Got a chance to watch the Netflix series 3 Body Problem. An Adaptation the Chinese Book series “Rememberance of Earth’s Past” by Liu Cixin. A thriller type of scifi fantasy.

I dont usually give much for spoilers, but there is quite a bit going on here, and discussing or pointing out plot points may needed, so if you have NOT watched 3 Body Problem yet, go give it a watch first.
Oh, I will be only  refering to the TV series, and not comparing any part to the book series.

In the beginning,  3 Body Problem might seem to start out as a typical Alien invasion story, but it is vastly much more involved.  This first season of the show is more involved with humanity’s reactions to aliens rather than the invasion its self.

Ok I think I got ahead of myself. A quick rundown might help…

During the 1960’s cold war era, the Chinese make first contact with an alien species via radio transmissions. Communication is slow at first, but over time the San-Ti (the aliens species)  are able to establish real time communications.

And over that time we also find out that the San-Ti race is actually already on their way to earth because their own world has become inhospitable and plan to take over our planet as their own.
But it will take them about 400 years to get here.

So while the San-Ti are currently far more scientifically and technologically advanced than we are,  they know that in those 400 years we will have caught up or surpassed them in every way and would/could probably defeat them in their attempt to take earth. So the San-Ti have came up with ways to slowly but surely slowi down our science discovery and technology advances.

Once the base of the story is set, we then get focused on the main group of characters. The faction of scientists that is trying to keep our advancement going and coming up with a plan to stop the invasion.

That was just a general breakdown of the show, keeping as many spoilers down as possible, but of course it is a bit more detailed and layered than that.

While that is the overall plot, the show keeps its focus on how we as humans react to all of this.
Dealing with an alien invasion is one thing,, but how does today’s society deal with a slow moving, far off event when we can barely ever agree on any thing, and everything that we can currently do has little effect?

Its more of a psycological study than it is about an invasion. Watching the world split off into the different factions feels very realistic for today’s views.

i will admit that having no idea what this show was going to be about made for a slow, almost boring beginning. But somewhere the plot clicked and became interesting.

That said, with there being a past plot, a current plot, an alien situation plot, and all of the individual character plots all rolling at once sometimes became a bit much.
But, they were mostly separated out enough to give your brain a break. It seems like a lot to be happening in eight episodes, but it really did not feel rushed, even when things started moving a bit quicker.

Because the show was already labeled as “season one” I was bracing for a cliffhanger ending. And I guess it was, but i guess it “could” have ended where it did, but that would have left some quite obvious parts of the character developments hanging out there, but acceptable

I would have thought that once you mention that a very important plot point was going to take 400 years to happen, things were going to be spread out over various and multiple timeframes, but the entirety of this show,, other than the initial set up scenes, “felt” like it happened in a weeks time.

Now whether the upcoming seasons will jump to future points or events (remember, I don’t know the books) I do not know,, but I think it should. All of the things that have been set in motion take time. Lots of time, and should feel like it.

Over all 3 Body Problem felt really good at making the audience actually think again. Something that is no longer happening in tv/movies. And I liked that. The whole show, once up and going was a great, slow burn that had great acting, writing.. along with a bit of gripping action.

But I do think that this show would have greatly benefited with a weekly episode drop instead of the Netflix all at once thing. Some of the plot needed some time to get mulled over a bit and get anticipated before jumping into the next. This really isn’t a quick binge type of release.

I definitely am on board for next season. I would love to get into the book series,, but I don’t want to accidentally get spoiled if the tv series doesn’t follow the book timeline. And just by certain foreshadows i don’t thinbk it does.
So yes.. go watch 3 Body Problem. It is a good watch.