Still Watching...Or Not.
3 Body Problem, The Gentlemen, Shōgun, House Of Ninjas, The Signal, A Nearly Normal Family, The Brothers Sun, Monsieur Spade, etc.
Houston, we have a problem. With our body.
Yes, I did just write that.
Technically not incorrect — just loads of achy joints and crushed muscles from moving. But no, this is about Netflix’s “3 Body Problem” which I looked forward to with great enthusiasm until, well, I watched it.
And watched more. And more.
I’ve seen four episodes now and I’m obviously going to finish the entire season but one thing is very, very clear to me: This show has no soul.
It’s entirely possible that my expectations were in places they shouldn't have been — this is a highly touted project and there’s some thought that it could be dragged out, epically, as an epic, over multiple seasons, since the “Game Of Thrones” Boys (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — plus Alexander Woo from The Terror: Infamy) are involved, there are nerdy sci-fi tomes it’s based on (from writer Cixin Liu) and, hell, the actual Chinese version of this has 30 episodes (which I think is just the first season?)
Anyway, the material is there.
It’s just not the material I was seeking, despite some pretty high praise from at least a critic or two I still trust.
Part of the lack of appeal to me I completely understand — it’s not my favorite brand of sci-fi (though for argument’s sake, it’s absolutely my partner’s kind of sci-fi and she’s currently just as meh about it as I am). I like sci-fi that’s a little heftier. Or, I want to know ahead of time that it’s going to be out there in the deep spaces off oddball-ville that’s either not my thing (“Doctor Who”) or is (“Good Omens”), but either way it’s helpful to know ahead of time that it’s going to be cheeky in its galaxy brain nerdiness.
Without giving anything away, whenever “3 Body Problem” gets less menacing and weird and goes into its virtual-reality game mode, I find the whole thing lifeless and silly (and poorly written). When it feels more ominous, I like it better. But, again, I’ve already sampled a number of episodes and there’s not a lot of soul in it — at best, sporadic soul, and I find myself caring for maybe one or two characters.
One of the big flaws for me is typical of American television — having the hot, young nanofiber technology genius who looks all of 22 be a main character and power player. It’s not Eiza Gonźalez’s fault that she’s all of that, but she’s in a role that would have been so much better with someone older (and yes, I know the plot calls for 5 Young Scientists or whatever to be the core players, but still):
And, just to complete the point, with “3 Body Problem” looking for characters to have depth and soul, Zine Tseng is an absolute standout who makes every one of her scenes have depth, creating a more meaningful character and, well, she’s also quite lovely, so maybe it really is about the acting?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s about framing. Most of the successful young scientists who just got out of college in this series are portrayed as still learning and still yearning, highly skilled and educated but perhaps without the worldliness that comes with experience. Gonźalez’s character is more budding tech titan in power mode and it’s, well, just not believable. It’s distracting.
Still loving Netflix’s “The Gentlemen” in the early going. If you missed the recent Two Episode Test, here it is:
I must say that I lean heavily into my preference for the “week to week” style of watching than the binge model (though I’m a firm backer of Jason Snell’s “slow binge” idea), so FX’s “Shōgun” (that I’m watching on Hulu) has hit me at just the right saturation level.
I’m all caught up and current, and as I feel the story swell with character development and anticipation, my thoughts turn to hoping there’s a good balance of story, action and resolved arcs to come.
“Shōgun” is really good, it’s compelling enough and I am hoping for great rewards. As is due me, and all viewers.
This was also a Two Episode Test:
Here’s where I tell you that none of the shows mentioned above are the best thing I’m currently watching.
Gotta bury the good stuff to keep you from slacking off.
I’m planning a longer, full column coming soon on Netflix’s “House Of Ninjas” which has very unexpectedly turned into something wonderful I didn’t see coming (this after having seen six of the eight episodes after the first one set the hook).
I’m in love with this series and unless it falls completely to pieces in the home stretch then it’s already, along with Hulu’s “A Shop For Killers,” in the running for favorite recent series.
I’ll save the verbal adoration for the upcoming piece on the show but it was part of a recent “Deep Dive” feature, found here:
That “Deep Dive” also looked into “A Nearly Normal Family” and while it’s too early to call that one of the shows that falls into the “…Or Not” portion of this feature, I have put it aside at least temporarily (the more knowing among you are already filing that one as “dead” I can tell) and I theoretically could come back to it.
At least part of the blame rests with the show itself, of course, as you can read about above, but also “House Of Ninjas” has been a total revelation.
And time is all we have, lovelies. Let us not waste it.
A completely Accidental Stop Watch has happened to “The Brothers Sun,” yet another Netflix series I like — and yes, a separate column is coming soon on that revelation — and once again I’m going to blame, in order, “A Shop For Killers,” which came out about a month before and “House Of Ninjas.”
I mean, there’s a lot of TV on, people, you know this. I’m not even mentioning the stuff I’m taste testing and deciding to pass over. As we say around here, we’re all drowning, it’s a matter of how deep you’re down. And I truly do want to keep watching “The Brothers Sun” which I quite liked as a Two Episode Test, as you can read here:
Here’s a different series where “House of Ninjas” had nothing to do with it: AMC’s“Monsieur Spade” fell into the Accidental Stop Watch category because I wanted my partner to catch up and watch with me, but she’s been otherwise busy with a job and shit so it’s really her fault. In case you forgot about this little burgeoning cable gem which, you guessed it, also had a Two Episode Test, I dug it up for you:
Lastly I will leave you with “The Signal,” which I just wrote about (with some slight embarrassment about my own math and prep skills), but which could very easily have been the poster series for the “…Or Not” portion of this feature (the current reigning champion still being “True Detective: Nighty Night”).
Instead, I will finish “The Signal” — theoretically — because I’m halfway done (read about the math thing below) and I’m absolutely positive there’s not enough time for the writers of the show to do anything good and I desperately want to be proven wrong:
OK, that’s all for now.
I started watching House of Ninjas and three minutes in I already loved it
OK, so I finished 3 Body Problem last night. I stick with what I said below about the primary problem of trying to tell this story in 8 episodes — that was an utterly shot yourself in the foot (or the extremity of your choice) decision. You just can't use whizz-bang SFX to make up for a butchered and disjointed narrative that doesn't give the viewer the information they need to really get into the story.
The "five friends" conceit was just sort of grafted in and didn't really do anything to help the narrative. As or the Raj Varma (Seamer Usmani) character, though I'm sure many found him nice to look at, why?
The main cast all did a workmanlike job with really inadequate story and character development but their motivational arcs were crippled by the butcher-job done by the script on the source material.Eiza González was probably victimized the most here. She's a good and talented actress but all they gave her to do was be angry, mope and whine. I'm not sure Kate Winslett (or pick any great actress) could have done any better with the toilet paper that served as a script.
The only survivor here is Benedict Wong, who's always great but the character he was given was the most intact of all of the characters in the books and even in the Chinese adaptation, Three-Body.
Maybe those dudes should just stick to dragons and nekkid ladies?