3 body problem Review: In the spring of 1943, the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi traveled for the first time to Los Alamos, United States, to contribute to the Manhattan Project. The story of the creation of the atomic bomb, also told in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster Oppenheimer, is very famous. Less famous is an episode in which Fermi himself was the protagonist during his period in New Mexico.
It is said that one evening at dinner Fermi and some fellow scientists began a heated discussion on the possible existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms. Faced with the insistence of some interlocutors, convinced of the plausibility of their hypothesis, Fermi - not inclined to enthusiasm - posed a simple (not to say banal) question: "If the universe and our galaxy are full of developed civilizations, where are they, everyone?". The question went down in history with the name "Fermi Paradox", and is still today one of the cornerstones of detractors of the theory according to which aliens exist.
Detractors we can hardly blame. After all, after more than eighty years, we have not found even a shadow of traces of extraterrestrial life. Despite this, most of us are fascinated (and perhaps horrified at the same time) by the possible contact between humanity and another space civilization. A fascination furthermore nourished by an imagery that began to impose itself already at the end of the 19th century thanks to the novel by H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds and which in the following years, again thanks to literature but also (above all) to other forms of communication and entertainment, began to take root on a global level.
How can we forget, for example, Orson Welles' famous 1935 radio program inspired by Wells' novel which offered unsuspecting radio listeners a fake live radio commentary of an alien landing on our planet? An exploit that cost Welles a trial for having generated widespread alarmism in the country (there was even talk of people who, in panic, attempted suicide), but which in fact opened the doors of Hollywood to him.
It was Hollywood itself that dramatically amplified the imagery linked to extraterrestrials. Thanks to the increase in sightings in the skies all over the world (the first documented case was that of Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947), starting from the early 1950s science fiction cinema began to tell stories in various ways (often catastrophic, it is good to say) the meeting/clash between men and extraterrestrials. Films like Robert Wise's Ultimatum to the Earth (1951) or Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) are not only two clear (and sublime) examples of science fiction cinema of those years but also represent the models with which the productions subsequent years they had to do the math willy-nilly.
Threat (or opportunity?) from deep space
Naturally, the fortune of science fiction cinema also opened the doors of the small screen to the sci-fi genre, which coincidentally began to enter homes all over the world more or less in those same years. The most shining example of television science fiction is obviously represented by The Visitors (1984-1985). In recent years, then, there has been an abundance of titles that have addressed the topic; the latest in chronological order is The 3 Body Problem, a new Netflix series available from March 21st on the platform, taken from the literary saga by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin, and adapted for the small screen by the creators of Game of Thrones David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and by Alexander Woo (True Blood).
Why are so many of the world's most renowned scientists dying by suicide? This is the question that British intelligence detective Dan Shi (Benedict Wong) asks himself, called to investigate the mysterious events that involving the main "brains" of the most renowned research centers in the world and which closely concern a group of scientist friends: Oxford accelerator researcher Saul (Jovan Adepo), researcher Jin (Jess Hong), entrepreneur Auggie (Eiza Gonzàles), entrepreneur Jack (John Bradley) and teacher Will (Alex Sharp). But the mysteries don't end there.
While Jin comes into possession of a strange visor that allows her to play a very (perhaps too) realistic video game, Auggie begins to have a disturbing vision: a countdown that seems to coincide with the time she has left to live. Perhaps, all these events have to do with something that happened a long time ago, in a remote region of China, which impacted the lives of the scientist Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng as a young man, Rosalind Chao as an older woman) and the tycoon Mike Evans (Ben Schnetzer as a young man, Jonathan Pryce as an older man), and which would seem to herald the advent of an alien civilization.
Men and insects
Although Liu Cixin's novels are deeply rooted in Chinese culture and history, the Netflix series chooses to adopt an international character, broadening the geographical horizon of events, as can be seen from the brief synopsis we proposed. The decision obviously aims to make the story as inclusive as possible, and above all for the use and consumption of a broad (mostly Western) audience.
For this reason, the physical-theoretical references present in the novels - a clear example of which gives the title to the series - are reduced to the bare bones, thus giving way to a narrative that tries to relate the small, infinitesimal lives of protagonists (and, in general, of all human beings) with events whose shocking extent places us face to face with a brutal truth: compared to the cosmos and its laws we are nothing more than insects stirring on a miserable pond.
Precisely to bring out this component, the showrunners Benioff, Weid, and Wood choose a very difficult path: reducing the action to a minimum, and leaving room for the characters and above all for the relationships that exist between them. The problem is that their idea - ambitious on paper - manifests itself in flashes throughout the narrative. As if it didn't have time to really take shape, despite the 8 episodes lasting (more or less) an hour each.
A long pilot season
The real limit of the first season of The 3-Body Problem is, in particular, the fact that it was conceived as a long pilot of almost eight hours. After the first four episodes which, rightly, introduce the story and characters, and are therefore full of events, the narrative seems to atrophy and is only concerned with "running" with excessive phlegm toward an ending that is as obvious as it is eager to wink at a second season. Thus, boredom sets in. And it certainly doesn't help that air of a prestigious serial product (in the most negative sense of the term) typical of Netflix: so perfect in its packaging, but essentially devoid of almost vital inspiration.
Paradoxically, in a historical moment in which (human) screenwriters vehemently protest against the use of artificial intelligence by the majors, the Netflix series seems to be the fruit (with a rancid flavor) of an algorithm incapable of infusing a soul into its own creations. For this reason, the huge economic effort (we are talking about a 100 million dollar budget) does not seem to coincide with the disappointing final result, while the excellent cast (starting with Jonathan Pryce) appears truly wasted. Despite everything, however, Netflix has announced that the authors are already working on a second season.
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