3 Body Problem (2024) Season 1 review

In 1977, an astrophysicist, Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng), saw her father being beaten to death in a violent public demonstration during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. As if this wasn’t enough, she was branded as a traitor and sent to a labour camp in an unknown location. A military base running a secret operation is located near her labour camp where she is eventually recruited due to her background in astrophysics. This sets forward a chain of events that alters the path for mankind forever.

Present-day, scientists are being targeted and end up dead under mysterious circumstances. Vera Ye (Vedette Lim), a scientist and Ye Wenjie’s (Rosalind Chao, playing the hardened older version) daughter commits suicide, bringing together her ex-students and a group of friends each of whom has gone their separate ways after graduating. The group includes Auggie (Eiza Gonzalez, finally in a leading role albeit, part of an ensemble), an entrepreneur at the forefront of nanotechnology; Saul (Jovan Adepo, doing a fine job here just like he did in last year’s To Catch a Killer), a researcher working closely with Vera; Jin Cheng (impressively played by Jess Hong), an aerospace engineer; Jack Rooney (John Bradley), a multi-millionaire businessman; and Will Downing (Alex Sharp), a professor who is also madly in love with Jin.

Scientists that died, left evidence of seeing a countdown in front of their eyes before dying. The protagonists get further involved when Auggie starts seeing a similar countdown. Unable to make sense of the occurrence, she is guided by a mysterious woman (an interesting and talented newcomer, Marlo Kelly) on what can terminate the countdown. These eerie events are investigated by Da Shi, played by Benedict Wong. In a show filled with scientific talk and serious consequences, Wong’s wise-cracking, world-weary detective is a welcome presence. Wong owns the role and becomes one of the best things about the show. He is joined by Liam Cunningham, playing his boss Thomas Wade, a no-nonsense leader of a shadowy organization.

Initially, things make little sense as too many things happen at once with a bunch of characters being introduced. But the show picks up pace once Jin and Jack Rooney play a highly intuitive game with advanced technology beyond current tech capabilities. The visuals in these gaming scenes and similar unreal sequences are credibly shown in the show. Benioff and Weiss (creators of Game of Thrones and this show) have received a solid budget from Netflix which they spent well on visual effects and a large, diverse cast.

As with GOT, the creators depend heavily on the source material, an award-winning Chinese novel of the same name written by Liu Cixin. While it lacks the great dialogue we got to enjoy in GOT, 3 Body Problem poses ideas that are deeper and of greater significance. Once the mystery is unveiled and the show no longer tries to be suspenseful, it gets quite interesting. The characters are unique and real enough to keep us engaged in their independent storylines that inevitably converge.

3 Body Problem presents themes that are existential in nature. A commentary on society, politics, relationships, the future of technology and the universe, the show covers a lot of ground in 8 episodes. The thematic scope of the show is so wide that you will need to pause and process what’s happening in front of you. This is Sci-Fi done right and credit goes to the source novel backed up by decent performances and believable visuals.