It’s like someone asked ChatGPT to turn the book into a dumb anglo sitcom.
-Every character is emotionally immature, spiteful, and sassy. None of the ‘friends’ act like friends. None of the characters talk like real people. They’re constantly insulting or hitting each other. It’s just embarrassing. The actors have nothing to work with.
-All the major twists/reveals are shown in the first two episodes. No suspense, no build-up, no pay-off. Rushed is an understatement.
-Single characters from the book have been unnecessarily split into multiple new characters adding nothing to the story.
-The story is a cosmic horror but comedy and romance have been forced in for no reason whatsoever except as filler, which is even more mind-boggling because they’ve essentially rushed all of the good stuff in the book to make room for unfunny jokes.
-Apparently they could barely afford any sets and extras, so scenes and locations that are supposed to be bristling with sights and people just feel oddly empty. Even the special effects feel muted. The budget is just weirdly limited, and the show looks much cheaper than the Tencent series.
-Almost all of the science (which is the interesting stuff) has been gutted from this science fiction.
I hate anglo slop. Where is the kino. Tencent pls adapt The Dark Forest.
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They did screw up Ye Wenjie’s characterization in the Netflix version though, who was a far more complex character in the book and the Tencent series.
spoiler for Books 1 and 2
In the Netflix version, old Ye Wenjie still seemed to hold a grudge against humanity, and only began to turn when she realized the San Ti Ren had betrayed the organization. This is a very poor interpretation of old Ye Wenjie, who by that time had already given up on humanity long ago. “Her heart was already dead.” She already had her revenge the moment she pressed the button, decades earlier. That’s why old Ye Wenjie dropped a clue to Luo Ji, just in case that if humanity still had something in them to be salvaged.
If you understand Chinese, then the Tencent’s Anniversary cut (from 30 episodes down to 26) is already out, which removed a lot of the superfluous and repetitive stuff. It’s still long but the pacing is slightly better (I haven’t finished it yet, considering it was dropped just a day before the Netflix version came out lol). Otherwise, wait for the English subtitles.
The Cultural Revolution scenes were filmed but eventually cut by the censorship, and unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon.
I’ve seen 15 episodes of the Tencent version and Wang Miao is just starting to figure out the VR/AR game. I stopped watching due to how horribly paced it was. I’ve read the books, and much preferred Netflix’s adaptation.
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I think you’re probably just too used to Anglo slop media where explosion go boom every three seconds.
Wasn’tt hat whole sequance like 2-3 chapters in the book? I can’t imaginestretching it out for fifteen hours, it only took me a day to read the book.
I actually appreciate stories taking time to build up tension and mystery… Sorry. Slow burners good.
I love a slow burn but 3BP (the book) isn’t a slow burn. Would be odd to make a TV show version that is.
Well the Tencent show did exactly that and it rocked
Interesting. I’ll have to give it a try!
I was hoping that Netflix would do faster pacing (have only sent the tencent version) but you know, they could always do the opposite type of bad pacing as OP alleges lol.
I thought it was solid. I agree with some of the criticisms about the acting and lack of mystery/intrigue, but you can blame the book for that. I think the characters had to be split up because IIRC there is a lot of internal thinking and strategy that happens in the book that works better as dialogue in a TV show. Overall, the more interesting ideas and scenes come the further off the rails the trilogy goes, so I’m glad they got through a lot of the early wallfacer stuff in this first season.