If you like hard science fiction and/or watch Netflix’s latest big show, then you’ll most likely be watching 3 Body Problem starting today.After all, Netflix spent $160 million on the show (plus $200 from the deal with its creators), so it should At least Feeling great, right?
David Benioff and DB Weiss’ highly anticipated Game of Thrones adaptation of Liu Cixin’s hit 2008 sci-fi novel has been in the works for a long time, around the time they wrapped Highly Divisive during the final season of Game of Thrones. and left behind a massive Star Wars project at Lucasfilm. Is their new endeavor a return to form or a big-budget flop? Opinions on the eight-episode first season seem to be mixed.
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Before we get into the mixed reactions, here’s the official, spoiler-free plot synopsis shared by Netflix: “A young woman in 1960s China makes a fateful decision across time and space, among a group of today’s brilliant scientists. There are reverberations. Five former colleagues reunite to take on the greatest threat in human history.”
On Rotten Tomatoes, at the time of writing, the percentage of registered critics giving a thumbs up is about 76%, but that’s not a lot actual The ratings present a picture of a modern sci-fi masterpiece, and not a great show worth watching. As for the user reviews that should have been popping up over the weekend, they are much lower right now, with only 38% positive reviews. As always, user reviews on RT and other film/TV sites should be taken with a grain of salt, as there have been organized campaigns against certain filmmakers/actors in the past and specific aspects of other excellent works. Looking at these, however, it’s hard to see an ulterior motive in most of them.
Meanwhile, China’s own adaptation of “The Three-Body Problem” was released last year and recently made a head start on the U.S. release. Understandably, not many international viewers or critics got a chance to see the film, but the ratings on sites like IMDb look pretty positive. While Netflix was heavily invested in its next big bet (despite the marketing being third-rate at best), it’s interesting that the most successful streaming service was undercut by Peacock at the last minute.
On social media, those who’ve already seen the Netflix behemoth are praising the “huge and diverse cast” and how it tackles “brain-breaking” questions like “quantum physics and invisible dimensions.” Thankfully, these aren’t rare elements that are hard to find in today’s plethora of sci-fi movies and TV shows, so we’re more interested in seeing how well the execution works and how readers compare to more ambitious works This book is a trilogy.
Some have said it’s “very different” from the source material, although that’s to be expected, especially when adapting such a complex written work. All in all, people on social media seem to be having a great time, so maybe there’s something weird about the Rotten Tomatoes ratings after all.
Regardless, we’ll all have a better idea of audience reaction to The Three-Body Problem after the weekend, and I imagine we’ll also try to watch some of it ourselves between long viewings of Dragon’s Dogma 2.