I watched both series back to back. The Chinese version was I believe, deeper and more profound. More philosophical. And closer to the books. (Disclaimer I only read the first two). The actors were exceptional imho.
The American version irritated me (an American grandmother) because the changes in gender and race were unnecessary, and gratiuitous. It was also more entertaining than the Chinese version because Americans are good at pure entertainment.
The storyline was easier to follow in the netflix take.
Honestly, im so happy that we have two versions. They complemented my understanding.
Great books! And two solid series.
I just wish netflix hadn’t taken such broad liberties with the original.
I thought the American version was quite bad. The Chinese version obviously suffered from domestic censorship and the exclusion of the Cultural Revolution deleteriously affected the story, but it was on the whole a better product. The book was obviously better than each.
The American version had poor acting, bad writing, unnecessary deviations from the source material, and awful casting decisions. The choice to center the narrative of the story on the internal social dynamic of a millennial friend group was pure malpractice. It was anti-compelling.
The casting decisions and character development was also just inexplicably bad. There’s a good template for depicting genius on screen, whether fictional or a biopic. Good Will Hunting, Oppenheimer, A Beautiful Mind, Queen’s Gambit, etc. all succeeded at this. Three Body Problem failed miserably. You need to show me the characters are brilliant, not tell me. The characters in Three Body Problem were completely unremarkable. None felt remarkably intelligent. Their lives seemed to consist of drinking, smoking weed, and laying about. Does anyone actually do physics? There was not a single scene in which the level of brilliance and importance which was ascribed to them by the plot was shown to the audience. You were just meant to accept they were. It was severely distracting.
Also, I tend to have little patience for ham-handed, unnatural attempts at diversity in casting. The most brilliant physicists in the world also resemble instagram models? Please. If you wanted to accurately depict Oxford’s physics department on screen, half the cast would have been seriously awkward Indian guys wearing unfashionable clothing. They should have done that, unironically. It would have made for a better show. Instead what they gave us was silly, and—for a show that depicted the Chinese Cultural Revolution—somewhat ironically also reflected the values of America’s miniature homegrown variety.
I watched both series back to back. The Chinese version was I believe, deeper and more profound. More philosophical. And closer to the books. (Disclaimer I only read the first two). The actors were exceptional imho.
The American version irritated me (an American grandmother) because the changes in gender and race were unnecessary, and gratiuitous. It was also more entertaining than the Chinese version because Americans are good at pure entertainment.
The storyline was easier to follow in the netflix take.
Honestly, im so happy that we have two versions. They complemented my understanding.
Great books! And two solid series.
I just wish netflix hadn’t taken such broad liberties with the original.
Chinese soft power…
I liked both versions but preferred the Chinese one for reasons I explain here: https://vpostrel.substack.com/p/3-three-body-problems-and-the-appeal
I thought the American version was quite bad. The Chinese version obviously suffered from domestic censorship and the exclusion of the Cultural Revolution deleteriously affected the story, but it was on the whole a better product. The book was obviously better than each.
The American version had poor acting, bad writing, unnecessary deviations from the source material, and awful casting decisions. The choice to center the narrative of the story on the internal social dynamic of a millennial friend group was pure malpractice. It was anti-compelling.
The casting decisions and character development was also just inexplicably bad. There’s a good template for depicting genius on screen, whether fictional or a biopic. Good Will Hunting, Oppenheimer, A Beautiful Mind, Queen’s Gambit, etc. all succeeded at this. Three Body Problem failed miserably. You need to show me the characters are brilliant, not tell me. The characters in Three Body Problem were completely unremarkable. None felt remarkably intelligent. Their lives seemed to consist of drinking, smoking weed, and laying about. Does anyone actually do physics? There was not a single scene in which the level of brilliance and importance which was ascribed to them by the plot was shown to the audience. You were just meant to accept they were. It was severely distracting.
Also, I tend to have little patience for ham-handed, unnatural attempts at diversity in casting. The most brilliant physicists in the world also resemble instagram models? Please. If you wanted to accurately depict Oxford’s physics department on screen, half the cast would have been seriously awkward Indian guys wearing unfashionable clothing. They should have done that, unironically. It would have made for a better show. Instead what they gave us was silly, and—for a show that depicted the Chinese Cultural Revolution—somewhat ironically also reflected the values of America’s miniature homegrown variety.