6 great reasons to binge 3 Body Problem on Netflix this weekend

This week, Netflix dropped the first season of 3 Body Problem, a science fiction show based on the Remembrance of Earth's Past novel trilogy by Liu Cixin. Scientists around the globe are dying under mysterious circumstances. A strange virtual reality game transports players to another world. What is going on? The answer has cosmic proportions.

3 Body Problem is produced by Alexander Woo, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the latter of whom were the creators of Game of Thrones for HBO. 3 Body Problem is sci-fi, not fantasy, but both shows swing big and take risks, which I think deserve rewards. If you're looking for something to binge that will make you think and feel, 3 Body Problem is your ticket. Here's why:

1. 3 Body Problem is a solid tale that gets better as it goes

The first season of 3 Body Problem is split into two halves. In the first four episodes, we unravel the mystery of What Is Going On. Beware SPOILERS incoming: it has to do with a highly advanced extraterrestrial species living on an inhospitable world who decide they'd rather live on ours. Even if you know this ahead of time, as I did, the lead-up to the big reveals have some spine-tingling moments of mystery as the characters piece together what's happening.

Still, the second half of the season is better. This is when the characters come into their own and start trying to fight back against the aliens. There are touching moments, thought-provoking twist, and one action set piece so metal I'm still thinking about it days later. By the end, you feel like you've gone on a proper journey with characters who have grown and changed. You might even be inspired by the way the characters pulled together in the face of an extraterrestrial threat. I'd go so far as to say that 3 Body Problem made me proud to be a human being, which obviously isn't something I think about very often.

But you don't need to have an existential epiphany to enjoy the show. It's enough that it's a good yarn.

2. Lots of cool sci-fi concepts

The books 3 Body Problem are based on spend a lot of time explaininig the specifics of things like particle physics and background radiation to readers. The show leaves a lot of those technical explanations out, but the concepts still provide plenty of food for thought. There are just some really cool ideas in this show. For instance:

• Long ago, the aliens gathered an army to act as a "human computer," with each soldier holding up a double-sided sign representing either a "1" or a "0." Would that work? I dunno, but it looks cool onscreen.
• The aliens live on a world that's tossed back and forth between three suns. This causes lots of eye-popping extinction events, including one where the suns all line up, increasing their gravity and sucking people by the millions up into the air.
• One of the characters manufacturers nano-fibers, coils of wire so thin they can't be seen by the naked eye. This leads to that crazy set action set piece I mentioned earlier. You've got to see it to believe it.
• At one point, the characters hatch a plan to accelerate a probe to 1% the speed of light so it can intercept the incoming alien fleet. They call it the Staircase Project, and it involves hanging hundreds of nuclear bombs in outer space and detonating each one as the probe rockets past. Get on it, NASA
• How do you keep secrets from aliens who know everything you do and say thanks to their nine-dimensional supercomputers? You charge a select few people with the responsiblity of coming up with a defense plan, with the caveat that they can't talk about it anyone, or the aliens will know. BUT the governments of the world will fulfill any request you make with no questions asked, assuming it's part of the master plan. It's caled the Wallfacer project, and it fully had me thinking about what I'd do with that power.

And there's more where that came from. 3 Body Problem doesn't lack for moments that make you cup your chin in your hand and go "hmmm."

3. It's a like a mini-Game of Thrones reunion

David Benioff and Dan Weiss asked some of the old Game of Thrones cast members to be on this show, and they all do great work. John Bradley (Samwell Tarly) plays snack magnate Jack Rooney, who provides much-needed comic relief. Legendary actor Jonathan Pryce (the High Sparrow) is on board as billionaire Mike Evans, who worships the aliens as gods. He plays a kind of fanatical religious leader not unlike the character he played on Game of Thrones, and just as effectively.

The standout is Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) as high-government operative Thomas Wade. While Davos was mild-mannered and accommodating, Wade is a high-riding taskmaster. He's a prick, but by the end of the season I also respected his indomitable spirit in the face of overwhelming odds. When you're facing extraterrestrial invasion, maybe you need someone like that in charge.

Most of the actors do a fine job on this show, even the ones who weren't involved with Game of Thrones. I need to give a shoutout to Alex Sharp, who plays the listless former physics student Will Downing; and Zine Tseng, who plays the disaffected young physicist Ye Wenjie, who's actions will prove pivotal to the fate of the entire world.

4. Judgment Day

Alright, I've mentioned an eye-popping action sequence a couple of times now. I need to give you more details. Stop reading if you'd rather experience it for yourself!

In Episode 5, "Judgment Day," Thomas Wade and his followers are hunting for information on the aliens. They set their sites on the group of alien worshippers headed by Mike Evans, who all live on a ship called Judgment Day. The problem is this: how do you capture the information stored in hard drives on the ship without tipping off the people inside that you're coming and giving them a chance to destroy the evidence?

Remember I said that one character produces microscopic coils of nano-wire? Well, Wade has lines of nano-fiber strung up at the Panama Canal just as Judgment Day is about to pass through. These fibers are so thin and so sharp that they cut the entire ship to ribbons, as well as the people on it. And remember: the lines are invisible, so the people don't know what's happening until they explode into bloody bisected bits.

Director Minkie Spiro takes his time with this sequence, so we feel just as horrified and bewildered as the people on board. It's horrifying, spellbinding, and hugely creative. This sequence is just great.

Speaking at the SXSW festival before the show premiered, Benioff said that "if we can just get the audience to Episode 5, we got 'em hooked." Now that I know what he's talking about, I have to agree.

5. 3 Body Problem is part of a wider conversation

Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past novels are popular around the world, especially in his native China. But Cixin had to change some things to meet the demands of Chinese censors. For instance, he originally intended to open his books with a scene set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and '70s, a brutal period where millions died in the name of purging the country of anti-Communist perspectives. Cixin's Chinese publisher didn't think the censors would go for that, so the Cultural Revolution scenes were moved to the middle of the novel. In the Chinese TV adaptation of the books, they don't appear at all.

The Cultural Revolution scenes kick off 3 Body Problem on Netflix, just as Cixin originally intended. It's a brutal scene, but consistent with images from that time. According to CNN, some in China are accusing the Netflix show are attempting to paint the country in a bad light, but showrunner Alexander Woo maintains that these scenes are responsible and necessary.

"It’s a part of history that is not written about in fiction very much, let alone filmed," Woo told The New York Times. "And my family lived through it, as did the family of Derek Tsang, who directed the first two episodes. We give a lot of credit to him for bringing that to life, because he knew that it had not been filmed with this clinical eye maybe ever. He took enormous pains to have every detail of it depicted as real as it could be. I showed it to my mother, and you could see a chill coming over her, and she said, 'That’s real. This is what really happened.' And she added, 'Why would you show something like that? Why do you make people experience something so terrible?' But that’s how we knew we’d done our job."

3 Body Problem is a science fiction show and shouldn't be taken too seriously at the end of the day, but it's a science fiction show that is really trying to say something about humanity, which can lead to some interesting discussions. I appreciate that kind of ambition.

5. Because I need to see a second season

There are three books in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, which means three or four seasons to adapt the whole story. After watch season 1, I want more! If people watch it all the way through, I think they will too. The trouble is finding that audience. Hopefully 3 Body Problem will have a big weekend and we'll be reporting good news about a renewal very soon.

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