Based on Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin’s novel The Three-Body Problem (from his Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy), Netflix’s nonlinear, character-rich series is about the Santi, an alien race from a dying planet that contacts Earth. The story surrounds the humans who are aware of the Santi.
This U.S. version is being criticized in China for its racially diverse cast (all the novel’s characters are Chinese) as well as its graphic depiction of a “struggle session” in 1966 during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, where we see defiant physics professor Ye Zhetai (Perry Yung) beaten to death by the Red Guards as his physicist daughter, Ye Wenjie (Xine Tseng), helplessly watches. The experience makes Wenjie lose faith in humanity, which is central to her motivation when she’s sent to a remote state-run Chinese SETI installation trying to contact alien life. She eventually makes contact, and despairing of humanity, she invites them to invade.
It’s a fascinating story, and in 400 years’ time, the alien race will arrive, and they’ve decided we’re nothing more than “bugs” to be exterminated. Can humanity unite to stop the invasion? If renewed, I’ll watch future seasons for sure. (eight 45- to 60-min. episodes)
—Glen Starkey
This article appears in Apr 18-28, 2024.