There are a few reasons the series “3 Body Problem” had so much buzz when it came out. First, it was Netflix’s most expensive premiere season of any show to date at $20 million an episode. Second, its showrunners were David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the men behind “Game of Thrones.”
Third, the show is based on a popular, critically acclaimed novel with a large fan base. Fourth and finally, the show’s first episode drew people’s attention with its shocking scene of China’s cultural revolution, in which a professor is beaten to death in front of a crowd for refusing to recant his beliefs in Western science.
For people looking for the next great science fiction series, “3 Body Problem” seemed primed to deliver. It had the necessary money, talent, source material, and seriousness to tell a thought-provoking story in a compelling way.
And for the first half of the season, the show definitely had its moments, competently building up the suspense and establishing the premises. Sure, the acting was often atrocious, the writing was clunky, and the leftist signaling became tedious with the unnaturally diverse cast and multiple girlboss characters. But there was an intriguing mystery that hooked viewers and kept them watching.
Additionally, Benioff and Weiss use the same storytelling technique as they do in “Game of Thrones,” where they juxtapose multiple plot lines, leaving it to viewers to consider how each character and major event connects with the others.
Unfortunately, from the sixth episode onward, the series falls
