What Is The ‘3 Body Problem’? Is It The Same As The ‘Three Body Problem’? (No, Really, What’s the Deal Here?)

Netflix‘s long-awaited adaptation of Liu Cixin’s groundbreaking novel, The Three-Body Problem, premiered yesterday, introducing millions of viewers to the heady world of Newtonian physics, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and a sexy lady with a sword who goes by the name “Sophon” (Sea Shimooka). 3 Body Problem is something of a miracle because many science fiction fans truly believed that Liu’s Remembrance of Earth‘s Past trilogy was impossible to adapt. It’s hard sci-fi, meaning the books are more concerned with stretching the laws of physics than telling a propulsive, soapy yarn. Nevertheless, Netflix has pulled it off. 3 Body Problem co-creators David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo have translated all three books into a really fun, watchable, wild season of television.

Of course, there still is a glaring problem at the heart of 3 Body Problem: What the heck is the 3 Body Problem? And is it the same thing as the Three-Body Problem? (Or three body problem???)

No, really, it’s a legitimate question. What is Netflix’s 3 Body Problem? What is it about? How is it different from the Liu Cixin novel titled The Three-Body Problem? And what does the real Three-Body Problem in physics have to do with the show? Moreover, what is the Three-Body Problem as it pertains to the plot of 3 Body Problem? So many problems! How will they ever be solved!

Here’s what you need to know about The Three-Body Problem vs. 3 Body Problem and all the bodies and problems in between…

What is 3 Body Problem?

So glad you asked! 3 Body Problem is a new Netflix series from the creators of Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and The Terror: Infamy showrunner Alexander Woo. It is the second TV adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel The Three-Body Problem; the first was a Chinese production that kept the story’s mostly Chinese cast of characters, but conveniently omitted the rather awful experiences of young Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) during the Cultural Revolution. (Politics, baby!)

All eight episodes of 3 Body Problem Season 1 premiered on Thursday, March 21, 2024 on Netflix.

What is 3 Body Problem About?

3 Body Problem opens in 1960s China, where the aforementioned Ye Wenjie witnesses her professor father beaten to death during a rally. His crime? Believing in science, which political extremists thought was Western hoo-ha designed to hold China back. Later, Ye Wenjie is assigned to work transforming vast ancient forests into lumber. She becomes hip to Rachel Carson’s seminal environmentalist tome, Silent Spring, a banned text because it was written by an American and, you know, is about not destroying nature. She eventually winds up recruited to work at a mysterious military compound called Red Base, where she makes a pivotal decision that I will not spoil because spoilers.

In the present day, five friends, all brilliant scientists — Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), Jack Rooney (John Bradley), Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), and Will Downing (Alex Sharp) — reunite for their mentor’s funeral. Vera Ye (Vedette Lim) mysteriously died by suicide, drawing the attention of Da Shi (Benedict Wong), who is investigating a string of similar deaths. Basically, top scientists all over the world began dropping like flies for seemingly no reason. Some of them purport to have been haunted by a countdown before their deaths, while others came in contact with a game…

Soon, Auggie begins seeing the dreaded countdown, while Jin and Jack get super invested in the game, which transports users to an AI world afflicted by “Chaotic Eras.” Will Auggie die? Can Jin and Jack crack the game’s code? And what does all this have to do with Ye Wenjie? You’ve got to watch 3 Body Problem or read The Three-Body Problem to find out…

What is The Three-Body Problem? All About the Books…

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (or Cixin Liu if we’re going by Western name structur) was first published in China in 2008. In 2014, an English translation by author Ken Liu arrived in the US and UK, and it soon became a major phenomenon with nobodies like George R. R. Martin and Barack Obama singing its praises. There are two sequels, The Dark Forest (translated into English by Joel Martinez) and Death’s End (also translated by Ken Liu). Together, the books are known as the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, which is not only clunky, but also only makes sense when you finally read the last book.

There are a few reasons why a lot of readers thought Three-Body Problem books were unadaptable. They are hard science fiction, meaning they focus on the nitty-gritty of scientific theory, which can be a lot for the average liberal arts major, like yours truly, to parse. The visuals relayed by Liu are also hyper specific and very much not of this world. But the trickiest part of adapting these books has to be the way the series eschews a simple, linear timeline. The first book is pretty self-contained, flitting between Ye Wenjie’s story and Da Shi’s contemporary investigation. The Dark Forest seemingly picks up where The Three-Body Problem leaves off, but then introduces a whole new protagonist and the idea of cryogenic sleep. That means there is a huge leap mid-novel to a far more advanced and strange future. The last book, Death’s End starts right back immediately after the events of The Three-Body Problem and then, um, travels like very, very, very far into the future. Again, new protagonists are introduced.

Netflix’s 3 Body Problem solves the narrative conundrums of the the trilogy’s time jumps and revolving protagonists by weaving together all of the contemporary plots into the first season. So events that occur early in Books 2 and 3 are included in Season 1. If Auggie Salazar is a new take on The Three-Body Problem‘s nanomaterials expert Wang Miao, then Saul Durand is the show’s version of The Dark Forest‘s Luo Ji, with Jack Rooney, Will Downing, and Jin Cheng being the obvious narrative stand-ins for Death’s End‘s Hu Wen, Yun Tianming, and Cheng Xin. By making all of these protagonists college buddies, Benioff, Weiss, and Woo manage to make the ensuing story both more emotional and straight-forward. (As a book fan, I was initially skeptical, but after seeing the whole first season, I think this change is rather smart.)

What is the Three-Body Problem? No, Like Literally, What is It?

Okay, bear with me on this because I was an English major who did very poorly on her AP Physics test in high school, but as I understand it, the Three-Body Problem is a like a humdinger of a thought experiment in physics and classical mechanics. If we’re working with Newtonian physics, it’s the idea that if there are three separate bodies moving around each other in space, there’s no way to predict these bodies’ trajectories. It’s total chaos. Like you can predict what course two suns will have circling each other or how the moon rotates around the earth, but if you toss a third planetary body, the math and science go nuts. The Newtonian laws of gravity can juggle two balls in the air, but not three.

That said, several solutions to the Three-Body Problem have been postulated by scientists, ranging from the three bodies moving in a figure eight pattern to the idea that they won’t crash into each other if their movement is elastic vs. gravitational. I can’t parse that any further because, again, English major. (I could diagram a sentence for you, though!)

So you might be wondering…what does the Three-Body Problem have to do with 3 Body Problem? Why is the show called that?

What Does the Three-Body Problem Have to do With the 3 Body Problem? (SPOILERS!)

Okay, don’t say we didn’t warn you, but the reason why the Liu Cixin book and Netflix show both have titles that refer to Newton’s Three-Body Problem has to do with the “solution” of the game Jin and Jack are playing. The world they visit, ransacked repeatedly by “Chaotic Eras” has the misfortune of being located in a solar system with three suns. Because of this, the people who dwell on this planet are repeatedly threatened with mass extinction whenever gravity throws them too close to or too far from one of the suns. Because they can’t predict the orbits of these suns, they are helpless and doomed.

If you want to know what that has to do with Ye Wenjie, the Oxford Five, or scientists committing suicide…well, we’re not going to spoil that. Watch the Netflix show.

If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 988.