3 Body Problem, Netflix’s latest TV series, is loosely based on the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, by Chinese author Liu Cixin (who also wrote the book The Wandering Earth). Simply put, it’s an alien invasion story, but one that’s a lot more sophisticated than your average ‘pew-pew-pew’ cliché-fest. For one thing, this series begins in the 1960s, in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, which was the nationwide purge instigated within China by then-Chairman Mao to keep himself in power. A young woman named Ye Wenjie arises from the chaos to become a central figure in the overall story.
The 3 Body Problem of this series’ name refers to a far-flung solar system that has three suns. Any planet within this tri-sun system would have a hard time of it, taking turns orbiting one belligerent sun after another, and it just so happens that the aliens who set their eyes on invading Earth--known as the San-Ti--come from this embattled world.
In the chilling scene where Ye Wenjie invites the aliens to invade the Earth--even after being firmly warned by another otherworldly radio message to not answer the San-Ti radio communication--you can almost understand why she does this, having suffered a lifetime of abuse by an insane political system that has turned itself into a meat grinder on its own people. And at the same time, the series still clearly casts Ye Wenjie as a villain, and rightly so--for even after this horrific betrayal of the human race, she’s still not done in her nefarious deeds.
Rosalind Chao, who’s perhaps best known for playing Keiko O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, does a marvelous job at playing Ye Wenjie as an older woman. Her performance is wonderfully complex, tinged with faded sympathy and condescending authority, thus making her Ye Wenjie essentially one of the most dangerous villains around: the self-righteous scumbag who think they know what’s best for everybody.
Another great performance is from Liam Cunningham as Thomas Wade, best known as Davos Seaworth from Game Of Thrones. Wade runs the super secret British Strategic Intelligence Agency, which has caught wind of some weird goings-on and has hit the ground running. Wade is about as blunt as a sledgehammer, not caring what people think of him while he runs rough-shod over their feelings and emotions in an effort to take the battle to the San-Ti in any way that he can. In other words, he’s the perfect guy to lead the fight against the San-Ti.
He’s well-assisted in his efforts by SIA agent Clarence "Da" Shi, who’s engagingly played by Benedict Wong. Wong played the second banana to Steven Strange in the entertaining Doctor Strange movies. While acting as Wade’s underling in 3 Body, Wong’s Clarence is still given plenty of room to breathe and become an extremely likeable character in his own right. Series creators David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo expertly handle the heady scientific ideas while empathizing all of their characters, making them--both heroes and villains--feel like real people.
The San-Ti are a credible--and very scary--threat, despite the fact that we never see them in the whole first season (they use a human woman avatar, played by Sea Shimooka, to interact with us). The reason for that is that their invasion fleet will take 400 years before it arrives at Earth. In the meantime, they try to soften us up by employing psychological operations that attack us with a combination of superior high tech that looks like magic, as well as with humans who are sympathetic to the San-Ti cause.
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were the show runners on Game of Thrones, including its final controversial season (several actors from GOT appear in 3 Body Problem). I thoroughly enjoyed the last season of GOT, so I ignored all of the fuss. But if you’re avoiding 3 Body Problem because of the GOT controversy, all I can say is: please give 3 Body Problem a shot. There’s nary a fire-breathing dragon to be seen here, but it is a superbly done series overall that takes some tired science fiction tropes and manages to breathe fiery new life into it. --SF
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