Let me begin with this, the recently release Netflix show, 3 Body Problem, is not a disaster, I think many would find it decent, solid even. After all, it's an expensive show.
But for the book fans, of which I'm not certain I am one (but I definitely enjoyed it very much during a particular time in my life that was a bit down but relatively peaceful), the adaptation is an obvious miss. It's trying to be compact, fast-paced, which is a bold but generally right move for book adaptations for TV/Web; but to pull it off, you will need a thorough, firm grasp on what the essential elements of the book are, or, What's in the book that stole the hearts of the original fans? And like most great novels, it's definitely NOT the overall idea, or even the plot, but instead, the characters.
And unfortunately, that's exactly where the show fails. The thing is, they were already at a significant disadvantage even before the script writing started, simply because of the cultural barrier. If you merely present the brutal execution of an elite physics professor by the mobs (the red guards) as an insane circus show, then people will perhaps feel disgusted, or mad, but not necessarily touched, or truly shocked; yet the latter kind of emotion is the foundation of the character building process - people must feel for the characters, find their motives convincing; people either have to like them, or when impossible, they need to sympathize or understand. And that can only work if the characters are not seen as total nuts, but instead, humans with (deep) problems.
And this is where I need to draw a comparison with a show that I recently watched and thoroughly enjoyed, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Mike Flanagan did it again. He is a master of creating "likeable" characters that are in one way or another, victims of some greater evil, even if they're bad themselves, or at least did bad things. And I believe one reason he has been able to consistently pull off that incredible stunt (moving the audience, and making them feel sympathy and empathy, esp. about fictional people, is indeed magic), is that he painstakingly focuses on the details of life, the small things in the person's journey, instead of the bird's-eye view. They are like the catalyst, those details, without which, no matter how much tragedy takes place, the audience will only know, but not feel. That's why movies about a historical event tend to spark stronger emotional responses than history textbooks, even though the latter typically offer higher-quality information.
And movies and TV shows are foremost an art, not a study of social science. The House of Usher story, made me feel them, feel for them, even for the bad children of the old Usher; and that's due to the magic sauce - somehow, even though you know they probably deserve what's coming for them, you still see them as true human of flesh and blood. In contrast, the characters in 3 Body Problem are hollow, in that they appear rather to be robots or puppets, controlled by the writing, instead of out of their own will, and for that reason, it's all but impossible to feel (for) them.
Even worse, some of the critical, albeit supporting, characters, like Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans, were made to the degree of absurdity - Ye appears to be a self-destructive fuckup who made a judgement call that brings a judgement-day situation to the entire population, and Evans, even worse, is a heartless, soulless, and clueless moron. Tatiana, a lovely-looking girl, is made a psychopath. And what would Flanagan do? Well, there will probably be selected flashbacks of her childhood on the ship, in hope that the audience might see through her eyes the wonderful things their "religion" used to give her. Anyway, the writing staff are unfortunately incapable of portraying the humanity of these characters.
And the five characters of the inner circle, so to speak, are made not much better. And in this case, I don't think it's the actors that are to blame. But something is quite off with the casting though. For instance, the actor playing Saul (Luo Ji) is just not a natural fit - even if we're constrained by the same cast, for fuck's sake, the one playing Downing (Yun Tianming), or even the Navy guy, would fit the profile better; and in turn, the one playing Saul could actually make Downing work better than his playing Saul. It's a vibe thing, just as an example, you would pick Morgan Freeman to play Yun, and Samuel L. Jackson to play Luo, but not vice verse.
Wade is solid, and Jack is fine as well. But you know, with most of the critical characters gone, these two won't change the overall game.
Jess Hong did a good job, too, I think, and she is quite attractive imo. Though my dream cast would be Gemma Chan, who I had an immense crush on from the show Humans - it was an immersive story, and definitely not merely due to her sex appeal (although people will agree that "endless legs" always help). What?! I wanted to make the writing a bit less gloomy, OK?
Well, at least the silver lining of this colossal/expensive miss is that it made me feel ever more certain that I didn't miss much by not consuming GoT - even though it was widely agreed on that they managed to royally fuck up the final season ("official fan fiction"), that alone doesn't necessarily mean that the whole series is weak. But seeing how they assembled their writing crew for a task with such a high expectation, under such a ginormous budget from Netflix, I have to conclude that they don't have what it takes to undertake book adaptations and do them justice - more specifically, they don't know how to create truly sentient characters, but only high-quality robots. Anyway, that's just my guess, and I don't intend to confirm/confute the claim by watching the whole show (I tried that once or twice, but ended up only admiring Emilia Clarke, but seriously, the main excuse was that I couldn't afford the time back then... but wait, I happily dived into the world of Breaking Bad). By the way, even for the fans of GoT, how much of the fandom is catalyzed by sex appeal? Somewhere between 30% to 70%, maybe?
To be fair, sex appeal is not generally toxic to a show, I have to point it out, in fact, when utilized correctly, it only adds to the power of the character. And here I can take again from The House of Usher. The young Madeline, portrayed by Willa Fitzgerald, was absolutely stunning, esp. in her vintage costume, but we actually feel for her more because of that, not less, and that's due to how the character was made. Feeling is complex chemistry anyway (even in a literal sense). Now I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure how much of the credit goes to Mike Flanagan, but based on several of his previous original stories, such as Midnight Mass, I believe his contribution to the charm is significant.
And I'm wondering, what's the budget for Usher like, by the way?
P.S. 2024-06-02. Colony (a show that's canceled after 3 seasons) is what 3 Body Problem should have been, but never will. And I don't think the disappointment is due to the discrepancy from its high expectation. I bet Flanagan fans all have great expectations for his works, and that doesn't prevent him from over-delivering time and again. Point is, the 3 Body Problem book is strong in the interpersonal and emotional, besides the sci-fi elements. Netflix clearly delivered on the latter, with a huge budget, but somehow missed what actually made the book a success. Fuck the aliens, that's the gist of almost all fictions in this category. What differentiates them is what humans do in response to the crisis. Colony (Season 1) excelled in the department of character complexities, bravo. And shame on the GoT veterans. Again, dodged that time-killing bullet. Better watch porn, or even better, read an erotic novel instead. GoT, and Harry Potter, dare I claim, are two of the most overrated pieces of contemporary pop culture. I never bothered reading the books of course, so I'm mostly talking about their adaptations on the screen. Let's say the shows are turd (that's an exaggeration, people love them), but I suspect the books aren't pure gold either.