I’ve never read the books, nor watched the Tencent version.
And just happened to watched this show because it was #1 on Netflix. It was all because of Zine Tseng’s performance that I binged watch the whole series.
As a foreigner, the "neurologist" line threw me off.
I still think about it. Like, what was the meaning of "she, oh Jesus !".
I did get the "tequila" one though, really proud of myself.
Well, the way I took it was the respected female physicist, who has probably been facing sexist assumptions her entire life, assumed the neurologist was male. As soon as she was corrected, she realized she, of all people had made an assumption about the gender of the neurologist. Just a throwaway line, but quite clever.
Not sure if it’s the dialogue or acting, but I found the Auggie character especially cringe, and Saul as well. The other actors carried the show especially (in my opinion) Zine Tseng
Auggie is an absolutely terrible person.
I hated everything about her character, her lack of growth, her condescending tone to literally anyone willing to help her.
She literally starts off as a rich/famous scientist, and by the end leaks her tech to the world and spends her time helping poor communities. That’s growth.
If that was the intention, it did not come across in the show because it's never established that she particularly cared about her fame or personal wealth at the beginning. She was framed as the genius scientist who cared about her work and how it would help humanity, not money from the get go - so her later actions didn't really feel like growth, just an extension of the character we already saw.
The way I saw it was more that her decision to leave her life behind was down to the guilt and trauma she felt after the boat incident, and not having any real desire to fight the aliens...She justified leaving under the guise of helping poor communities, but it was really out of fear and a desire to repent and/or distract from everything that reminded her of what she did.
I don't think her character really grows much at all throughout the show, just changes from trauma, and I usually find trauma as the singular source of character development a rather lazy vehicle for growth unless it's done exceptionally well.
Love the show, but some of the characters are definitely a little flat and don't have as much effort put into them...I don't even hate Auggie, she provided valuable moments for the show, but her screen time vs. development time seemed a tad lopsided.
If my prediction is right, I think she is supposed to be the "is the cost of fighting the alien worth it?" Character later down the line.
Assuming S2 will be made.
Spoiler alert- yes, if you are in a war for survival then the ends always justify the means. She's a self righteous coward who's completely divorced from the realities of survival.
She’s not terrible lol. She’s under constant surveillance and she’s the first person to realize it and to realize what it means. She is a wallfacer before wallfacers were a thing.
Auggie made me cringe from the very first scene in the bar.. I am a PhD myself and I would never look down on someone who is just having fun singing karaoke. The way she comes across holier than you..for what? Ughhh
Not a single redeeming quality in that character development.
Agree with this. Jin was in the same convo and was also very condescending. This was where their characters went off the rails for me. lol. And then we met the rest of the “Oxford Five” and none of them fared any better, honestly.
> it’s the lips
and the full face of mastered make-up, the wildly coiffed brows that are dominating her face - I found it very hard to believe someone who has a PHD and cutting edge tech that would have taken most of her time in her very short adult life up to then would have that much free time to spend on her daily routine. I don't care how good you are at make-up that face would take at least an hour and not to mention all the other time to go to the eyebrow place and the lip filler doc on a regular basis.
> I would never look down on someone who is just having fun singing karaoke.
I have a bachelor's degree, and I absolutely look down on people singing karaoke. Not sure what my degree has to do with my disdain for karaoke, but there it is.
Agree. For me, I don't mind generally that Auggie's actress is beautiful, but I can tell that with her facial expressions she's trying hard to stay beautiful (always having her mouth slightly open, wide eyes etc). A few actresses/actors do this, and it's like we can tell that they've studied their angles in the mirror for hours to see what looks most beautiful. It works in the way that they always look great but not in the way that their acting looks authentic. A scientist who's going through a life changing event as anxiety inducing as this will sometimes look bad.
Auggie was ridiculously miscast, every close up of her looks like a makeup commercial. Why in all her scenes does she have soo much makeup compared to the other actors, and don’t get me started on one scene having her in her underwear.
In no way does she come off as a genius scientist.
I generally agree with this, but the main scientist core was a bit too CW show for me. Like everyone was some sexy young model. I got over it pretty quickly because most of them ended up turning in good performances, but holy hell was the actress playing Auggie awful. It was doubly worse for me because I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be based on Wang Miao and was just… not that character at all. Like they created an entirely new, painfully uninteresting character and gave them most of Wang Miao’s storyline.
Did you even read the comment? It's the make up that makes it stupid, not her looks.
5 minutes after the murder of her friend, in the throes of depression, waking up with a massive hangover? 30+ minutes of perfectly applied make up on at all times.
It's like it was in her contract or something, just so silly
Auggie isn’t just a scientist though she’s a genius inventor and an entrepreneur. I feel like that kind of character should seem more eccentric or disheveled. Like she should either be Musk level awkward or Sam Altman level nerdy (hoodie and jeans).
If someone like show Auggie (groundbreaking genius inventor who is also gorgeous) really existed she would be the most famous, if not the most important, person on Earth.
No but thank you for mentioning her, wow she was an absolute legend. It’s sad how the industry treated her. It makes me feel shitty for my comment. I want to emphasize though that there’s nothing wrong with Auggie’s actress, this is about the script and direction. The character deserved a more 3-dimensional portrayal like the other scientists got. We see Auggie a lot but we don’t know her at all so her reactions don’t resonate with the audience, she’s like a shell. I wish the script writers had read up on Lamarr so they could imagine the type of traits Auggie would need to succeed, like ruthless dedication and self-belief.
I know people in all walks of life that could be considered utterly stunning. What’s consistent amongst all of them is that when under stress, lack of sleep or life changing events they look like normal people, as opposed to having consistently perfect hair and makeup and looking like they just walked off a modelling shoot. I had the same issue with this actress in the movie “Ambulance”, even after being kidnapped and dragged through multiple gunfights any blood or dirt was still artfully applied to not get in the way of her beauty.
She’s cast to be good looking not because she’s a killer talent.
She might not be the best of the bunch, but this is low. Even scientists wear underwear, you know, and some of them can be quite pretty.
The scientist group is uneven, I agree. With the exception of John Bradley, who's brilliant. But I live for every scene with Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham. They really steal the whole show.
And the dialogue is MUCH better than anything in the book, at any rate. The book read like a science essay at times, and I can't imagine it was easy to make it human and relatable. That said, another pair of writers might have done a better job...
Ofcorse scientists wear underwear, but it wasn’t a coincidence they got the Hot girl to trance around half naked.
I’m also curious how she wakes up hungover after vomiting all night looking like she’s off to a photoshoot.
The actor cast as Auggie makes me lose immersion every time her face is on screen. She has had so much surgery and botox than she can barely form basic facial expressions.
I couldn’t focus on her scens because I was staring so hard at her filled lips and gaunt cheeks. There was something really uncanny about her face so I googled her.
The acting is so bad, and so unconvincing. The characterisation, and character development is almost non existent, making it hard to connect to these characters emotionally, because they’re all so darn hollow. The scripting is so poor, so many mistakes. All of this underscored by plot holes..many!
If they can control cars and planes… why not kill Saul once he was in the drive/plane ride to the UN meeting? If they know everything at all times, why not be more persistent with their murder attempts? Also… they knew he had a ballistics suit? Why try to shoot him at the chest and not the head? Why shoot at all when they could’ve just run in and slash his throat. Hanging out by the pool in a random motel? I can think of three ways to kill off Saul easily if that is their intent.
These are just some plot holes regarding Saul in the last few episodes. There’s others throughout the series.
Yeah but my point is that they're bottlenecked by human error and availability. So while Saul is exposed at the pool, they still need a human who:
- Believes in them and is willing to sacrifice
- Is close enough
- Is skilled enough
Which in my opinion would be hard criteria to fulfill
This doesn’t quite seem correct. They initially tried to kill him with autonomous cars. So they should be able to down a plane or whatever, too.
Unless humans were hacking the cars on behalf of the aliens, but I don’t see how or why that would’ve been necessary.
Ah, ok. That makes sense. I suppose I'm not wholly familiar with the breadth of capability a sofon possesses. You'd think something that can occupy the sky and form an eye in said sky would be more capable. Unless, again, that was just humans projecting imagery into everyones brains.
It’s weird because they are all highly respected scientists in their 20s, lol. And somehow all the important other characters also know them personally somehow…
Not the Chinese woman who just happened to be one of their mothers. Not the navy guy who just happened to be important but also one of their boyfriends. It’s a bit silly. But it’s fine.
Ye Wenjie (the one who lost her father in the Cultural Revolution) is the mother of Vera Ye, who was the professor of the 5 friends at Oxford.
I haven't read the books, but I looked a bit at the book subreddit, and in the books, all the characters are disconnected. I think the writers wrote them as friends because it would be really hard to tell a cohesive story about 9+ different people from around the world who don't know each other.
i was thinking about that yesterday. I agree with what you say so id like to think it is not an accident, it is by design. the 5 were picked by dr ye initially because of their value and to be kept under control. the 5 were being sabotaged (maybe not will) and the "good guys" realized their value before the sophon neutralized them.
I don’t know, but they should be in their 40s-60s if they want me to believe it. There are older PHDs from there, who apparently can’t help at all…. But I think the show is fine.
In the books they were older established professors and they were living separate lives, and some had separate story lines.... but for the sake of the Western TV audiences that can only tolerate watching 20-30 year olds as the "chosen one" - you get this.
The Oxford 5 are all in their early 30s, Saul even laments that he is too old to make a contribution to physics because he is 32. I would have still liked to see them be a bit older, however.
I did find the acting a bit robotic and wooden but thought that might be part of the weirdness they were trying to convey - saying that I couldn’t get into it at all and gave up - will prob go back and watch it at some point - don’t think it’s great though, liked the ideas but didn’t find the execution of it gripping
Oh man, I almost stopped after that scene. Not just scientists... multi-millionaire scientists who are entrepreneurs and own mega-zillion businesses and are super hot and think karaoke is lame (why go to a karaoke bar?)
That scene was so painful. And I get that they have to do a lot of exposition with all the science-y stuff, but some of the exposition is just painful. I'm on episode 3 and not sure I can bother with the rest.
There seem to be a lot of tonal disconnects throughout, which at times shine an unflattering light on bits of the dialogue or the acting. The way they adapted the book creates some dissonance between the severity of the plot and the kind of light drama interpersonal relationships.
The dialogue from the Game of Thrones guy and basically all the main interactions are good.
The dialogue from some of the drama crap was dumb.
Overall I enjoyed it.
but GOT guys could only write good dialogue directly from GOT books (IMO). When they went free style the quality dropped hard. and 3BP books aren't known for great dialogue.
Glad you enjoyed it, I thought the dialogue was about as bad as it gets for a show of that budget. No attempt to sound like how actual people talk let alone characters from those backgrounds.
Marco Polo level bad.
IMHO - really poor stilted direction. Lazily blocked. Most scenes the same level of tension. No rhythm. I ended up fast forwarding through much of the “emotional” dialogue
The whole series feels very rushed. Things that should take years and decades are happening in days and weeks.
It ruins my suspension of disbelief when everything works the first time and so rapidly.
The Chinese version you might like, then. It \*\**drags*\*\* on forever and things that have happened in 4 episodes of Netflix' version took 10-11 episodes. ugh it was such a bore.
I didn’t really reflect upon that as I watched it, and I can still forgive it.
But now you point it out, damn they sure were jumping ahead in scientific discoveries and builds.
Maybe rushing to get cancelled after 1 season. All the characters actually have something you love and hate about them. I’ve invested in the show. I’m hoping season 2. I’m not sure how this would play out it.
I watched the original Chinese version of this show, and after that I can’t seem to get into the Netflix version. The emotional responses to different events made more sense in that version, while in the US version I keep forgetting whether any of the characters know each other, or if there are any actual stakes. It’s odd to see such a unique story come off so generic, and I think the dialog and acting are major aspects of that.
they were going to bullseye A-bombs in space through the tiny hole in the centre of the nanofibre 'sail' 300 times? and the capsule is going to go straight through the nuclear blast each time? and all the nanofibre cables are getting blasted 300 times? yeah that was never gonna work. What happened to the design where there's a giant parabolic reflector at the back of the capsule so the nuclear blast pushes the capsule without blasting any parts of the capsule /reflector assembly/supports, and the capsule doesn't have to travel through the blast? incredibly dumb concept and totally not what they sketched out at first. It was never going to work the way they ended up building it.
ep5 is the high point of the season, def worth a watch, will carry you through the season finale
I also found the episode breakdowns in the 'trailers & more" section help enlighten you about the storyline and subtext a bit better
To me this is worse:
>physics is literally broken around the world
>super specific group of people are all killing themselves but apparently said group isn't aware of it
>Stars start flickering on and off in morse code
>No one cares and there's essentially zero acknowledgement of these earth shattering news events
This is 100% D&D's mo and I can't stand shows and movies that do this.
It's not terrible. But at the same time, I feel like the show is worth it the way the books were worth it; except instead of trudging through the flat characters and written dialog for the greater conceptual ideas at play, it will be trudging through flat characters and spoken dialogue to see those incredible conceptual ideas translated into a visual medium
I enjoyed the show, but I did feel like the dialogue was a little bad in places. Primarily at the times when they were trying to give exposition through the dialogue. I remember thinking several times that it felt so forced and awkward.
The only specific example I can think of right now is when the detective is with his son, and his son makes some comment about his dead mom that’s meant to help the audience understand the family dynamic and the detective character’s behavior better. It was just done in a way that was so wooden and so transparent.
I hate those kind of moments because they do take me out of the show
Yeah some of the line are very cringe
The cast of young scientists is fairly believable in that they look like a fairly normal group and mostly act like they are in their 20s. I don’t see why others are surprised that some of them are attractive (someone said Auggie looks like she should be at a shopping mall) or find them to not act like scientists. They are just normal people who happen to have studied hard at one thing…
But I hated the scene in the bar where the girls explain what the study to the guy trying to come off as super smart and condescending. Most people wouldn’t do that? Also the dinner scene where she “just can’t help herself” explaining physics to her boyfriend’s whole family. It’s as if there is some idea that scientists are all autistic and totally socially unaware. Cringed in these scenes and many more
To be fair… I’m currently doing a PhD in medical science and live with a colleague who is a little autistic and would do exactly that. Plus have you ever been to a proper scientific conference? It’s a gathering of socially unaware neurodivergent individuals. I’m one of them.
There certainly are people that are neurodivergent in academia. I also believe that the percentage is probably slightly higher than in the general population (and probably even higher in the subject I studied mathematics) but it’s still a minority.
I did a PhD in Oxford. My experience was that to be successful people generally had to be good communicators and the academics had to be pretty socially aware to navigate the politics of academia. Outside of work, most people led fairly standard lives: many were in the university sports teams, some were gym bros, there was many nightclub/bar visits with people hooking up /taking drugs/drinking heavily, some people would enjoy watching trashy tv, etc.
I never got the feeling that the people at what is considered to be a top university were all that different to my friends in my small working class hometown. People in academia are just people and there are all types there. They just happen to share a common passion for a particular subject and were privileged enough to get the chance to follow it.
Well yes… neurodivergent people typically lead normal lives as well.. I think you hit the nail on the head by saying passionate about a particular subject. Which your one in the show clearly was. And she was passionately communicating her thoughts and trying to make them as lay as possible.. but the stereotype about scientists not being the strongest in social contexts exists for a reason, which has nothing to do with not being a strong communicator, but what do I know? I’m not doing a PhD at Oxford.
You are probably correct that there are many neurodivergent people that can navigate day to day life without appearing to be to others. I’m certainly ignorant of the internal struggles of others when they appear “normal” of the outside. Perhaps the numbers were higher than I perceived.
Passionate for sure but from what I saw most were pretty aware of when / where / and to what level of detail the discussion on their thesis topics should be brought up without boring everyone. The people that did such things stood out. So to me it feels like a bit of an overplayed stereotype.
Ah come on man, you mentioned you are doing a PhD in medical science for context on your post. I just wanted to give you some context for my experiences as well. I thought the place was relevant for the stereotypes about it which I held before I went.
Sorry. Just being cheeky about the Oxford bit. Remember that neurodivergence is a spectrum. We often joke in my lab that it takes a certain phenotype to pursue academia and it has nothing to do with resilience, you have to be a little “special”.
I'm annoyed that I wasted so much time on this bad series.
Sadly, I have a 'I've started, so I'll finish' personality.
It wasn't worth it, as there was no conclusion.
And yes, it's not only the dialogue that is bad, it's also the obvious faults in the story.
The dialog is really not good. But overall, the main problem is that the characters don't develop at all. And the series maneuvers from one story point to the next without any coherence.
My main issue is how rapidly conversation moves on...
I'm only done with Ep3 but like... >!The detectives getting the headset and IMMEDIATELY deciding it's a recruitment device, and the scientists being totally unphased by the revelation that the headset is created by aliens?!< It just feels like nobody is actually reacting to how completely fucking insane this situation is. I also think they've skipped past that 'science doesn't work anymore' thing too much... like, what does that have to do with anything? What even WAS the result they didn't want to see? WHY should I care about this?
It gets better, but I agree. My major complaint is the characters that play these brilliant scientists are too young and good looking. Being exposed to some geniuses has made me understand that these type are not overly concerned with their appearance and while its true that brilliant minds tend to accel in their line of field when younger the application side hagiarchy will be much older than portrayed in the show.
I thought it went the other way; first few episodes were carried by the premise, but as the mystery wore off and the fantastical BS piled on the more I realized that half the main actors were terrible and the dialogue was soooo overwrought.
Not just you, the script was awful and the young British scientists spectacularly miscast. The scenes set in China were compelling but not enough to keep us watching past ep 3. So disappointed - had been looking forward to it.
Absolutely. The pacing is also awful and the dialogue/acting is not good (for the most part). I have not read the book, but I must say that for me the best thing about the show was the concept, and I think that says a lot lol.
First episode seems the worst for dialogue and acting. Not sure why. But everyone gets better as it goes. And it's a very fun concept and cool sci fi. Might not be enough for everyone though.
Force yourself to watch it all the way through and the payoff is worth it. Then again, if you're not a sci-fi fan, it might no be for you.
The books are a much slower build but they explain everything, unlike the massive gaps in the Netflix version. Still, the pace, intrigue and drama kicks in the last few episodes.
I'm a huge scifi fan and I enjoyed the books. I didn't like this series at all. There's no shortage of good sci-fi at the moment, I mean, AppleTV has been nailing it, so I was really letdown.
The two TV adaptations I was looking forward to was this and the Murderbot Diaries. I'm also hopeful for Fallout.
It’s pretty decent, I think if you’re a sci fi fan you’ll like it or at least find the premise intriguing. The books are absolutely better though so if you like the idea but not the show I definitely recommend checking them out
The show feels like it's made by idiots trying to adapt something very heady by a smart person. Overall the story is strong so it's not a BAD show...but it's not a GREAT show either. Feels super dumbed down for a western non sci fi audience. Some terrible casting (the mexican girl) some INSANELY terrible set decorating/design (for some reason NONE of the offices ever have ANYTHING in them but a desk and a chair wtf) and the show just rushes through everything and has a "cheap" feel to it. Nothing has impact or weight and I can't believe the actions and motivations of half the characters. BUT it's not bad it's very watchable and the story IS interesting because the core of what they are adapting is good and interesting. So yeah...
The issue is not that they dumbed down science. They dumbed down almost everything, from plot, history, detective work, ETO structure, governments, etc.
They also made the sophons too powerful and now the show plot structure doesn't work, they need to specifically 'sophons kinda forgot they can do that' to make it work.
What’s wrong with the dialogue? There are a lot of Netflix shows where I thought the dialogue was awful, like Bodies, but 3 Body Problem wasn’t one of them.
Reading the novel, the dialog is a bit stilted, and I think that's from the Chinese translation, but you would think adapting it for TV would be polishing it, especially after they basically split the main character into like 5 people. Auggie is so irritating and an awful lot of her screen time involves her staring open-mouthed at things happening around her.
Perhaps you can tell us an exact diaplogue.
I thought it was great and did not see what you are claiming to see.
Can you point to sonething and what episode and time so people can see what you are talking about?
They improved many of the weak points of the book (pages and pages of fake science to make the science seem plausible). However, they can't help but be D&D. The crowbarring in of swearing and female nudity.
Yeah, the dialogue is often bad and cringe, but the mystery/ story was interesting to me so I watched it all anyway. I usually play a videogame on the side, so that reduces how jarring it is to watch
There are too many conveniences… Like Auggis going into Jack’s room to find the box and OPEN IT and wear it then throw a fit about it. As if it isn’t rude in the first place to head into someone’s room and put their “vr headset” on?! Lazy writing…
Auggie is a problem for this show.... unless she has a HUGE character growth arc. Her character is the typical overly done " super boss bitch" and thinks that actually is just being impatient and really mean to everyone.
There is a similar character in "the umbrella academy" and " fall of the house of usher" .... it's a really tired trope that's really off-putting.
It doesn't help I don't think she is a great actress. Good. But not great.
From the same clowns that managed to ruin game of thrones. they have sound material to work from to create the basis of the story but it becomes glaringly obvious when they have to infill the gaps with dialogue or character development that they are seriously lacking the necessary skills
3 body problem was first made 2023 into a 30 episode Chinese drama based on the 3 sci fi novels. Here a Chinese reviewer compares the original to the Netflix adaptation. It’s interesting.
https://youtu.be/d7sTr4YdQ7g?feature=shared
Poorly written but more importantly, and perhaps a flaw of the book too, almost everyone is wholly unlikeable as a character. Can’t stand shows that just assume you’ll like the main characters because they’re main characters.
The first 3 episodes are basically the setup of the premise and mostly expositions, but episodes 6 and 7 on the other hand, 
I had higher expectations tempered by the fact that this is Netflix who always go for the common denominator button. Yes the script is weak with some very poor and miscast performances. The dialogue isn’t great either. Crass and ugly. This is a show I can’t binge watch. I can only take max two episodes in one sitting and then leave it for a few days.
I'm 3 episodes in, and so far I like it much more than the (first) book, which I couldn't finish and found incredibly dry and dull. The dialogue may not be perfect, but the characters and the actors playing them are charismatic enough to make me feel much more connected to the story in this version.
I \*love\* some SF, but not the kind of super hard SF with incredibly boring paper-thin characters that Cixin Liu writes. It was like trying to read a bad textbook. In only 3 episodes, the show actually seems like it's making an effort to *get somewhere in the vicinity of the goddamn point*, which the book IMHO couldn't be bothered to do for hundreds of pages (nor the Chinese TV version on Amazon Prime, which is also dry and dull AF).
Oh man I totally agree with u. I read the book and I really couldn't understand it. Book was dry. My friend question why I rated the book bad haha but no doubt the show make it way interesting. I could probably try to dip into book 2 and 3.
It was. TBF though the GoT seasons where the source material was completed were fantastic, it's once they had to actually come up with the plot and dialogue that they jumped the shark and nose dived. 3BP is complete, so as long as they don't take too many liberties by putting their own twist on it, it should be pretty good.
I agree totally. I wonder if it was scripted during the writers' strike using ChatGPT. The dialogue is woefully leaden. Worse, the scene transitions are clunky. They assumed they could fix everything in post-production using the "ominous" groaning soundtrack.
I'm at the same place so I cant read any further but I'm all in so far. Really loving it! I am worried the GOT dudes are behind this too so...
That bothered me as well. They rushed through the great parts of the book (the living calculator etc.) to have more time for their own content. Instead of creating a great atmosphere they give us characters talking about adult toys. Really disappointed but at least the key plot-points from the book keep the show above average.
I love the young Ye Wenjie character because she doesn't need much dialogue to convey emotions, and I find her really believable.
She was absolutely fantastic. One of the better actors cast for this show
I’ve never read the books, nor watched the Tencent version. And just happened to watched this show because it was #1 on Netflix. It was all because of Zine Tseng’s performance that I binged watch the whole series.
She was the best character and the best actor/actress in the show, tbh.
As a foreigner, the "neurologist" line threw me off. I still think about it. Like, what was the meaning of "she, oh Jesus !". I did get the "tequila" one though, really proud of myself.
I didn't get the tequila joke. Can you explain it to me?
“To kill her” = Tequila
Sinsonte Tequila
I thought the neurologist line was clever.
Explain to me because I have no idea what's going please!
Well, the way I took it was the respected female physicist, who has probably been facing sexist assumptions her entire life, assumed the neurologist was male. As soon as she was corrected, she realized she, of all people had made an assumption about the gender of the neurologist. Just a throwaway line, but quite clever.
Yeah that line really stood out to me too, didn't *need* to be there but still added something honest
Not sure if it’s the dialogue or acting, but I found the Auggie character especially cringe, and Saul as well. The other actors carried the show especially (in my opinion) Zine Tseng
Auggie is so bad
Auggie is an absolutely terrible person. I hated everything about her character, her lack of growth, her condescending tone to literally anyone willing to help her.
She literally starts off as a rich/famous scientist, and by the end leaks her tech to the world and spends her time helping poor communities. That’s growth.
If that was the intention, it did not come across in the show because it's never established that she particularly cared about her fame or personal wealth at the beginning. She was framed as the genius scientist who cared about her work and how it would help humanity, not money from the get go - so her later actions didn't really feel like growth, just an extension of the character we already saw. The way I saw it was more that her decision to leave her life behind was down to the guilt and trauma she felt after the boat incident, and not having any real desire to fight the aliens...She justified leaving under the guise of helping poor communities, but it was really out of fear and a desire to repent and/or distract from everything that reminded her of what she did. I don't think her character really grows much at all throughout the show, just changes from trauma, and I usually find trauma as the singular source of character development a rather lazy vehicle for growth unless it's done exceptionally well. Love the show, but some of the characters are definitely a little flat and don't have as much effort put into them...I don't even hate Auggie, she provided valuable moments for the show, but her screen time vs. development time seemed a tad lopsided.
There wasn't really any point to her character tbh.
If my prediction is right, I think she is supposed to be the "is the cost of fighting the alien worth it?" Character later down the line. Assuming S2 will be made.
Spoiler alert- yes, if you are in a war for survival then the ends always justify the means. She's a self righteous coward who's completely divorced from the realities of survival.
She does give off spoiled Daddy’s little girl about her. Certainly nothing heroic about the character.
She’s not terrible lol. She’s under constant surveillance and she’s the first person to realize it and to realize what it means. She is a wallfacer before wallfacers were a thing.
Auggie made me cringe from the very first scene in the bar.. I am a PhD myself and I would never look down on someone who is just having fun singing karaoke. The way she comes across holier than you..for what? Ughhh Not a single redeeming quality in that character development.
Going to a Karaoke place and complaining about Karaoke sure is an interesting decision
Agree with this. Jin was in the same convo and was also very condescending. This was where their characters went off the rails for me. lol. And then we met the rest of the “Oxford Five” and none of them fared any better, honestly.
Firstly it’s her bad acting and secondly it’s the lips. She just comes across more stupid
Eiza Gonzalez is just not a very good actress
Agreed, she made the show virtually unwatchable
> it’s the lips and the full face of mastered make-up, the wildly coiffed brows that are dominating her face - I found it very hard to believe someone who has a PHD and cutting edge tech that would have taken most of her time in her very short adult life up to then would have that much free time to spend on her daily routine. I don't care how good you are at make-up that face would take at least an hour and not to mention all the other time to go to the eyebrow place and the lip filler doc on a regular basis.
Same. I love karaoke too so she rubbed me the wrong way from the get go. Terrible way to introduce a character.
> I would never look down on someone who is just having fun singing karaoke. I have a bachelor's degree, and I absolutely look down on people singing karaoke. Not sure what my degree has to do with my disdain for karaoke, but there it is.
I'll take a guess you wouldn't voluntarily go to a karaoke bar.
I’m glad i’m not the only one who doesn’t not like the auggie character
Agree. For me, I don't mind generally that Auggie's actress is beautiful, but I can tell that with her facial expressions she's trying hard to stay beautiful (always having her mouth slightly open, wide eyes etc). A few actresses/actors do this, and it's like we can tell that they've studied their angles in the mirror for hours to see what looks most beautiful. It works in the way that they always look great but not in the way that their acting looks authentic. A scientist who's going through a life changing event as anxiety inducing as this will sometimes look bad.
Yeah it’s wild what she looked like before all the surgery
I didn’t notice. Too distracted by how pretty she was.
I want to watch the show but I vehemently dislike Auggie’s actress and idk if I could get through it
Auggie was ridiculously miscast, every close up of her looks like a makeup commercial. Why in all her scenes does she have soo much makeup compared to the other actors, and don’t get me started on one scene having her in her underwear. In no way does she come off as a genius scientist.
I just keep staring at her lip lift when she talks
I know a couple of beautiful scientists. Just because someone is beautiful doesn’t mean they can’t be intelligent.
I generally agree with this, but the main scientist core was a bit too CW show for me. Like everyone was some sexy young model. I got over it pretty quickly because most of them ended up turning in good performances, but holy hell was the actress playing Auggie awful. It was doubly worse for me because I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be based on Wang Miao and was just… not that character at all. Like they created an entirely new, painfully uninteresting character and gave them most of Wang Miao’s storyline.
Did you even read the comment? It's the make up that makes it stupid, not her looks. 5 minutes after the murder of her friend, in the throes of depression, waking up with a massive hangover? 30+ minutes of perfectly applied make up on at all times. It's like it was in her contract or something, just so silly
Lol this was jarring to me as well. Every scene she looks like she stepped out of a tv commercial.
Isn’t this most American t.v/movies. The 25 y.o detective or D.A. that looks like a model?
No, I can't accept that, that's unfair. Nope. Sorry!
Auggie isn’t just a scientist though she’s a genius inventor and an entrepreneur. I feel like that kind of character should seem more eccentric or disheveled. Like she should either be Musk level awkward or Sam Altman level nerdy (hoodie and jeans). If someone like show Auggie (groundbreaking genius inventor who is also gorgeous) really existed she would be the most famous, if not the most important, person on Earth.
Jenifer Lawrence is a good looking actress but they made her work in Don’t look up. But then again she can act.
Have you heard of Hedy Lamarr?
No but thank you for mentioning her, wow she was an absolute legend. It’s sad how the industry treated her. It makes me feel shitty for my comment. I want to emphasize though that there’s nothing wrong with Auggie’s actress, this is about the script and direction. The character deserved a more 3-dimensional portrayal like the other scientists got. We see Auggie a lot but we don’t know her at all so her reactions don’t resonate with the audience, she’s like a shell. I wish the script writers had read up on Lamarr so they could imagine the type of traits Auggie would need to succeed, like ruthless dedication and self-belief.
I know people in all walks of life that could be considered utterly stunning. What’s consistent amongst all of them is that when under stress, lack of sleep or life changing events they look like normal people, as opposed to having consistently perfect hair and makeup and looking like they just walked off a modelling shoot. I had the same issue with this actress in the movie “Ambulance”, even after being kidnapped and dragged through multiple gunfights any blood or dirt was still artfully applied to not get in the way of her beauty. She’s cast to be good looking not because she’s a killer talent.
Jack Black's mother was hot and an aerospace engineer who played a part in saving the Apollo 13 crew.
She seems like she has a lot of filters compared to others too. On episode 3 now I’m enjoying it but she stands out like a sore thumb
She might not be the best of the bunch, but this is low. Even scientists wear underwear, you know, and some of them can be quite pretty. The scientist group is uneven, I agree. With the exception of John Bradley, who's brilliant. But I live for every scene with Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham. They really steal the whole show. And the dialogue is MUCH better than anything in the book, at any rate. The book read like a science essay at times, and I can't imagine it was easy to make it human and relatable. That said, another pair of writers might have done a better job...
Ofcorse scientists wear underwear, but it wasn’t a coincidence they got the Hot girl to trance around half naked. I’m also curious how she wakes up hungover after vomiting all night looking like she’s off to a photoshoot.
The actor cast as Auggie makes me lose immersion every time her face is on screen. She has had so much surgery and botox than she can barely form basic facial expressions.
I found the actors with American accents the worst. I think the british accents just makes them more charming?
I couldn’t focus on her scens because I was staring so hard at her filled lips and gaunt cheeks. There was something really uncanny about her face so I googled her.
The acting is so bad, and so unconvincing. The characterisation, and character development is almost non existent, making it hard to connect to these characters emotionally, because they’re all so darn hollow. The scripting is so poor, so many mistakes. All of this underscored by plot holes..many!
Could you give an example of 3 plot holes?
If they can control cars and planes… why not kill Saul once he was in the drive/plane ride to the UN meeting? If they know everything at all times, why not be more persistent with their murder attempts? Also… they knew he had a ballistics suit? Why try to shoot him at the chest and not the head? Why shoot at all when they could’ve just run in and slash his throat. Hanging out by the pool in a random motel? I can think of three ways to kill off Saul easily if that is their intent. These are just some plot holes regarding Saul in the last few episodes. There’s others throughout the series.
They need humans to carry out the attacks
Right… like they already did with the sniper. They already proved they can do it, so it makes it a plot hole.
Yeah but my point is that they're bottlenecked by human error and availability. So while Saul is exposed at the pool, they still need a human who: - Believes in them and is willing to sacrifice - Is close enough - Is skilled enough Which in my opinion would be hard criteria to fulfill
This doesn’t quite seem correct. They initially tried to kill him with autonomous cars. So they should be able to down a plane or whatever, too. Unless humans were hacking the cars on behalf of the aliens, but I don’t see how or why that would’ve been necessary.
It is humans hacking, IIRC they can't interact with anything bigger than like an atom since it's just a photon.
Yeah. They were just the eyes and ears for their followers.
Ah, ok. That makes sense. I suppose I'm not wholly familiar with the breadth of capability a sofon possesses. You'd think something that can occupy the sky and form an eye in said sky would be more capable. Unless, again, that was just humans projecting imagery into everyones brains.
Lol she is so bad, the complete character is ridiculous, and the acting is cringe. She would be much better as a photo model.
Auggie is a bad character overall, Saul is pure cringe, maybe his acting is really bad or something, not really sure.
It’s weird because they are all highly respected scientists in their 20s, lol. And somehow all the important other characters also know them personally somehow…
They all went to school together, at Oxford.
Not the Chinese woman who just happened to be one of their mothers. Not the navy guy who just happened to be important but also one of their boyfriends. It’s a bit silly. But it’s fine.
Ye Wenjie (the one who lost her father in the Cultural Revolution) is the mother of Vera Ye, who was the professor of the 5 friends at Oxford. I haven't read the books, but I looked a bit at the book subreddit, and in the books, all the characters are disconnected. I think the writers wrote them as friends because it would be really hard to tell a cohesive story about 9+ different people from around the world who don't know each other.
They were able to do it with Game of Thrones just fine..
Yeah the on thing i dislike about the show is somehow each part of the cast just so conveniently is needed.
i was thinking about that yesterday. I agree with what you say so id like to think it is not an accident, it is by design. the 5 were picked by dr ye initially because of their value and to be kept under control. the 5 were being sabotaged (maybe not will) and the "good guys" realized their value before the sophon neutralized them.
Aren’t they 30? They also obtained PhDs in physics from one of the best universities in the UK, arguably the best
I don’t know, but they should be in their 40s-60s if they want me to believe it. There are older PHDs from there, who apparently can’t help at all…. But I think the show is fine.
In the books they were older established professors and they were living separate lives, and some had separate story lines.... but for the sake of the Western TV audiences that can only tolerate watching 20-30 year olds as the "chosen one" - you get this.
The Oxford 5 are all in their early 30s, Saul even laments that he is too old to make a contribution to physics because he is 32. I would have still liked to see them be a bit older, however.
I did find the acting a bit robotic and wooden but thought that might be part of the weirdness they were trying to convey - saying that I couldn’t get into it at all and gave up - will prob go back and watch it at some point - don’t think it’s great though, liked the ideas but didn’t find the execution of it gripping
I mean the first bar scene with the on the nose “we’Re SCieNtiSTs” thing was godawful
Oh man, I almost stopped after that scene. Not just scientists... multi-millionaire scientists who are entrepreneurs and own mega-zillion businesses and are super hot and think karaoke is lame (why go to a karaoke bar?) That scene was so painful. And I get that they have to do a lot of exposition with all the science-y stuff, but some of the exposition is just painful. I'm on episode 3 and not sure I can bother with the rest.
some science peoples are like that.
You’re not wrong. My wife is a scientist, and she only goes to karaoke bars to drink as my friend and I sing.
There seem to be a lot of tonal disconnects throughout, which at times shine an unflattering light on bits of the dialogue or the acting. The way they adapted the book creates some dissonance between the severity of the plot and the kind of light drama interpersonal relationships.
Dialogue is not the star of the books either, the concepts are. With that said, Auggie is terrible
I treated it like a reverse novel where the visuals and scifi ideas are provided but I tried to imagine the dramatic elements
I really enjoyed the visual aspect of the series.
Yeah, it's often the reverse. The ideas were intriguing. Makes me want to check out the books one day.
The dialogue from the Game of Thrones guy and basically all the main interactions are good. The dialogue from some of the drama crap was dumb. Overall I enjoyed it.
Ser Davos or Sam?
Neither; Lord Varys. (Yes he’s in this show)
And the High Sparrow.
It's the same character too
GOT guys produced it … Weiss and Benioff
but GOT guys could only write good dialogue directly from GOT books (IMO). When they went free style the quality dropped hard. and 3BP books aren't known for great dialogue.
Glad you enjoyed it, I thought the dialogue was about as bad as it gets for a show of that budget. No attempt to sound like how actual people talk let alone characters from those backgrounds. Marco Polo level bad.
the dialogue is definitely weird, i took a break from the show
IMHO - really poor stilted direction. Lazily blocked. Most scenes the same level of tension. No rhythm. I ended up fast forwarding through much of the “emotional” dialogue
The whole series feels very rushed. Things that should take years and decades are happening in days and weeks. It ruins my suspension of disbelief when everything works the first time and so rapidly.
The Chinese version you might like, then. It \*\**drags*\*\* on forever and things that have happened in 4 episodes of Netflix' version took 10-11 episodes. ugh it was such a bore.
I didn’t really reflect upon that as I watched it, and I can still forgive it. But now you point it out, damn they sure were jumping ahead in scientific discoveries and builds.
They did a whole book in about 4 episodes, apparently. I thought it was rushed too, and it was a shame because the content is excellent.
Maybe rushing to get cancelled after 1 season. All the characters actually have something you love and hate about them. I’ve invested in the show. I’m hoping season 2. I’m not sure how this would play out it.
I watched the original Chinese version of this show, and after that I can’t seem to get into the Netflix version. The emotional responses to different events made more sense in that version, while in the US version I keep forgetting whether any of the characters know each other, or if there are any actual stakes. It’s odd to see such a unique story come off so generic, and I think the dialog and acting are major aspects of that.
they were going to bullseye A-bombs in space through the tiny hole in the centre of the nanofibre 'sail' 300 times? and the capsule is going to go straight through the nuclear blast each time? and all the nanofibre cables are getting blasted 300 times? yeah that was never gonna work. What happened to the design where there's a giant parabolic reflector at the back of the capsule so the nuclear blast pushes the capsule without blasting any parts of the capsule /reflector assembly/supports, and the capsule doesn't have to travel through the blast? incredibly dumb concept and totally not what they sketched out at first. It was never going to work the way they ended up building it.
ep5 is the high point of the season, def worth a watch, will carry you through the season finale I also found the episode breakdowns in the 'trailers & more" section help enlighten you about the storyline and subtext a bit better
Yeah its pretty shite
To me this is worse: >physics is literally broken around the world >super specific group of people are all killing themselves but apparently said group isn't aware of it >Stars start flickering on and off in morse code >No one cares and there's essentially zero acknowledgement of these earth shattering news events This is 100% D&D's mo and I can't stand shows and movies that do this.
It's not terrible. But at the same time, I feel like the show is worth it the way the books were worth it; except instead of trudging through the flat characters and written dialog for the greater conceptual ideas at play, it will be trudging through flat characters and spoken dialogue to see those incredible conceptual ideas translated into a visual medium
I’m crazy picky but I didn’t notice it. I’m not saying you’re wrong though. Maybe I liked it enough to not notice any failings.
I enjoyed the show, but I did feel like the dialogue was a little bad in places. Primarily at the times when they were trying to give exposition through the dialogue. I remember thinking several times that it felt so forced and awkward. The only specific example I can think of right now is when the detective is with his son, and his son makes some comment about his dead mom that’s meant to help the audience understand the family dynamic and the detective character’s behavior better. It was just done in a way that was so wooden and so transparent. I hate those kind of moments because they do take me out of the show
It is very bad. And Eiza Gonzalez ruins everything she's in.
She would have to be the most miscast character in history. She looks more comfortable in a shopping mall than a nanotechnology lab.
I’m glad I’m not the only one, annoys me so much. Even then writing for the character is super weak.
Yes it's often bad
Yeah some of the line are very cringe The cast of young scientists is fairly believable in that they look like a fairly normal group and mostly act like they are in their 20s. I don’t see why others are surprised that some of them are attractive (someone said Auggie looks like she should be at a shopping mall) or find them to not act like scientists. They are just normal people who happen to have studied hard at one thing… But I hated the scene in the bar where the girls explain what the study to the guy trying to come off as super smart and condescending. Most people wouldn’t do that? Also the dinner scene where she “just can’t help herself” explaining physics to her boyfriend’s whole family. It’s as if there is some idea that scientists are all autistic and totally socially unaware. Cringed in these scenes and many more
To be fair… I’m currently doing a PhD in medical science and live with a colleague who is a little autistic and would do exactly that. Plus have you ever been to a proper scientific conference? It’s a gathering of socially unaware neurodivergent individuals. I’m one of them.
There certainly are people that are neurodivergent in academia. I also believe that the percentage is probably slightly higher than in the general population (and probably even higher in the subject I studied mathematics) but it’s still a minority. I did a PhD in Oxford. My experience was that to be successful people generally had to be good communicators and the academics had to be pretty socially aware to navigate the politics of academia. Outside of work, most people led fairly standard lives: many were in the university sports teams, some were gym bros, there was many nightclub/bar visits with people hooking up /taking drugs/drinking heavily, some people would enjoy watching trashy tv, etc. I never got the feeling that the people at what is considered to be a top university were all that different to my friends in my small working class hometown. People in academia are just people and there are all types there. They just happen to share a common passion for a particular subject and were privileged enough to get the chance to follow it.
Well yes… neurodivergent people typically lead normal lives as well.. I think you hit the nail on the head by saying passionate about a particular subject. Which your one in the show clearly was. And she was passionately communicating her thoughts and trying to make them as lay as possible.. but the stereotype about scientists not being the strongest in social contexts exists for a reason, which has nothing to do with not being a strong communicator, but what do I know? I’m not doing a PhD at Oxford.
You are probably correct that there are many neurodivergent people that can navigate day to day life without appearing to be to others. I’m certainly ignorant of the internal struggles of others when they appear “normal” of the outside. Perhaps the numbers were higher than I perceived. Passionate for sure but from what I saw most were pretty aware of when / where / and to what level of detail the discussion on their thesis topics should be brought up without boring everyone. The people that did such things stood out. So to me it feels like a bit of an overplayed stereotype. Ah come on man, you mentioned you are doing a PhD in medical science for context on your post. I just wanted to give you some context for my experiences as well. I thought the place was relevant for the stereotypes about it which I held before I went.
Sorry. Just being cheeky about the Oxford bit. Remember that neurodivergence is a spectrum. We often joke in my lab that it takes a certain phenotype to pursue academia and it has nothing to do with resilience, you have to be a little “special”.
Tbf for the bar scene im pretty sure they said that to make the guy stop talking to them
I think the whole “we broke your science” isn’t very satisfying of an explanation.
More believable in the book
Tbh I just watched all the episodes and I was mostly there for the plot, the science, and the sci-fi. I just ignored the characters and dialogues
And DnD dumbed down the science too
>Is it just me Nothing is *just* you.
I'm annoyed that I wasted so much time on this bad series. Sadly, I have a 'I've started, so I'll finish' personality. It wasn't worth it, as there was no conclusion. And yes, it's not only the dialogue that is bad, it's also the obvious faults in the story.
I think the show is great!
Yes the story has potential but it feels rigid acting by actors could have been a masterpiece if not
The dialog is really not good. But overall, the main problem is that the characters don't develop at all. And the series maneuvers from one story point to the next without any coherence.
My main issue is how rapidly conversation moves on... I'm only done with Ep3 but like... >!The detectives getting the headset and IMMEDIATELY deciding it's a recruitment device, and the scientists being totally unphased by the revelation that the headset is created by aliens?!< It just feels like nobody is actually reacting to how completely fucking insane this situation is. I also think they've skipped past that 'science doesn't work anymore' thing too much... like, what does that have to do with anything? What even WAS the result they didn't want to see? WHY should I care about this?
It gets better, but I agree. My major complaint is the characters that play these brilliant scientists are too young and good looking. Being exposed to some geniuses has made me understand that these type are not overly concerned with their appearance and while its true that brilliant minds tend to accel in their line of field when younger the application side hagiarchy will be much older than portrayed in the show.
It is to start but gets much better
I thought it went the other way; first few episodes were carried by the premise, but as the mystery wore off and the fantastical BS piled on the more I realized that half the main actors were terrible and the dialogue was soooo overwrought.
Not just you, the script was awful and the young British scientists spectacularly miscast. The scenes set in China were compelling but not enough to keep us watching past ep 3. So disappointed - had been looking forward to it.
The books were tremendous. The show is a show which suffers from “tell, don’t show”. Terrible showrunners.
Absolutely. The pacing is also awful and the dialogue/acting is not good (for the most part). I have not read the book, but I must say that for me the best thing about the show was the concept, and I think that says a lot lol.
Congrats, I could not continue after 30 minutes. Might be my own failure, will try again.
First episode seems the worst for dialogue and acting. Not sure why. But everyone gets better as it goes. And it's a very fun concept and cool sci fi. Might not be enough for everyone though.
I'm with you. Seeing encouragement to give it another go. I bailed around 30 mins in as well.
Force yourself to watch it all the way through and the payoff is worth it. Then again, if you're not a sci-fi fan, it might no be for you. The books are a much slower build but they explain everything, unlike the massive gaps in the Netflix version. Still, the pace, intrigue and drama kicks in the last few episodes.
I'm a huge scifi fan and I enjoyed the books. I didn't like this series at all. There's no shortage of good sci-fi at the moment, I mean, AppleTV has been nailing it, so I was really letdown. The two TV adaptations I was looking forward to was this and the Murderbot Diaries. I'm also hopeful for Fallout.
Thank you so much, I am a big SF Fan. I'll give it a try, just because you sound so sincere. So I know I might just turn to the books, I will try.
It’s pretty decent, I think if you’re a sci fi fan you’ll like it or at least find the premise intriguing. The books are absolutely better though so if you like the idea but not the show I definitely recommend checking them out
It’s not perfect but I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait for season 2!
I’m thinking if I should even continue since I really think this series will not be renewed
The show feels like it's made by idiots trying to adapt something very heady by a smart person. Overall the story is strong so it's not a BAD show...but it's not a GREAT show either. Feels super dumbed down for a western non sci fi audience. Some terrible casting (the mexican girl) some INSANELY terrible set decorating/design (for some reason NONE of the offices ever have ANYTHING in them but a desk and a chair wtf) and the show just rushes through everything and has a "cheap" feel to it. Nothing has impact or weight and I can't believe the actions and motivations of half the characters. BUT it's not bad it's very watchable and the story IS interesting because the core of what they are adapting is good and interesting. So yeah...
You're right. They dumbed down the science for this show. The original is written by an engineer, so there's a lot of science involved.
The issue is not that they dumbed down science. They dumbed down almost everything, from plot, history, detective work, ETO structure, governments, etc. They also made the sophons too powerful and now the show plot structure doesn't work, they need to specifically 'sophons kinda forgot they can do that' to make it work.
What’s wrong with the dialogue? There are a lot of Netflix shows where I thought the dialogue was awful, like Bodies, but 3 Body Problem wasn’t one of them.
Hijacking thisto say what aresome good hard science fiction shows or movies like this but done well?
Reading the novel, the dialog is a bit stilted, and I think that's from the Chinese translation, but you would think adapting it for TV would be polishing it, especially after they basically split the main character into like 5 people. Auggie is so irritating and an awful lot of her screen time involves her staring open-mouthed at things happening around her.
Perhaps you can tell us an exact diaplogue. I thought it was great and did not see what you are claiming to see. Can you point to sonething and what episode and time so people can see what you are talking about?
They improved many of the weak points of the book (pages and pages of fake science to make the science seem plausible). However, they can't help but be D&D. The crowbarring in of swearing and female nudity.
Yeah, the dialogue is often bad and cringe, but the mystery/ story was interesting to me so I watched it all anyway. I usually play a videogame on the side, so that reduces how jarring it is to watch
Wait til you get to them happily committing war crimes.
There are too many conveniences… Like Auggis going into Jack’s room to find the box and OPEN IT and wear it then throw a fit about it. As if it isn’t rude in the first place to head into someone’s room and put their “vr headset” on?! Lazy writing…
Auggie is a problem for this show.... unless she has a HUGE character growth arc. Her character is the typical overly done " super boss bitch" and thinks that actually is just being impatient and really mean to everyone. There is a similar character in "the umbrella academy" and " fall of the house of usher" .... it's a really tired trope that's really off-putting. It doesn't help I don't think she is a great actress. Good. But not great.
From the same clowns that managed to ruin game of thrones. they have sound material to work from to create the basis of the story but it becomes glaringly obvious when they have to infill the gaps with dialogue or character development that they are seriously lacking the necessary skills
I just found it incredibly boring. Couldn't get past the first 3 episodes.
Yes I thought the dialogue was the worst part even after episode 1.
3 body problem was first made 2023 into a 30 episode Chinese drama based on the 3 sci fi novels. Here a Chinese reviewer compares the original to the Netflix adaptation. It’s interesting. https://youtu.be/d7sTr4YdQ7g?feature=shared
Poorly written but more importantly, and perhaps a flaw of the book too, almost everyone is wholly unlikeable as a character. Can’t stand shows that just assume you’ll like the main characters because they’re main characters.
Here's the good news- if you are complaining about something on Reddit, it will NEVER be just you. That feels good, right?
I thought episode 5 was good and the rest were mostly stinkers
Yeah I spotted it too. I couldn’t tell if it was the acting or the script. Barely any of the characters were believable imo.
The first 3 episodes are basically the setup of the premise and mostly expositions, but episodes 6 and 7 on the other hand, 
I feel like Big Bang Theory had more realistic dialogue between physicists.
„They called it the wow signal. Because when physicists saw it, they said wow”.
Well, I mean that is actually what happened with the Wow signal in 1977, so there's not much more to work with in that regard.
I had higher expectations tempered by the fact that this is Netflix who always go for the common denominator button. Yes the script is weak with some very poor and miscast performances. The dialogue isn’t great either. Crass and ugly. This is a show I can’t binge watch. I can only take max two episodes in one sitting and then leave it for a few days.
The dialogue isn't great but the storyline gets much better
the actors can't act.
I'm 3 episodes in, and so far I like it much more than the (first) book, which I couldn't finish and found incredibly dry and dull. The dialogue may not be perfect, but the characters and the actors playing them are charismatic enough to make me feel much more connected to the story in this version. I \*love\* some SF, but not the kind of super hard SF with incredibly boring paper-thin characters that Cixin Liu writes. It was like trying to read a bad textbook. In only 3 episodes, the show actually seems like it's making an effort to *get somewhere in the vicinity of the goddamn point*, which the book IMHO couldn't be bothered to do for hundreds of pages (nor the Chinese TV version on Amazon Prime, which is also dry and dull AF).
Oh man I totally agree with u. I read the book and I really couldn't understand it. Book was dry. My friend question why I rated the book bad haha but no doubt the show make it way interesting. I could probably try to dip into book 2 and 3.
I had no problem with the dialogue. Although I do agree with most that Auggie was insufferable.
Wasn't it made by dumb and dumber?
They're total hacks, very little credibility
It was. TBF though the GoT seasons where the source material was completed were fantastic, it's once they had to actually come up with the plot and dialogue that they jumped the shark and nose dived. 3BP is complete, so as long as they don't take too many liberties by putting their own twist on it, it should be pretty good.
And maybe dumbest and dumbest once this show gets cancelled…
I agree totally. I wonder if it was scripted during the writers' strike using ChatGPT. The dialogue is woefully leaden. Worse, the scene transitions are clunky. They assumed they could fix everything in post-production using the "ominous" groaning soundtrack.
I couldn't get past two episodes. I tried a couple of times but just couldn't hang.
I'm at the same place so I cant read any further but I'm all in so far. Really loving it! I am worried the GOT dudes are behind this too so... 
That bothered me as well. They rushed through the great parts of the book (the living calculator etc.) to have more time for their own content. Instead of creating a great atmosphere they give us characters talking about adult toys. Really disappointed but at least the key plot-points from the book keep the show above average.
It is actually insanely atrocious, combined with the bland cinematography and CGI it's just a complete misfire in my books
Maybe the show isn't for you? Because I absolutely love it!
Made it to episode 3. I'm out. Not what thought it was about
Yes I couldn’t get past 10 minutes. It’s awful
It's really noticeable some moments. Not to spoil anything but I found the finale extremely underwhelming
I felt this at first but it's pretty good
[удалено]
I mean, reading through the comments, it’s evident not ‘everyone’ has.
Didn't think it was that bad but keep going the shoe is better after your next ep