‘3 Body Problem’ review: deeply complex sci-fi that’s equally satisfying

No one could accuse Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss of shirking a challenge. Having mined gold from one supposedly “unfilmable” book series, George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire, they’re now taking on another. 3 Body Problem, which Benioff and Weiss have co-created with former True Blood writer Alexander Woo, is a bewilderingly ambitious sci-fi saga based on Liu Cixin’s best-selling Chinese novel The Three-Body Problem.

Cixin’s 2008 novel, translated into English by Ken Liu in 2014, then raved about by everyone from Barack Obama to Mark Zuckerberg, derives its title from a complex conundrum in classical and quantum mechanics. It’s the first in a trilogy known as the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series. Benioff, Weiss and Woo have clearly been seduced by source material that isn’t just cerebral and globally popular, but also gives them scope to concoct an epic new multi-season phenomenon.

3 Body Problem doesn’t try to ease us in gently. It begins in Maoist China in 1967 with talented astrophysicist Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) witnessing the murder of her father at a violent public rally. Ye’s father is brutalised because he refused to stop teaching scientific theories established in the West. Because Ye won’t snitch on her dad’s possible associates, she ends up exiled in a covert government program focused on making contact with extraterrestrial life. Her defining moment, or at least one of them, comes at the end of episode two when it appears that her genius tweak to the scheme may have yielded results.

However, Ye’s absorbing ’60s storyline is just one piece of the puzzle. In the present day, we meet a five-member friendship group formed at Oxford University: brilliant theoretical physicist Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), slackerish researcher Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), poised nanotech pioneer Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), sweet schoolteacher Will Downing (Alex Sharp) and wealthy sellout Jack Rooney (Game Of Thrones‘ John Bradley). They’re reunited when their old tutor Vera (Vedette Lim), who happens to be Ye’s daughter, suddenly kills herself. Her death, and the suspicious demise of other top scientists across the globe, is being investigated by Da Shi (Benedict Wong), a sullied intelligence officer on the last roll of his dice.

None of the so-called “Oxford five” appears in the books, though some are based on Cixin’s original protagonist Wang Miao. They’ve been introduced to add relatable layers of humanity to Cixin’s story, which has been criticised for prizing ideas over people. It’s a creative choice that pays off, though 3 Body Plan still suffers from a prevailing coolness. Bradley’s douchey character is obviously designed to provide light relief, but even he doesn’t say anything funny until the second episode.

Inevitably, this show is also knotty and complicated. Another storytelling strand follows several characters as they’re sucked into a super-advanced video game gifted to Jin by present-day Ye (Rosalind Chao). Vera was apparently getting into it before her death, and there’s no doubt it’s incredibly addictive as it challenges players to build actual civilisations. There are no small ideas here, but then again, nothing about this series is small either. It’s visually lavish, narratively rich and more than compelling enough to overcome its moments of coldness. 3 Body Problem is one conundrum you won’t mind being sucked into.

‘3 Body Problem’ is streaming now on Netflix

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