The 3 Body Problem Netflix Series: A Cerebramantic Fantasy

by Asa Boxer

I guess you can say I’m an enthusiast of the sci-fi genre. I have friends who won’t countenance it; it’s just all too silly. But I can enjoy a sci-fi series or film and be critically harsh at the same time. This is how I feel about The 3 Body Problem: a lot of it is fun and stimulating, but there’s a heavy helping of pop-science culture that dispenses all manner of sciency propaganda. I’ll have to set up the relevant lineaments of the story, so you can follow my critique. For those hoping to view the series, this is your spoiler alert. I give away the essential plot twist, and various other elements you may prefer to discover through the storytelling experience.

The action that sets the story in motion takes place in 1977, when a dissident astrophysicist of Maoist China responds to a message from outer space, inviting an alien race to come save humanity from itself. Her motivations are the murder of her father at the hands of cultural revolutionaries, the abuses suffered by her mother,…