3 Body Problem (US SF Series) - Netflix

[Stephen Palmer]

OK, we've seen the whole series now. A large disappointment. Nicci's comment: "Nothing adds up." (I'll spare you the bad language!) My comment: "They gave him a full body bulletproof suit but left his head completely unprotected?" It's that level of naffness that defines the series, alas. Not actually bad, just messy, unsubtle, internally inconsistent, and it slowed right down at the end to a completely hopeless, threads a-dangling conclusion. I have revised my best-character vote to the detective guy.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Oh, yes, and a massive thumbs down for the old "the mind is only in the brain" trope. Aaaaargh!

 

[Dave]

Episode 7: This was mainly about people learning about, or dealing with things we already knew. So, very much slower. Good to see that Will was able to get ahead of his friends for a change.

Episode 8: Yes, somewhat of an anti-climax with the mission failure, but the standout scene of the season has to be the attack on the Judgement Day, and everything since has been an anti-climax.

I agree about the body armour without a helmet fail.

However, it is true what they keep saying that if the San-Ti are so worried about Saul, about Wade, and about the nano-fibres, then they must be doing something right. Otherwise, they would simply turn up in 400 years and take over. And while they can attack and frighten people like they did to Wade in the aircraft, there are only two Sophons and they can't be everywhere at the same time.

Auggie made no sense. Earth is facing an existential threat and she has a moral problem with using her skills to aid the defense.

So, Auggie goes off to Mexico to use her tech to purify water. Does she realise that those filters will eventually get blocked and need to be changed regularly. So, now you have a poor community who are forever indebted to some Corporation for a supply of new filters. Was that really what she intended? And then in 400 years they'll all die anyway, because she didn't help.

There were still unanswered questions for me:


Firstly, the Judgement Day had a black box that communicated directly with the San-Ti until they stopped. Was that really a FTL Coms device (as was suggested by someone) or was it communicating via the Sophons (which does make sense but at that point no one, including us the audience, were aware of the Sophons so I expect it was said to prevent spoilers)?

Secondly, who/what is Tatiana? Did I miss something? I originally thought she was some kind of interdimensional "ghost". This was because inter-dimensional travel was mentioned by people here, because she didn't appear on any cameras, and because I wrongly assumed the gravestone that she stood beside was her own. But alternative realities is not really a thing here at all. Her image appears to have been wiped from the camaera recordings by the Sophons later, rather than not being recorded, and she seemed very corporeal, living in the caravan and also as she stuck the knife into Jack. So, she is a real human agent of the San-Ti, much the same as Saul's failed assassin is too? In which case, how was she allowed to fly to China and meet with Ye on the mountain top, and then fly back again? Isn't there heightened security? Isn't she wanted world-wide as an agent of the San-Ti? Unlike Ye, Tatania is wanted for murder. A real crime. I'm confused as maybe she could appear around the opposite side of the world because she isn't real and I want it to make sense. Also, if there is no law to pick up these traitors or to prevent collaborationism, couldn't they simply pass a new law?

 

[Elckerlyc]

I am not sure whether Tatiana is in the picture, as her imagines have been wiped from the recordings. Even if she was spotted and recognized at the meeting where Jin was sent to gather intelligence, it doesn't necessarily follow you know her identity.

Not only was the neglect to give Saul a helmet an incongruity, sending him by aircraft was also an oversight. Which was later proved by Wade's experience on the way back. Realistically, I don't think he can escape being murdered in some way sooner or later.
Anyone any idea why Saul is a target for the San Ti? It must have to do with what Ye Wenje told Saul, more particularly the so-called joke she told him. I am not sure what the message packed inside the joke was, but it also cost Ye her life.

I am in doubt whether the Staircase Mission really failed. Wade whispered something in Jin's ear, right after the failure. It made me wonder.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Yes, I thought the secret whisper was something worth hearing. I feel ambivalent about a second series. Would I watch? Meh. Maybe.

 

[svalbard]

Episode 7: This was mainly about people learning about, or dealing with things we already knew. So, very much slower. Good to see that Will was able to get ahead of his friends for a change.

Episode 8: Yes, somewhat of an anti-climax with the mission failure, but the standout scene of the season has to be the attack on the Judgement Day, and everything since has been an anti-climax.

I agree about the body armour without a helmet fail.

However, it is true what they keep saying that if the San-Ti are so worried about Saul, about Wade, and about the nano-fibres, then they must be doing something right. Otherwise, they would simply turn up in 400 years and take over. And while they can attack and frighten people like they did to Wade in the aircraft, there are only two Sophons and they can't be everywhere at the same time.


So, Auggie goes off to Mexico to use her tech to purify water. Does she realise that those filters will eventually get blocked and need to be changed regularly. So, now you have a poor community who are forever indebted to some Corporation for a supply of new filters. Was that really what she intended? And then in 400 years they'll all die anyway, because she didn't help.

There were still unanswered questions for me:


Firstly, the Judgement Day had a black box that communicated directly with the San-Ti until they stopped. Was that really a FTL Coms device (as was suggested by someone) or was it communicating via the Sophons (which does make sense but at that point no one, including us the audience, were aware of the Sophons so I expect it was said to prevent spoilers)?

Secondly, who/what is Tatiana? Did I miss something? I originally thought she was some kind of interdimensional "ghost". This was because inter-dimensional travel was mentioned by people here, because she didn't appear on any cameras, and because I wrongly assumed the gravestone that she stood beside was her own. But alternative realities is not really a thing here at all. Her image appears to have been wiped from the camaera recordings by the Sophons later, rather than not being recorded, and she seemed very corporeal, living in the caravan and also as she stuck the knife into Jack. So, she is a real human agent of the San-Ti, much the same as Saul's failed assassin is too? In which case, how was she allowed to fly to China and meet with Ye on the mountain top, and then fly back again? Isn't there heightened security? Isn't she wanted world-wide as an agent of the San-Ti? Unlike Ye, Tatania is wanted for murder. A real crime. I'm confused as maybe she could appear around the opposite side of the world because she isn't real and I want it to make sense. Also, if there is no law to pick up these traitors or to prevent collaborationism, couldn't they simply pass a new law?

I might have missed it but her appearance is never caught on camera. Auggie is the only one who knows what she looks like. I initially thought, like you, that she was not of this world.

 

[Dave]

I accept that Titania's appearances on camera were probably all wiped, but a few people saw her, and even if they are mostly now dead, Auggie isn't, so she could give a description, and have a police artist draw her face. At the very least that should be circulated. I still don't see how she fly to China and back again. Since the 'Eye in the Sky' event, the San-Ti don't need to be kept secret, so the Earth should be on a War footing. You can pass Laws that you can't in peacetime. You can lock people up with little reason and restrict travel. This obviously isn't happening from what we've seen, but that's a mistake by the writers. For an example, take a look at what happened in the UK between 1939 and the Battle of Britain in 1940. They called it the phoney war because on the face of it little happened, but there was a national census, food rationing, a huge mobilisation of civilians into ARP units and First Aider, the building of defences and shelters, and the rounding up of foreigners. Are we to believe that the only preparations being made are being all left to Wade?

 

[svalbard]

I agree with you that it might be the writing. Beinhoff and Weiss proved that they are not exactly stellar writers after they took on the last episodes of GOT themselves, without the solid backing Martin's work to go off. There is so much good Sci Fi out there at the moment and 3 Bodies does not match up. However on a superficial level it is entertaining.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Making laws takes years, on a national level.
And on what grounds exactly should Tatiana be arrested? Murder? There is not a shred of evidence. We - the viewer know - but that doesn't count. Crimes against humanity, collaborating with the enemy? What enemy? Has there been a declaration of war, do we know the San Ti except from a virtual presentation in a game-like environment? There is officially no war, nor a wartime legislation at work, yet.
Auggie has seen and spoken Tatiana once. At that time there was no reason to have the police make a drawing, as she had not done anything illegal at that time. We do not really know how much time had passed between that moment and the time some suspicion may have risen and the time that the San Ti became a threat. Possibly too much time had passed for a reliable drawing. Anyway, I doubt there was enough substantial evidence to prohibit her (or Ye Wenje, for that matter) from flying to China.

 

[Dave]

Has there been a declaration of war, do we know the San Ti except from a virtual presentation in a game-like environment? There is officially no war, nor a wartime legislation at work, yet.

They've actually said that we are at war several times now, they said that the "Eye in the Sky" was a declaration of war. The United Nations Planetary Defence Council (PDC) has produced these three Wallfacers to figure out how to fight them. Two of them are military people. They passed wartime legislation to do so.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Found the series interesting - the scene with the boat in the canal was wonderfully done and totally shocking - Will in the clinic with the number pad was wonderfully touching. But I was kind of hoping they'd wrap things up at the end - it was perfectly possible, and would have seemed suitably clever, to just rush through to the reveal of Book 2 for a wrap. It would have made for a stronger ending and make a lot of what happened make sense, such as all the counter-planning against the invasion.

Spoiler: Season 2?

All they had to do was spend the last half-hour of the series talking about the Dark Forest and then point a radio dish at the sun while everyone distracted by the progress of Will's capsule.

But as it happened, it feels to me like they're just going to end up treading water for a season 2 until that final solution finally gets figured out.

Also, it seemed to lack consistency - if the San-Ti refuse to work with humans because they lie and cannot be trusted, why are they still using humans as assassins??

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Found the series interesting - the scene with the boat in the canal was wonderfully done and totally shocking - Will in the clinic with the number pad was wonderfully touching. But I was kind of hoping they'd wrap things up at the end - it was perfectly possible, and would have seemed suitably clever, to just rush through to the reveal of Book 2 for a wrap. It would have made for a stronger ending and make a lot of what happened make sense, such as all the counter-planning against the invasion.

Spoiler: Season 2?

All they had to do was spend the last half-hour of the series talking about the Dark Forest and then point a radio dish at the sun while everyone distracted by the progress of Will's capsule.

But as it happened, it feels to me like they're just going to end up treading water for a season 2 until that final solution finally gets figured out.

Also, it seemed to lack consistency - if the San-Ti refuse to work with humans because they lie and cannot be trusted, why are they still using humans as assassins??

The San-Ti refuse to work with humans starting with the telling of Little Red Riding Hood. What, then, is "The Game?" The San-Ti, like the wolf, are dressing up like humans. "The Game" is a similar type of "Lie." And the characters within "The Game" act in similar ways to "Red" and "the wolf."

 

[Brian G Turner]

The San-Ti refuse to work with humans starting with the telling of Little Red Riding Hood. What, then, is "The Game?" The San-Ti, like the wolf, are dressing up like humans. "The Game" is a similar type of "Lie." And the characters within "The Game" act in similar ways to "Red" and "the wolf."

Good point - I wasn't sure about her nature, whether she was a human working for the San Ti, or whether she was one of the super proton thingies.

 

[TimeSnow]

Having read all three books and seen the series all I can really say is it's a huge disappointment. The idea of making the story telling more elegant and easier to digest isn't bad, but they just took away almost all of what made it thrilling.

They'll never film the third book... Or rather, they'll butcher it if they try.