Netflix’s The Three Body Problem is set in modern-day England. Scientists around the world suddenly discover that “physics has collapsed”: none of the proposed theories can be confirmed experimentally anymore. Furthermore, the chaotic experimental data cannot be explained at all. At the same time, advanced technology manufacturers are starting to go crazy, watching the paranormal countdown even with their eyes closed. Both stop their development or die under strange circumstances. Charismatic enforcer Wade (Liam Cunningham) assigns an ex-cop (Benedict Wong) the task of investigating the deaths of scientists. Little by little they are on the trail of the aliens: the Trisolarians, who are sabotaging the technological development of Earth. And also to a religious sect that believes in the arrival of the Trisolarans to Earth within 400 years. Now the main task of earthlings is to prepare for the invasion of a civilization that is ahead of the Earth in development. The best minds of the generation are being recruited to solve it.
The main difference between the Netflix version and the best-selling original is, of course, the saga’s shift of emphasis from all of humanity to the psychology of various individuals. Liu Cixin treated the characters like puppets, using them as conduits from one science fiction theory to another. Benioff and Weiss, who have become accustomed to bringing the charismatic fantasy characters of American writer George RR Martin to the screen (the successful television series “Game of Thrones” was based on his works), still have difficulty digesting the characters. of the Chinese author, each of which is a human function. Figuratively speaking, where Liu Cixin had Pieter Bruegel’s “Hunters in the Snow,” Netflix has Ilya Repin’s “Hunters at Rest.” This approach to the film adaptation shifts the focus from landscape to group portrait. And it has a right to exist, although it provokes a controversial reaction among fans.
“The Three-Body Problem” may surprise fans of Liu Cixin’s trilogy with the “3 in 1” feature: they tried to include the main characters of the second and third volumes in the film adaptation of the first volume. Instead of a coherent story with a single protagonist, viewers get two poorly interacting plots and a story, lost amid endless exposition, of Auggie Salazar, the inventor of nanowires so strong they can slice a diamond. Due to the congestion of the first season, the viewer may not even realize that Auggie’s key moment was the operation in the Panama Canal. Because of this, the viewer perceives the season as boring, predictable and extremely chaotic. However, the public sympathized with this Machiavellian decision by the showrunners in the spirit of “losing the battle, but winning the war.” After all, having brought to the stage everyone who is needed in the first season, in the following seasons the authors will be able to freely mix familiar faces, using only those who, in their opinion, are necessary to create an exciting series.
Meanwhile, in the first season, the five stages of acceptance of failed science and alien invasion are personified by the “Oxford Five,” former classmates dragged into the epicenter of the unfolding events. It’s a motley crew of on-screen avatars of the main characters from the three books in the series (in Liu Cixin’s case, they barely overlapped each other). Together with Jack (John Bradley), Jing (Jess Hong), Will (Alex Sharp), Auggie (Eiza Gonzales) and Saul (Jovan Adepo), we travel the chain of denial, anger, bargaining, disappointment and acceptance.
Watch Your Hands: Jack wasn’t in the novels, he denies the existence of aliens and the showrunners deny it. Jin and Will are characters from the third volume who are just starting to act. Jing is ready to fight under Wade (“I will be remembered because I fought,” she says), and Wil is sent into deep space to negotiate with the Trisolarans. Consequently, Jin, along with his boss Wade, personifies human anger, but Will represents negotiation. If the appearance on the screen of the protagonist of the first novel, Auggie, is a complete disappointment for a prepared viewer, then the main character of the second book and the next season, Sol, simply has to be accepted. Just as he himself accepts his dead friends and his new position on a planetary level: Rejected. Unfortunately, the acting work of Gonzales and Adepo is so deadpan that one cannot help but agree with the pathos of the Trisolarians, who consider people insects. The Beetles would have played better. For example, Gonzales is not saved even by the fact that Netflix has deepened his character with respect to the literary source. In the series, Auggie develops a conflict in the spirit of a disillusioned Professor Sakharov when the scientist sees that those in power are using his advances to destroy people more effectively. The literary prototype of Oggy was not at all ashamed that it was his nanothreads that the Earth Defense Forces cut into minced meat from many civilians to obtain information about aliens. Benioff and Weiss put a direct echo of “Oppenheimer” in their mouths: “The last time we gave the best physicists unimaginable resources, they gave us Hiroshima!”
When it comes to their attitude toward the planetary threat, the Oxford Five are caught between two ideological poles. On the one hand, the Trisolarians are the saviors of Earth, and on the other, they are conquering alien invaders who bring death to all of humanity. The three-body problem leaves the big question for viewers to do their homework. You must decide: which pole is positive and which is negative?
The first pole is personified by the character Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao and Tsai Chin), the mother of the academic director of the Oxford Five. She is the main traitor to humanity. Deeply disappointed in him, Ye Wenjie sees Earth’s salvation in the Divine power of the Trisolarans. During the Cultural Revolution in China, she spent time in the local Gulag and the “Sharashka”, a closed prison-like design office for repressed scientists. From there, 50 years ago, Ye Wenjie sent a message into space: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it! Come reign and rule us!”
The second pole, Wade, is the only character whose plan to save the world is outlined almost according to the SMART system. He is ready to build ships on the Moon, “kick” the UN, go into hibernation (sleep in a cryocapsule, allowing a person to sleep for centuries without aging – author’s note) to personally lead the defense of the solar system in 400 years, when the aliens arrive. Some critics believe that Liu Cixin’s original trilogy contained a cross-cutting metaphor about China’s place on the world stage. Chinese civilization was represented as the Earth, and the “collective West,” technologically ahead of it, as Trisolaris. Despite the external multiculturalism of the series, it is in the image of Wade that the motif of this book is most fully preserved. “Only progress!” -This is both his personal motto and his moral criterion. Thus, during the operation in Panama, Auggie realizes that for Wade, protecting the planet is worth not only a child’s tear, but also a child’s leg severed by a nanofilament. Wade is the most charismatic and attractive character in the series “The Three Body Problem.” His duet with the dutiful patriot Raj Varma midway through the sixth episode is especially hilarious. That’s why it’s so hard not to be seduced by Wade (who believes the Panama Canal is more important to humanity than the people who died during its construction) and ask ourselves what was more important: the White Sea Canal or the people who died? Did you build it?
Despite its astronomical budget, The Three-Body Problem lacks stars in the sky. The questionable acting and general overload suffocate the viewer throughout the season, just as the Russian voice acting tramples on Liam Cunningham’s brilliant work. One can only hope that the showrunners need the ugly design from the first season only for technical purposes, such as a launch vehicle that puts a satellite into orbit from Liu Cixin’s pure ideas. And in the coming seasons Netflix will uncouple it and present space and its conquerors in their purest form.
