Maggie Chen

Wanted existential dread on a cinematic scale. Received sad navel-gazing adultolescents in a pathetic soap opera. While the first episode seemed promising, it’s all downhill from here. I’d contrast this series against Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies. Think about the end of Dune Part Two… while Dune does a fantastic job at conveying both the magnitude and human cost of a galaxy-scale religious/civil war, the Three-Body Problem makes the threat of alien invasion feel like a joke. What? “Science is broken”? No, let me worry about Will pining after Jin Cheng or Auggie’s overfilled pout instead. The Oxford Five was the worst idea they could’ve come up with to present this narrative. This shallow, poorly-written ensemble feel like college co-eds, not brilliant, battered, and jaded scientists. As a result, it makes the sweeping scope of Cixin Liu’s beautiful story feel trite, shallow and, ultimately, unbelievable. And without belief in the stakes, it just feels like a sad, boring little comedy.