed, an$ lacks any political cunning, like his TV counterpart, but TV Nagakado is plainly stupid and buffoonish. Even his death is buffoonish (that’s the point where the series departs 5he most from the book).
But all of 5he above notwithstanding, Shogun is some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. Worth paying a month of Hulu to watch. Worth paying a year of Hulu if need beReport
I also am a big fan of the book but haven’t been able to convince myself to watch in large part because I just can’t imagine a modern tv show doing justice to a character like Blackthorne. He’s too nuanced and I can’t watch such an interesting hero somehow turned into a vaguely ‘bad’ or just kinda dumb guy. The actor they cast looks so far from the part to me I cringed as soon as I saw it.Report
Please, please, watch it. It’s amazingly good.
It is very Japanese point of view centered, hence Blackthorne being less developed. Having the Japanese dialogues subtitled allows the show to follow and focus the politics of the time and the minds of the characters as they try to figure how to act to their best interest in a time that everyone recognizes is bringing massive change.
So the Japanese characters carry the show, particularly the female characters, Mariko becomes the true protagonist in this version, and Ochiba (the Heir’s mother, whose character is significantly increased compared to the novel) is a great counterpart to her. Fujiko is really well developed and brings a different perspective (I would watch a TV series centered around Fujiko’s point of view of these same six months). Surprisingly, too Kiko’s mistress is given more preeminence than in the book, and is tasked to carry the feminist/modern message to the others. This regrettably ate into Kiko’s screentime, but I approve of the change nevertheless.
Toranaga and Yabushige are very well developed and very well acted, too. We fully understand them and what their objectives are.
And the production values are above anything I’ve seen before on TV. Forget GoT, Rings of Power, anything you can think of. Nothing has been done as meticulously and as carefully and delicately as Shogun.
At the end of the day, limited by a finite budget, the producers were forced to reduce the number of episodes or reduce the production cost. To fully translate the book they should have had two more episodes. But I would rather cut episodes than cut their fantastic recreation of 1600 Japan.
I think minor tweaks could have improved TV Blackthorne within the constraints of the budget. The rest, as I said, are nitpicks and I understand why they did it that way.
But yes, please, watch it. Like, today.Report
I will give it a try.Report
There was a pivotal scene that happens in the beginning of the book, and I was surprised it was left out of the miniseries. It nagged it me the entire time I was watching the series, because it was such a turning point for Blackthorne. Then I watched the finale, and they moved the scene to the end, and they put it in a slightly different context, and I said “ah ha, now I realize why it wasn’t there.”
I really appreciate it when adaptations do things like this; consider the work as a whole and do some re-cutting of the story to tell it a bit better. Sort of like Jackson’s “Lord Of The Rings” bringing in material from the Appendices to the work and making it part of the main story.Report
I read the first book in this series and bounced off of it hard, which is weird becuase I dig hard science fiction. I’ll give the show a try, though.Report
The trilogy gets pretty wild at the end.Report
Have my review of episode 2 up and working on 3 now. Really enjoying the series.Report
I will watch your reviews right now!
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Okay. It took me until tonight to watch it.
Various thoughts:
Yeah! Everybody was smoking. Like, all the time. It was even a plot point! Which tells me that this is a very Chinese show and, if it’s not set in 1996ish or earlier, it’s not taking place in “the real world”.
They stop smoking in the second half of the show, it seems.
Which is even more unrealistic than having everybody smoke in the first place.
A scene I had forgotten was the scene where Ye refuses to sign the paper… and, not to get into spoilers or anything, but she’s not the last person in the show who refuses to sign a paper.
And the compare/contrast between how the refusals to sign were treated differently could probably be a decent couple of paragraphs in an essay about the season.
Like, if that was in the book? Liu Cixin has a *LOT* of strong opinions about the Cultural Revolution. Ones that are closer to mine than usually make it out of Chinese pop culture.Report
Episode 2: You can’t use the sun as a super-antenna, right? Anything that the earth is capable of spitting out is soooooooooooooo far under the sun’s noise floor that that just ain’t possible.
I mean, it’s a great thing to put in a sci-fi book.
Ah, you got into that.
(The language thing didn’t bug me. We had to move the plot and the aliens speak Chinese. And English! Sort of a reverse Tower of Babel. The higher up you go, the more that we understand each other. Well… until we get to the concept of “allegory”, anyway.)Report
I watched Three Body Problem a few weeks ago and am still not totally sure how I feel about it. I agree with you that the Jack decision was inexplicable, also that Liam Cunningham completely steals the show as Wade. The scene where he takes Auggie aside and tells her to double check Raj’s work then goes and tells Raj to do the same for Auggie was an excellent moment. Him and the cop were probably my favorite characters. I found the students a lot more hit or miss, with Jin probably my favorite but Auggie being insufferable and the actress they picked just not being very believable in the role. The closest I came to calling it quits was after episode 2 because I just didn’t find the characters it was focusing on after the cultural revolution portion compelling (Saul grew on me a lot by the end).
Given that once I start something I struggle to stop I am sure I will watch the rest whenever it comes out.Report
Wade is the reason I watch the show now. The cop was my favorite character but they went from him being one of the main guys to getting, like, 5 minutes per episode between eps 5-7. Maybe he’ll show up more in ep 8.
Yeah, Auggie is my least favorite character. Will grew on me! I thought that the star thing was kinda dumb but he went from being annoying to having a surprisingly strong center. (Didn’t understand the point of the sister visit. They introduced a character just so we could dislike her for two minutes?) And Saul is probably my least favorite character.
When it comes to the five students, they do a whole lot of “telling not showing”. Jin and Jack were the only ones who communicated “smart” and Will did a good job of being smart enough to realize that everybody else was smarter. But Auggie and Saul? The only thing that I believed about Auggie is that she smoked.
(Oh, and if they had Jack join the other team instead, I’d have believed that he was exactly that kind of stupid.)Report
Ha! Also being a former smoker I agree she pulled that off.
With Saul it’s maybe less the character and more the situation he finds himself in at the end that I found interesting.
Jack turning enemy would have been maybe a better possibility.
I never read the books so I had zero preconceived ideas and therefore no ability to be upset by a departure from the book. Episode 3 when he and Jin start working together to solve the puzzle was what saved the show for me. I was ready to quit after Episode 2 but decided to give it one more chance. Their chemistry as a team brought me back long enough for Wade and Da Shi to become more prominently featured.Report
Okay. Finished season one last night.
For being really smart, the aliens aren’t very smart.
Like, they demonstrated to Wade that they were capable of sending a guy visions, right? And they demonstrated to Seth that they were capable of shooting a guy with a sniper rifle.
But Seth is pretty fragile! Just send him visions! Wade is pretty arrogant! He’s going to eventually go out without a vest!
The cicada speech was a pretty good speech.Report
The problem is finding a balance between “the aliens are scary because they’re smart” and “the aliens are too smart to beat”. Mainstream entertainment doesn’t really enjoy stories where there was no way to win and that was true from the start, although the novels resolve the question in a proper Gonzo-SF fashion.Report
They don’t have to be smarter than *EVERYBODY*, they just have to be smarter than the dorks watching the show!Report