At first glance, The Three-Body Problem, the latest project from the creator of Game of Thrones , seems very different from the world of Westeros. But like Game of Thrones, the new Netflix series, created by David Benioff, DB Weiss and Alexander Wu, is based on the critically acclaimed series of novels and has a real-life scope. It combines historical and fantasy elements.
The drama premiered on March 21 and is named after "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin, winner of the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel. However, it also incorporates elements from the rest of Liu's In Search of Earth's Past trilogy.
As Benioff recently told Inverse, the source material seemed "unsuitable" at first. "You go into multiple dimensions and it gets so crazy, I don't know how we're going to film stuff," he recalls.
Despite the creative challenges, the team is already thinking about future seasons - as you would with such an ambitious universe. But first things first: here is a brief summary and closing review of the book that inspired 3 Body Problems .
Personal tragedies have ripple effects
The book begins in 1967, during China's Cultural Revolution. Ye Wenjie's father, a physics professor named Ye Zhetai, was beaten to death during a public demonstration against "reactionary" teachings.
Young Ye got into trouble for reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring - from which she developed a philosophy that evil (like what happened to her father) was inherent to humanity part, and “moral awakening” must come from a realm beyond the world. Humanity.
So when Ye is recruited to work at a defense research facility and punished with a chance to come into contact with an alien race, she does just that. She also ignores the pacifist aliens from the planet Trisolaran, who warn her that this will lead to the conquest of Earth.
Aliens on the way?
The Earth-Trisolaran Organization (ETO) was formed so that when the Trisolarans arrived centuries later, they would be able to take over. (As it turns out, many Earthlings are happy to be rid of humans.) Eventually, a virtual reality game called Three-Body Problem was created to attract new followers to support the aliens' advancement.
At the same time, the Trisolarans emit tiny, artificial intelligence-powered particles called sophons, whose purpose is to interfere with physical phenomena on Earth - rendering humans unable to defeat the alien visitors. Aliens even sent a message to Earth calling humans "bugs."
However, the novel ends on a hopeful note. Although Ye believes she is witnessing the "sunset of humanity," many still plan to fight the aliens. In fact, Shi Qiang, a counterterrorism official investigating ETO, points out that people have never been able to completely eliminate locusts or other bugs, so maybe human "bugs" shouldn't be ruled out just yet.
This is not a decisive ending, as The Three-Body Problem is only the beginning of a trilogy. So you might want to pick up the next two books, especially if the show has been renewed.
"If anyone at Netflix is listening: [ Game of Thrones ] took years to become great, and they had faith in it and stayed with it," Benioff told the New York Times. The same goes for his new show, which reinforces his belief in Netflix viewers.
