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3 Body Problem Season 1 Movie Review

3 Body Problem is a science fiction television series that premiered its first season on Netflix in 2024. It’s a very good adaptation that is flawed, but mostly satisfactory.

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“In order to fight power, sometimes you have to embrace power“

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First off, as a big fan of the source material I was always going to be disappointed at least a little bit with the television adaptation, which did happen for sure. But for the most part I was satisfied and I have high hopes for the subsequent two seasons. This show won’t be for everybody, but for fans of true hard science fiction it will prove to be an utter delight.

The first season covers the events of the first novel where humanity is warned by an advanced alien civilization that they will arrive to conquer them in 400 years. The creators changed things considerably by including bits and pieces from the second book in the final three episodes, which mostly paid off as it led to a more eventful season. The structure worked for me, the pacing is excellent and the show is consistently engaging and at times even riveting.

There is one big change that Benioff and Weiss did here and that is the inclusion of more better developed characters. This led to a very westernized approach that favors emotions and characters over cold science that the book possessed. But this was to be expected from an American show and you cannot really fault them for not cluttering it with scientific facts. There is enough science here to make most fans and newcomers happy, so I was fine with this choice. I would have set the show in the US instead of the UK. The series depicts the UK as this scientific haven and its protagonists as the saviors and that was quite childish.

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Nonetheless, these characters largely worked. At times in the second half the series focused way too much on emotional storytelling and character arcs, but because they were well developed this approach still worked. All five of these scientists being hugely important for Earth’s salvation was implausible, but I did still really appreciate their friendly dynamic and how much they evidently cared about one another. The acting is mostly very strong with the vast majority of performers doing a stellar job.

I would have loved to have seen more of Jack as he was the comic relief of the series. He was so much fun. Saul isn’t as memorable, but the final two episodes explored his character and his story quite well. Auggie can be overly annoying with her whining and activist speeches, but Jin is quite well realized as by far the smartest person of the five. As for Will, his story took way too much screen time from others, but it did lead to a huge mission for him that was purposeful and unforgettable. He is the heart and soul of the entire show.

Tatiana is an underutilized villain and the same goes for all of the pro-alien fanatics. Liam Cunningham was wonderful as Thomas Wade and the interactions between him and Jin were a lot of fun. As for Je Wenjie, she’s one of the few original characters from the novel that was included here and she was just as fascinating as she was in the book. Her tragic arc is well explored and her story is both compelling and complex.

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3 Body Problem showcases that Benioff and Weiss aren’t the best at tackling their own material, but some changes worked. That brutal ship sequence was undeniably effective and it features incredible VFX work. The visuals on this series are truly outstanding and it looks better than most blockbuster movies released in recent memory. The score, sound and production design are all splendid as well. Some of the dialogue was too jokey, but most of the humor was surprisingly solid. The tone was all over the place and the series failed to be as rivetingly chilling and mysterious as the book that preceded it, but at least the core of the plot was retained.