3 Body Problem is the kind of sci-fi that catches you off guard. I went in thinking it’s going to be about medieval timelines clashing with high end tech with chaos, rebellion, whatever. But I was way off. This series is like what if we take the events of Contact and amp it one step further.
This show plays with something way bigger. It asks, what if aliens did make contact, not to destroy, but to coexist? But not in a peaceful handshake kind of way. More like “We’ll come live with you, but first let’s make sure you humans stop advancing in science because you’re kind of a threat.”
That one idea flips everything.
The story jumps between timelines, places, and people, all tied to a moment that happened decades ago, a choice made during the Cultural Revolution in China that triggers a chain reaction. From there, scientists around the world start dying, and physics itself starts acting weird.
What makes it work is that slow burn tension. There’s mystery, there’s the looming threat of this alien race that’s smarter, more advanced, and somehow always watching and then there’s us, humans, messing things up even before they get here.
The other interesting thing that I noticed was how some humans wanted the Aliens to arrive, as they would be their “saviour”. The idea of God over science, though science is what started it. How the beliefs of people changed, that human race does need course correction, with which I don’t disagree. But giving them all the power to control the whole of it surely wouldn’t be the way go.
Sure, some episodes can feel like info dumps, but once it clicks, it’s worth it. It’s not here to give easy answers or fast payoffs, it wants you to sit in the discomfort, in the unknown. And that’s kinda the point.
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