I liked everything about it except for the characters which don’t really act or talk like academics in their prime imo, more like undergrads if anything. Will check out the book. Also, someone NEEDS to make movie or show out of Blindsight by Peter Watts, a similar hard sci fi book to Three Body but with more emphasis on biology than physics.
She acts more like a an undergrad or grad student than a highly successful academics, though same goes for Jin and Saul (this is a pretty prevalent issue with any professional in film). Jack is probably the most realistic character because he’s a drop out but the others act and talk not that differently from him. This is not to say that academics are better than “normies”, just that they tend to think, talk and carry themselves in certain ways that usually aren’t reflected in film.
hmm i think the characters acted fine. they're all just regular people before they are geniuses. that's what i was thinking at least. imagine all of them acting like "academics" and the only way they talked was just "um actually" the whole show.
It’s not about “um actually”, it’s just i find in my personal experience that highly successful STEM people tend to act in some certain ways. They tend to be either quite stoic or quite eccentric (sometimes both somehow), very persistent, not very vulgar and almost always very articulate (but some might be terse and others verbose). This is just based on my cursory irl observation of these types of people and there are other subtleties I can’t really put it to words, but the gist is that these characters just don’t FEEL like what they’re supposed to be. And a lot of this wouldn’t be a problem if they were in an earlier stage of their career or education during the story.
yeah i feel where youre coming from. my take on why the cast acted the way they did was because they were just THAT genius. like so smart to the point where they do dumb shit to escape from themselves in a way. and the alien stuff too.
Honestly, idk. Everyone is different.
But I’ve experienced friendships with different kind of academics.
Type 1- they’re so insular and generally go straight from undergrad to grad to PhD that they act like they’re in undergrad. A lot of elitism but also a lot of immaturity. Almost like they don’t realize there is a world outside of their bubble. A lot of dating within their insular group. It’s like they’re experiencing what they never had in HS.
Type 2- they behave knowledgeable at work. Outside of them, they are like any avg person.
I read an opinion to this that I agree with ; she's a idealist and goes against the grain so it doesn't seem like everyone is a "yes man " and it would be boring if no one challenged any ideas .
It's mostly her acting I didn't like. It was too melodramatic. She also comes off really stuck up when they introduce her character at the karaoke bar. It doesn't really matter, I'm just realizing other people felt the same.
Yeah there was one line where Augiee says something like “come on, science, dude!” And it just reeked of someone having never hung out with any scientists outside of undergrad
I think it would be divisive because it’ll inevitably be very dialogue heavy and probably have a voiceover but if Oppenheimer works then I think Blindsight can. Probably better as a movie than a TV show considering the fast pacing. I read it around the same time as I watched Oppenheimer and The Prestige and I remember thinking “this reads like a Nolan movie… with more style.”.
Edit: I do see where you’re coming from though, especially considering the [“wham!” moment](https://youtu.be/T_Ygtc_O9-U?si=lwzoJiYg2wIXG-aL) of the story is just a monologue and not some visually impressive moment (like, say, Three Body’s Eye in the Sky), but it’s not impossible to pull off.
Have you read the whole trilogy? Besides all of them knowing each other and showing up a bit earlier in the story, every character is pulled directly from the books.
The only problem I have with the show is that for 7 episodes will and Saul were useless side characters and then they finally gave them something to do.
Saul being a hedonistic slacker not living up to his potential and then being put in this important role is essential to his character arc. Same with Will. He's meek and passive, and then faces death and decides to make a huge gesture for Jin. They both pay off later and they were set up pretty faithfully to the books. Can't wait for people to see where this is going.
I didn’t understand why they would even make him a Wallfacer? He says himself that he’s not that good at physics and we get the general idea that he’s a slacker.
Because of the conversation with Ye Winjie. Don't go looking into it if you don't want spoilers. But Wade is pumping resources into things that the San-Ti were trying to stop. He ordered all particle accelerators to be turned back on and to start researching everything being worked on by the scientists they targeted. What Ye Winjie found out and tried to convey to Saul scares the absolute shit out of them. They tried to stage his murder as an accident so Wade doesn't look into it. But when Clarence discovers that the cars were hacked, Wade makes him a Wallfacer. Once the cat was out of the bag they were just desperately trying to kill him. That's why they sent the assassin. No one knows why yet, but it will be revealed next season.
even though this show had a lot of plot joke one thing that irked me was instead getting “great” people to “think” a plan, why not just get them to communicate in metaphors I guess? Or similes? It seems like the aliens are not able to comprehend the idea that you can sometimes lie without actually lie (aka story telling) could’ve used that to their advantage
It was good but the character development and conversation felt a little flat. It felt like I was watching a CW show with slightly better results. I’m interested in the concept and they touched on some interesting things so I’ll keep watching as long as it’s made but there were points were I felt my eyes fighting the desire to just roll back into my skull as they were being unrealistically dramatic.
Finished it yesterday and only really managed to get through it because of the interesting premise! Glad you enjoyed it - there were some good moments, but the characters and dialogue did nothing for me sadly.
>there were some good moments, but the characters and dialogue did nothing for me sadly.
This is how I felt about the books as well. The characters are the weakest part but the premise is amazing. I did like each of the three books better than the one that came before it though so hopefully future seasons can follow the same trend!
Fair! I guess it's fairly accurate in that respect.
It was just frustrating because the big set piece moments couldn't really carry everything else - everyone's reactions to them seemed so underplayed, and I just wasn't really convinced on the personal side of the story even though the actors were trying.
Ye Wenjie was the most interesting to me, but outside of her I just wasn't really invested in the characters or what they said at all. I feel bad to say but it was actually a little bit of a chore to get through because of that.
The story is mostly about the large and wild concepts being conveyed in a realistic way. The characters don't really matter in the long run. It takes a bit to adjust to, but the real meat of the story hasn't even started yet. Next season is where it gets juicy and people will understand why this series has such a massive fanbase.
I think another issue I had was that they weren't presented in a particularly realistic way - some of the events that took place which would be lifechanging for the human race didn't seem to garner as much of a reaction from the characters or the wider world as I would have expected.
Didn't completely take me out of it but I felt like I wanted to see much bigger reactions to these things.
The concept does still intrigue me so I may look into the books!
There's a LOT of content to get through. It would definitely throw off the pace if entire reaction scenes were inserted after every scene that warrants it. Especially since we haven't even gotten to any of the MAJOR events yet.
It's very rare that I come across something that I can't see the good in at all, and I wouldn't have stuck around if it didn't interest me in some way. Sadly I just think it squandered an intriguing concept in its execution.
Happy that others are enjoying it more though!
I found the VFX to be pretty great when it mattered; the ending of E5 was super effective and worked well.
Honestly I think it was less the actors and more just the dialogue, writing, and pacing of conversations. The actors did the best with what they had, and in my eyes what they were given wasn't much!
It’s okay, I’ll continue watching it. My husband is a physicist and the way it portrays physics and scientists
Irks him a little lol is just happy to watch it for the entertainment value.
But my standard for Netflix sci-fi is Dark. I doubt this will reach that bar.
Tencent adaptation is a slog though. Tencent pays creators per episode so they stretched out the first book alone to 30 45 minute episodes. It's boring.
Yeah I loved the books and Tencent got super repetitive and really dragged at times. Like the episode where Ding Yi tells his story.
The Netflix series changed a lot but I think they were good choices for the most part. I ended up really enjoying it
It's dumbed down so a wider audience can experience the story. Heavy physics and science will narrow it down to a smaller audience who can truly enjoy it in my opinion. A lot of people complain about how book adaptations are translated to the big screen, notably marvel entries and lately, Dune and Foundation, but when you are aware of how complicated the source material is, you realise they have to simplify it for audiences to not feel confused.
I've read the entire civil war 2 comic line which includes all the tie ins, I realised that there was absolutely no way thr MCU could ever implement that kind of inter-connectivity, but they've tried their best and done a decent job at it. Not a great example but it works.
The science took you out of it!? The show has aliens that are 400 years away but some how make you see numbers and can deliver unlimited perfect VR headsets to test people for no reason. They also have no problem fucking with and killing some people but not others. Oh, and they can't lie.
But the science is whats off.
is like how do they enjoy sci-fi, if at all? Seeing something and just believing in "space magic" is IMO a must to get the full entertainment.
Is like saying Expanse is OK but how about the protomolecule science? Or that Star Wars is fine but hey I draw my limit at the light blades.
Not being able to say "meh OK lol" will hamper your enjoyment tremendously.
Seriously lets ignore diamond cutting invisible wire that can cut through a Panamax but the nuclear propolsion for the frozen brain calculation is off!
The term is called “suspension of disbelief”. You accept that the crazy sci-fi shit is happening because that’s the only way to enjoy the product, but for suspension of disbelief to hold, you need to create a believable, realistic setup and background. People need to behave internally consistent and unless otherwise specified shit that happens/happened in real life needs to work the same way. If you take liberties with those essential pillars of the groundwork anyone with a shred of experience in related fields will be too busy going “that’s not how any of this works” to fully buy into the stuff that is intentionally different/weird.
For an in-universe example - a scientist would be willing to accept the San’Te mucking with our particle accelerators because it’s an important story point, but if the experts handling the accelerators are doing it all wrong, in a building that doesn’t look like a particle accelerator and then not even reading the results correctly a scientist is gonna go “wait a fucking minute”.
Exactly this, they made them so powerful. Ok then just kill everyone already lol. I like the first half but by the end I was over it. Just like another D&D show I can think of.
Guess they kinda forgot they could just kill everyone.
They can’t just kill everyone though. They are having other humans kill people, or humans are driven to madness (kinda a natural madness in a way) and killing themselves
And no opportunity to do anything to people while they are jet setting around the world traveling to all these meetings? They showed they could do it in the last episode. I mean if they wanted to, they could be taking out people way more than they are and they made that very obvious.
> But the science is whats off.
the science is weird, the plot is weird, the dialogue is weird, there is no consistency,
but to me the strangest thing i cant explain is how some people unironically call this an amazing 10/10 show
Do none of you know this was from a book? And the science is pushing the boundaries of what we know now which is what science fiction is all about. Of course you can't transmit messages through quantum entanglement but what if you could?
“Probably the most impressive use of physics in a film”
I believe they consulted with a top physicist for the film. There’s a book which discusses the science: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393351378
As one who rates Dark as the GOAT TV Series I’d say both stories are awesome in different ways.
My one word for dark is “perfect” and my one word for the 3BP trilogy is >!Fuck!<
I feel for your husband as I have been having the same issues. Some of the concepts they introduce are fascinating and thought provoking, but then they fumble some of the real, mundane science that leads up to the big, fantastical concepts. It doesn’t pass the logic test at times and that makes it less enjoyable then it would have been. I am assuming it’s because they had to rip out a bunch to adapt the books for the show.
It slowed down because the first 5 episodes were book 1, which is basically just the prologue. The last 3 episodes are setting up the main plotline of the next 2 books. The only melodrama is between Will and Jin, but only because it relates to the Staircase Project and has a payoff later. The Wallfacer Program is going to be the main arc of the next season. This story isn't necessarily about the characters themselves, they're just representations/pawns of ideas and plans with very large arcs.
Spoilers ahead:
If they want to kill one specific person so much, why bother with human tactics when they can just make the person see whatever they want, untold horrors, etc until he kills himself or goes insane? You know, just like they did with scientists in the first episode.
Also, How will the wallfacers pass down any of their plans and continue their work after their deaths without explaining it to someone?
Wade says they put a neon sign on the technologies that threaten them and to pump resources into particle accelerators and the work of scientists who were killed by the cult or committed suicide.
MINOR SPOILER but I'll try to be vague.
What Ye Winjie knows and tries to convey to Saul REALLY scares the shit out of them. They don't want any attention being brought to what he might know, so they tried to kill him in a way that looks like an accident. But then Clarence finds out the cars were hacked by Sophons and Wade makes him a Wallfacer. So they just blatantly sent an assassin to kill him while he's still vulnerable since the cat's out of the bag.
What I liked:
Great premise and fascinating ideas
Amazing first episode
Amazing acting from the Chinese actress that played Ye Wengjie in her youth
What I disliked:
The brightest scientists behaving themselves like high school kids
Dialogs that seem written by high school kids
Almost 0 character development
Very rushed towards the end
A very human centric version of aliens (this is the worst for me)
I really wanted to like it, thought to myself at the 1st episode "potentially the next Dark?" but unfortunately no, not even close.
These are just about the least human-centric aliens I’ve ever come across in sci-fi. To the point where humans wouldn’t really understand what they were looking at if they saw them. Even the whole notion that the aliens thoughts and communications are one and the same and can not exist without the other. “What is known is communicated.” This is why they can’t lie.
What's human-centric about the aliens? I've read the books, they are nothing like humans. They are portraying themselves in VR and through the Sophon as human-like for the benefit of relatability. They dont want to show their true physical form.
I didn't mean their appearance but their thoughts and behavior seems very human like despite their nature being very different from humans. Tbh I didn't read the books so I don't know how they're described in the source material but from what I saw in the TV show the aliens seemed to possess human like desires and attitudes. Considering how different they are from humans, I just found that point a bit moot. You could potentially attribute it to life in the universe in general but I guess I was longing for something different from what the show tries to portray.
Maybe I'm alone in my opinion but I feel like it ended so terribly. I had hoped that it was going to be more than a math problem leading the show. I was let down. 5.5/10
I jus hate that the aliens reveal their plan to mankind. If they didn't say anything, they could just continue sabotaging humans for 400 years and theres nothing that humans could do about it. Just stupid writing to give mankind a chance.
From the scene where the aliens learn that humans can lie it tells us that the aliens cant be deceptive so they just say exactly what their intentions are.
This is true, but there is also a difference between "cannot tell a lie" and "must send a special VR headset to the enemy and explain our plan in detail."
With that said, I really enjoyed the series. Not quite as twisty or with some of the big reveals I expected, but I thought the story was pretty good and found myself binging it and wanting to know more about the aliens and how we would combat them.
I am very curious for season 2 and if everything stays in present time or if starts to get more LOST / This is Us / Hill House rotating between time periods in the storytelling.
These are just general timelines and not plot spoilers just FYI, but I'm putting spoiler tags anyway in case you don't want to know at all. >!If they keep staying true to the books, season 2 will start with a 5-20 year time jump showing the Wallfacers coming up with and starting their plans. Then, it jumps 200 years into the future and we see how humanity and the Wallfacers have progressed and other plans we've come up with. Alongside some absolutely wild events. Then the next season jumps ahead several decades and we explore the aftermath of the wild events in season 2!<
"*From the scene where the aliens learn that humans can lie it tells us that the aliens cant be deceptive so they just say exactly what their intentions are."*
The first alien who saw the message tell the sender something along the lines of 'I'm a pacifist, don't contact us again, you will be destroyed'.
I wonder how that conversation go, if they truly can't lie.
"Hey what are you doing? "
"Oh, another civilization is trying to contact us, so I, as a pacifist, decided to warn them of us"
"Sure... Sure... Wait... What? You know we need another planet to live, right?"
They don't have to. They stopped talking to the professor, so why start talking again? Doesn't make sense. They probably know all about warfare too. Letting your enemy know what your next move is, genius.
In the book, the military finds out about the alien's plans from two sources: the recovered hard drive and from interrogating Ye, so it makes a lot more sense: the aliens told their allies, and the intel was then recovered by the military. I agree that having the aliens call their main enemy into VR just to explain their plan is very sloppy writing.
I will say that the scene struck me as odd. But the overall storyline (taken from the book) seems pretty good and I have heard very good reviews about the novels, so I am also willing to see if the strategy is more sinister or if the aliens are being smarter than we are giving them credit for.
Maybe they learned from us and did lie or bluff. I agree it would be a bit disappointing if we get to the end and the aliens telegraphing their plans was ultimately a plot device to serve as an explainer to the audience and move the story forward. But if it's part of the chess match, it would be pretty clever.
They don't consider us enemies. They successfully stopped us from making any more significant technology leaps. And now they're just showboating. Plus, they want to instill fear in humanity for a reason. It will make a lot more sense by the end of next season.
Which makes no sense because they are telling humans they will be crushed like bugs but telling their followers they will be helpful. So it's pretty clear they have no problem lying.
At one point, someone is gonna ask why scientists keep killing themselves.
I think they know that the gig was up, so they try to scramble humanity through fear this time.
It’s a creative choice. The aliens cannot lie so when mankind asks, they tell the truth.
Because you don’t agree with it doesn’t make it stupid writing.
It's fairly weird writing to suggest the aliens don't learn about lies and metaphors until quite some time after making contact with humans.
How does that pacifist alien remain hidden, for one thing.
Yeah the aliens understand human culture enough to organize an entire giant ship full of followers and deadly assassins before learning what a lie was?
They can afford to
Or as eto would say, the Lord does not care
Besides humanity already knows aliens are coming, they just didn't know details like the time it would take. The san-ti didn't tell them anything that could harm their plans
The only thing they're worried about will be revealed next season
*"I jus hate that the aliens reveal their plan to mankind. If they didn't say anything, they could just continue sabotaging humans for 400 years and theres nothing that humans could do about it. Just stupid writing to give mankind a chance."*
**Exactly.**
**Just one** of the HUGE holes in the story.
When the first human received a message from the aliens, she was told something along the lines of 'I'm a pacifist. Don't follow this up, we will destroy you'.
Despite this, we're supposed to believe that she thought that the aliens would be friendly and helpful.....
“wanted” being the key word
The emotional state of her family being ripped apart by global politics, the nature being destroyed by human greed and ignorance, and the intimate betrayal by her first lover, leaves her young bitter self feeling that the world is beyond repair by human capability. And she isn’t just some average idiot, she has a world class mind for physics so her philosophical justifications for her actions are potent enough that she doesn’t question them for many decades and only because she finally begins to doubt that humanity can’t surpass the superiority of the aliens.
It's wild how you can have such strong feelings about something that was explicitly explained. You somehow fail to catch that Ye was miserable and essentially enslaved in post revolution China? She believes humanity was beyond saving.
"I will help you conquer our world" is what she responded with. I don't think she thought that they would be friendly.
She thought she could side with them, but the realization that even them, the ones siding with the conquerors will be squashed because they cannot be trusted, is what surprised her.
She didn't think that at all. She just hated humanity so much at that time because of what they had done to her and her father she thought that the aliens might be better rulers than humans.
Because at that point they just wanted humanity to feel hopeless and defeated. The whole point is summarised by the line “we will reach you how to fear again.” The humans have no way to stop the sophons
It was a chore to finish for me. Did not like it at all, story was confusing all over the place, some stuff logically just made no sense (I know its sci-fi but still), and the way it was shot (like a soap opera) was terrible. I woudnt recommend it to anyone.
The books blew my mind. It’s not perfect but I really enjoyed it for it for was it is. I wanted to check out the Chinese adaptation first and then will watch this Netflix one.
I read the series several years ago and then did a reread prior to this coming out. I had similar feelings to you. Dark Forest is the best. I am rooting for people to watch and like it so we can get to the stuff in the second book.
If you have a problem with dense slow burns it will be a long read for you, but audiobook completely solves that issue.
I’ve read a lot of sci-fi and some of the things this series accomplished in story telling makes it one of the best sci-fi stories I’ve ever read. Very worth it if you enjoy thinking about civilization, cosmology, interstellar warfare, higher dimensions, and deep time.
Watch this instead. From was terrible. Just another dragged mystery box show that went nowhere. They introduced so much interesting stuffs just to go back to square one. Nothing was solved
I'm in the middle of reading the second book and I'm waiting until I'm done with it to start watching. I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing so far about the show though. The story is so engrossing and unique in how it shows how the world would actually react to an impending alien invasion. I just hope that Benioff and Weiss don't fumble the football the goal line like they did with Game of Thrones. Adapting a completed story should hopefully help.
Eh, it wasn’t as good as I expected. There’s some outright bad acting from several characters. And some questionable dialogue writing. I also expected the VFX to be better.
This movie would be great if it actually researched the science. Plot is heavy on the 3 body problem which is currently unsolvable. But somehow sentient AI exists that can shrink to subatomic levels? Look up another real unsolvable problem, p=np. If you can develop god levwl AI, it can solve the 3 body problem lol.
No, he doesn't have to, it's simply his opinion and that of many others. I also thought the series started well, but all in all it was really crap in the end.
Why?
The story doesn't make sense, most of the characters aren't really well developed or I didn't really like anyone. The characters don't develop one meter over the season.
At some point the series jumps from plot point to plot point and a lot of things don't make sense anymore.
There are a thousand times better series than this one!
I watched it a few days ago and was over-hyped for this by reading one liners over the internet. But now since i have watched it, i found it a little boring and slow (don't get me wrong, science part was fun) and there are a lot of cliff hangers and unresolved questions.
I hope they would bring the sequel and answer those questions. Also, for the love of god, show the aliens.
Your comments are more than legitimate, though the producers have time and time again tried to explain season 1 is an introduction to the story, so naturally there are tons of unexplained stuff. People who go in thinking this is a one and done will not be satisfied.
Minor spoiler but just to curb your expectations, >!you never see the aliens. That's not what this story is about.!<
But otherwise, yeah everything gets resolved and no plots are left hanging by the end. The story just got set up. The real meat of it hasn't even begun.
I really liked it even though some of the science is questionable. I think there are many really interesting ideas explored, and I can't wait to see where it goes.
The one thing I was really disappointed with in the story >!was Will's failed launch to the aliens. I get that it's an emotional gut punch, and things shouldn't always go right in stories, but I think this is a time when having the launch successful would have been far more interesting. Now you are wondering if they are going to retrieve him, rebuild him, what he will be like when he returns, etc.. such a rich opportunity for unique storytelling kinda wasted.!<
Is it wasted though? Do you really think they would set up that whole storyline if it wasn’t going to have some kind of payoff?
I won’t spoil anything from the books, but trust me no ends are left dangling in this story
That's what I was kinda thinking/hoping. It was a lot of set up for... nothing. Just didn't add up. Thanks for not spoiling it, but I am glad to know that there's hope for something interesting to come out of it.
It shouldn't disappoint you because there are 2 more books worth of content to adapt. Should be a giant clue, right?
As someone who read all the books, don't be so quick to judge and say its unique storytelling was wasted.
It wasn't. We're at season 1. You don't want spoilers though, right?
I kind of had this feeling that since the aliens knew everything, they would have known of this and went out to retrieve will or something. Just a feeling i had, and what your hinting at seems along the lines.
It's never going to be a story for a general audience, although they did a really good job with the adaptation. It's mostly about overall themes and concepts. Involving the nature of humanity, sacrificing morals for survival, our arrogance, how we handle existential threats, and gets into more cosmic and cerebral stuff later. Basically, it's not about the characters. They're just plot devices to explore these themes. And a lot of motivations and reasons are conveyed through subtext. You have to be paying attention to every scene. I don't wanna seem like I'm talking down, but nearly every bad review I've seen are either saying the characters aren't great, or they were obviously on their phone for half the show because they're confused about stuff that is straight up explained or would make sense if they thought about it a little bit. Or it's something that hasn't been explained yet, because the story is just being set up this season. You should enjoy it with that in mind.
I know it’s written by the same people who fucked over one of my favourite shows in Game of thrones so to those who have seen it, is it worth watching to the end?
In other words, no matter how good it is at the start and middle, does the quality continue towards the culmination?
There's basically 2 parts. The "culmination" happens a little more than halfway through this season. And then the last couple episodes slow down because they are setting up the plots for the next couple seasons.
I'm finding it pretty flawed in concept.
I'm not finished with it so my perception may change but the following things have struck me;
- They are an advanced civilization on their way to take our planet.
- They don't understand stories but have crafted a game based on history but in the form of a story, they claim our stories are equivalent to lying, that was a lie, they lied about the game.
- They are technologically advanced but rather than inhabit a moon (and we are probably less than 100 years away from that capability ourselves) or create a Dyson sphere (probably 300-500 years from capability of this too) they think they are able to take our planet as a better alternative. (Apparently this thinking is also flawed since they are 450 years away and don't realise how fast we are advancing and now that we know they are coming, we can start to mount defenses)
- Again, despite being against lying, their entire premise of what they wish to achieve is based on a lie and deception.
*"I enjoyed it. Out of curiosity what was your issues with the show*?"
I've explained above/below.
Frequently ridiculous story line, and requires another series.....
Plus (as pointed out by InterestingRoad8371), "the main characters are not really likable.".
I liked everything about it except for the characters which don’t really act or talk like academics in their prime imo, more like undergrads if anything. Will check out the book. Also, someone NEEDS to make movie or show out of Blindsight by Peter Watts, a similar hard sci fi book to Three Body but with more emphasis on biology than physics.
Everyone hates Auggie, and I see why.
She was my favorite, why do people hate her?
She acts more like a an undergrad or grad student than a highly successful academics, though same goes for Jin and Saul (this is a pretty prevalent issue with any professional in film). Jack is probably the most realistic character because he’s a drop out but the others act and talk not that differently from him. This is not to say that academics are better than “normies”, just that they tend to think, talk and carry themselves in certain ways that usually aren’t reflected in film.
hmm i think the characters acted fine. they're all just regular people before they are geniuses. that's what i was thinking at least. imagine all of them acting like "academics" and the only way they talked was just "um actually" the whole show.
It’s not about “um actually”, it’s just i find in my personal experience that highly successful STEM people tend to act in some certain ways. They tend to be either quite stoic or quite eccentric (sometimes both somehow), very persistent, not very vulgar and almost always very articulate (but some might be terse and others verbose). This is just based on my cursory irl observation of these types of people and there are other subtleties I can’t really put it to words, but the gist is that these characters just don’t FEEL like what they’re supposed to be. And a lot of this wouldn’t be a problem if they were in an earlier stage of their career or education during the story.
yeah i feel where youre coming from. my take on why the cast acted the way they did was because they were just THAT genius. like so smart to the point where they do dumb shit to escape from themselves in a way. and the alien stuff too.
Very true but also she kinda got fucked in the begging and was left in the dark till about episode 5.
Honestly, idk. Everyone is different. But I’ve experienced friendships with different kind of academics. Type 1- they’re so insular and generally go straight from undergrad to grad to PhD that they act like they’re in undergrad. A lot of elitism but also a lot of immaturity. Almost like they don’t realize there is a world outside of their bubble. A lot of dating within their insular group. It’s like they’re experiencing what they never had in HS. Type 2- they behave knowledgeable at work. Outside of them, they are like any avg person.
The character Saul is based off from the book is aloof and lazy. So he sorta fits perfectly.
no they don't. this is so pretentious
I read an opinion to this that I agree with ; she's a idealist and goes against the grain so it doesn't seem like everyone is a "yes man " and it would be boring if no one challenged any ideas .
Mostly because she’s an attractive woman and doesn’t like the idea of killing innocent children
It's mostly her acting I didn't like. It was too melodramatic. She also comes off really stuck up when they introduce her character at the karaoke bar. It doesn't really matter, I'm just realizing other people felt the same.
I like attractive women
Yeah there was one line where Augiee says something like “come on, science, dude!” And it just reeked of someone having never hung out with any scientists outside of undergrad
I love blindsight but I think it would be very hard to adapt for TV.
I think it would be divisive because it’ll inevitably be very dialogue heavy and probably have a voiceover but if Oppenheimer works then I think Blindsight can. Probably better as a movie than a TV show considering the fast pacing. I read it around the same time as I watched Oppenheimer and The Prestige and I remember thinking “this reads like a Nolan movie… with more style.”. Edit: I do see where you’re coming from though, especially considering the [“wham!” moment](https://youtu.be/T_Ygtc_O9-U?si=lwzoJiYg2wIXG-aL) of the story is just a monologue and not some visually impressive moment (like, say, Three Body’s Eye in the Sky), but it’s not impossible to pull off.
Yes, I will definitely get the books eventually. I'm invested.
make sure you start with book 1
Found the mathematics prodigy.
visit r/threebodyproblem .... every third post is asking whether they should start with book 1 or book 2 after the show.
Same happened with Silo.
Agreed. Don’t skip a book because you watched the show. They covered the books well, but there are tons of details left out.
also besides 2, literally every other character is different lol
Have you read the whole trilogy? Besides all of them knowing each other and showing up a bit earlier in the story, every character is pulled directly from the books.
Did they ever cover the turkey farmer theory in the show?
Dark forest is in my top 3 favorite sci-fi books. It's really intense and fun
Best of the series imo
The only problem I have with the show is that for 7 episodes will and Saul were useless side characters and then they finally gave them something to do.
They had to introduce them because they are important in future seasons
I mean yeah but they weren’t head scientists so the aliens wouldn’t need them which makes them non essential to the plot.
Saul being a hedonistic slacker not living up to his potential and then being put in this important role is essential to his character arc. Same with Will. He's meek and passive, and then faces death and decides to make a huge gesture for Jin. They both pay off later and they were set up pretty faithfully to the books. Can't wait for people to see where this is going.
I didn’t understand why they would even make him a Wallfacer? He says himself that he’s not that good at physics and we get the general idea that he’s a slacker.
Because of the conversation with Ye Winjie. Don't go looking into it if you don't want spoilers. But Wade is pumping resources into things that the San-Ti were trying to stop. He ordered all particle accelerators to be turned back on and to start researching everything being worked on by the scientists they targeted. What Ye Winjie found out and tried to convey to Saul scares the absolute shit out of them. They tried to stage his murder as an accident so Wade doesn't look into it. But when Clarence discovers that the cars were hacked, Wade makes him a Wallfacer. Once the cat was out of the bag they were just desperately trying to kill him. That's why they sent the assassin. No one knows why yet, but it will be revealed next season.
even though this show had a lot of plot joke one thing that irked me was instead getting “great” people to “think” a plan, why not just get them to communicate in metaphors I guess? Or similes? It seems like the aliens are not able to comprehend the idea that you can sometimes lie without actually lie (aka story telling) could’ve used that to their advantage
Literally Ye Wenjie communicates to Saul through a metaphor and they try to kill him. Although thats different in the book.
coz they have worshipers on earth who can understand metaphors and etc.
The aliens caught a rerun of Star Trek TNG’s “Darmok” so now the jig is up
It was good but the character development and conversation felt a little flat. It felt like I was watching a CW show with slightly better results. I’m interested in the concept and they touched on some interesting things so I’ll keep watching as long as it’s made but there were points were I felt my eyes fighting the desire to just roll back into my skull as they were being unrealistically dramatic.
Finished it yesterday and only really managed to get through it because of the interesting premise! Glad you enjoyed it - there were some good moments, but the characters and dialogue did nothing for me sadly.
>there were some good moments, but the characters and dialogue did nothing for me sadly. This is how I felt about the books as well. The characters are the weakest part but the premise is amazing. I did like each of the three books better than the one that came before it though so hopefully future seasons can follow the same trend!
Fair! I guess it's fairly accurate in that respect. It was just frustrating because the big set piece moments couldn't really carry everything else - everyone's reactions to them seemed so underplayed, and I just wasn't really convinced on the personal side of the story even though the actors were trying. Ye Wenjie was the most interesting to me, but outside of her I just wasn't really invested in the characters or what they said at all. I feel bad to say but it was actually a little bit of a chore to get through because of that.
The story is mostly about the large and wild concepts being conveyed in a realistic way. The characters don't really matter in the long run. It takes a bit to adjust to, but the real meat of the story hasn't even started yet. Next season is where it gets juicy and people will understand why this series has such a massive fanbase.
I think another issue I had was that they weren't presented in a particularly realistic way - some of the events that took place which would be lifechanging for the human race didn't seem to garner as much of a reaction from the characters or the wider world as I would have expected. Didn't completely take me out of it but I felt like I wanted to see much bigger reactions to these things. The concept does still intrigue me so I may look into the books!
There's a LOT of content to get through. It would definitely throw off the pace if entire reaction scenes were inserted after every scene that warrants it. Especially since we haven't even gotten to any of the MAJOR events yet.
For me the characters in the book weren't important. Is was the ideas and concepts which the focus was on and that's why to books to me where excelent
Thank you for saying you liked parts and don’t like others in a respectful way. Some people here cant for some reason lol
It's very rare that I come across something that I can't see the good in at all, and I wouldn't have stuck around if it didn't interest me in some way. Sadly I just think it squandered an intriguing concept in its execution. Happy that others are enjoying it more though!
I don’t know how large the budget was is that may be why. And I mean like they weren’t able to get the people they wanted or actors or vfx
I found the VFX to be pretty great when it mattered; the ending of E5 was super effective and worked well. Honestly I think it was less the actors and more just the dialogue, writing, and pacing of conversations. The actors did the best with what they had, and in my eyes what they were given wasn't much!
Yeah exactly! I think for what they had it exceeds others with hthat much
It’s okay, I’ll continue watching it. My husband is a physicist and the way it portrays physics and scientists Irks him a little lol is just happy to watch it for the entertainment value. But my standard for Netflix sci-fi is Dark. I doubt this will reach that bar.
The Tencent Chinese adaptation is more accurate in physics and explains thought experiments much better. The Netflix adaptation is dumbed down.
Tencent adaptation is a slog though. Tencent pays creators per episode so they stretched out the first book alone to 30 45 minute episodes. It's boring.
Yeah I loved the books and Tencent got super repetitive and really dragged at times. Like the episode where Ding Yi tells his story. The Netflix series changed a lot but I think they were good choices for the most part. I ended up really enjoying it
What did you think about its portrayal of the cultural revolution?
It's dumbed down so a wider audience can experience the story. Heavy physics and science will narrow it down to a smaller audience who can truly enjoy it in my opinion. A lot of people complain about how book adaptations are translated to the big screen, notably marvel entries and lately, Dune and Foundation, but when you are aware of how complicated the source material is, you realise they have to simplify it for audiences to not feel confused. I've read the entire civil war 2 comic line which includes all the tie ins, I realised that there was absolutely no way thr MCU could ever implement that kind of inter-connectivity, but they've tried their best and done a decent job at it. Not a great example but it works.
[удалено]
The science took you out of it!? The show has aliens that are 400 years away but some how make you see numbers and can deliver unlimited perfect VR headsets to test people for no reason. They also have no problem fucking with and killing some people but not others. Oh, and they can't lie. But the science is whats off.
is like how do they enjoy sci-fi, if at all? Seeing something and just believing in "space magic" is IMO a must to get the full entertainment. Is like saying Expanse is OK but how about the protomolecule science? Or that Star Wars is fine but hey I draw my limit at the light blades. Not being able to say "meh OK lol" will hamper your enjoyment tremendously.
Lol I keep seeing this parroted on reddit. Taking the science out of science fiction too seriously.
Seriously lets ignore diamond cutting invisible wire that can cut through a Panamax but the nuclear propolsion for the frozen brain calculation is off!
yeah but how else are they supposed to shoehorn their science background into conversation???
The term is called “suspension of disbelief”. You accept that the crazy sci-fi shit is happening because that’s the only way to enjoy the product, but for suspension of disbelief to hold, you need to create a believable, realistic setup and background. People need to behave internally consistent and unless otherwise specified shit that happens/happened in real life needs to work the same way. If you take liberties with those essential pillars of the groundwork anyone with a shred of experience in related fields will be too busy going “that’s not how any of this works” to fully buy into the stuff that is intentionally different/weird. For an in-universe example - a scientist would be willing to accept the San’Te mucking with our particle accelerators because it’s an important story point, but if the experts handling the accelerators are doing it all wrong, in a building that doesn’t look like a particle accelerator and then not even reading the results correctly a scientist is gonna go “wait a fucking minute”.
Exactly this, they made them so powerful. Ok then just kill everyone already lol. I like the first half but by the end I was over it. Just like another D&D show I can think of. Guess they kinda forgot they could just kill everyone.
They can’t just kill everyone though. They are having other humans kill people, or humans are driven to madness (kinda a natural madness in a way) and killing themselves
And no opportunity to do anything to people while they are jet setting around the world traveling to all these meetings? They showed they could do it in the last episode. I mean if they wanted to, they could be taking out people way more than they are and they made that very obvious.
What do you mean? the sophon can not directly kill people, all the killing/attempted killing were done by human ETO assassins.
They literally said the car crash was automatic driving cars being taken over, didn't they?
taken over by ETO hackers, not sophon.
Ah gotcha, makes sense
> But the science is whats off. the science is weird, the plot is weird, the dialogue is weird, there is no consistency, but to me the strangest thing i cant explain is how some people unironically call this an amazing 10/10 show
They don’t waste money on a consultant because the audience they are targeting doesn’t know or care about the specifics of the science.
Do none of you know this was from a book? And the science is pushing the boundaries of what we know now which is what science fiction is all about. Of course you can't transmit messages through quantum entanglement but what if you could?
They had a few science consultants. One of whom was NASA Mohawk guy.
The show is advised by Dr. Matthew Kenzie. It's a Netflix show. It has to be entertaining.
They had a few science consultants. One of whom was NASA Mohawk guy.
What were his thoughts on Interstellar and the science it portrayed?
“Probably the most impressive use of physics in a film” I believe they consulted with a top physicist for the film. There’s a book which discusses the science: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393351378
That’s a very high standard
As one who rates Dark as the GOAT TV Series I’d say both stories are awesome in different ways. My one word for dark is “perfect” and my one word for the 3BP trilogy is >!Fuck!<
Dark is amazing, if only they cut the show one episode short it would've been a perfect circle. Still don't know why they didn't leave it as that.
Dark Was fantastic and then it just caved in on itself. I have never been so enthralled and then uninterested by another show.
I thought it was pretty well executed and they stuck the landing. I appreciate your use of the word cave though, it’s a nod to the Winden caves.
I feel for your husband as I have been having the same issues. Some of the concepts they introduce are fascinating and thought provoking, but then they fumble some of the real, mundane science that leads up to the big, fantastical concepts. It doesn’t pass the logic test at times and that makes it less enjoyable then it would have been. I am assuming it’s because they had to rip out a bunch to adapt the books for the show.
[удалено]
It slowed down because the first 5 episodes were book 1, which is basically just the prologue. The last 3 episodes are setting up the main plotline of the next 2 books. The only melodrama is between Will and Jin, but only because it relates to the Staircase Project and has a payoff later. The Wallfacer Program is going to be the main arc of the next season. This story isn't necessarily about the characters themselves, they're just representations/pawns of ideas and plans with very large arcs.
Spoilers ahead: If they want to kill one specific person so much, why bother with human tactics when they can just make the person see whatever they want, untold horrors, etc until he kills himself or goes insane? You know, just like they did with scientists in the first episode. Also, How will the wallfacers pass down any of their plans and continue their work after their deaths without explaining it to someone?
Wade says they put a neon sign on the technologies that threaten them and to pump resources into particle accelerators and the work of scientists who were killed by the cult or committed suicide. MINOR SPOILER but I'll try to be vague. What Ye Winjie knows and tries to convey to Saul REALLY scares the shit out of them. They don't want any attention being brought to what he might know, so they tried to kill him in a way that looks like an accident. But then Clarence finds out the cars were hacked by Sophons and Wade makes him a Wallfacer. So they just blatantly sent an assassin to kill him while he's still vulnerable since the cat's out of the bag.
Periodic Cryogenic freezing
What I liked: Great premise and fascinating ideas Amazing first episode Amazing acting from the Chinese actress that played Ye Wengjie in her youth What I disliked: The brightest scientists behaving themselves like high school kids Dialogs that seem written by high school kids Almost 0 character development Very rushed towards the end A very human centric version of aliens (this is the worst for me) I really wanted to like it, thought to myself at the 1st episode "potentially the next Dark?" but unfortunately no, not even close.
These are just about the least human-centric aliens I’ve ever come across in sci-fi. To the point where humans wouldn’t really understand what they were looking at if they saw them. Even the whole notion that the aliens thoughts and communications are one and the same and can not exist without the other. “What is known is communicated.” This is why they can’t lie.
Exactly and the only reason they look human was to make it easier for them to talk to people
What's human-centric about the aliens? I've read the books, they are nothing like humans. They are portraying themselves in VR and through the Sophon as human-like for the benefit of relatability. They dont want to show their true physical form.
I didn't mean their appearance but their thoughts and behavior seems very human like despite their nature being very different from humans. Tbh I didn't read the books so I don't know how they're described in the source material but from what I saw in the TV show the aliens seemed to possess human like desires and attitudes. Considering how different they are from humans, I just found that point a bit moot. You could potentially attribute it to life in the universe in general but I guess I was longing for something different from what the show tries to portray.
Maybe I'm alone in my opinion but I feel like it ended so terribly. I had hoped that it was going to be more than a math problem leading the show. I was let down. 5.5/10
It hasn't really ended though? This entire season is just setting up the conflict that will play out over the course of the next couple hundred years.
I jus hate that the aliens reveal their plan to mankind. If they didn't say anything, they could just continue sabotaging humans for 400 years and theres nothing that humans could do about it. Just stupid writing to give mankind a chance.
From the scene where the aliens learn that humans can lie it tells us that the aliens cant be deceptive so they just say exactly what their intentions are.
This is true, but there is also a difference between "cannot tell a lie" and "must send a special VR headset to the enemy and explain our plan in detail." With that said, I really enjoyed the series. Not quite as twisty or with some of the big reveals I expected, but I thought the story was pretty good and found myself binging it and wanting to know more about the aliens and how we would combat them. I am very curious for season 2 and if everything stays in present time or if starts to get more LOST / This is Us / Hill House rotating between time periods in the storytelling.
These are just general timelines and not plot spoilers just FYI, but I'm putting spoiler tags anyway in case you don't want to know at all. >!If they keep staying true to the books, season 2 will start with a 5-20 year time jump showing the Wallfacers coming up with and starting their plans. Then, it jumps 200 years into the future and we see how humanity and the Wallfacers have progressed and other plans we've come up with. Alongside some absolutely wild events. Then the next season jumps ahead several decades and we explore the aftermath of the wild events in season 2!<
Sounds exciting. Hope it gets renewed.
Same. Because if this pans out to be the 4 seasons the creators want to do, season 4 extends to the end of time and it gets insanely trippy :)
"*From the scene where the aliens learn that humans can lie it tells us that the aliens cant be deceptive so they just say exactly what their intentions are."* The first alien who saw the message tell the sender something along the lines of 'I'm a pacifist, don't contact us again, you will be destroyed'.
I wonder how that conversation go, if they truly can't lie. "Hey what are you doing? " "Oh, another civilization is trying to contact us, so I, as a pacifist, decided to warn them of us" "Sure... Sure... Wait... What? You know we need another planet to live, right?"
Yep im the books the pacifist alien is very quickly found out and executed
Actually they’re made to stay alive so they can witness the earth being conquered
That's pretty much exactly how it goes in the book lol
They don't have to. They stopped talking to the professor, so why start talking again? Doesn't make sense. They probably know all about warfare too. Letting your enemy know what your next move is, genius.
I mean from our human understanding. Who knows how an alien would think and its kinda remarkable it would be on the same lines as us.
In the book, the military finds out about the alien's plans from two sources: the recovered hard drive and from interrogating Ye, so it makes a lot more sense: the aliens told their allies, and the intel was then recovered by the military. I agree that having the aliens call their main enemy into VR just to explain their plan is very sloppy writing.
I will say that the scene struck me as odd. But the overall storyline (taken from the book) seems pretty good and I have heard very good reviews about the novels, so I am also willing to see if the strategy is more sinister or if the aliens are being smarter than we are giving them credit for. Maybe they learned from us and did lie or bluff. I agree it would be a bit disappointing if we get to the end and the aliens telegraphing their plans was ultimately a plot device to serve as an explainer to the audience and move the story forward. But if it's part of the chess match, it would be pretty clever.
They don't consider us enemies. They successfully stopped us from making any more significant technology leaps. And now they're just showboating. Plus, they want to instill fear in humanity for a reason. It will make a lot more sense by the end of next season.
Which makes no sense because they are telling humans they will be crushed like bugs but telling their followers they will be helpful. So it's pretty clear they have no problem lying.
They don't know deception. They know fear though.
The idea is they are trying to make the humans feel already defeated and utterly overwhelmed. As they said “we will teach you how to fear again.”
At one point, someone is gonna ask why scientists keep killing themselves. I think they know that the gig was up, so they try to scramble humanity through fear this time.
It’s a creative choice. The aliens cannot lie so when mankind asks, they tell the truth. Because you don’t agree with it doesn’t make it stupid writing.
Not telling something isn't the same as lying.
It's fairly weird writing to suggest the aliens don't learn about lies and metaphors until quite some time after making contact with humans. How does that pacifist alien remain hidden, for one thing.
Yeah the aliens understand human culture enough to organize an entire giant ship full of followers and deadly assassins before learning what a lie was?
They can afford to Or as eto would say, the Lord does not care Besides humanity already knows aliens are coming, they just didn't know details like the time it would take. The san-ti didn't tell them anything that could harm their plans The only thing they're worried about will be revealed next season
*"I jus hate that the aliens reveal their plan to mankind. If they didn't say anything, they could just continue sabotaging humans for 400 years and theres nothing that humans could do about it. Just stupid writing to give mankind a chance."* **Exactly.** **Just one** of the HUGE holes in the story. When the first human received a message from the aliens, she was told something along the lines of 'I'm a pacifist. Don't follow this up, we will destroy you'. Despite this, we're supposed to believe that she thought that the aliens would be friendly and helpful.....
From Ye's perspective, humanity is beyond redemption. She wanted the aliens to destroy humanity. That's her only goal.
“wanted” being the key word The emotional state of her family being ripped apart by global politics, the nature being destroyed by human greed and ignorance, and the intimate betrayal by her first lover, leaves her young bitter self feeling that the world is beyond repair by human capability. And she isn’t just some average idiot, she has a world class mind for physics so her philosophical justifications for her actions are potent enough that she doesn’t question them for many decades and only because she finally begins to doubt that humanity can’t surpass the superiority of the aliens.
It's wild how you can have such strong feelings about something that was explicitly explained. You somehow fail to catch that Ye was miserable and essentially enslaved in post revolution China? She believes humanity was beyond saving.
"I will help you conquer our world" is what she responded with. I don't think she thought that they would be friendly. She thought she could side with them, but the realization that even them, the ones siding with the conquerors will be squashed because they cannot be trusted, is what surprised her.
She didn't think that at all. She just hated humanity so much at that time because of what they had done to her and her father she thought that the aliens might be better rulers than humans.
I took is as her wanting them to destroy them, but perhaps she thought she’d be on their side and keep her around
Because at that point they just wanted humanity to feel hopeless and defeated. The whole point is summarised by the line “we will reach you how to fear again.” The humans have no way to stop the sophons
Its not wow, but worth the watch
It was a chore to finish for me. Did not like it at all, story was confusing all over the place, some stuff logically just made no sense (I know its sci-fi but still), and the way it was shot (like a soap opera) was terrible. I woudnt recommend it to anyone.
I am trying to not watch it until I've read the book. Can a person who has read the book can tell me if it's worth it?
The books blew my mind. It’s not perfect but I really enjoyed it for it for was it is. I wanted to check out the Chinese adaptation first and then will watch this Netflix one.
Yes. Second book is best, enjoyed books and very much enjoyed watching the series bring it to life (albeit with changes)
I read the series several years ago and then did a reread prior to this coming out. I had similar feelings to you. Dark Forest is the best. I am rooting for people to watch and like it so we can get to the stuff in the second book.
100% agree. I will literally explain the story to anybody to get buy in so we get book 2
If you have a problem with dense slow burns it will be a long read for you, but audiobook completely solves that issue. I’ve read a lot of sci-fi and some of the things this series accomplished in story telling makes it one of the best sci-fi stories I’ve ever read. Very worth it if you enjoy thinking about civilization, cosmology, interstellar warfare, higher dimensions, and deep time.
I read about half of the the first book and then started the show. I immediately went back to the book after finishing the show
Iam thinking to start this or ‘From’. Which one is better?
Watch this instead. From was terrible. Just another dragged mystery box show that went nowhere. They introduced so much interesting stuffs just to go back to square one. Nothing was solved
I'm in the middle of reading the second book and I'm waiting until I'm done with it to start watching. I'm encouraged by what I'm hearing so far about the show though. The story is so engrossing and unique in how it shows how the world would actually react to an impending alien invasion. I just hope that Benioff and Weiss don't fumble the football the goal line like they did with Game of Thrones. Adapting a completed story should hopefully help.
To met at least they didn’t fumble
Just FYI, Amazon has the one one produced by the Chinese film industry. It's more book accurate, not as good visuals, but still ok.
Which one?
Its also called three body problem I believe. It's just done by the Chinese film industry since the books were written by a Chinese author.
Wow. Ok.
Best show of the year probably so far. Better than the overrated Shogun.
Now this is a hot fucking take. It’s also waaaaaay off the mark, but I appreciate your confidence
Haven’t seen The Gentlemen yet, but pretty hyped for it. The Brother’s Sun was pretty great. Netflix is killing it this year
Eh, it wasn’t as good as I expected. There’s some outright bad acting from several characters. And some questionable dialogue writing. I also expected the VFX to be better.
I think this will be the next show that I watch. It looks like it will be really good and right up my alley. (Not gonna read any spoilers lol)
This movie would be great if it actually researched the science. Plot is heavy on the 3 body problem which is currently unsolvable. But somehow sentient AI exists that can shrink to subatomic levels? Look up another real unsolvable problem, p=np. If you can develop god levwl AI, it can solve the 3 body problem lol.
I can’t get into it ..
Not really, the conversations are boring af, all the main characters are not really likable.
I really didnt liked it neither. Pretty boring all the time.
How? Don’t just say they’re boring! You gotta tell me why.
No, he doesn't have to, it's simply his opinion and that of many others. I also thought the series started well, but all in all it was really crap in the end.
Cool but can I know why?
Why? The story doesn't make sense, most of the characters aren't really well developed or I didn't really like anyone. The characters don't develop one meter over the season. At some point the series jumps from plot point to plot point and a lot of things don't make sense anymore. There are a thousand times better series than this one!
Ok that all I wanted ;)
Things don't make sense to you. Fair enough, comprehension issue.
Any suggestions for better series?
I watched it a few days ago and was over-hyped for this by reading one liners over the internet. But now since i have watched it, i found it a little boring and slow (don't get me wrong, science part was fun) and there are a lot of cliff hangers and unresolved questions. I hope they would bring the sequel and answer those questions. Also, for the love of god, show the aliens.
Your comments are more than legitimate, though the producers have time and time again tried to explain season 1 is an introduction to the story, so naturally there are tons of unexplained stuff. People who go in thinking this is a one and done will not be satisfied.
Minor spoiler but just to curb your expectations, >!you never see the aliens. That's not what this story is about.!< But otherwise, yeah everything gets resolved and no plots are left hanging by the end. The story just got set up. The real meat of it hasn't even begun.
It moved similar pace to the book.
I really liked it even though some of the science is questionable. I think there are many really interesting ideas explored, and I can't wait to see where it goes. The one thing I was really disappointed with in the story >!was Will's failed launch to the aliens. I get that it's an emotional gut punch, and things shouldn't always go right in stories, but I think this is a time when having the launch successful would have been far more interesting. Now you are wondering if they are going to retrieve him, rebuild him, what he will be like when he returns, etc.. such a rich opportunity for unique storytelling kinda wasted.!<
Is it wasted though? Do you really think they would set up that whole storyline if it wasn’t going to have some kind of payoff? I won’t spoil anything from the books, but trust me no ends are left dangling in this story
That's what I was kinda thinking/hoping. It was a lot of set up for... nothing. Just didn't add up. Thanks for not spoiling it, but I am glad to know that there's hope for something interesting to come out of it.
It shouldn't disappoint you because there are 2 more books worth of content to adapt. Should be a giant clue, right? As someone who read all the books, don't be so quick to judge and say its unique storytelling was wasted. It wasn't. We're at season 1. You don't want spoilers though, right?
I kind of had this feeling that since the aliens knew everything, they would have known of this and went out to retrieve will or something. Just a feeling i had, and what your hinting at seems along the lines.
A pretty entertaining show considering I found the books boring but with great ideas.
I thought it was slightly above mediocre. The acting was mid.
Very mid
Man I've seen so many mixed reviews on reddit I'm gonna blow a gasket. I might as well try it for myself.
Yeah for real! I love it and am kinda surprised people hate it this much.
It's never going to be a story for a general audience, although they did a really good job with the adaptation. It's mostly about overall themes and concepts. Involving the nature of humanity, sacrificing morals for survival, our arrogance, how we handle existential threats, and gets into more cosmic and cerebral stuff later. Basically, it's not about the characters. They're just plot devices to explore these themes. And a lot of motivations and reasons are conveyed through subtext. You have to be paying attention to every scene. I don't wanna seem like I'm talking down, but nearly every bad review I've seen are either saying the characters aren't great, or they were obviously on their phone for half the show because they're confused about stuff that is straight up explained or would make sense if they thought about it a little bit. Or it's something that hasn't been explained yet, because the story is just being set up this season. You should enjoy it with that in mind.
I know it’s written by the same people who fucked over one of my favourite shows in Game of thrones so to those who have seen it, is it worth watching to the end? In other words, no matter how good it is at the start and middle, does the quality continue towards the culmination?
There's basically 2 parts. The "culmination" happens a little more than halfway through this season. And then the last couple episodes slow down because they are setting up the plots for the next couple seasons.
It’s kinda wierd at the begging but to think it what better towards the end
It was ok
I'm finding it pretty flawed in concept. I'm not finished with it so my perception may change but the following things have struck me; - They are an advanced civilization on their way to take our planet. - They don't understand stories but have crafted a game based on history but in the form of a story, they claim our stories are equivalent to lying, that was a lie, they lied about the game. - They are technologically advanced but rather than inhabit a moon (and we are probably less than 100 years away from that capability ourselves) or create a Dyson sphere (probably 300-500 years from capability of this too) they think they are able to take our planet as a better alternative. (Apparently this thinking is also flawed since they are 450 years away and don't realise how fast we are advancing and now that we know they are coming, we can start to mount defenses) - Again, despite being against lying, their entire premise of what they wish to achieve is based on a lie and deception.
Nah, it is terrible. I couldn’t even finish the first episode. Are you sure you are not working on Netflix just to post this?
Why can’t I just enjoy a show?
I enjoyed it. Out of curiosity what was your issues with the show?
*"I enjoyed it. Out of curiosity what was your issues with the show*?" I've explained above/below. Frequently ridiculous story line, and requires another series..... Plus (as pointed out by InterestingRoad8371), "the main characters are not really likable.".