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Animation: AARP; (Source: COURTESY NETFLIX; Ed Miller/Netflix)
Netflix’s next big bet is a head-scratcher in more ways than one. First off, 3 Body Problem is a complicated sci-fi series that shifts between multiple time periods with characters on different continents. But it also has unusual source material: a trilogy of books by a Chinese physicist turned author named Liu Cixin that includes aliens, philosophy, cosmology and late-20th-century Chinese history.
Before you dive into the buzzy new show, here are a few things that might help.
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Why is there such a buzz about the show?
Liu Cixin’s book, which was first serialized in 2006, has become a phenomenon – first in China, where it elevated the popularity of sci-fi, and then worldwide. The book, the first Asian novel to win Best Novel at the Hugo Awards, won the endorsement of Barack Obama (“wildly imaginative, really interesting”) and even got a shout-out on the animated series Bob’s Burgers.
But much of the show’s buzz owes less to the source material than to its creators, led by former Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who have a $200 million deal with Netflix (and who teamed with True Blood alum Alexander Woo on the project). Netflix reportedly spent a whopping $20 million per episode for the eight-episode first season, making it the priciest series in the streamer’s history. A Forbes article poses the question, “Will Netflix Actually Spend Half a Billion Dollars on ‘3 Body Problem’ Seasons?” There is a lot riding on the show’s success.
(Left to right) Jovan Adepo stars as Saul Durand and Rosalind Chao as Ye Wenjie.
Chris Baker/Netflix
What’s the show about?
The short version is that the show depicts earth’s first contact with an alien species – here dubbed the San-ti (Chinese for “three body”) because they live on a dying planet that suffers from being in close proximity to three different stars with competing and unpredictable gravitational forces. The San-ti are technological wizards, with capabilities vastly outpacing our own, and their intentions don’t seem to be good as they seek a new home for their kind. Uh-oh.
We follow a group of Oxford scientists just as the scientific world is in crisis – top physicists and cosmologists have been committing suicide, and all of the world’s particle accelerators have shut down after suddenly malfunctioning. These events seem to be connected to a virtual-reality game that these top scientists are all playing – one that’s hyperrealistic and beyond the capability of any known technology. All of these events are tied to flashbacks about a young female scientist in 1967 China who witnesses the murder of her physicist father during that country’s brutal Cultural Revolution, which cracked down on so-called educated elites.
(Left to right) Liam Cunningham as Wade, Jess Hong as Jin Cheng and Sea Shimooka as Sophon in "3 Body Problem."
COURTESY NETFLIX
What are the aliens like?
We never see the actual San-ti, who appear only as humanlike figures in the VR game and communicate in mostly audio communications with various humans. Asked what they really look like, one cautions, “You wouldn’t like it.” Uh-oh again.
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