Should you try to solve The Three-Body Problem on Netflix? (critical)
In a word: yes! Weiss and Benioff's new series is a fascinating SF equation, even if we also find certain faults of the creators of Game of Thrones in this biblical adaptation.
Don't stop at the enigmatic title, which sounds like a slightly painful math exercise, like a Chinese puzzle that will give you a migraine. The Three-Body Problemunveiled in preview last night at Séries Mania, is in reality a large, spectacular and ambitious science fiction series.
It all began in China, in the midst of the cultural revolution. A scientist accused of implying the existence of God is brutally executed in a public square, before the eyes of his traumatized daughter. Obviously, any fan of Game Of Thrones will see in this scene a scathing echo of the assassination of Ned Stark, the real launching point of the famous cult series. And for good reason, David Benioff And DB Weiss are behind this Three-Body Problem. Five years after the end of fantasy, they are finally back with a new project almost as ambitious as the serial transposition of George RR Martin's Westeros. Supported by Alexander Woo (The Terror) they adapt another work deemed unadaptable, a Chinese trilogy imagined by Liu Cixinwhich has become a monument of SF literature.
This complex cosmic story begins in China, while Ye Wenjie, a young astrophysicist, is forcibly transferred to a secret base, which aims to send messages through Space, in order to contact a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization. Suddenly, an answer comes! Half a century later, the scientific community faces a terrifying and unexplained wave of suicides… in reality covering a secret kept in the shadows for decades.
Better not to say too much. All the pleasure lies precisely in resolving this Issue. After two somewhat heavy first episodes, which are especially notable for the reconstitution of this Chinese base and the denunciation of the bloody excesses of the Cultural Revolution, the Netflix series takes on a whole new dimension, multiplies the crazy twists, plunging the viewer into a biblical epic science fiction that plays with time and our conception of reality. An intelligent variation on the question of extraterrestrial life, which also brings to the table a host of existential debates around Humanity and its place in the Universe.
The intergalactic threat is not played out like HG Wells (War of the Worlds) but is part of a fascinating process questioning Man's capacity to always evolve, to always bring back his science. Beyond these ethical and metaphysical themes of space and time, The Three-Body Problem don't forget to offer some impressive sequences to the spectators, who will be visually delighted (this boat taken by storm in the Panama Canal will leave you on your ass).
Weiss and Benioff show that they still have this talent, this know-how to adapt literary paving stones. But the series also highlights their main fault: that of not knowing how to draw charismatic characters themselves. At the moment of Jon Snow sinking with the conclusion of GOTorphan of the work “Martinienne“it is when they move away from the novel that their Three-Body Problem suddenly becomes exhausting. This group of London scientists, stunned by the looming threat, suffers comparison with their Chinese counterparts. A circle of protagonists imagined by the American duo, too hollow to carry the series on their shoulders. And when they end up taking up all the space (in the last two episodes), the exciting SF saga begins to bog down. Fortunately, unlike Game Of Thrones, the novels are finished. Weiss and Benioff already have the last two volumes available to shape the following seasons and give this biblical SF production the conclusion it deserves. She.
The Three-Body Problem, season 1 in 8 episodes, to watch on Netflix from Friday March 21, 2024.
