Flukiest

I read the Book trilogy and the Chinese adaptation of Three Body Problem before watching this Netflix adaptation and I gotta say that I am incredibly disappointed by this. The Chinese adaptation was already one of the best adaptations of a book that I have ever seen barring of course Lord of the Rings as it managed in its 28 hour runtime to really tell the full breath of the book and more. It really felt as if i was just reading the book but in a visual medium. Sure the series had pacing issues so i would recommend people to watch the cut down 6 hour version that helps to fully tell the story without losing much. This adaptation was the best for me due to it casting chinese actors that really fit the characters, the actors being incredible and the show knowing how to present the books themes in an amazing way. The show is 28 hours long but that really benefits it incredibly due to it allowing a lot of time for the mysteries to be built up and for allowing a lot of moments to feel really impactful such as the ending to Episode 5 where Wang helps to remember to stand up and to continue working in physics regardless of the Countdown by not only teaching those children about physics but to then continue his physics job. I could go on and on about why i love this adaptation which now brings me to the 3 Body problem by Netflix which as mentioned did not meet my expectations at all and in fact made me disappointed to even consider this a worthy contender to the Chinese adaptation. (Also 14 of it's episodes are free on youtube. it used to be free fully but recently changed 15-30 to be Membership only or on Amazon Prime) They have decided to rush through a lot of the first book as well as starting parts of Book 2 and 3 with the Wallfacers and the Staircase Project. It would have been much better to leave those for a later season. One key example of this would be the scene where the Police breach into the ETO meeting. This scene is incredibly fast in the Netflix adaptation where a shootout happen and then it is already over but in the Chinese adaptation and the book. Da shi comes into it whilst snipers watch the ETO members with the 3 nuclear bombs and he manages to convinces the woman that her mother was found acting on her vulnerability and helps to show how capable of a Policeman he is even at the face of danger. This scene is not in the Netflix version. The other issues i have is that they've chosen to adapt the story in England with some British characters which is baffling as the series does amazingly in starting small in China and then expanding the story internationally as everything started in China. Furthermore, they also adapted Wang Miao into 5 characters that then split off into other characters later in the series which i find quite baffling as the series did best with Da shi and Wang Miao working together to uncover the mysteries with Da shi being someone who Wang Miao could explain in clear terms of what was going on in the story. So not only are the characters that i know and love are split into multiple characters, are different ethnicities, names and jobs which i find quite jarring and quite unneeded as well as it compromises a lot of these characters as now you have to develop 5 characters instead of 2 which it fails. The show also replaced Luo ji with Saul Durand who is a completely different character and does not fit Luo ji at all. They changed one of the best speeches about civilization into a story about how Einstein should not play the violin as that would anger god.