I think this first season did everything it needed to do to get things set up for when the story really takes off. Hopefully, people who are being introduced to the ideas for the first time are enjoying them as much as I did when I read them. Bring on season 2. Let me know what you think.
8/10 if i had not read the book. 6-7/10 as a book reader (It really is my all time favorite sifi) I watched the whole thing in one go. In the last episode were they showed the ant on the tomb stone i thought: Well, good damn, they did a really good job! I love the decisions with the characters. The Wade and Will Downing/Tianming characters even better then in the books. The most important concepts are in the show and non is really butchered. (I was under no Illusion that even 10% of the science will be in the show :) Its kinda sad, there were no meetings with all the military leaders from around the world. I think this is the main reason Da Shi could not really shine. I love the decision to not include the cringe Nuke scene. Don't like the Tatiana kill scene or or the gore in the game, but it does not bother me too much. Well, then came the Ye Wenjie scene, that changed the course of human history. And Holy shit they butchered that so much. What the F is that Joke?!? Its just dumb. They really think the audience is fing stupid and cant even grasp the simplest of concept. They made my beloved science riddle into a joke. Damn. That hurts, ngl. And were is Bill Hines? Will they cut the whole mental seal concept? That would be really bad. Yeah i was really disappointed at the end :( Now with a bit distance its ok :)
Looking forward to the next season. I have not read the book. I prefer short book reads. So from my perspective, while the pacing was a bit off at times, the series held my interest. Reaction on social media has been mixed with some comments indicating the series was perhaps a bit too intellectual (I’m reading between the lines there). Fortunately for the Neanderthal viewers, there’s far better fare for that mindset with in your face ugly aliens, blown up spaceships and second rate acting. 😝 I did find the cultural revolution beating very triggering. Especially given the current collapse of decency worldwide and the worsening destruction of the environment. I almost feel like we need to place a giant target on our planet for real aliens to come end our civilization or perhaps an extinction-level asteroid.
@@fogsmart if you don't like long books but want to know, how the story of the 1st book plays out, with all the important details, i can recommend you this yt video: 3 Body Problem SUPERCUT: Read Books Faster
The netflix series is a solid "meh" and i have no issue with the diversity. Its a rushed galopp skipping so much of a good story. And its not a problem of turning a book into a TV show. Tencent did already a take with 30 episodes. And this is where the rush shows: in 30 episodes Tencent covers one book, where netflix covers 1.5 books in 8 episodes. Even in production quality Tencent has a solid lead with greate SFX and a great OST. The biggest difference is that the books and the Tencent show are China centered. And this is the part that pissed me of the most. Instead of watching a show and looking at cultural differences and similarities we get something lukewarm fastfood dumbing down the slow but fascinating development. A solid 3 out of 10. IMO not worth a second season.
I dont think they would cancel it. The Head of Netflix (a big fan of the book series) invested so much effort to make it possible on screen (i mean, not just money but also othe obstacles including sensitive political issues conserning China) to just abrupt it half the way. I feel pretty confident the show would be renewed.
@@jaybandu6976 Streaming services take sooooo long for a season 2 now days. I end up forgetting about the details from season 1, second seasons seems to lose some of its magic too many years later, or just not interested 2-5 years later and moved on to something else.
I seems that in the book the lady who invited the invasion seemed to have been deeply scarred by the worst of human nature. It would prime her perfectly for such an act.
@@victorpleitez768 Yes, actually. The Listener is my favorite character even though he has less that a chapter of screen time in the book. He warned them because in the pursuit if survival their species has become brutal and banished such things as art, and he doesn’t want that kind of people to get the paradise that is earth.
Seriously I had my mouth during that entire scene, it was so fucking brutal, the slow invisible death just slicing through everyone and everything No noise besides the people and ship slicing into pieces And the way it all just crashes into the shore afterwards This series has so many jaw dropping moments it's so fucking good
Yes, and to think this kind of technology could soon be real! It's a strong fiber so very fine, if you walk into it you wouldn't even feel it, and then you see your body fall into pieces. Quick death though.
@@JeffreyBernabe...I think this would still take the cake for its visceral realness as its more imaginable and relatable being human technology that could possibly be seen and used in the next generation. It was like the first time I saw ONSCREEN long range communications in StarTrek as a kid....I was like damned that's cool because I can imagine that for the future. The TriSolaran tear drops are more akin to Yondus whistle arrow.
The Trisolarans: "We do not understand deception." (2 minutes later) Also The Trisolarans (presenting themselves as a hot chick with a samurai sword): "You are bugs." Humans: "Wait, you don't understand deception... but you understand catfishing??"🤔 The Trisolarans: "Why would you fish for cats? Do they live in the Ocean??" Humanity: 🤦🤦🤦
I think that how the tech works , it mirrors what it believes is pleasing to us. It a dimensional computer that can unfold itself and spread across an entire planet, flicker stars, compose an eye ball in the sky composed of an inception building Lego nightmare! I'm sure it can come up with a pleasing avatar.
@hulkmad27 haha exactly... all deceptions. Which is the point. And the only error in the otherwise flawless logic in their backstory. No intelligent species survives anywhere without deception. "We do not understand." LOL yeah right, bish!
Trisolaran do not control the sofon when it is on earth. they can't communicate faster than the speed of light, that the reason they send it to earth in the first place. the sofon has to decide for itself in realtime what to do on earth. everything the sofon did is based on it own AI and understanding learn from the alien worshipping humans... so it was humans that taught it all this and created the images in the game... what we see in the game is just human understanding of the aliens. it not what the alien came up with themselves. what amusing and unsettling to me is it is believable to think human will help aliens destroy humanity... we are such a terrible species..
@@hulkmad27it wasn't "making the stars flicker" themselves, it was unfurling itself across the planet and then made itself transparent and displayed an image of the stars behind it. That's why they had light points as if they were being seen through a telescope. It's sort of explained without saying anything during the "bugs" scene when it mirrors the surface of the planet instead
@carpeimodiem that's not a deception.. they literally tell them straight up that they dont actually look like them and this is just for their benefit... Edit: but little red riding hood is the same thing sooo.. yeah I'm not buying their explanation either. They have ulterior motives
@@JeffreyAndMariatell me you're American without telling me you're American 😂😂😂 here in the shitty country I live it's a sign of sheer stupidity to watch dubbed stuff 😂😂😂
OK, so the joke is key. I realised that on the first watch, and re-watched the scene. She is seen looking at the Fermi Paradox book and a Game Theory book before the joke is told. She clearly trying to layer in a message to avoid the sophons, on the assumption that the aliens can't understand metaphor. Not a book reader, but there seemed to be a simple message here: Direct confrontation will lead to humanity getting kicked in the balls and losing - so find another indirect way to fight. Guessing this is the Game Theory element, if we know that there is no "win" solution in game theory, and direct confrontation is always a loss (fighting "god" you will always lose), we would seek to avoid the confrontation and/or find another way to avoid a loss (in this case loss presumably being civilisation dead?). But I suspect there's also another layer to the joke I'm not getting - something about being careful about playing music in heaven in the first place? - Fermi Paradox is about why we don't hear from other civilisations. So I'm guessing this is her message as to why we/they don't? They get kicked in the balls when they do?
I don't want to spoil stuff but that joke will be very very important down the line. It was also the point that Ye Wenjie decided to switch back her loyalty to humanity when it became clear to her that the aliens are coming here to exterminate humanity when she heard the last of their conversation with Mike Evans.
@@jportega9404 Yep, she's pretty convince I think that she's made the big mistake, and is attempting to rectify before she dies- that much I got from the episode. It was the scene preceding the joke in which we see her effectively talking with "empty air" in her house - but we know the sophons are always listening which is what makes me think the aliens know they have an issue - she literally tells the empty room she has "one trick left" - which possibly frightened the aliens as they know how smart she is. So that's why they're watching her. They presumably watched her go to the cemetery and tell the joke and know something has been passed to Saul but maybe (a bit like me right now) are struggling to understand precisely what and so they decide to simplify things by attempting to kill Saul. Which is the secret of why Saul is a Wallfacer I'd guess to the UN? The aliens are attempting to kill him, so he's dangerous to them, thus make him a Wallfacer and empower him? Which is a very bold step for the UN to make without knowing at all about the passed message and on the presumption that anyone the aliens want dead is probably good enough Wallfacer material... ? Feel I'm missing something on that one. Did she leave a message to someone (Wade? The UN?) about the message to Saul? Seems a big, big leap to make him a Wallfacer without a clue about the message? Bit lost on that one.
The joke involves Albert Einstein. There was a bookend of Einstein sticking out his tongue. Saul will later go to her house to make sense of their last conversation and see the Einstein bookend and find the two books. Saul will then know what to do.
As a fan of the books, the series is better than I expected. The first season is almost all exposition, but they've done it artfully. Disappointed that Clarence isn't more of a developed character. In the book, he's sort of noir detective meets Lt. Columbo kinda guy. I'm hoping he'll get a bigger role in the next season.
They don't understand deception but the game, sophons, false appearance and manipulation of multiple humans are clear examples of intentional deception. This whole thing feels like when someone starts writing a story before they know how its going to end so they just make stuff up along the way.
I wouldn't recommend the Chinese version to anyone who didn't already love the books. If you liked the Netflix show check out the book/audio book. They released a new version with Rosalind Chao (who played Ye) reading amzn.to/3xleGD2 If you like the book check out Tencent's version amzn.to/43BZ7TU If you don't have Amazon Prime you can find it on UA-cam for free.
Netflix should consider the potential of this unique and complex show beyond its initial viewership. It is important to have a second season to expand the story's reach and attract new fans. Season 2 delves into the most exciting part of the story, and Netflix needs to think really hard on this one, like what's next for Netflix, after Stranger things and Witcher.
If you read the books then the aliens turn out to be bugs. Literally. They are parasitic aliens similar to the ones from The Host. You can literally hold a San-Ti in the palm of your hand, they are like squid creatures. Their supposed gigantic fleet is the size of Lego’s. Literally. If Wills capsule made it to the fleet, the Santi would have no way of bringing him on board because the capsule is so gigantic. Imagine his capsule next to Lego pieces.. their cities are the size of Jenga blocks. That’s where their technology comes into play.
The San Ti cannot lie and don't comprehend the idea of a story. Also the San Ti: Make up a VR game set on a fictional Earth where they appear as humans and call humans bugs even though humans are no literal insects.
@@Someone_VIP Spoiler ********* Saul will blackmail San-Tie. He will threaten to reveal their location to even stronger civilization, just like Einstein revealed himself to God. This revelation can potentially cause superior god-like civilization to destroy San-Tie. This will be demonstrated by broadcasting signal of life from uninhabited star, and star being destroyed after 50 years. **********
@@Someone_VIP I hate that stupid joke and what they did with this scene. If you want to know, this is how the dialog between Ye Wenjie and Saul really goes. From the Prologue of the 2nd Book:
“I’ve got a suggestion. Why don’t you study cosmic sociology?” “Cosmic sociology?” “A name chosen at random. Suppose a vast number of civilizations are distributed throughout the universe, on the order of the number of detectable stars. Lots and lots of them. Those civilizations make up the body of a cosmic society. Cosmic sociology is the study of the nature of this supersociety.” “But… ours is the only civilization we know of right now.” “Which is why no one’s done it before. The opportunity is left to you.” “Fascinating, Dr. Ye. Please go on.” “My thinking is that this can link your two disciplines together. The mathematical structure of cosmic sociology is far clearer than that of human sociology.” “Why do you say that?” “See how the stars are points? The factors of chaos and randomness in the complex makeups of every civilized society in the universe get filtered out by the distance, so those civilizations can act as reference points that are relatively easy to manipulate mathematically.” “But there’s nothing concrete to study in your cosmic sociology, Dr. Ye. Surveys and experiments aren’t really possible.” “That means your ultimate result will be purely theoretical. Like Euclidean geometry, you’ll set up a few simple axioms at first, then derive an overall theoretic system using those axioms as a foundation.” “It’s all fascinating, but what would the axioms of cosmic sociology be?” “First: Survival is the primary need of civilization. Second: Civilization continuously grows and expands, but the total matter in the universe remains constant.” “Those two axioms are solid enough from a sociological perspective… but you rattled them off so quickly, like you’d already worked them out,” Luo Ji said, a little surprised. “I’ve been thinking about this for most of my life, but I’ve never spoken about it with anyone before. I don’t know why, really.… One more thing: To derive a basic picture of cosmic sociology from these two axioms, you need two other important concepts: chains of suspicion, and the technological explosion.” “Interesting terms. Can you explain them?” Ye Wenjie glanced at her watch. “There’s no time. But you’re clever enough to figure them out. Use those two axioms as a starting point for your discipline, and you might end up becoming the Euclid of cosmic sociology.” “I’m no Euclid. But I’ll remember what you said and give it a whirl. I might come to you for guidance, though.” “I’m afraid there won’t be that opportunity.… In that case, you might as well just forget I said anything. Either way, I’ve fulfilled my duty. Well, Xiao Luo, I’ve got to go.” “Take care, Professor.”
Just watched this yesterday. I enjoyed the show and have never read the books so I really don’t know where the story is headed. I feel like the following is going to happen: I agree that it’s dark at times but even more relevant to long term audience buy-in in my mind, is that at its core it’s an alien invasion story where viewers are going to be expected to watch 8 episodes, wait for a year and a half, then watch another 8 then wait again for another couple of years before actually seeing an alien invasion. My partner and I watch a lot of series and really like fantasy and sci-fi but both of us are pretty much hitting the wall of year-after-year “plot drip.”
I had never heard of this series in my life until 2 days ago, and wow, I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. What a fascinating and scary concept this is. Finished the show last night and I’m so excited to pick up the books. New obsession unlocked ✅
I didnt rly get into the 2nd season, seemed meh from the first few eps - the first season was good tho. I like the idea of rich people getting progressively more insane and perverted as they age hundreds of years beyond normal. It's an interesting biological theory. That you'd eventually get bored of normal pleasures and need to murder women during sex over and over to get off xD sick shit
imo. This was not high level sci-fi by a long shot. Too much was given a quick once over or there was little to show that was believable. Like for example the 30 nuclear weapons spaced out to accelerate the space craft to 1 % the speed of light. That is a mammoth project that would take many, many years to implement and yet no body seemed to age at all. There were more incongruous elements to this series that didn't work for me.
I think the nature of the cicadas is foreshadowing. It was mentioned in one of the news broadcasts that it was a swarming year for them. But as anyone who has lived in cicada areas knows, they swarm, then die off only to return 13 or 17 years later after being dormant.
If the san ti can make humans see what they want us to see, could they be making it look like the mission with Will's brain was a failure? Could it actually be working as planned?
there is a limit to what the sofon can do. there is just 2 of them so they can only be at 2 places at any one time, its really a gambit that they believe human don't understand it weaknesses and limitation. if the sofon can beat the human on their own, there would be no need to invade... to mask the mission would require dedicating one of them to that role of the entire duration. it is possible, but that would half what the sofon can do until the fleet arrives, it just not worth the afford. beside the success or failure of that mission would not change any outcome. the sofon concern is if humanity can develop a counter, their time is better spend spying on the leadership and messing with their data than staging a failure. they really only do those "trick" for short period of time... mostly for shock impact.
That is what I thought all along. If they can project simultaneous on every screen around the earth "YOU ARE BUGS" then surely a piece of cake to fake it in mission control. If they can screw with a particle accelerator even doubly so for a few comms links from Wills probe. How the Atomic reactions are triggered. well another matter.
No, in the books the sophons are much less powerful only being able to mess with photoreceptors to make fuzzy visions and arent able to manipulate computers at all.
I actually thought Raj had something to do with the failure lol coz he was pissed off and also because of the way he says he wishes it works out. He looks at Jin weirdly too as the spaceship takes off
I feel positive about the series as a whole after the first watch, as you say the last 2 episodes really brought it home. The thing with Netflix is...will we definitely see a second season? The potential is there for it to be epic Television, let's hope it's given the go ahead soon.
Just like 1899-should of been a 3 season arc as you know + did great around the world. This has 3 novels as you know-and if Netflix cancel this I will be really pissed...... Have you read the novels?
Wonderful summary. I appreciate that you addressed the joke. Clearly that is important & thanks for not spoiling the meaning. I trust it will become clear.
SPOILERS The Einstein "joke" didn't make much sense to me at first, because I was trying to decode it into Cosmic Sociology (which is what they discuss in the book, IIRC). Then I realized it's actually about Dark Forest Theory, and that metaphor is much clearer. I'd be interested in how you interpret what the Einstein joke meant.
I take it as, "Stop making noise in heaven 'einstein', God can hear you, especially if he's playing sax, and you're playing violin." I took the angel to be the first responder to her message, that warned her to stop sending messages.
I found the series by accident while flicking through Netflix. Thoroughly enjoyed what I saw and decided to watch the whole thing through. now I need to find the books .
As someone who read the books, i can say this adaptation was done right. The sad thing is, many of my peers who read it as well are too small minded and keep focusing on how this adaptation is not 1 to 1. The idiots dont get that by doing so, they are gatekeeping people into this amazing series. Losing the "just audiences" who could become "new readers of the books". This first season was well built, setting up not just the second book, but also the third. We dont need to see the supposed protagonist of the first book Wang get thrown away by the second one. His counterpart Auggie now is set to have a part next season. Saul took smaller parts this season but we are familiarized with him earlier, allowing a smooth transition as he becomes the main protagonist next season. That's how you retain audiences instead of them getting lost by next season
I'm with you for the most part. What I like is that the show almost never contradicts what happens in the books. It's committed to telling the same story in its own way. And it is doing a good job in my mind. There's very little "well none of that was in the original trilogy" stuff that is completely different (unlike, say, the recent Halo series adaptation on Paramount) so where they do change things around, it's usually trimming down the fat or recontextualizing to keep things concise. You can always tell (if you've read the trilogy) where an invented scene is probably leading back to something in the original novels down the road. One who watches the show can go read the books and they'll get the same story but with more detail; not a completely different one. One who likes the science bits in the show will find that it's expanded on in the novel. But they didn't 'change' what the science is or means, like some adaptations might do. They (for the most part) don't try to dumb the science down to where it no longer works and doesn't make sense: they just don't go into as much detail on screen because they only have 8 episodes. The mechanics of how it works is still going on behind the scenes, and some of the plotting and scheming going on is just not being shown. (Such as figuring out the details of the nanofiber deli slicer)
It is understandable that the story is adapted for better dissemination, but the damn pink pig once again made the wrong casting choice due to absurd political correctness. Yuntian Ming and Luoji were wrongly elected and should not be played by pink pigs and nixxa
It is understandable that the story is adapted for better dissemination, but the damn pink pig once again made the wrong casting choice due to absurd political correctness. Yuntian Ming and Luoji were wrongly elected and should not be played by pink pigs and nixxas.
while you are right in your opinion the way that you address the others that dont think like you as an idiots is something that you may wish to work on. In your mind you know more and you superior cos you find imaginary set of ppl that are inferior to you based on characteristic you appoint to them.
This is exactly what I was thinking . People who have read the books , slamming the show on RT saying it’s not the same . But having it too hard core won’t open it up to a more general audience. If someone is so inclined after watching the show , will buy the books which is a good thing
I was surprised there was no reference at all to the Shooter and the Farmer hypothesis. It’s really prominent in the Tencent adaptation - which uses a truly hilarious and awful CG Turkey animation - but layering it in at some point in the early episodes would have helped make more sense of the Einstein joke later.
It's been so so so long since I read the first book and I completely don't remember that idea at all. People mention it, but, doesn't ring any bells. So, I wonder if in the grand scheme of the story if it's actually that significant to include when other stuff will more-or-less overshadow it.
@@scottwatrous It's about their conception of physics; things are the established rules of nature only because of limited information. Turkeys got fed routinely to the point they considered a law of reality until thanksgiving when they understood the truth. Storywise, it was really more detail to help establish the ETO and their introduction to the game. I wouldn't say it was significant as well, it just more of the mystery and the analogy kinda disappeared as soon as it came.
@@sws212 The Shooter/Farmer theories are one of the biggest takeaways I had from the first book. In the context of the pace, it's a jumping off point for explaining that the very nature of physics as we know it is all assumed based on principles, especially at this early point where all we really know is that scientists are dying mysteriously, 'physics isn't real,' and depending on which version you read, a few 60s flashbacks that are haunting but don't seem to have much connection to the story. The very namesake of the book hinges on the principles of those theories-- we've been learning the laws of the universe based on having one sun, and have an assumption of the calculations based on our small controlled pool. When we get thrown into the ocean, we'll be completely overwhelmed by the fact that every assumption we ever made on constants was never as constant as we imagined. I loved the simple CG anims from the Cdrama and admired the commitment to presenting them to the audience, since it _is_ important. The problem with condensing this book into so few episodes (not even eight, since they try so hard to frontload The Dark Forest) is that you can get to Operation Guzheng and dehydration and all the other big "WOW WEIRD" setpieces, and sure, it'll look pretty. But when you strip away the hard science behind the setting, when you make all of the major threats physical without subtlety, when you manifest a ten dimensional entity as a teleporting woman with a sword, and you replace the simple VR game with an alien artifact, you strip away all of the mystery and nuance that made the original book such a standout.
It simply kills me, not knowing what Wade told Jin... I read the books multiple times, it hurts my brain not to know something about the story in the show xDD. But yeah, my favorite series of books, my favorite show and my favorite piece of fiction ever. Great video!
I have to say, I found it unbelievable that in 30+ years of communication the Little Red Riding Hood convo w/ Evans was the first time the aliens realized that humans are capable of lying and not to be trusted. Like, shouldn't that realization have occurred decades prior? I've only seen the show though; perhaps this bit is better explained in the books.
Or, in fact, that the duplicity inherent in being told ‘I lie’. They trust them enough to believe when told they lie, and the implication is that they cannot in fact trust them…. SMH
For the first few decades, they could only send/receive messages every 8 years because of the 4 lightyear distance between them. It's only in the last few months that their quantum entangled comm system has been on Earth so they probably didn't have a chance to speak casually like that until that moment.
Might be a stupid question but why the San-ti would disrupt our top of the line research but not the everyday human activities in order to sow conflict and create anarchy when they were outed? Since we can assune they can basically alter any electronic device they could just for example disrupt dams, creating catastrophes all across the world. They could disrupt our production cycles at any point, ultimately neutering a cohesive force response because we delve into miniscule non state actors. The only outcomes for us would be A) we collapse as a civilisation and therefore we are way weaker to fight back B) we revert our technologies to purely mechanical, thus neutering us anyways
It’s a good question. Part of the problem is that it’s much easier to destroy than to create - this goes for intelligent life as well as nature. But put human and alien threats aside. It took millions of years for Earth’s climate and chemistry to produce life and millions more to evolve into the manifold forms we see today. But Earth is fragile and space is basically a series of insanely huge explosions and debris flying around. Basically the more we learn, the more we realize how lucky we are, and how our luck probably won’t last.
I’m so glad you covered this show. I was hesitant to watch bc I’ve lost faith in D&D, but this turned out to be an incredible show. I hope 1) that D&D keep their shit together and 2) that Netflix renews it to allow them to finish the story.
Also, fully agree that Jin and Raj’s relationship wasn’t that interesting… that said, Raj is a pretty likable and VERY handsome character. So am hoping he continues to be a good guy in future seasons lol
Love the show. Found it cocky that they think the San Ti would not exploit the send brain to find the weaknesses of humanity (even though they already got it quite right already😅) These dudes from an instable world fighting with every bit to survive, will not hesitate to get rid off anything endangering their existing, when it is for them all or nothing all day. The scientists saying it is only a bad idea to send messages out to space, i cant deny their arguments.
No for real tho... Like Netflix has a term or something in their contracts where they're like "must include at least 1 scene of people fuckin, as well as drug use of any sort." Like I promise you if there was an independent way to produce this show while still having the same money making ability, they wouldn't have had the intro look like that and they wouldn't have been smoking so much. And keep in mind I watched every episode stoned and thought this, like it's abnormal that all shows thru Netflix do this
Almost certainly product placement. Instead of writing something for characters to actually do during a scene, they can just sit and smoke while they deliver clumsy exposition. Beniof and Weiss are certifiably hacks.
did she actually delete herself or was she killed by someone and we didn't see? like the cameras at Jack's house. I felt like the show was trying to hint at the idea that Tatiana might have been involved, like all the other scientists who "deleted themselves"
I really enjoyed this. Haven't read the books so it's all new to me. I, like everyone else, had some worry about it simply because of how bad thrones got in the latter half of the series. But was optimistic because of how great the first 4 seasons of thrones were, and knowing this story was already completed meant d and d wouldn't have to write the story themselves. This wasn't as good as thrones season 1 was but that's an extremely high bar to get over. But it was a redemption in my eyes. Also I loved the thrones cameos we got. Varys as the pope, ned stark in the bravos play, as well as one of the gold cloaks gendry killed as sir Thomas moore, the iron bank guy as a scientist, who's partner is played by Reece Shearsmith, who show inside no. 9 is incredible. If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's like black mirror but has been consistently great every season.
I hope everyone reads the book its freaking bananas. I like TV too but to me reading and using your mind just takes it to the next level I hope everyone hasn't lost that.
I find it interesting Ye Wenjie shared similar characteristics as Carl Sagan. Sagan was a science educator during the cold war period, famously warning the public of a nuclear winter. Sagan relatively pessimistic of the human condition in contrast to his otherworldly optimism. Like Ye in the show, Sagan is more hopeful that an advanced civilization would be humanity's savior (as portrayed in his sci-fi novel Contact). He was part of the team that encapsulated the collective music and sound of our planet's lifeforms in the golden disk attached NASA's probe, en route to the outer edge of our solar system. Wade on the other hand, resembles the opposite spectrum akin to Stephen Hawking, who argued not all alien civilizations may be benevolent. Hawking warned astronomers from broadcasting our position.
I watched the Chinese original version and loved it, and yes you have to read subtitles. I have yet to read the books (no one has them in stock, or at the library), and probably leave the US version till later.
I found auggi to be the most selfish character in the whole series, she only cares for herself, she was willing to destroy her work to save her life and she doesn’t wan to help humanity survive but rather to go make water purifiers which won’t matter in the grand scheme of things as an alien is on its way to subjugate the planet. Also her being sad about killing the human traitors made no sense these people are heralding death from an alien race and they are systematically killing all of humanity’s brilliant minds
She a diverse woke young communist girl boss billionaire who just wants to spend other peoples money to help humanity .They spend half the show telling her how smart she is and it's so annoying .I'm guessing the books she is different. Wouldn't even surprise me if she is an asian man.
*Possible spoiler here im not sure* but the joke characters are Einstein, the angel, and God. In my opinion Einstein is representing humans, and playing violin in heaven is equal to broadcasting in space with no regard to the consequences, the San Ti are represented by the angels and God is representing a WAAAAY BIGGER BAD than the angels thats waiting to kick Einstein b*lls to kingdom come. And if we could find a way for God to kick the Angels b*lls as suppose to kicking ONLY our b*lls then its a better deal in the end.
Love the channel and appreciate the content! Here's where I'm coming at this from, I've read the books and lived in China from 1996-2000. I'm largely in agreement with your take, over all I really enjoyed the show but as a reader of the books some of the differences affected my experience, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. If I was coming into the series cold I think my opinion of the show would be that much higher. My biggest issue was something you bring up as well, the pace of the flashback aspect of the story vs the rest of the narrative. I agree that the flashback sequences were some of the most compelling and well-acted in the show so just based on that alone I'd have liked more but I also feel that they only give us like the first 2/3 of the flashback story and that they really needed to show the rest to give the audience the full experience. The anti Raj sentiment from the Oxford 5 was pretty heavy handed and sloppy, Dan & Dave weren't subtle that they want the audience to despise him by having every other protagonist shade him at every imaginable opportunity. The show also cut the most terrifying scene in the series for me, or at least they changed it for the poorer; the eye in the sky scene is MUCH freakier in the book. I did enjoy the show only Tatiana and their decision to make Follower a young Vera avatar. Looking forward to a second season!
I thought the Raj situation reflected poorly on Jin not the other way around. Plus, since you read you can figure out the arc he's going to have in season 2. The whole relationship just wasn't necessary except that they could be connected.
@@PetePeppers1 Oh it did reflect poorly on Jin. What I had intended to say was that, to the audience Raj isn't in any way acting like the utter douche he's constantly being portrayed as by the other characters and that's pretty sloppy writing/directing.
@@dffndjdjd That's fair enough, I mean I can certainly understand Will's friends wanting him to be happy. There's like 4-5 separate times though where the rest of the group speak poorly about Raj and I don't feel they showed him being a jerk. Yeah, his last line to Jin is awful but she did just do him dirty.
@@TheInterestingInformer No, not really. I wouldn't mind binge watching the whole series at once. I don't read one of the three books then wait a year to read the next book.
@TheInterestingInformer I wasn't clever enough on initial post. 2424 would have been better. I haven't read the books, but now I wonder if the seasons will have dramatic time hops.
Thanks Pete. Really appreciate your reviews. I have been watching 3 body on prime. It is the Chinese version so am having to read subtitles that version seems to be closer to the book than this one but it’s harder to follow for me because sometimes I get behind the subtitles keep up the good work
I didn't read the book, but the 3rd wall facer reminds me of 2 things: 1.) According to game theory sometimes random choice is necessary to get the optimal solution. 2.) They confuse the hell out of the aliens who struggle with even the basic concept of lies and misdirection. / I don't know what the real reason would be, the guy maybe isn't stupid but definitely not qualified.
He is chosen because Ye told him the only way to defeat santi. He is the only one who knows, he just doesn’t realize it yet. The selectors don’t realize that either, they just assume he is a threat to them because they are after him.
Honestly as a book reader watching this show with my SO that didn't read the books I wished they made the season longer and included at least the build-up to THAT scene in the 2nd book as a perfect cliffhanger and to make people talk about the show. It would be the "red wedding" moment for this show and draw in the large crowd as I'm pretty sure the entire reason the book trilogy even became such a big hit is because of that specific moment. For my SO the series was "okay" but not good enough for her to be fully invested. And that's mostly because there was no real draw or even an idea of what the 2nd season would be like.
I agree. Why season 1 was only given 8 episodes instead of the standar 10 that most shows seem to have now days baffled me, especially given the complexity of the story.
I suspect the Staircase mission went exactly according to plan and was engineered to 'fail' in a very specific way that only one person might have necessarily needed to know.
I watched the Tencent series so comparing that adaptation added another level. This really doesn't work as a mystery the same way, where things that took 9 hours to reveal in the Chinese show get flipped over in 30 minutes on Netflix. I think being robbed of that suspense is detrimental to the experience, but I suppose the decision to make that sacrifice was done before they even started writing. The Netflix version basically burns through the entirety of the Tencent story by the end of episode 5. I'd be down for a spoilerish video of how the Netflix characters map to their novel counterparts.
Idk, the Tencent version was accurate but it shows that you can be TOO accurate at times. The first book is my least favourite now having re-read the series in the run up to this show and so far, the only change that I don't agree with is dropping Trisolaran as a term in favour of the Chinese word. Speeding things up and cutting here and there is what they should do if they want people to actually watch.
@@NigerianNinja-d6hYeah, I'm not saying 30 hours was the correct way to do it, just that the mystery of wtf was going on was an important part of the story, and that is more or less excised from the Netflix version. Even the countdown numbers, which figure so heavily into the marketing of the Netflix show, ultimately aren't that important.
@@dffndjdjdWatching it on UA-cam is especially odd, because there are episodes where entire stretches have the audio drop out and weird song choices play instead until the dialogue randomly comes back, probably due to music rights issues. I think there are aspects the Tencent version handles better because they have the luxury of time, but my point wasn't that it was better, just that it was hard to keep my brain from comparing the 2 while watching the Netflix version.
After watching the Netflix series, watch the 30-episode Chinese series from last year. It's definitely a slow burn but much more fleshed out in consequence. Forgot to add that it's free to watch on youtube.
So it will take Will 5,000yrs till he meets another Star and 5 million yrs till he out of the Milky Way. Man that is so wild to think about. Well, I honestly hope he either crashes into something or another spacefaring species picks him up.
If I remember correctly a human spaceship, Blue Lagoon(?), forgot the name, will “save” the Will/Tianming’s brain. But failed, and then the Trisolarans/Santi will revive him.
I feel that after watching the first season, and without having read the books, this series feels like a budget BBC production. The music is absolutely wrong for a show like this, and it presents us with spoon-feeding facts as if we are too stupid to know even the slightest tidbit of science as an audience. The show shifts between not too fancy effects, and then over to dialogues in sterile environments - Very much like just about every BBC sci-fi ever. I like the premise of the show, but with the directors being who they are, and what they've managed to deliver in season 1, I think I better grab the books before the total disappointment arrives. Also, "aliens" arriving in 400 years - this situation is real today, only, it is AI that we are absolutely unprepared for.
This show suffers from a common problem in Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories. At some point the enemy can become so powerful that it opens up plot holes. Like if the AI can do X, then why can't it just do Y. For instance, the AI can sabotage a car and make it attempt to kill someone, but it can't just sabotage a plane, etc, etc.
The books were a lot more waterproof in that regard (and explained what sophons can and cannot do quite scientifically). The show took more creative liberties for the sake of action-y moments.
@@steelenutz1it’s not much of a spoiler. I mean what is a dimensional strike? Who did it? Why would the San-ti destroy their new home? It just opens more Questions to be answered.
I know right!? Ppl that either haven’t read the entire series or only read the 1st book probably thought the show was “boring” but they don’t realize that it’s necessary setup for the next 1-2 seasons where the real story and crazy action/revelations will take place. Can’t wait!
I can't wait for Season 2 (here's hoping). The only real hate I see about this show is the expected gatekeeping in the subreddits - either book readers who are upset that they're no longer special now that it's mainstream, or Chinese fans who are upset that a Western adaptation has the temerity to change the characters and add Western actors. As a book reader, I'm mostly happy with the changes or at least understand why changes were made. This is not an easy work to adapt by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm giving D&D this one last chance, and I have faith they'll rise to the occasion.
I haven't read the books, but the way in which things were introduced made it easy to understand the concepts, characters, and plot. The actors all did a great job bringing the characters to life, which made it easy to get become invested in the show. I really enjoyed season one, and I am looking forward to season 2.
I had no idea about the book series, i had no idea this existed... but Pete is right in his wrap up - this show has brought new fans to the books... also the show stayed with me.. binge watched in 3 days last week.. i haven't stopped thinking about the concepts it presented ever since.
That the San Ti recruit through the fictional video game yet can't understand the fundamentals of fiction, calling it 'lies', is a plot hole I have a hard time getting past.
Same here, they clearly understand the concept of fiction but now they are "afraid" of humans because they can be deceptive...hey all storyline can't be perfect 🤷🏿♂️
The fact that Saul forgave Vera's Mom for practically driving her daughter to commit suicide means he could unify the Trisolaran and future humans together.
Good essay, Pete. I didn't really get the whole "Eye in the Sky" thing until you explained it. That that was a Sophon. I still don't really get how they can "see everything at once," though, unless it has to do with dimensions we can't perceive. Actually, now that I've seen the show, I don't feel like I have to read the books, which is good, cause talking heads jawing about physics is my least favorite type of sci-fi.
Big sci-fi fan here and I loved it. I wasn’t hooked instantly but from episode 5 onwards it blew my mind. Great vid although I can’t believe you left out the most attractive character on screen.
Netflix: hey want to watch an eight hour movie? Me: heck no! What are you crazy?! That’d be dumb. Netflix: what if I break it up into eight one hour episodes that you could binge watch at any time? Me: you SOB… I’m in! Really enjoyed your recap.
The title of this video is "3 body problem ending explained", but actually it explains every aspect of the series. You seem to be assuming viewers couldn't understand the series themselves, and I don't understand why! It's not so much an explanation as a rapid-based summary.
Will did not sign his brains away to humanity on legal paper, they dont do much to him. He rather sign to in Jins name. Auggie did not "screw" the investors. The only investor threatened twice and wanted to steal her invention twice and if possible pushed Auggie out of her own company in a minute. Auggie was sick of him so she put her invention in public.
I liked the books very much. They were "dense", poetic, profound and terrifying. I think Netflix has produced a soft version, science-lite version that captures the sense of confusion humanity is feeling. I don't mind the way they amalgamated or recreated characters (so we can see them together [conveniently] from the beginning). The Expanse did that too and it helped character development. I have mixed feelings about the story, tone and narrative being westernised...
BTW I just learned that there is a Chinese series of this and it is free on UA-cam with English subs 😂. Just watched the first two episodes and it is amazing.
I feel like they did a decent job bringing the main concepts from the first book in. The sense of hopelessness, of being completely out gunned. I even enjoyed the way they split one character into five.
Turning 3BP into series is hard enough, but I don’t see how they’ll continue with adapting The Dark Forest and Death’s End, especially when things get ‘inter-dimensional’
…spoiler…. Should watch Quinn’s ideas… or read the book. The ship going off into space is setup for future events… and tbh the show explains why the sophons work pretty well, even better if you read the books. I believe with the explanation of the dimensions it shows us how/why sophons work and the show explains perfectly why they can’t do everything or be everywhere (especially when they can only make 4) Considering how niche the book audience is they did 10/10 for recreating
If he gave you all that you might think you don't need to read it and/or see the series. And I guarantee it would be your loss. I'm actually thinking about reading it again before season 2.
I want to read the books and I hope it has less non-sense like in the show. Like explaning your whole plan to your biggest human adversary. And if the sophon can control tvs and autonomous cars why not crash airplanes, overheat or disable energy production facilities, disable water distribution, launch a couple of nukes, or just have the sophon cover the whole planet until all life has ended?
The fact that series such as this and Foundation exist, are entertaining, and provide decent enough (if not completely faithful) adaptations to be enjoyed by a wider audience than just ardent fans of the source material gives me hope that perhaps some day we'll see an adaptation of Greg Bear's The Way series.
Im happy that you enjoyed it. I as a first viewer didn't really liked the latter part of the show. What I saw was trap doors upon trap doors being installed by the show runners to later retcon scenes or show them in a different light. Which would be fine if you do it once or even twice. But i can already see that they'll introduce them one after the other. No to mention that the whole story is moot is they are actually able to manipulate things on a subatomic level. Which they do. As an invasion force there is absolutely ZERO reason not to give everyone brain hemorrhages and be done with it in a day. And then arrive at a semi-pristine wilderness...
I get it how the sophon can be accelerated to near the speed of light by the San-Ti but that does not explain how they are so manoeuvrable once they get to earth. Moving fast is not normally associated with it being easy to change direction.
The show was interesting and I’m excited for S2. The idea of preparing for an invasion, instead of fighting one directly is so refreshing and compelling. I did think the show was stronger at the beginning and end and weak in the middle. The Panama Canal nanofiber thing felt like the dumbest most contrived way to destroy a ship (why not just use conventional explosives that do a great job of that and can strike anywhere in the world so you don’t have to wait for the enemy to sail past your poles). The Ready Player One elements also felt iffie even though I enjoyed the visuals. I’m curious to see how the 3 Body Problem becomes more meaningful to the story (one assumes it will be more than just the Santi reason for invading) and interested in the “joke” being revealed as a solution. As long as the end doesn’t go GoT on us, I’m happy to have this show, though it is not as good as Expanse, sadly, it’s still better than 75% of sci-fi shows and I enjoy playing around with more realistic sci-fi themes and less magic.
I think this first season did everything it needed to do to get things set up for when the story really takes off. Hopefully, people who are being introduced to the ideas for the first time are enjoying them as much as I did when I read them. Bring on season 2. Let me know what you think.
8/10 if i had not read the book.
6-7/10 as a book reader (It really is my all time favorite sifi)
I watched the whole thing in one go. In the last episode were they showed the ant on the tomb stone i thought: Well, good damn, they did a really good job!
I love the decisions with the characters. The Wade and Will Downing/Tianming characters even better then in the books.
The most important concepts are in the show and non is really butchered. (I was under no Illusion that even 10% of the science will be in the show :)
Its kinda sad, there were no meetings with all the military leaders from around the world. I think this is the main reason Da Shi could not really shine.
I love the decision to not include the cringe Nuke scene. Don't like the Tatiana kill scene or or the gore in the game, but it does not bother me too much.
Well, then came the Ye Wenjie scene, that changed the course of human history. And Holy shit they butchered that so much. What the F is that Joke?!? Its just dumb. They really think the audience is fing stupid and cant even grasp the simplest of concept. They made my beloved science riddle into a joke. Damn. That hurts, ngl.
And were is Bill Hines? Will they cut the whole mental seal concept? That would be really bad.
Yeah i was really disappointed at the end :(
Now with a bit distance its ok :)
Looking forward to the next season. I have not read the book. I prefer short book reads. So from my perspective, while the pacing was a bit off at times, the series held my interest. Reaction on social media has been mixed with some comments indicating the series was perhaps a bit too intellectual (I’m reading between the lines there). Fortunately for the Neanderthal viewers, there’s far better fare for that mindset with in your face ugly aliens, blown up spaceships and second rate acting. 😝 I did find the cultural revolution beating very triggering. Especially given the current collapse of decency worldwide and the worsening destruction of the environment. I almost feel like we need to place a giant target on our planet for real aliens to come end our civilization or perhaps an extinction-level asteroid.
@@fogsmart if you don't like long books but want to know, how the story of the 1st book plays out, with all the important details, i can recommend you this yt video:
3 Body Problem SUPERCUT: Read Books Faster
@@franzfrikadelli6074 thank you!
The netflix series is a solid "meh" and i have no issue with the diversity.
Its a rushed galopp skipping so much of a good story.
And its not a problem of turning a book into a TV show.
Tencent did already a take with 30 episodes.
And this is where the rush shows: in 30 episodes Tencent covers one book, where netflix covers 1.5 books in 8 episodes.
Even in production quality Tencent has a solid lead with greate SFX and a great OST. The biggest difference is that the books and the Tencent show are China centered.
And this is the part that pissed me of the most. Instead of watching a show and looking at cultural differences and similarities we get something lukewarm fastfood dumbing down the slow but fascinating development. A solid 3 out of 10. IMO not worth a second season.
13:56 Watching the sunset is also symbolic because pointing to the Sun was how Ye was able to make first contact. The dawn and dusk of her journey.
@BlackFlag714 Wow. You just don't give up. You must be a real joy at parties.
@BlackFlag714 Another thing that's wrong in the show - the SanTi don't really exist.
Wat? @@vezrien
Spoilers, because at the end of the books watching a new type of sunset is symbolic too.
Please Netflix, don't cancel this series at the last minute!
Yesssss! Netflix pls don’t cancel it otherwise ima cancel my subscription immediately 😂
I dont think they would cancel it. The Head of Netflix (a big fan of the book series) invested so much effort to make it possible on screen (i mean, not just money but also othe obstacles including sensitive political issues conserning China) to just abrupt it half the way. I feel pretty confident the show would be renewed.
They'll do a second season. But take their sweet time doing it. Just like Code 8 part 2. They'll wait for the hype to increase
@@jaybandu6976 Streaming services take sooooo long for a season 2 now days. I end up forgetting about the details from season 1, second seasons seems to lose some of its magic too many years later, or just not interested 2-5 years later and moved on to something else.
They absolutely won't. They're hoping it'll be another game of thrones. They'll see it through.
I seems that in the book the lady who invited the invasion seemed to have been deeply scarred by the worst of human nature. It would prime her perfectly for such an act.
The san-ti who made first contact must’ve also lost faith in their species, otherwise they wouldn’t have warned Ye about continuing to send signals.
@@victorpleitez768 Or maybe that's how they get you.
@@victorpleitez768
Yes, actually. The Listener is my favorite character even though he has less that a chapter of screen time in the book. He warned them because in the pursuit if survival their species has become brutal and banished such things as art, and he doesn’t want that kind of people to get the paradise that is earth.
@@kirstencorby8465 But that would be lying, and they claim they didn't understand the concept.
@@viperswhip Maybe they're lying.
Since Will's brain is neither dead nor alive, I wonder if her sister will have to wait a few million years to get hold of his money.
haha
brilliant
He spent it all on the star for his ❤.
Will did the ultimate Uno reverse to his opportunistic sister & brother in law. A true Chad 'till the end.
He already spent it all on the star. The joke was his only possession left was a goldfish.
Loved the show. The nano fiber ship slicer scene was next level awesome terror!
For those sweet summer children who never saw “Ghost Ship”; or for those who wanna relive it
Wait till you read the part about the international fleet in the 2nd book
Seriously I had my mouth during that entire scene, it was so fucking brutal, the slow invisible death just slicing through everyone and everything
No noise besides the people and ship slicing into pieces
And the way it all just crashes into the shore afterwards
This series has so many jaw dropping moments it's so fucking good
Yes, and to think this kind of technology could soon be real! It's a strong fiber so very fine, if you walk into it you wouldn't even feel it, and then you see your body fall into pieces. Quick death though.
@@JeffreyBernabe...I think this would still take the cake for its visceral realness as its more imaginable and relatable being human technology that could possibly be seen and used in the next generation. It was like the first time I saw ONSCREEN long range communications in StarTrek as a kid....I was like damned that's cool because I can imagine that for the future. The TriSolaran tear drops are more akin to Yondus whistle arrow.
The Trisolarans: "We do not understand deception."
(2 minutes later)
Also The Trisolarans (presenting themselves as a hot chick with a samurai sword): "You are bugs."
Humans: "Wait, you don't understand deception... but you understand catfishing??"🤔
The Trisolarans: "Why would you fish for cats? Do they live in the Ocean??"
Humanity: 🤦🤦🤦
I think that how the tech works , it mirrors what it believes is pleasing to us. It a dimensional computer that can unfold itself and spread across an entire planet, flicker stars, compose an eye ball in the sky composed of an inception building Lego nightmare! I'm sure it can come up with a pleasing avatar.
@hulkmad27 haha exactly... all deceptions. Which is the point. And the only error in the otherwise flawless logic in their backstory. No intelligent species survives anywhere without deception. "We do not understand." LOL yeah right, bish!
Trisolaran do not control the sofon when it is on earth. they can't communicate faster than the speed of light, that the reason they send it to earth in the first place. the sofon has to decide for itself in realtime what to do on earth. everything the sofon did is based on it own AI and understanding learn from the alien worshipping humans... so it was humans that taught it all this and created the images in the game... what we see in the game is just human understanding of the aliens. it not what the alien came up with themselves.
what amusing and unsettling to me is it is believable to think human will help aliens destroy humanity... we are such a terrible species..
@@hulkmad27it wasn't "making the stars flicker" themselves, it was unfurling itself across the planet and then made itself transparent and displayed an image of the stars behind it. That's why they had light points as if they were being seen through a telescope. It's sort of explained without saying anything during the "bugs" scene when it mirrors the surface of the planet instead
@carpeimodiem that's not a deception.. they literally tell them straight up that they dont actually look like them and this is just for their benefit...
Edit: but little red riding hood is the same thing sooo.. yeah I'm not buying their explanation either. They have ulterior motives
I’m still pissed Netflix canceled 1899, although this series is interesting so far
I’m still pissed I had to read subtitles the whole time, ruined the show because I could never just “watch” it. Makes total sense why it was cancelled
1899 Was a good one too 👌 😢
@@JeffreyAndMaria Good point👌 I didn’t think of that as being a reason since I’m used to watch international movies that way.
Pissed aswell, the ending got me excited for what may come next and then it got sacked.
@@JeffreyAndMariatell me you're American without telling me you're American 😂😂😂 here in the shitty country I live it's a sign of sheer stupidity to watch dubbed stuff 😂😂😂
OK, so the joke is key. I realised that on the first watch, and re-watched the scene.
She is seen looking at the Fermi Paradox book and a Game Theory book before the joke is told.
She clearly trying to layer in a message to avoid the sophons, on the assumption that the aliens can't understand metaphor.
Not a book reader, but there seemed to be a simple message here: Direct confrontation will lead to humanity getting kicked in the balls and losing - so find another indirect way to fight. Guessing this is the Game Theory element, if we know that there is no "win" solution in game theory, and direct confrontation is always a loss (fighting "god" you will always lose), we would seek to avoid the confrontation and/or find another way to avoid a loss (in this case loss presumably being civilisation dead?).
But I suspect there's also another layer to the joke I'm not getting - something about being careful about playing music in heaven in the first place? - Fermi Paradox is about why we don't hear from other civilisations. So I'm guessing this is her message as to why we/they don't? They get kicked in the balls when they do?
You're very close with that last sentence!
I don't want to spoil stuff but that joke will be very very important down the line. It was also the point that Ye Wenjie decided to switch back her loyalty to humanity when it became clear to her that the aliens are coming here to exterminate humanity when she heard the last of their conversation with Mike Evans.
@@jportega9404 Yep, she's pretty convince I think that she's made the big mistake, and is attempting to rectify before she dies- that much I got from the episode. It was the scene preceding the joke in which we see her effectively talking with "empty air" in her house - but we know the sophons are always listening which is what makes me think the aliens know they have an issue - she literally tells the empty room she has "one trick left" - which possibly frightened the aliens as they know how smart she is. So that's why they're watching her. They presumably watched her go to the cemetery and tell the joke and know something has been passed to Saul but maybe (a bit like me right now) are struggling to understand precisely what and so they decide to simplify things by attempting to kill Saul.
Which is the secret of why Saul is a Wallfacer I'd guess to the UN? The aliens are attempting to kill him, so he's dangerous to them, thus make him a Wallfacer and empower him? Which is a very bold step for the UN to make without knowing at all about the passed message and on the presumption that anyone the aliens want dead is probably good enough Wallfacer material... ? Feel I'm missing something on that one. Did she leave a message to someone (Wade? The UN?) about the message to Saul? Seems a big, big leap to make him a Wallfacer without a clue about the message? Bit lost on that one.
Great guess, just you wait too see how it unfolds
The joke involves Albert Einstein. There was a bookend of Einstein sticking out his tongue. Saul will later go to her house to make sense of their last conversation and see the Einstein bookend and find the two books. Saul will then know what to do.
As a fan of the books, the series is better than I expected. The first season is almost all exposition, but they've done it artfully. Disappointed that Clarence isn't more of a developed character. In the book, he's sort of noir detective meets Lt. Columbo kinda guy. I'm hoping he'll get a bigger role in the next season.
D&D have secured a 3 Season series with only 8 episodes per season.
I liked Clarence, he was my fave character.
@@abelincoln8885I'm assuming that 2nd season will be most Dark forest. I just hope they handle the time skips/jumps well.
@@kirstencorby8465 He's a great character in the show, but even better in the book
was this lieing stuff in the books? i find it sooo dumb, it almost ruined the whole thing for me!
They don't understand deception but the game, sophons, false appearance and manipulation of multiple humans are clear examples of intentional deception.
This whole thing feels like when someone starts writing a story before they know how its going to end so they just make stuff up along the way.
3 Body Problem made me think. I like that.
Watch the Chinese version it’ll really make you think since Netflix took out all the science
Read the books 👍🏾
@@swampnugget9664or better yet read the books. Way faster and more accurate than a 30 hour series.
I wouldn't recommend the Chinese version to anyone who didn't already love the books. If you liked the Netflix show check out the book/audio book. They released a new version with Rosalind Chao (who played Ye) reading amzn.to/3xleGD2 If you like the book check out Tencent's version amzn.to/43BZ7TU If you don't have Amazon Prime you can find it on UA-cam for free.
or read the book :) if you like to read that is . @@swampnugget9664
I think the “You are bugs” moment definitely gives trisolarians character. They have a bit of flair for the dramatic, and that they fear humans.
Netflix should consider the potential of this unique and complex show beyond its initial viewership. It is important to have a second season to expand the story's reach and attract new fans. Season 2 delves into the most exciting part of the story, and Netflix needs to think really hard on this one, like what's next for Netflix, after Stranger things and Witcher.
And is a spoiler about them being bugs themselves
Tha moment the billionaire guy called liars "bugs" clearly insulted the tri solarians
san ti
Its the exact same with us, look at what we do to other animals with lower technology.
@@user-343-8fx Animals? people genocide and slave other races in human history.
The show didn't have any cliffhanger or a climax shot but the scene about the nature and persistance of bugs was very interesting.
Just you wait.
Sht about to hit the fan bro,,
If you read the books then the aliens turn out to be bugs. Literally. They are parasitic aliens similar to the ones from The Host. You can literally hold a San-Ti in the palm of your hand, they are like squid creatures. Their supposed gigantic fleet is the size of Lego’s. Literally. If Wills capsule made it to the fleet, the Santi would have no way of bringing him on board because the capsule is so gigantic. Imagine his capsule next to Lego pieces.. their cities are the size of Jenga blocks. That’s where their technology comes into play.
Twice in a row. Gotta read the books I guess @@RockyXu
After reading the book this makes waaaaaaay more sense. Holy fuck
“The car was of the hacked self-driving variety” killed me, Pete. Uhm, no pun intended.
The San Ti cannot lie and don't comprehend the idea of a story.
Also the San Ti: Make up a VR game set on a fictional Earth where they appear as humans and call humans bugs even though humans are no literal insects.
Ye Wenjie's joke was a fucking awesome addition. I love that scene so much.
Variation of The Dark Forest metaphor I think.
Didn’t read the novel so I have no idea what it means… care to share what the meaning behind that joke is?
just wait till the second season. the reveal is epic@@Someone_VIP
@@Someone_VIP Spoiler
*********
Saul will blackmail San-Tie. He will threaten to reveal their location to even stronger civilization, just like Einstein revealed himself to God.
This revelation can potentially cause superior god-like civilization to destroy San-Tie. This will be demonstrated by broadcasting signal of life from uninhabited star, and star being destroyed after 50 years.
**********
@@Someone_VIP
I hate that stupid joke and what they did with this scene. If you want to know, this is how the dialog between Ye Wenjie and Saul really goes. From the Prologue of the 2nd Book:
“I’ve got a suggestion. Why don’t you study cosmic sociology?” “Cosmic sociology?”
“A name chosen at random. Suppose a vast number of civilizations are distributed throughout the universe, on the order of the number of detectable stars. Lots and lots of them. Those civilizations make up the body of a cosmic society. Cosmic sociology is the study of the nature of this supersociety.”
“But… ours is the only civilization we know of right now.”
“Which is why no one’s done it before. The opportunity is left to you.”
“Fascinating, Dr. Ye. Please go on.”
“My thinking is that this can link your two disciplines together. The mathematical structure of cosmic sociology is far clearer than that of human sociology.”
“Why do you say that?”
“See how the stars are points? The factors of chaos and randomness in the complex makeups of every civilized society in the universe get filtered out by the distance, so those civilizations can act as reference points that are relatively easy to manipulate mathematically.”
“But there’s nothing concrete to study in your cosmic sociology, Dr. Ye. Surveys and experiments aren’t really possible.”
“That means your ultimate result will be purely theoretical. Like Euclidean geometry, you’ll set up a few simple axioms at first, then derive an overall theoretic system using those axioms as a foundation.”
“It’s all fascinating, but what would the axioms of cosmic sociology be?”
“First: Survival is the primary need of civilization. Second: Civilization continuously grows and expands, but the total matter in the universe remains constant.”
“Those two axioms are solid enough from a sociological perspective… but you rattled them off so quickly, like you’d already worked them out,” Luo Ji said, a little surprised.
“I’ve been thinking about this for most of my life, but I’ve never spoken about it with anyone before. I don’t know why, really.… One more thing: To derive a basic picture of cosmic sociology from these two axioms, you need two other important concepts: chains of suspicion, and the technological explosion.”
“Interesting terms. Can you explain them?”
Ye Wenjie glanced at her watch. “There’s no time. But you’re clever enough to figure them out. Use those two axioms as a starting point for your discipline, and you might end up becoming the Euclid of cosmic sociology.”
“I’m no Euclid. But I’ll remember what you said and give it a whirl. I might come to you for guidance, though.”
“I’m afraid there won’t be that opportunity.… In that case, you might as well just forget I said anything. Either way, I’ve fulfilled my duty. Well, Xiao Luo, I’ve got to go.”
“Take care, Professor.”
This show is goin pretty well, dunno how they’re going to turn such a dark f up story into a mass audience cause it gets dark af
I remember Australia and the droplets can't wait
Indeed, but I think zombie shows already made us keenly aware of how that dystopian setting goes.
Just watched this yesterday. I enjoyed the show and have never read the books so I really don’t know where the story is headed. I feel like the following is going to happen: I agree that it’s dark at times but even more relevant to long term audience buy-in in my mind, is that at its core it’s an alien invasion story where viewers are going to be expected to watch 8 episodes, wait for a year and a half, then watch another 8 then wait again for another couple of years before actually seeing an alien invasion. My partner and I watch a lot of series and really like fantasy and sci-fi but both of us are pretty much hitting the wall of year-after-year “plot drip.”
You should watch Lexx where whole worlds are wiped out, children and all.
@@carpediem6431 kind of like Stranger Things first came out.. A drag out type of series
I had never heard of this series in my life until 2 days ago, and wow, I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. What a fascinating and scary concept this is. Finished the show last night and I’m so excited to pick up the books. New obsession unlocked ✅
This is the best sci-fi show on Netflix since Altered Carbon
I didnt rly get into the 2nd season, seemed meh from the first few eps - the first season was good tho. I like the idea of rich people getting progressively more insane and perverted as they age hundreds of years beyond normal.
It's an interesting biological theory. That you'd eventually get bored of normal pleasures and need to murder women during sex over and over to get off xD sick shit
Agreed! Except Altered Carbon season 1 was awesome while season 2 was trash.
Read the book and then jumped into the show. I liked it. It let me see high level sci-fi done well. I can't argue against it. It was good.
imo. This was not high level sci-fi by a long shot. Too much was given a quick once over or there was little to show that was believable. Like for example the 30 nuclear weapons spaced out to accelerate the space craft to 1 % the speed of light. That is a mammoth project that would take many, many years to implement and yet no body seemed to age at all. There were more incongruous elements to this series that didn't work for me.
I think the nature of the cicadas is foreshadowing. It was mentioned in one of the news broadcasts that it was a swarming year for them. But as anyone who has lived in cicada areas knows, they swarm, then die off only to return 13 or 17 years later after being dormant.
If the san ti can make humans see what they want us to see, could they be making it look like the mission with Will's brain was a failure? Could it actually be working as planned?
there is a limit to what the sofon can do. there is just 2 of them so they can only be at 2 places at any one time, its really a gambit that they believe human don't understand it weaknesses and limitation. if the sofon can beat the human on their own, there would be no need to invade... to mask the mission would require dedicating one of them to that role of the entire duration. it is possible, but that would half what the sofon can do until the fleet arrives, it just not worth the afford. beside the success or failure of that mission would not change any outcome. the sofon concern is if humanity can develop a counter, their time is better spend spying on the leadership and messing with their data than staging a failure. they really only do those "trick" for short period of time... mostly for shock impact.
That is what I thought all along. If they can project simultaneous on every screen around the earth "YOU ARE BUGS" then surely a piece of cake to fake it in mission control. If they can screw with a particle accelerator even doubly so for a few comms links from Wills probe. How the Atomic reactions are triggered. well another matter.
@@andrewrossypretty much
The Global hack was human Santi Cultists.
Sophons can only affect limited quantum things, they are primarily for spying
No, in the books the sophons are much less powerful only being able to mess with photoreceptors to make fuzzy visions and arent able to manipulate computers at all.
I actually thought Raj had something to do with the failure lol coz he was pissed off and also because of the way he says he wishes it works out. He looks at Jin weirdly too as the spaceship takes off
I feel positive about the series as a whole after the first watch, as you say the last 2 episodes really brought it home. The thing with Netflix is...will we definitely see a second season? The potential is there for it to be epic Television, let's hope it's given the go ahead soon.
Just like 1899-should of been a 3 season arc as you know + did great around the world.
This has 3 novels as you know-and if Netflix cancel this I will be really pissed......
Have you read the novels?
Wonderful summary. I appreciate that you addressed the joke. Clearly that is important & thanks for not spoiling the meaning. I trust it will become clear.
SPOILERS
The Einstein "joke" didn't make much sense to me at first, because I was trying to decode it into Cosmic Sociology (which is what they discuss in the book, IIRC). Then I realized it's actually about Dark Forest Theory, and that metaphor is much clearer. I'd be interested in how you interpret what the Einstein joke meant.
I take it as, "Stop making noise in heaven 'einstein', God can hear you, especially if he's playing sax, and you're playing violin." I took the angel to be the first responder to her message, that warned her to stop sending messages.
I found the series by accident while flicking through Netflix. Thoroughly enjoyed what I saw and decided to watch the whole thing through. now I need to find the books .
If you are going to read the 2nd book just skip the imaginary girlfriend and wife part. Honest advice.
As someone who read the books, i can say this adaptation was done right.
The sad thing is, many of my peers who read it as well are too small minded and keep focusing on how this adaptation is not 1 to 1. The idiots dont get that by doing so, they are gatekeeping people into this amazing series. Losing the "just audiences" who could become "new readers of the books".
This first season was well built, setting up not just the second book, but also the third.
We dont need to see the supposed protagonist of the first book Wang get thrown away by the second one. His counterpart Auggie now is set to have a part next season.
Saul took smaller parts this season but we are familiarized with him earlier, allowing a smooth transition as he becomes the main protagonist next season. That's how you retain audiences instead of them getting lost by next season
I'm with you for the most part. What I like is that the show almost never contradicts what happens in the books. It's committed to telling the same story in its own way. And it is doing a good job in my mind. There's very little "well none of that was in the original trilogy" stuff that is completely different (unlike, say, the recent Halo series adaptation on Paramount) so where they do change things around, it's usually trimming down the fat or recontextualizing to keep things concise. You can always tell (if you've read the trilogy) where an invented scene is probably leading back to something in the original novels down the road.
One who watches the show can go read the books and they'll get the same story but with more detail; not a completely different one. One who likes the science bits in the show will find that it's expanded on in the novel. But they didn't 'change' what the science is or means, like some adaptations might do. They (for the most part) don't try to dumb the science down to where it no longer works and doesn't make sense: they just don't go into as much detail on screen because they only have 8 episodes. The mechanics of how it works is still going on behind the scenes, and some of the plotting and scheming going on is just not being shown. (Such as figuring out the details of the nanofiber deli slicer)
It is understandable that the story is adapted for better dissemination, but the damn pink pig once again made the wrong casting choice due to absurd political correctness. Yuntian Ming and Luoji were wrongly elected and should not be played by pink pigs and nixxa
It is understandable that the story is adapted for better dissemination, but the damn pink pig once again made the wrong casting choice due to absurd political correctness. Yuntian Ming and Luoji were wrongly elected and should not be played by pink pigs and nixxas.
while you are right in your opinion the way that you address the others that dont think like you as an idiots is something that you may wish to work on. In your mind you know more and you superior cos you find imaginary set of ppl that are inferior to you based on characteristic you appoint to them.
This is exactly what I was thinking . People who have read the books , slamming the show on RT saying it’s not the same . But having it too hard core won’t open it up to a more general audience. If someone is so inclined after watching the show , will buy the books which is a good thing
I was surprised there was no reference at all to the Shooter and the Farmer hypothesis. It’s really prominent in the Tencent adaptation - which uses a truly hilarious and awful CG Turkey animation - but layering it in at some point in the early episodes would have helped make more sense of the Einstein joke later.
They can still use that when Saul finally understands the joke and its message! Not all was lost ...
It's been so so so long since I read the first book and I completely don't remember that idea at all. People mention it, but, doesn't ring any bells. So, I wonder if in the grand scheme of the story if it's actually that significant to include when other stuff will more-or-less overshadow it.
@@scottwatrous It's about their conception of physics; things are the established rules of nature only because of limited information. Turkeys got fed routinely to the point they considered a law of reality until thanksgiving when they understood the truth. Storywise, it was really more detail to help establish the ETO and their introduction to the game. I wouldn't say it was significant as well, it just more of the mystery and the analogy kinda disappeared as soon as it came.
@@sws212 The Shooter/Farmer theories are one of the biggest takeaways I had from the first book. In the context of the pace, it's a jumping off point for explaining that the very nature of physics as we know it is all assumed based on principles, especially at this early point where all we really know is that scientists are dying mysteriously, 'physics isn't real,' and depending on which version you read, a few 60s flashbacks that are haunting but don't seem to have much connection to the story.
The very namesake of the book hinges on the principles of those theories-- we've been learning the laws of the universe based on having one sun, and have an assumption of the calculations based on our small controlled pool. When we get thrown into the ocean, we'll be completely overwhelmed by the fact that every assumption we ever made on constants was never as constant as we imagined.
I loved the simple CG anims from the Cdrama and admired the commitment to presenting them to the audience, since it _is_ important.
The problem with condensing this book into so few episodes (not even eight, since they try so hard to frontload The Dark Forest) is that you can get to Operation Guzheng and dehydration and all the other big "WOW WEIRD" setpieces, and sure, it'll look pretty. But when you strip away the hard science behind the setting, when you make all of the major threats physical without subtlety, when you manifest a ten dimensional entity as a teleporting woman with a sword, and you replace the simple VR game with an alien artifact, you strip away all of the mystery and nuance that made the original book such a standout.
Whenever they brought up the turkey farmer metaphor they sh9wed a chicken. 😂😂😂 I wonder if that was intentional?
It simply kills me, not knowing what Wade told Jin... I read the books multiple times, it hurts my brain not to know something about the story in the show xDD. But yeah, my favorite series of books, my favorite show and my favorite piece of fiction ever. Great video!
I have to say, I found it unbelievable that in 30+ years of communication the Little Red Riding Hood convo w/ Evans was the first time the aliens realized that humans are capable of lying and not to be trusted. Like, shouldn't that realization have occurred decades prior? I've only seen the show though; perhaps this bit is better explained in the books.
Or, in fact, that the duplicity inherent in being told ‘I lie’. They trust them enough to believe when told they lie, and the implication is that they cannot in fact trust them…. SMH
For the first few decades, they could only send/receive messages every 8 years because of the 4 lightyear distance between them. It's only in the last few months that their quantum entangled comm system has been on Earth so they probably didn't have a chance to speak casually like that until that moment.
@@JamesRoyceDawson 只有智子抵达地球后他们的通讯才实时和扩容了。
@@joefunk1611 isn't this the Pinocchio paradox?
@@josephgarcia9076 ah yes! Indeed I believe you have identified it well!
Might be a stupid question but why the San-ti would disrupt our top of the line research but not the everyday human activities in order to sow conflict and create anarchy when they were outed?
Since we can assune they can basically alter any electronic device they could just for example disrupt dams, creating catastrophes all across the world.
They could disrupt our production cycles at any point, ultimately neutering a cohesive force response because we delve into miniscule non state actors.
The only outcomes for us would be
A) we collapse as a civilisation and therefore we are way weaker to fight back
B) we revert our technologies to purely mechanical, thus neutering us anyways
Im concerned that all sci fi in recent times are totally dystopic. Cant we no longer imagine a positive path for Humanity?
Watch Arrival
Watch Arrival
It’s a good question. Part of the problem is that it’s much easier to destroy than to create - this goes for intelligent life as well as nature. But put human and alien threats aside. It took millions of years for Earth’s climate and chemistry to produce life and millions more to evolve into the manifold forms we see today. But Earth is fragile and space is basically a series of insanely huge explosions and debris flying around. Basically the more we learn, the more we realize how lucky we are, and how our luck probably won’t last.
No
@@AngelAlcalde-g1f very sad
The ending of episode 5 was amazing and haunting.
totally enjoyed it, can't wait for more.
I’m so glad you covered this show. I was hesitant to watch bc I’ve lost faith in D&D, but this turned out to be an incredible show. I hope 1) that D&D keep their shit together and 2) that Netflix renews it to allow them to finish the story.
Also, fully agree that Jin and Raj’s relationship wasn’t that interesting… that said, Raj is a pretty likable and VERY handsome character. So am hoping he continues to be a good guy in future seasons lol
10:56 “because of quantum mechanics” lol made me laugh as quantum mechanics is really hard for anyone to grasp, so liked the simple answer!
Love the show. Found it cocky that they think the San Ti would not exploit the send brain to find the weaknesses of humanity (even though they already got it quite right already😅)
These dudes from an instable world fighting with every bit to survive, will not hesitate to get rid off anything endangering their existing, when it is for them all or nothing all day.
The scientists saying it is only a bad idea to send messages out to space, i cant deny their arguments.
I do love Jin. She is a nice blend of determined fighter and all-loving heroine who is really charming.
Idk if it was just me but daaaang these characters were smoking alot 😂😂😂
Very accurate to the books.
Supposed to. What's the point of living longer if you end up dead and forgotten?
and they taking a lot of pills and alcohol
No for real tho... Like Netflix has a term or something in their contracts where they're like "must include at least 1 scene of people fuckin, as well as drug use of any sort." Like I promise you if there was an independent way to produce this show while still having the same money making ability, they wouldn't have had the intro look like that and they wouldn't have been smoking so much. And keep in mind I watched every episode stoned and thought this, like it's abnormal that all shows thru Netflix do this
Almost certainly product placement. Instead of writing something for characters to actually do during a scene, they can just sit and smoke while they deliver clumsy exposition. Beniof and Weiss are certifiably hacks.
Imagine Vera committed suicide for seeing her 9 year old self in the alien game
did she actually delete herself or was she killed by someone and we didn't see? like the cameras at Jack's house. I felt like the show was trying to hint at the idea that Tatiana might have been involved, like all the other scientists who "deleted themselves"
@@b1bbscraz3yshe ked herself since she found out what her mom has been up to
@@b1bbscraz3y she jumped into a neutron detector first ep
She never played the game i think its more so she found the messages with her mom’s connection to the aliens
It may also go back to her question about God. If aliens exist, are we here by chance? How lucky are we?
I really enjoyed this. Haven't read the books so it's all new to me. I, like everyone else, had some worry about it simply because of how bad thrones got in the latter half of the series. But was optimistic because of how great the first 4 seasons of thrones were, and knowing this story was already completed meant d and d wouldn't have to write the story themselves.
This wasn't as good as thrones season 1 was but that's an extremely high bar to get over. But it was a redemption in my eyes. Also I loved the thrones cameos we got. Varys as the pope, ned stark in the bravos play, as well as one of the gold cloaks gendry killed as sir Thomas moore, the iron bank guy as a scientist, who's partner is played by Reece Shearsmith, who show inside no. 9 is incredible. If you haven't seen it, you need to. It's like black mirror but has been consistently great every season.
Watch the Chinese version of this series, it's even way better. You can also watch the recaps in Daniel CC movie.
@@nutzhazel I did not know there was a Chinese series. Definitely going to watch it. Thank for letting me know.
I hope everyone reads the book its freaking bananas. I like TV too but to me reading and using your mind just takes it to the next level I hope everyone hasn't lost that.
It went to number one on Amazon since the show came out.
@@PetePeppers1 I just hope they do the 2'ding of our solar system right haha
I find it interesting Ye Wenjie shared similar characteristics as Carl Sagan. Sagan was a science educator during the cold war period, famously warning the public of a nuclear winter. Sagan relatively pessimistic of the human condition in contrast to his otherworldly optimism. Like Ye in the show, Sagan is more hopeful that an advanced civilization would be humanity's savior (as portrayed in his sci-fi novel Contact). He was part of the team that encapsulated the collective music and sound of our planet's lifeforms in the golden disk attached NASA's probe, en route to the outer edge of our solar system.
Wade on the other hand, resembles the opposite spectrum akin to Stephen Hawking, who argued not all alien civilizations may be benevolent. Hawking warned astronomers from broadcasting our position.
Hawking might be right... we really need to change how SETI work before it is too late.
@@lagrangewei SETI is still listening, but we have mostly stopped broadcasting
I watched the Chinese original version and loved it, and yes you have to read subtitles. I have yet to read the books (no one has them in stock, or at the library), and probably leave the US version till later.
So you will leave the adaption from the Free World for later .... because you enjoyed the adaptation from a Communist Regime. Hmmmm?
Chek Queni Story 3 body problem
I read them on Kindle - it’s been translated into English
I found auggi to be the most selfish character in the whole series, she only cares for herself, she was willing to destroy her work to save her life and she doesn’t wan to help humanity survive but rather to go make water purifiers which won’t matter in the grand scheme of things as an alien is on its way to subjugate the planet. Also her being sad about killing the human traitors made no sense these people are heralding death from an alien race and they are systematically killing all of humanity’s brilliant minds
Most of the "traitors" were just children. It was an expected response.
I agree she sucks the life out of every scene
But she’s hot and its 400 years anyways. Who cares.
@@Captain.Obvious55 you must have earplugs in if you think she is hot haha
She a diverse woke young communist girl boss billionaire who just wants to spend other peoples money to help humanity .They spend half the show telling her how smart she is and it's so annoying .I'm guessing the books she is different. Wouldn't even surprise me if she is an asian man.
*Possible spoiler here im not sure* but the joke characters are Einstein, the angel, and God. In my opinion Einstein is representing humans, and playing violin in heaven is equal to broadcasting in space with no regard to the consequences, the San Ti are represented by the angels and God is representing a WAAAAY BIGGER BAD than the angels thats waiting to kick Einstein b*lls to kingdom come. And if we could find a way for God to kick the Angels b*lls as suppose to kicking ONLY our b*lls then its a better deal in the end.
Love the channel and appreciate the content! Here's where I'm coming at this from, I've read the books and lived in China from 1996-2000. I'm largely in agreement with your take, over all I really enjoyed the show but as a reader of the books some of the differences affected my experience, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. If I was coming into the series cold I think my opinion of the show would be that much higher. My biggest issue was something you bring up as well, the pace of the flashback aspect of the story vs the rest of the narrative. I agree that the flashback sequences were some of the most compelling and well-acted in the show so just based on that alone I'd have liked more but I also feel that they only give us like the first 2/3 of the flashback story and that they really needed to show the rest to give the audience the full experience. The anti Raj sentiment from the Oxford 5 was pretty heavy handed and sloppy, Dan & Dave weren't subtle that they want the audience to despise him by having every other protagonist shade him at every imaginable opportunity. The show also cut the most terrifying scene in the series for me, or at least they changed it for the poorer; the eye in the sky scene is MUCH freakier in the book. I did enjoy the show only Tatiana and their decision to make Follower a young Vera avatar. Looking forward to a second season!
I thought the Raj situation reflected poorly on Jin not the other way around. Plus, since you read you can figure out the arc he's going to have in season 2. The whole relationship just wasn't necessary except that they could be connected.
@@PetePeppers1 Oh it did reflect poorly on Jin. What I had intended to say was that, to the audience Raj isn't in any way acting like the utter douche he's constantly being portrayed as by the other characters and that's pretty sloppy writing/directing.
@@dffndjdjd That's fair enough, I mean I can certainly understand Will's friends wanting him to be happy. There's like 4-5 separate times though where the rest of the group speak poorly about Raj and I don't feel they showed him being a jerk. Yeah, his last line to Jin is awful but she did just do him dirty.
That first episode opening was amazing
I cant wait for season 2 to come out in 2028, in true netflix fashion.
Better than it coming out in 2424 😉
@@TheInterestingInformer No, not really. I wouldn't mind binge watching the whole series at once.
I don't read one of the three books then wait a year to read the next book.
@@CosmicCleric it was a joke on the 400 years thing. 😐
@TheInterestingInformer I wasn't clever enough on initial post. 2424 would have been better. I haven't read the books, but now I wonder if the seasons will have dramatic time hops.
@@CosmicCleriche was making a dbl entandra, so to speak on the 400 year arrival.
Thanks Pete. Really appreciate your reviews. I have been watching 3 body on prime. It is the Chinese version so am having to read subtitles that version seems to be closer to the book than this one but it’s harder to follow for me because sometimes I get behind the subtitles keep up the good work
I didn't read the book, but the 3rd wall facer reminds me of 2 things: 1.) According to game theory sometimes random choice is necessary to get the optimal solution. 2.) They confuse the hell out of the aliens who struggle with even the basic concept of lies and misdirection. / I don't know what the real reason would be, the guy maybe isn't stupid but definitely not qualified.
He is chosen because Ye told him the only way to defeat santi. He is the only one who knows, he just doesn’t realize it yet. The selectors don’t realize that either, they just assume he is a threat to them because they are after him.
That scene in the plane scared the crap out of me, at 4am no less, as I was finishing up my 10 hour straight through binge.
A scene stealer... I love that term for her. She plays a great character. And she's beeeeaaautiful. Well said.
the Auggie character was so unbearable that she singlehandedly made me want to quit watching.
Agreed. She was totally unconvincing as a brilliant scientist. She looked like she should be modeling underwear.
Beautiful a$$hole and pretentious is the typical loved American character.
I agree. In the book her character is a middle aged Chinese man. Completely unlike the character the series turned her into.
I didn't care for her either.
I think most of the characters were insufferable. Same as the dialogue.
Honestly as a book reader watching this show with my SO that didn't read the books I wished they made the season longer and included at least the build-up to THAT scene in the 2nd book as a perfect cliffhanger and to make people talk about the show. It would be the "red wedding" moment for this show and draw in the large crowd as I'm pretty sure the entire reason the book trilogy even became such a big hit is because of that specific moment.
For my SO the series was "okay" but not good enough for her to be fully invested. And that's mostly because there was no real draw or even an idea of what the 2nd season would be like.
at what point in the 2nd book did "that" moment occur? half way?
Episode 5 very much felt like a Red Wedding moment for me O_o
I agree. Why season 1 was only given 8 episodes instead of the standar 10 that most shows seem to have now days baffled me, especially given the complexity of the story.
Great job explaining all of it. I’m a new fan. Look forward to your future videos.
Buy the books. They are amazing.
I suspect the Staircase mission went exactly according to plan and was engineered to 'fail' in a very specific way that only one person might have necessarily needed to know.
I watched the Tencent series so comparing that adaptation added another level.
This really doesn't work as a mystery the same way, where things that took 9 hours to reveal in the Chinese show get flipped over in 30 minutes on Netflix. I think being robbed of that suspense is detrimental to the experience, but I suppose the decision to make that sacrifice was done before they even started writing. The Netflix version basically burns through the entirety of the Tencent story by the end of episode 5.
I'd be down for a spoilerish video of how the Netflix characters map to their novel counterparts.
Idk, the Tencent version was accurate but it shows that you can be TOO accurate at times. The first book is my least favourite now having re-read the series in the run up to this show and so far, the only change that I don't agree with is dropping Trisolaran as a term in favour of the Chinese word. Speeding things up and cutting here and there is what they should do if they want people to actually watch.
@@NigerianNinja-d6hYeah, I'm not saying 30 hours was the correct way to do it, just that the mystery of wtf was going on was an important part of the story, and that is more or less excised from the Netflix version.
Even the countdown numbers, which figure so heavily into the marketing of the Netflix show, ultimately aren't that important.
@@dffndjdjdWatching it on UA-cam is especially odd, because there are episodes where entire stretches have the audio drop out and weird song choices play instead until the dialogue randomly comes back, probably due to music rights issues.
I think there are aspects the Tencent version handles better because they have the luxury of time, but my point wasn't that it was better, just that it was hard to keep my brain from comparing the 2 while watching the Netflix version.
Perfectly said. The book is a Mystery/SciFi. This adaptation is generic scifi show of the week.
After watching the Netflix series, watch the 30-episode Chinese series from last year. It's definitely a slow burn but much more fleshed out in consequence.
Forgot to add that it's free to watch on youtube.
So it will take Will 5,000yrs till he meets another Star and 5 million yrs till he out of the Milky Way. Man that is so wild to think about. Well, I honestly hope he either crashes into something or another spacefaring species picks him up.
If I remember correctly a human spaceship, Blue Lagoon(?), forgot the name, will “save” the Will/Tianming’s brain. But failed, and then the Trisolarans/Santi will revive him.
He will be picked up by the aliens and will be very important in Book 3
@@kevinsophiavideochannel5996i was already considering that we WILL see him again and he will be reunited with jin, so thx for the spoiler ;)
@@Anonymous-iw4hx see him again? yes. be reunited with jin? umm...
I feel that after watching the first season, and without having read the books, this series feels like a budget BBC production. The music is absolutely wrong for a show like this, and it presents us with spoon-feeding facts as if we are too stupid to know even the slightest tidbit of science as an audience. The show shifts between not too fancy effects, and then over to dialogues in sterile environments - Very much like just about every BBC sci-fi ever. I like the premise of the show, but with the directors being who they are, and what they've managed to deliver in season 1, I think I better grab the books before the total disappointment arrives. Also, "aliens" arriving in 400 years - this situation is real today, only, it is AI that we are absolutely unprepared for.
This show suffers from a common problem in Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories. At some point the enemy can become so powerful that it opens up plot holes. Like if the AI can do X, then why can't it just do Y. For instance, the AI can sabotage a car and make it attempt to kill someone, but it can't just sabotage a plane, etc, etc.
The books were a lot more waterproof in that regard (and explained what sophons can and cannot do quite scientifically). The show took more creative liberties for the sake of action-y moments.
The show has a lot of plothole like this that the book doesnt have
It caught my mind in the most powerful way I've experienced in years. Phenomenal. I'm now a sci fi fan. :)
cant wait to see their version of the dimesional strike, which is probably the most frighting thing ive ever read in a book
Spoilers bro
@@steelenutz1it’s not much of a spoiler. I mean what is a dimensional strike? Who did it? Why would the San-ti destroy their new home? It just opens more Questions to be answered.
Or the Australian cannibal part
Watching the sophons scene, the geometry and when the camera enters one gave me hope for future "higher dimensional" related scenes
I know right!? Ppl that either haven’t read the entire series or only read the 1st book probably thought the show was “boring” but they don’t realize that it’s necessary setup for the next 1-2 seasons where the real story and crazy action/revelations will take place. Can’t wait!
I can't wait for Season 2 (here's hoping). The only real hate I see about this show is the expected gatekeeping in the subreddits - either book readers who are upset that they're no longer special now that it's mainstream, or Chinese fans who are upset that a Western adaptation has the temerity to change the characters and add Western actors. As a book reader, I'm mostly happy with the changes or at least understand why changes were made. This is not an easy work to adapt by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm giving D&D this one last chance, and I have faith they'll rise to the occasion.
Will went from the character that I did not understand why he kept getting scenes to being my favorite character over the course of the season
I haven't read the books, but the way in which things were introduced made it easy to understand the concepts, characters, and plot. The actors all did a great job bringing the characters to life, which made it easy to get become invested in the show. I really enjoyed season one, and I am looking forward to season 2.
Can highly recommend the Audible version of the books!
I had no idea about the book series, i had no idea this existed... but Pete is right in his wrap up - this show has brought new fans to the books... also the show stayed with me.. binge watched in 3 days last week.. i haven't stopped thinking about the concepts it presented ever since.
Imagine if the San Ti sent the wrong entangled Sophon pairs to Earth.
lol, some sorry dehydrated ass will be fired
what would change?
@@ft_lesserchungus1192 It's like sending ur drone to earth along with it's remote control.
That the San Ti recruit through the fictional video game yet can't understand the fundamentals of fiction, calling it 'lies', is a plot hole I have a hard time getting past.
Same here, they clearly understand the concept of fiction but now they are "afraid" of humans because they can be deceptive...hey all storyline can't be perfect 🤷🏿♂️
The fact that Saul forgave Vera's Mom for practically driving her daughter to commit suicide means he could unify the Trisolaran and future humans together.
He didn't really say he forgave her though, he mostly just gave her an opportunity to speak which was all she asked for.
Do not read the books you’ll be really disappointed
Good essay, Pete. I didn't really get the whole "Eye in the Sky" thing until you explained it. That that was a Sophon. I still don't really get how they can "see everything at once," though, unless it has to do with dimensions we can't perceive.
Actually, now that I've seen the show, I don't feel like I have to read the books, which is good, cause talking heads jawing about physics is my least favorite type of sci-fi.
they dont see or hear everything at once
but they're fast, and COULD be seeing or hearing ANYTHING at ANY given time
Big sci-fi fan here and I loved it. I wasn’t hooked instantly but from episode 5 onwards it blew my mind.
Great vid although I can’t believe you left out the most attractive character on screen.
Been missing your breakdowns since the end of Foundation (S 2)... aways a pleasure, Pete.
Netflix: hey want to watch an eight hour movie?
Me: heck no! What are you crazy?! That’d be dumb.
Netflix: what if I break it up into eight one hour episodes that you could binge watch at any time?
Me: you SOB… I’m in!
Really enjoyed your recap.
The title of this video is "3 body problem ending explained", but actually it explains every aspect of the series. You seem to be assuming viewers couldn't understand the series themselves, and I don't understand why! It's not so much an explanation as a rapid-based summary.
Will did not sign his brains away to humanity on legal paper, they dont do much to him. He rather sign to in Jins name.
Auggie did not "screw" the investors. The only investor threatened twice and wanted to steal her invention twice and if possible pushed Auggie out of her own company in a minute. Auggie was sick of him so she put her invention in public.
I finally got around to watching the show and your breakdown is the best I've seen. Well done and thank you!
Looking forward to Raj Beihai's arc
I liked the books very much. They were "dense", poetic, profound and terrifying. I think Netflix has produced a soft version, science-lite version that captures the sense of confusion humanity is feeling. I don't mind the way they amalgamated or recreated characters (so we can see them together [conveniently] from the beginning). The Expanse did that too and it helped character development. I have mixed feelings about the story, tone and narrative being westernised...
BTW I just learned that there is a Chinese series of this and it is free on UA-cam with English subs 😂. Just watched the first two episodes and it is amazing.
Link?
They did a REALLY great job. It is almost word for word from the first book and they kept the mystery and suspense intact.
uploaded first two episodes haven't watched yet
Link, please! I can't find it.
By far the best adaptation to watch. Bottom line….
I feel like they did a decent job bringing the main concepts from the first book in. The sense of hopelessness, of being completely out gunned. I even enjoyed the way they split one character into five.
Turning 3BP into series is hard enough, but I don’t see how they’ll continue with adapting The Dark Forest and Death’s End, especially when things get ‘inter-dimensional’
Except for auggie’s character and acting, show was superb. I can’t tell if she was a bad actor or her character was not well thought out.
Well done
…spoiler….
Should watch Quinn’s ideas… or read the book. The ship going off into space is setup for future events… and tbh the show explains why the sophons work pretty well, even better if you read the books.
I believe with the explanation of the dimensions it shows us how/why sophons work and the show explains perfectly why they can’t do everything or be everywhere (especially when they can only make 4)
Considering how niche the book audience is they did 10/10 for recreating
I saw you dropped your video and so I binged the series today. Good stuff as always, Pete!
Hope you enjoyed it
Social media and complacency will destroy us with no outside agency required. Idiocracy is our most likely future.
You really didn't explain anything! You literally just re-capped the entire season! You offered nothing new, no insight, not even a best guess.
He’s read the books… He can’t give hints or guess. I don’t want or expect answers. He did recap, but he also explained a lot of things.
Just read the books
If he gave you all that you might think you don't need to read it and/or see the series. And I guarantee it would be your loss. I'm actually thinking about reading it again before season 2.
I want to read the books and I hope it has less non-sense like in the show. Like explaning your whole plan to your biggest human adversary. And if the sophon can control tvs and autonomous cars why not crash airplanes, overheat or disable energy production facilities, disable water distribution, launch a couple of nukes, or just have the sophon cover the whole planet until all life has ended?
There is no Fermi paradox only faulty Fermi assumptions.
The fact that series such as this and Foundation exist, are entertaining, and provide decent enough (if not completely faithful) adaptations to be enjoyed by a wider audience than just ardent fans of the source material gives me hope that perhaps some day we'll see an adaptation of Greg Bear's The Way series.
Bugs and they dehydrate? That’s like frogs
Im happy that you enjoyed it. I as a first viewer didn't really liked the latter part of the show. What I saw was trap doors upon trap doors being installed by the show runners to later retcon scenes or show them in a different light. Which would be fine if you do it once or even twice. But i can already see that they'll introduce them one after the other.
No to mention that the whole story is moot is they are actually able to manipulate things on a subatomic level. Which they do.
As an invasion force there is absolutely ZERO reason not to give everyone brain hemorrhages and be done with it in a day. And then arrive at a semi-pristine wilderness...
Not true, I missed the character of Jack after he wasn't there anymore.
100% agree. There was a tone missing after Jack’s character left.
I get it how the sophon can be accelerated to near the speed of light by the San-Ti but that does not explain how they are so manoeuvrable once they get to earth. Moving fast is not normally associated with it being easy to change direction.
The trisolarians deploy something in season 2 that'll explain this.
Seriously, I hated most of the charcters portrayed, still liked the series somehow though. Is this strange?
The concept or plot can also be engaging. Even boxes can depict such. Not so strange and I'll be giving it a watch myself
The characters in the book were not the strong point either. Unless you consider the main character "all of humanity" in which case it is brilliant
The show was interesting and I’m excited for S2. The idea of preparing for an invasion, instead of fighting one directly is so refreshing and compelling. I did think the show was stronger at the beginning and end and weak in the middle. The Panama Canal nanofiber thing felt like the dumbest most contrived way to destroy a ship (why not just use conventional explosives that do a great job of that and can strike anywhere in the world so you don’t have to wait for the enemy to sail past your poles). The Ready Player One elements also felt iffie even though I enjoyed the visuals. I’m curious to see how the 3 Body Problem becomes more meaningful to the story (one assumes it will be more than just the Santi reason for invading) and interested in the “joke” being revealed as a solution. As long as the end doesn’t go GoT on us, I’m happy to have this show, though it is not as good as Expanse, sadly, it’s still better than 75% of sci-fi shows and I enjoy playing around with more realistic sci-fi themes and less magic.