This was recommended by a friend and as soon as I booted up the first episode I knew that this was a heavily financed production because Netflix doesn't just allow anyone to have their own custom Netflix intro before each episode. I can only recall Stranger Things being given this honor so when I see it, I know that we are potentially in for a treat. That being said, I was one of the people that thought that Stranger Things was just a slightly above average series and while I think that 3 Body Problem is pretty great, it isn't a "must see" series the likes of which I was hoping it would be, for a variety of reasons.
src
I'm always a bit hesitant to believe the hype anytime that a movie or series states that it is from "the creators of...." anything that was epic. This is a tactic that studios will often use when a movie or series is sub-par and they are trying to generate hype based on something else like they did with the somewhat recent film Mortal Engines which was terrible but they were able to get a lot of people to go and see it anyway based on the "fact" that it was from the "creators of Lord of the Rings." That film was absolutely terrible and the "creators" was a couple of producers, which doesn't really mean that much as far as overall quality is concerend.
3 Body Problem is a story about a bunch of smart people that are given hints that the world is in danger and only they are privy to this knowledge even though they are unaware of what the danger is or who it is coming from. All they know is that bizarre things are happening to them and no one else can even see it.
src
For instance, and no, this is not a spoiler as it is featured in the trailer and shown to us in the first 15 minutes of episode one, a main character is able to see a countdown in her eyesight that nobody else can see and it isn't until she does something that is recommended to her in a cryptic way by someone only she can see, that the countdown stops. She still doesn't know what the countdown means even after she makes it go away. I am through almost all of the first season's episodes and I still don't entirely know what the countdown means and neither does the character in question.
The story jumps all over the world but mostly focuses on the U.K., which I am actually grateful for because I tire of everything always taking place in the United States. There is a big threat to humanity and I am not going to reveal what it is but only a few people are actually aware of it and this number of people grows as time goes by.
src
The "GoT creators" must have decided to stick with what they know because thus far I have identified at least 2.5 (not sure about the last person) who were in Game of Thrones and to me, I was disappointed that one of the main ones was Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) because I found his character quite annoying in "Thrones."
There is some great acting in this series, there is no doubt about that. There are also a great many scenes that are in it that had to have cost a great deal of money to make. These are all impressive including one particular boat sequence (that is all you are getting out of me about that because it is a major spoiler) as well as the many scenes involving VR video game interactions that many of the characters go through.
src
In this series there is a hint of old-world politics leading to the radicalization of certain people and how that leads to bad things happening to no just them, but others - which is an approach I applaud, and there is also a "Black Mirror" type of theme that warns about the dangers of technology. I'm reminded of Jeff Goldblum's line in Jurassic Park where he says "you were so concerned about whether or not you could, that you didn't stop to think if you should."
So it sounds pretty great so far right? So why would I state that it is "almost fantastic."
Well there are a number of reasons why that is. For one thing, when someone puts "Game of Thrones" on anything the expectations are already going to be fantastically high to the point of unobtainability. The next reason being that the story drags on at point with a ton of what I call "side missions" that don't really have a great deal to do with the actual story. It also annoyed me a bit that Netflix is definitely ticking a bunch of DEI boxes in this production although I am sure it must have pained them a bit to keep that at a minimum. They didn't go crazy with the diversity quota, but it is still there and quite noticeable. When I ran into instances of this, such as the cop's son talking to his dad about his boyfriend which has ZERO impact on the story, I was thinking to myself "you just can't not do this can you Netflix?"
As sick of this sort of inclusion as I am, this has no bearing on why I am not 100% loving this show. I am still watching this show and for the most part look forward to the next episode, but so far I am 90% of the way through all the existing episodes and I'm just not as drawn into the story as I would like to be. However, I want everyone to keep in mind that I am one of those people that actually stopped watching Game of Thrones when it was first released because I thought the story moved too slowly. My opinion about that show definitely evolved over time though and even though like most people I think the last 2 seasons of GoT were garbage, it remains one of my favorite series of all time. Perhaps 3 Body Problem can pull something similar off, but at this point I can say that I kind of doubt it.
src
One issue that I have with the series overall is the pacing: Episode 1 starts out fast and furious then the first 15 minutes of episode 2 does the same, just enough to get you hooked and engrossed in the story. Then through episodes 3-6 almost nothing particularly relevant even happens at all. Then, just like they would do to us in Game of Thrones, there is one super-climactic episode towards the end of the series. I can't say for sure whether or not that episode has already passed me by or not because I haven't yet watched Ep 8. In GoT, they would reserve the super-action-packed-climax episode for one of the last two episodes.
This show currently has mostly favorable reviews and for the most part I think it deserves this. It lingers at around 70% and I believe this is a perfect rating for it. It got worse reviews from China and well, you will find out why that is once you start to watch it.
Should I watch it?
My writeup to this point probably sounds negative but this is only because of the fact that I tend to focus on the negatives in almost anything that I watch. Despite the tone of the above writing, this is still a great show that is worth watching. Although classified as science-fiction I don't think you need to be a fan of such things in order to enjoy this. The writing is mostly solid, the acting is great, and the characters are all, mostly necessary to the story. Surprisingly, this is pretty decent writing and the only full-on negative I can come up with is that they have definitely stretched this out longer than it needed to be in order to meet some sort of GoT "quota" of a certain number of episodes.
Go ahead and watch it. I haven't given up yet and know that I will not. Since I rarely make it all the way through any series, this is a good sign.
All episodes of 3 Body Problem can only be legally obtained exclusively on Netflix