Three Body Problem.

This monster Chinese TV  science fiction tale was released to huge acclaim in China in 2023.  30 episodes in length (all with subtitles) is not for the faint of heart. Taken from an an epic three volume set of novels by Liu Cxin  The recipient of many science fiction awards it was hugely successful in China. The English translation was the first to receive a Hugo and Nebula award by an asian writer. Set against the turbulence of the cultural revolution  Ye Wenjie an astrophysics graduate sees her father a teacher beaten to death by the Red Guard. Sentenced to prison for her protests Ye is recruited by the military to work on a secret project to use high powered radio waves to damage spy satellites a technology far behind  what the USA and USSR are working on. Its real mission turns out to be a clandestine search for extraterrestrial life. Ye discovers that  by using the sun to amplify the outgoing radio waves success is more likely but tells no one.  Eight years later through her contacts she is told  that a message has been received from a planet in Alpha Centuri warning her not to respond or the inhabitants of Trisolaris will be able to calculate the earths location and invade. Ye responds anyway inviting the aliens to come to earth and settle its problems. Murdering her two co workers in order to keep the alien massage secret. The cat is out of the bag. By responding to the aliens message  Ye has set in motion a series of irreversible events which as the news spreads to various factions of humanity is responded to in predictably chaotic uncoordinated manner. This is just a brief historical synopsis of  the plot line It continues. In the present day a nanotechnology professor Wang is asked by the police to help with the investigations of the suicides of several prominent  scientists including Ye’s daughter. A meeting between Wang and Ye reveals people playing a sophisticated Virtual Reality game called Three Body.  The game portrays a planet whose climate randomly flips between Stable and Chaotic Eras. During Chaotic Eras, the weather oscillates unpredictably between extreme cold and extreme heat, sometimes within minutes. This unstable unpredictable atmosphere spells doom for the Trisolarans and their planet.   The game shows them building and launching colony ships to invade Earth, believing that the stable orbit will allow unprecedented prosperity and let them escape the destruction of their home.  Still not the end, which I will not reveal.The intricacies of the books plot are carried unsullied in excruciating detail into the Chinese TV production, hence the thirty episodes. Shot in weird 1960’s color gives the series and appropriately dated look. None of the actors will be recognizable although their performances especially Ye Wen Jie outstandingly played by Chen Jin and Edward Zhang playing Wang Miao and the police officer played byYu He Wei are all solid.
Then of course there is the the American adaptation. From the creators of Game of Thrones. As to be expected it is shorter (eight episodes) slicker, sexier and the effects are way more spectacular than in the Chinese version. Also a huge amount of the story is in the trash bucket. Probably, with good reason Benioff, Weiss and Woo decided that a US audience would not sit still for thirty episodes or anything near it. The casting is odd and inconsistent but dealing with such a truncated plot line took its toll. Rosalind Chao plays the adult Ye Wenjie, Benedict Wong plays the intrepid detective Da Shi.  The lead women actors. Jess Hong, Eiza Gonzales are far too good looking to be taken seriously in they roles. Liam Cunningham as the evil industrialist and Johnathon Price as the crackpot environmentalist are just thrown in for gravitas that neither achieve. As you can tell I think this version was just a money grab. Substituting glam for drama.  Glomming on to the much more authentic and compelling original Chinese tale. It’s not an entire bust though bits of the original story still poke through. My advice is to get a trashcan size tub of popcorn a case of your favorite soda and sit through the 30 episode version.