3 Body Problem: Netflix vs Tencent Video




I had initially zero intentions (okay, maybe "3%") to watch this series, but the discourse I have been reading online has gotten me intrigued - be it the comparisons to the 30-episoder Chinese series from Tencent Video (blogged about here / above trailer of), or the currently streaming on Netflix 8-episoder from creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones), and Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy, True Blood), which I have featured on POPCORNX, inclusive "Inside The Episodes" delving deeper, and thankfully help peeps like me digest what I might be hung over from LOL



Instead I saw this on my TL today = What HIDEO_KOJIMA had to say about "3 Body Problem", currently streaming on Netflix:

"I've just finished watching through eight episodes of "3 Body Problem." The original novel by Liu Cixin is depicted on a grand scale and in a unique style. With a slow-paced introduction, the ensemble drama spins a timeless story with intersecting characters. Abstract and surrealistic images, like that of "a blink in space" and "a countdown reflected on the retina,” are very difficult to visualize.

Though this is an invasion from outer space, it is much more complicated than simply showing a large mother ship flying into a big city, attacking, and defending against an army, in a similar fashion to films like director Emmerich’s. However, the way this has been incorporated into a drama series with a worldwide perspective is brilliant. David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have done a marvelous job. By replacing the setting, era, and characters, extracting and adding elements, upping the tempo to make it suitable for a tv series, and rhythmically arranging cutbacks and cliffhangers, they have sublimated this work into an entertainment for everyone – those who have read the original work and those who have not – while retaining the essence of the original.

The show ends midway through the second book. I do not know if there will be a Season 2, but I am sure that more people will reread the original story after watching this, or they may be encouraged to read the rest of it. In any case, "The Three-Body Problem" is said to have been "read by all mankind.” Those who have not yet read it will be able to experience it through this drama. Especially for those who are tired of Hollywood blockbusters, this crazy, novel science fiction is sure to be a blast." Image

(Above text via @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN)



Honestly, I have nothing to add to the conversion, as I've neither read the source material, nor watched the Chinese series, to opine, much less "compare", as folks online have been doing thus far ... so the choice is really yours to make, isn't it? Besides it being "close to the source" (Personally, nothing beats reading it, than seeing an adaptation of it), would you rather invest your time into an 8 episode? Or commit to 30 episodes?

Here are two epsiodes of the Chinese series embedded below, to help whet your appetites, cheers!



ABOVE: Episode 1
BELOW: Episode 2



Note that all 30 Episodes of the Chinese series with English subtitles are currently watchable on YouTube (*Episodes 13 thru 30 are "Members Only" tho) ... and as well there is a "Anniversary Edition" including behind-the-scenes watchable here on YouTube, but ONLY available for Members.

I am honestly still deciding which series I want to invest my time in tho, if at all... then I found this review from Quinn's Ideas.. SPOILERS AHEAD;

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