Games of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with True Blood writer Alexander Woo, undertake 3 Body Problem, an ambitious adaptation of Liu Cixin’s groundbreaking trilogy of Chinese sci-fi books. Changes to the original source material have been made with the creation of a group of friends and physicists who met at Oxford University essentially replacing the main protagonist.
The first two episodes hit the ground running and are intriguingly brought to life with epic world-building and characters that are written with poignancy and humour. In the present day, the physicists are faced with numerous existential dilemmas which send them in search of answers. Firstly, all the science they have dedicated their life’s work to suddenly starts to make no sense, and secondly there has been a mysterious spate of suicides by physicists. The tragedy brings the friends back together at a funeral.
Intertwining narratives over different time periods play out. The backdrop of the Chinese cultural revolution in the 1960s leads the viewer through the life of astrophysicist Ye (played by Zine Tseng as a young version and Rosalind Chao) who makes first contact with aliens. To say anymore would be to give the game away but this is gripping philosophical sci-fi designed to make the viewer think about morality, isolation, freewill, communication, integrity and humanity in the face of possible annihilation.
The great ensemble cast are made up of the Oxford friends: John Bradley as wealthy entrepreneur Jack who has rejected a life of science, Jess Hong as dedicated scientist and tortured genius Jin, Eiza González as Auggie a nanotech expert on the brink of a massive breakthrough, Jovan Adepo as research assistant, Saul, who seems afraid to reach his full potential and Alex Sharp as extremely sweet physics teacher Will.
Benedict Wong joins them as a secret operative with the crumpled appearance of a Columbo-style detective and in stark juxtaposition to his colleague; a sharp-suited puppet master played by Liam Cunningham.
This is dense material that is mostly sophisticatedly handled, and isn’t afraid to show the brutality of man with surprising graphic violence. At times the AI narrative does have some familiar Resident Evil vibes to it, and some of the cameos are slightly distracting but this is predominantly out-of-this-world viewing with a down-to-earth quality thanks to the characters at the core of the story.
3 Body Problem is available on Netflix 21 March.
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