What do you think senior cern researchers would be like?

I was stoked for this show but after reading this thread I guess I won't bother with it….?

I think it's a decent Netflix show. I think a lot of the frustration comes from the books being so highly regarded, and people expecting this to be GOT season 1-3 level because of the two guys making it. It's definitely not that good.

I enjoyed it. It was worth it for episode 5 alone. I try not the read these threads before I watch as it is human nature to point out the lows and highs and most of reality is somewhere in the middle. Be your own judge!

I echo a lot of the reviews posted. It's ok. Not great. But it's an interesting piece of hard science fiction. There are some miscasts and cheap effects.

I feel like they really missed the mark with the tone. I think they could have leaned in more with the horror and suspense. And in the beginning it felt as if it was going that way but then drifted flatly towards the end. Save the canal scene.

I agree with this - I split up binging the series over two 4-hour flights and the second flight had worse episodes. I still thought it was fine overall

It's worth a binge. I thought it really got much better around episode 4 once enough was explained.

Quad Dog said:

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What do you think senior cern researchers would be like?

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TCTTS said:

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I love sci-fi.

I love alien invasion stories.

And I'm not the least bit afraid of a narrative delving into heady science.

But I just don't get the appeal of this particular sci-fi alien invasion story, seeing as the inherent tension in a 400-years-from-now threat renders damn near every dramatic facet of a traditional television series moot.

Aside from the obvious lack of a tangible, soon-to-expire ticking clock, in order to keep the cast intact, the story can only put a decade-or-so dent in that 400-year timeline. And in order to reach the end of the 400-year timeline, the show would require a new cast - and leaping decades in time - every season. Unless the main players all use the cryo freeze thing? Otherwise, I have next to no desire to watch a cat-and-mouse cold war between two factions who will never physically meet.

I'm a non-book-reader, I finally finished season one tonight, and needless to say, I was definitely underwhelmed. It just features so much corner-cutting, the cinematography looks like flat, gray, digital, ass, the special effects are terrible, there are a couple huge gaps in logic (outlined below in spoiler tags), the scope feels way too claustrophobic, and related/most importantly, the central, 30-something cast of characters are boring as hell. In that regard, this tweet nailed it...

As for more spoiler specifics…

It makes zero sense that the filmmakers went out of their way to let us know that the aliens can see everything humanity is doing, yet it's not until Mike Evans (I laughed every single time his name was said) reads Little Red Riding Hood to them that they're like, "Wait, you lie?" Huh? How does a species capable of interstellar travel, who has essentially mastered quantum technology, and can spy on every square inch of Earth from lightyears away, NOT understand the concept of lying, and NOT observe that we lie our asses off?

Also, in episode five, as cool as the Panama Canal scene is, what, exactly was the plan in turning the ship into a heap of scraps? Because, in the process, they could have EASILY destroyed whatever evidence/hard drive they were after, and it was by pure luck/plot contrivance that they even found it. Never mind the fact that they gained no real advantage from the hard drive, seeing as the aliens revealed themselves - and their intentions - at the end of the very same episode.

Also, where were the Panama authorities? Literally no on else saw this happen? Not even on satellite? And there were no legal/criminal consequences whatsoever?

Speaking of, I had NO CLUE what Wade's role was until finally, after episode five, I found it on the official site…

"The world's intelligence agencies aren't too keen on the notion of science being broken, so they enlist Thomas Wade to get to the bottom of it. Wade's the shadowy, charismatic leader of the world's most elite intelligence operation…"

When was ANY of that info conveyed? Did I just completely miss it somehow?

All that said, there were admittedly moments/threads here and there that I liked, I'd maybe give a second season a chance (if only out of morbid curiosity), and I at least appreciate that Netflix/the filmmakers took such a big swing on something so audacious. It wasn't a complete whiff for me, but man did the ball go foul fast.

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I find the 400 year thing pretty interesting, like half of humanity is living the apocalyptic life, and the other half is who gives a F. Curious to see how that plays out, because it is an interesting premise but could leave the show feeling a bit underwhelming. In a way, the war is very present. If the aliens set back or delay their science, then the war is over before they arrive, and vice versa. So, the actual war will probably be a non-event one way or another. Again, interesting thought, but will concede it could fall flat. I'm not the biggest sci-fi fan in general though. I usually really like the initial build-ups and then once all hell breaks loose and it loses all grounding or just turns into an hour of non-stop alien battle, I lose interest. So, a 400-year build-up, sounds right up my alley .

Regarding your spoilers, I haven't read the books, so I could be off base with some of these:
I don't think Little Red Riding Hood had anything to do with them turning on Mike. It was just a convinient exit from him once he was no longer needed. I don't know the exact reason, but they wanted both him and the first contact chick dead, and I suppose this provided them a little bit of cover to not burn bridges with those that they still need. They had no problem reconnecting with the other chick later on. Also, right out of the gate, the alien on the other side of first contact said not to respond as they would destroy them or something like that. They are malevolent and are just playing their games for their needs.

As someone else mentioned, I think the appeal of the nano stuff is that it wouldn't completely destroy a hard drive if it did slice through it, everything would basically stay aligned and be repairable. I did have an eyeroll here though, as how convenient it was that the only way to achieve this was with the other character's invention. I'm sure there are a million other ways they could have gone about it. Also, they just invented it and are instantly able to manufacture it in bulk, on demand. okay.

Wasn't the way the aliens revealed their plan, through a video on the file? Sure, they gave them access, but they wouldn't have had that without the hard drive. Then brings me to, why did they want to reveal their plan? Although, I guess it could turn into a mind-bender, of I know you know, but b/c you know, now I have an advantage b/c of something else that will happen in the future b/c of this.

Panama authorities... They are at war with aliens who want to wipe us off our planet. This isn't like some terrorist group that have some empathetic support from some governments. I just assumed Panama was okay with it. Panama raising a fuss about it would have been a little annoying honestly. Kind of reminds me of the scene in Independence Day where Jeff Goldblum raises a fuss about trying to nuke the aliens over American soil. Like, really dude!

I thought Wade's role was partially revealed when he recruited the Navy guy. He had no idea who he was and his tone completely flipped when he saw his creds. I mean, it didn't completely reveal his role, but I thought it gave enough insight.

To me the biggest plot hole is the UK playing the lead here, and that they didn't just resort to trying to strap regulations on the aliens.

These are all solid answers. Even though I'm not someone who usually wants/needs writers to underline things more, or really spell certain things out, I guess I just wish some of what you're saying was made more obvious in these particular instances.

Auggie = jar jar binks. Is there an edit with her removed?

I am not reading any posts because I don't want inadvertent spoilers. I read the books.

Just finished the first episode last night. It was terribly boring. That kind of fits with the book. The fat guy scientist is an odd choice in casting. I am a scientist and none of my colleagues are like that, but we are not in that field. I don't see how anyone who didn't read the books would stick with this. They also didn't really explain why ole girl decided to go work for the chinese radio dish. I remember in the books that they drug this out for 6-700 pages, so maybe they touch on this more. As is, it was a very haphazard decision. Oh well, I am in prison, I guess I will go work for my captors, who I hate and killed my dad and I have no hope of ever being allowed to leave.
I should also state that I had several beers before watching this, so maybe I missed a subtlety.

Two episodes down. Same questions remain. At least something happened. I really don't see anyone who didn't read the books sticking with this.

Did the books have all that nonsense about Rachel Carson's book in their plot? Or is that an idiotic B&B invention?

Looks like we're getting one more season to finish things off: https://deadline.com/2024/05/3-body-problem-renewed-season-2-netflix-1235917828/

I just got around to watching this.
Never even heard of the books so I had no basis of comparison.
I'd give it a 6/10 or so. Besides all of the other plot issues the one glaring thing that bothered me was that the San-Ti can clearly control people's minds and make them see what they want them to see.
If they know what everyone is doing and saying, anything humanity does is futile. Even the wallfacers. They know who they are, they can just get in their heads and derail everything.

They can't control people's minds, what are you talking about?

Hank the Grifter said:

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I just got around to watching this.
Never even heard of the books so I had no basis of comparison.
I'd give it a 6/10 or so. Besides all of the other plot issues the one glaring thing that bothered me was that the San-Ti can clearly control people's minds and make them see what they want them to see.
If they know what everyone is doing and saying, anything humanity does is futile. Even the wallfacers. They know who they are, they can just get in their heads and derail everything.

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Been a while but they are limited to impacting what people can see hear, see, and feel. They cannot impact or read your inner thoughts. Which was the point of the Wallfacers to not communicate their plans.

bobinator said:

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They can't control people's minds, what are you talking about?

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They can control what they see. If that's not mind control what is?
Why not just make everyone blind? Or see something completely different than reality?

Quad Dog said:

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Hank the Grifter said:

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I just got around to watching this.
Never even heard of the books so I had no basis of comparison.
I'd give it a 6/10 or so. Besides all of the other plot issues the one glaring thing that bothered me was that the San-Ti can clearly control people's minds and make them see what they want them to see.
If they know what everyone is doing and saying, anything humanity does is futile. Even the wallfacers. They know who they are, they can just get in their heads and derail everything.

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Been a while but they are limited to impacting what people can see hear, see, and feel. They cannot impact or read your inner thoughts. Which was the point of the Wallfacers to not communicate their plans.

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They know who the wallfacers are. So if the wallfacers can think of a plan but then not be able to communicate it by any means (they make them blind so they can't build anything or draw anything and the whole point is to keep the designs in their mind so describing it to someone defeats the purpose) what's the point?

Mind control is the ability to read or change someone's inner thoughts. Yes, changing what I see, feel, and hear can influence my thoughts. But once I know that you have that power I will adapt by not trusting my own external senses I would stop trusting them and compensate in other ways. The Sophons that are able to influence human external senses also do have limitations: they can't be in multiple places at once, they are limited to the speed of light. If you had two people communicating on one side of Earth and the other simultaneously, the Sophons can't listen to both conversations.

The Wallfacers are supposed to make internal plans they don't communicate to other people. They have blanket powers to do whatever they want. So they can create a fake plan to hide their real plan.

Think of it like any military secrecy. The Chinese can change what the US military sees and hears. But we know that, and don't trust anything but internal communications that meet certain encryption standards. We also only share our military plans internally with that same encryption. Same concept as Wallfacers except replace the US military with one person's internal thoughts and replace the Chinese military with everything else.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Two episodes down. Same questions remain. At least something happened. I really don't see anyone who didn't read the books sticking with this.

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I read the books, but frankly have no interest in watching this adaptation. Reading people's reviews confirms that is a good call.

They can only control what they see to the degree that they can move around very fast. that's essentially what they're doing with the numbers for the countdown, but they couldn't put those same numbers in everyone's eyes at the same time.

They're not big enough to actually strike them permanently blind, though i guess they could just screw with their vision permanently if they committed a sophon to each wallfacer.

There's a couple of things they did with the show that don't make a ton of sense right now but will hopefully make sense later because they make sense in the books.

One thing they did show in the show that's important to remember is that the San-Ti didn't know humans could lie. Like the capability to convey a mistruth is not something that even occurred to them and it's not something they're prepared to defend or do themselves.