Second Law Of Thermodynamics - eventually, everything turns to shit

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2024

#5 :  3 Body Problem

The sci-fi book series Remembrance Of Earth’s Past by computer engineer-turned-fiction author Liu Cixin was once claimed to be “unadaptable”. Given there will soon be multiple adaptations (including a Zhang Yimou-directed film and an animated series), that word is increasingly and hilariously wrong. But it does not take away the considerable achievement from Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and True Blood’s Alexander Woo with this big-budget English-language take on the book. The eight-episode show streamlines and simplifies some of Liu’s hardest concepts but retains its sense of ambition and its wilder moments (Dehydrated aliens! Nuclear bombs in space! The entire universe winking!). It is not without its flaws, and there are some who prefer the original Chinese adaptation (now on Prime Video), but there is more than enough to whet the appetite for the — now-confirmed — next two seasons, which will take us up to the heat death of the universe. No biggie.

I read the book and admired the ambition but found it all to be really rather complex - it was hard hard sci-fi. However, despite only a vague understanding of the concepts in the book, I was intrigued as to how they'd adapt it and whether it would be any more understandable.

Well, it's certainly less impenetrable but I have to admit that, at my first attempt, I gave up after six episodes - which, considering there are only eight episodes in the season, shows a certain degree of tenacity but just not quite enough. However, since it's on the list, I went back to it and watched the final two - but I wasn't surprised to find it didn't get any clearer. 

Basically, humanity has a serious issue to address which you don't need me to explain - just accept that if you like big concept sci-fi, then you'll like this, but if you're a normal human being you'll probably be fine without ever knowing. And the serious issue requires a lot of science-y and military-y types to be INCREDIBLY earnest (and quite possibly get killed as well). It also requires multiple plot strands that, to my small brain, don't obviously link up - revisiting the synopses of the episodes that I watched in my first viewing reminded me of bits that I'd completely forgotten about because they seemed completely unrelated to later episodes. And then, in the season finale, they introduce a completely new plot strand out of nowhere - it feels like they got season 2 green-lit so decided they had to throw some more content at the wall to keep you engaged.

However, there's certainly never any danger of this feeling like they didn't have a load of money to throw at it - it looks fabulous and has some great effects at times, although there's an argument that everyone always looks too perfect no matter what level of peril they're facing. 

It's got a massive cast as well - including some familiar faces from Game of Thrones. Everyone does a decent enough job, but I'm going to call out Jovan Adepo who spends a lot of time being very confused by things (and he ain't alone there), Zine Tseng, Liam Cunningham (Davos Seworth in GoT), Eliza Gonzalez and it's obviously always nice to see Benedict Wong, looking particularly rumpled here. There are also some unexpected cameos from Adrian Edmondsen, Mark Gatiss, Reece Shearsmith, Phil Wang, Kevin Eldon and Jim Howick which often felt somewhat incongruous.

So - did I like it? Hmmm. I didn't not like it and I am glad I finally got to the end of it, but I'm not sure I could honestly claim I found it all that enjoyable. It's not as dense as the book which, for me, massively improves matters but it still felt pretty confusing to my little brain. However, it's all gorgeous to look at and I still feel there's a chance I might give the second season a chance, so it's not a complete write-off. I also suspect it really doesn't really matter what I think - no-one is going to read this and think "wow, that super complex sci-fi series sounds right up my street and I'd never heard of the massively hyped series that Netflix has thrown a gazillion dollars at". But, on the off chance that's you, then head on over to Netflix!

#6 - Entertainingly tense