Let me start by acknowledging my own biases here: The Three-Body Problem is my favorite sci-fi book (and trilogy) of all time, so I wanted badly for this TV show to be good.
And let me throw in a caveat too: Three-Body is based on a Chinese book, shot by a Chinese production company and acted by Chinese people, so inevitably there are stylistic differences that are going to make this show "feel wrong" for many of us westerners. My love for the book helps me see past that, but I acknowledge that this may not sit entirely right with a number of people outside of Asia.
The Good.
What Three-Body does best is sticking fairly closely to the book. It's a rendition that's pretty true to the source material and that's great, because the book is second to none in the hard sci-fi space. As such, the story is indeed phenomenal and the pacing is also honest to the book.
The mixed bag.
Some actors deliver strong performances (Wang Miao, Shi Quiang, Old Ye Wenjie), while some others are truly below par (Mike Evans and Pan Han are positively woeful). Some of the CGI is really good, and some of it looks pretty darn old. A little heavy on exposition at times. The screenplay felt a little hit-and-miss. And I also feel like while sticking to the source material is good, more of a proper adaptation for screen would have benefited the show.
The bad.
Production values are fairly low on multiple areas, and it really shows. I'm talking about out-of-sync dubbing (from Chinese to Chinese), non-native English speakers in English-speaking roles, some pretty mediocre cinematography at times, poor editing, continuity faux-pas, stuff like that. Of especial note is the cringe-inducing English screenplay, which was clearly written by someone with marginal understanding of the language, and which in turn gives all the international moments a distinct B-movie flavor.
All in all, I think Three-Body does a very competent job at telling an exceptionally exciting story, with an admittedly slow pace that isn't quite for everyone. My hope for the next two seasons is that they invest a little more money and massage the script a little more, get better directors and cinematographers, better audio and better actors for upcoming key roles in the saga.
And let me throw in a caveat too: Three-Body is based on a Chinese book, shot by a Chinese production company and acted by Chinese people, so inevitably there are stylistic differences that are going to make this show "feel wrong" for many of us westerners. My love for the book helps me see past that, but I acknowledge that this may not sit entirely right with a number of people outside of Asia.
The Good.
What Three-Body does best is sticking fairly closely to the book. It's a rendition that's pretty true to the source material and that's great, because the book is second to none in the hard sci-fi space. As such, the story is indeed phenomenal and the pacing is also honest to the book.
The mixed bag.
Some actors deliver strong performances (Wang Miao, Shi Quiang, Old Ye Wenjie), while some others are truly below par (Mike Evans and Pan Han are positively woeful). Some of the CGI is really good, and some of it looks pretty darn old. A little heavy on exposition at times. The screenplay felt a little hit-and-miss. And I also feel like while sticking to the source material is good, more of a proper adaptation for screen would have benefited the show.
The bad.
Production values are fairly low on multiple areas, and it really shows. I'm talking about out-of-sync dubbing (from Chinese to Chinese), non-native English speakers in English-speaking roles, some pretty mediocre cinematography at times, poor editing, continuity faux-pas, stuff like that. Of especial note is the cringe-inducing English screenplay, which was clearly written by someone with marginal understanding of the language, and which in turn gives all the international moments a distinct B-movie flavor.
All in all, I think Three-Body does a very competent job at telling an exceptionally exciting story, with an admittedly slow pace that isn't quite for everyone. My hope for the next two seasons is that they invest a little more money and massage the script a little more, get better directors and cinematographers, better audio and better actors for upcoming key roles in the saga.