I've only seen the first episode so far, but Three-Body (the Chinese series) might be the ticket for my next hard-SF view.
However, Liu Cixin, author of the original books, is now strongly in disfavour for endorsing China's human rights abuses against the Uighur people. Those crimes are also why many in #SFF oppose this year's WorldCon being held in Chengdu - though others think this hypocritical because the US engages in rights abuses, too.
Nothing is ever simple with humans involved. #CoSoTV
#CoSoTV: For anyone following along, how are you finding Three-Body? I'm up to Ep 10, & really enjoying its steady pacing, character portrayals, & introduction of key concepts from the books.
I understand the staggered approach to some of the source material, but I'm also chuffed by the game world, & other special effects key to the story. The closing music is good, too: gently ominous.
So far, in sum? A show that takes its time, & treats its viewers as intelligent turkeys in the process. π
Where is this streaming?
@mcfate Only on Rakuten Viki at the moment. Sorry, I have such a hodgepodge of media access from where I live - months if not years late on some movies and TV shows, but also a little speedier on others - so I'm not sure if folks in North America can access it, too.
It appears to be coming to Netflix, they offered to let me set a reminder for it.
@mcfate Is that this series, or the Western version that they'd been planning since 2020 - David Benioff, D. B. Weiss, Alexander Woo - before the controversy around Liu Cixin got a handful of senators to write Netflix asking the service to reconsider going forward on the project? (Such a mess!)
That was quite good. I think I'll add the Viki channel to my Apple TV.
I'm not sure how many episodes are free, but clearly not all thirty.
I signed up for a basic subscription, and set up the iPad app to keep watching, thanks!
@mcfate Hey, I'm thrilled to have a TV buddy, so thank *you*. Have you read the books? I know Chinese drama can have a different structural and tonal feel than we Westerners are often used to, so I'm interested to see a homegrown adaptation of the work. Let me know what you think as you go through the episodes, too!
Two out of three. (Or four, if you count the one Liu DIDN'T write.)
"The Dark Forest" completely changed my thinking about the wisdom of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.
@MLClark yeah, every time I find a new band I like, I find out one of their members is in trouble for being a perv. It's frustrating.
@MLClark
I'm glad I already read those books, without having to make that choice.
I was very surprised by the candor with which he described brutalities of the cultural revolution. Surprised that it would be allowed.
I've also known artists who were quite repugnant personally, but whose work was quite good.
Actually those books were so amazing that I would not even want to see a movie or series based on them, ethics aside.
@ceorl I've read and seen quite a few mainland-Chinese works similarly open about the brutality of the period and how it worked itself on the psyche of the people -- but you're absolutely right that there's a definite mystery as to how such works came to be within the propaganda machine.
And agreed! I'm a little reluctant to get to the parts where we inhabit the game-space. Some things are better left to the imagination, no?
@MLClark
Some works are just perfect, and of such scope and scale, a condensed dramatization could only disappoint someone who had read them.
I guess I feel the same way about Tolkien, Tolstoy, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson.
Yet I know such dramatizations are popular and profitable, but they just never ring my bell. :)
@ceorl Adaptations of works I love are tough sells for me, too, so I hear you. :) May there be some good-quality new standalone SFF for you soon!
That is disappointing. As you said nothing is ever simple with humans involved. God, what a ride those books were. Liu Cixin explained science very well, & his imagination explored so many possible realities...his views on how humans govern themselves is not idealistic.
@RainierRambler No, not idealistic at all! It's going to be a wild ride, transitioning from the optimism of For All Mankind to what I know is in store here, based on the books. But a range of perspectives helps us grow, no? Or at least keeps us from getting *too* cosy right where we are.
@MLClark
Very well said. I felt the same when I read the books!
@MLClark Failing to endorse CCP positions would be career ending for him. I was surprised at some of the stuff in The Three-Body Problem book, but it wasn't particularly controversial.
@FreedomATX Agreed. This is a Western issue of inconsistent performative activism. Some problems crop up routinely in Chinese SFF, such as the portrayal of women and men's hostility towards them, but the Western SFF community has generally given those issues a pass where it definitely wouldn't if a white male writer were saying the same things. (Ditto with the sexism that shows up in work out of freshly rising West African SFF.) There's a mess of fairly superficial liberal activism involved.
In short:
Dagnabbit, if people could just make or inspire solid art without being shitty human beings that would be great. Bonus points if it's in one of my favourite wheelhouses, like hard SF, but at this point the bar is pretty low.