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3 Body Problem, Netflix, If You Know, You Know


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Interesting that this is the second massive and  expensive TV series to come out with a month of another series that somewhat revolved around an astrophysicist (Masters of the Air). 

Anyways, spoilers, this is a solid and short review talking about the series vs the book, and how it ties into future books.  He’s going to do a deep dive this evening on the book vs TV show.

 

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Already posted in the Netflix thread.  I’ve read the books and was a little thrown by some of the narrative changes for the first two episodes.  I’ve since gotten past that and have been pleasantly surprised by how well they’ve done with the overall adaptation.   They’ve blown through the material and were through the first book in five episodes.  Sixth episode jumps right into the beginning of the third book.  
 

I still have the last two episodes to go and am wondering how they are going to bring Luo Ji in, but it kinda looks like they are transforming Ye Wenjie to take over his character’s arc?  This would make sense as she was the one who set Luo Ji on his path in book 2.  
 

Definitely some interesting creative choices to make changes to the book, but I think they are working.    I’m overall pretty impressed with it.  

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I read books 1 and 2 several years ago. Started book 3 but fell off early on, for no particular reason. Will try to jump back in.

 

Enjoying the show, with two eps left to watch. Hoping it gets enough buzz to warrant future seasons. As the post above says, they are definitely going pretty quickly with the pace of events in the show. Much faster than I would have expected.

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4 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I found William's story the most tragic yet most beautiful. 

Eliza is not a good actor, but she's hot and everyone else is nailing their roles.

Her smoking looks contrived and forced. It doesn't fit.

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Posted (edited)

Hopefully starting this tonight (we started Loudermilk recently so it's up to SWMBO).  Paste Magazine doesn't seem to like it.  I'll go with Surly.  I stopped reading before it got to any spoilers. 

 

https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/netflix/3-body-problem-budget-ending-explained-spoilers-game-of-thrones-industry-problems?mc_cid=4266e7252d&mc_eid=8285ccb0ff&utm_source=PMNTNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=240325

 

Edited by DDD Dad
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Lurker here but I've been really impressed with how Netflix has adapted the books so far. I just finished the trilogy about a week ago but am tempted to start it all over again. My wife hasn't read the books and it's really enjoying the series too. I know Netflix had to add drama, love interests etc to keep the casuals interested but so far they've pulled it off, and it's been cool seeing how some of the events from the book got carried over to the show. I'm seriously considering watching the series on Amazon Prime once we're done with the Netflix version

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36 minutes ago, iodeac said:

I'm seriously considering watching the series on Amazon Prime once we're done with the Netflix version

Quinn (his video is above) also goes over the changes for the Chinese adaptation (Amazon and Peacok) and there are changes.  The Chinese version runs around 22 hours,

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12 hours ago, Guadaloopy said:

I still have the last two episodes to go and am wondering how they are going to bring Luo Ji in, but it kinda looks like they are transforming Ye Wenjie to take over his character’s arc?  This would make sense as she was the one who set Luo Ji on his path in book 2.    

Well I was wrong.  Not sure why I didn’t recognize Saul as the Luo Ji character.  Pretty obvious in hindsight.  
 

This ended up being an amazing adaptation of a really difficult book series to bring to life.  Standing ovation from me.  
 

 

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I have two eps left, and I'm feeling a little meh, but I'll finish the season off. 

I did read the first book many years ago, and vaguely remember some of it. 

Favorite part of the book was the computer made up of millions of soldiers holding flags. I was hoping the adaptation would go into that in detail, but it makes sense they wouldn't spend too much time on it. 

Slicing and dicing the ship was dumb. Was that in the book?

 

 

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5 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

I have two eps left, and I'm feeling a little meh, but I'll finish the season off. 

I did read the first book many years ago, and vaguely remember some of it. 

Favorite part of the book was the computer made up of millions of soldiers holding flags. I was hoping the adaptation would go into that in detail, but it makes sense they wouldn't spend too much time on it. 

Slicing and dicing the ship was dumb. Was that in the book?

 

 

Yes.  The reasoning for that method of “attack” is more thoroughly fleshed out in the book

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At long last, a thread I can contribute to instead of just lurking. I loved all 3 books, but book 3 has a lot of scenes that are going to be amazing if they adapt them well. So, it sort like Netflix rushed through book 1 to get to the good stuff. Ye Wenjie's story in the books is a bit more fleshed out and her decisions make more sense, but I don't think they had enough episodes to really dig into it here.

I'm optimistic so far. Hopefully Benioff and Weiss can do this one without fucking it up since all the books are written. 

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40 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

was that in book 1? If so, I don't remember it, but it was a long time ago. 

(I didn't read the other two)

 

 

Yes.  Book one.  About 90% of the way through.  It led to the big reveal about sophons, etc.

BTW... I like the change to "San-Ti" from "Trisolarans."  I always felt that was a dumb name for them.  

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9 minutes ago, Red Five said:

The lead actress is not good. 

Thankfully the story makes up for it, although Chief O’Brien should have known the woman he married on board the Enterprise was going to fuck not only him, but humanity as a whole.

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1 hour ago, Red Five said:

Read the first book last week. Through three eps of the show.

The lead actress is not good. 

Assuming you mean Auggie, yeah I agree. She was miscast. Fortunately she’s not really the lead in the latter half of the season.

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14 hours ago, Guadaloopy said:

Yes.  The reasoning for that method of “attack” is more thoroughly fleshed out in the book

I only gotten 1/2 thru book 1 so almost everything in the series is new to me. This part of the episode made little sense to me because there was little context.

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7 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Assuming you mean Auggie, yeah I agree. She was miscast. Fortunately she’s not really the lead in the latter half of the season.

 

Auggie: I'm out, I'm in, no wait I'm out again. 

I got one more episode. If it doesn't blow me away, I'm probably out for good. 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Assuming you mean Auggie, yeah I agree. She was miscast. Fortunately she’s not really the lead in the latter half of the season.

She was annoying. Really didn't enjoy her character or acting. 

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31 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Assuming you mean Auggie, yeah I agree. She was miscast. Fortunately she’s not really the lead in the latter half of the season.

 

21 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Auggie: I'm out, I'm in, no wait I'm out again. 

I got one more episode. If it doesn't blow me away, I'm probably out for good. 

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, Js1 said:

She was annoying. Really didn't enjoy her character or acting. 

She's the character that makes the least sense in the series adaptation.  She's a partial analog for the main character in the first book, Wang Miao.  The problem is that they split Wang Miao's story between two characters, Auggie and Jen.  In the book, he is the materials scientist and he is the one who helps Da Shi investigate the scientist suicides and is also "Copernicus" in the 3 Body game who solves the game and is invited to the summit for Ye Wenjie's organization. 

In this series, Auggie only functions to give us a reveal of the countdown and to provide Chekov's nanofibers.  They also saddled her with the overactive moral conscience for the group, which was pretty unnecessary and uninteresting considering the level of threat they are faced with.

The good news is that Wang Miao completely disappears after the first book, so we are likely done with Auggie. 

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8 hours ago, Guadaloopy said:

The good news is that Wang Miao completely disappears after the first book, so we are likely done with Auggie. 

I think there is a chance she takes the role of AA in a later season, but maybe the showrunners will read the room and bring in somebody new. 

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Spoiler

Evans’ face when he realizes we’re all fucked in Episode 4. My goodness. Jonathan Pryce is the best. 

 

Definitely a callback to the scene in GOT when he realizes Lady Tyrell isn't just talking nonsense when they're all gathered in the Red Keep and Cercsei is conspicuously absent
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The scene with Will Downing in episode 6 as Jin gets there moments too late... just as impactful as when I read it in the book. I really hope Netflix gives us a Season 2 renewal soon.

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Auggie character gets super annoying in episode 6.

Spoiler

"How can you fight against the aliens coming to wipe our entire species out!?!"

Uhhh, how can you not when total annihilation is the alternative? Enjoy your moral superiority, I guess.

 

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I didn't read it and really enjoyed season 1, so hopefully it gets renewed. I'm sure the Saul character does too, since he's supposed to be the smartest person in the show but spent all of season one getting high.

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Posted (edited)

I’ll second the Auggie criticism. Annoying, claiming moral superiority when there’s none to be had, and overacting.

Eiza Gonzalez is lovely to look at, but she’s by far the weakest actor in the cast. Shelley Hennig looks exactly like her, is a much stronger actress, will gladly do nudity, and is in the Netflix Family already. 
 

I don’t understand Hollywood. Directors woke up one morning and decided to cast Austin Butler and Eiza Gonzalez in everything. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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Real life plot twist: a few days from the premiere of the show, a dude in china was executed. 

his crime? Poisoning the shows executive producer — billionaire gaming company ceo who bought the rights to the movie adaptation— and some of his other coworkers over a business dispute. 

supposedly, he was demoted from a higher role (ceo of the production company) and was aggrieved. Maybe he saw the numbers. 

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Posted (edited)

Many thoughts. 
 

Spoiler

- Benioff and Weiss have their fastball back. Netflix unsurprisingly made a good decision not to write them off.

- I’d like to read it in an interview, but I think B & W picked 3 Body Problem because of the tragic Will and Jim story. GOT definitely loved to kill their darlings. 
 

- I have so many questions about the San-Ti that I’m going to read the books. What do they look like? If they’re so advanced, why does it take them 400 years to travel 4 light years? If they can fold dimensions shouldn’t they be able to travel faster? Also they’ve mastered faster than light communications. Why do they Tatiana to their wet work? Couldn’t the sophons just hit their targets with a lightning bolt? I think they’re bluffing some on how advanced they are. As depicted on the show, 3 suns causes a shit ton of problems. 

- I really liked the college friend group dynamic. Kept the story tight and you actually cared about each character. 
 

- I wish they showed some of Saul’s brilliance. The guy can’t remember an Art of War quote, but he’s the smartest human alive? 
 

- If the San-Ti want Saul dead so badly, why not just crash his plane? Rinse and repeat for the Onion Knight. 
 

- I think Auggie isn’t done. She’ll have a role to play. Gonzalez is the biggest name in the cast. They’re not paying her for water filter in Mexico scenes. 

 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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On 3/28/2024 at 4:22 PM, hookem2010 said:

I didn't read it and really enjoyed season 1, so hopefully it gets renewed. I'm sure the Saul character does too, since he's supposed to be the smartest person in the show but spent all of season one getting high.

and cheating on Eiza Gonzalez with random brit sluts

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1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

- I have so many questions about the San-Ti that I’m going to read the books.

Do, and also check out the Three Body Problem playlist on Quinn’s Ideas - he’s got a few dozen videos on the books, including specific topics such as what they looked like, how they traveled through space, etc

.https://www.youtube.com/@QuinnsIdeas/playlists

He’s been doing deep dives in the books since well before the series came out (both the Netflix and Tencent) and he compares the series to the books.

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