Astonishing
The fact that Netflix is daring to adapt these books into a film is, in many ways, a crazy undertaking. One would actually have assumed that a literary discussion of the impossibility of predicting the orbits of three celestial bodies that influence each other would not be suitable for television.
It’s also about something as abstract as the dissolution of the known limits of quantum physics or forms of immortality (at one point in the book, a brain flies through space). But “Game Of Thrones” was actually unfilmable, and the series creators David Benioff and DB Weiss did it anyway (we’re keeping quiet about the botched finale at this point). In addition, the time of mega-budgets for streaming series is actually over: everywhere, productions are making savings and strict calculations are being made. The fact that 160 million dollars are now being spent here is astonishing in every respect.
Chinese cultural phenomenon
Also because of the author’s origins and how this is reflected in the entire trilogy: the fact that large parts (and particularly important moments) take place in China would not have been dismissed as ratings poison not so long ago. But Liu Cixin’s best-selling world map is so convincing and gripping that none of that seems to matter. And that’s good.
He also paints a harsh picture of China that makes you wonder why it went through (there is already a Chinese film version of “Trisolaris”): At the beginning, the dull brutality of the Cultural Revolution is made noticeable. A scientist is cited for teaching the “Western ideology” of relativity. Which is of course nonsense, but fatal here: the scientist refuses to deny physics because of politics and is killed in the open.
In the jeering audience: his desperate daughter Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng). A storyline – you know the narrative style: the events are nested in different eras – follows her to the prison camp, and then to an observatory, from where the whole huge story actually takes its course.
In the present, on the other hand, you meet young scientists who are meeting for a funeral (remember: scientists, countdown, suicide). The mood is also clouded beyond the sad occasion: “Science is broken.
All the particle accelerators in the world have been producing completely meaningless results for the past few weeks; it is, as one of the troop says, a “shitty time to be a scientist.”
Auggie (Eiza González) shows how much: she is on the verge of a decisive breakthrough in nanotechnology – and suddenly has the blazing numbers of the countdown in front of her eyes. As she is told, she can make them disappear by finishing her research. And so that she really believes that it is serious, the whole universe winks at her.
In the hype trap
How will not be revealed at this point – nor will any other details that the screenwriters left over from the trilogy. In the beginning, they do an excellent job of leading the audience into the complex story – and not letting go. There’s a sinister company and a rather funny ex-cop who are somehow involved in the whole thing, and a golden helmet that transports the user into a virtual reality game with a difference.
The first season (there are eight episodes) only films a small part of the huge work, the one that is still comparatively less abstract. One can only speculate whether the really hard material will follow and Netflix will continue to spend money on it.
But one thing is already clear: how the narrative around streaming has changed. Because “3 Body Problem” will certainly not match “Game Of Thrones” in terms of hype – undeservedly so. It can’t be, because these comparisons are based on a mistake: you’re comparing a huge overall hype in the rearview mirror with new episodes of a new series. Nobody can win there. No, “3 Body Problem” is not the new “Game Of Thrones”, that’s not possible. But the series deserves every attention.