SXSW TV Review: 3 Body Problem

China in the time of Mao. Young revolutionaries bring academics onto a makeshift stage in front of a bloodthirsty crowd. Families pitted against each other. Laws of physics made out to be counterrevolutionary blasphemy. What does this have to do with the year’s most anticipated science-fiction series?

Episode one of Netflix’s 3 Body Problem made its way in front of an audience on the opening night of this year’s SXSW, and on March 21, will be released to the proletariat. While the book by Liu Cixin is set mainly in China, this eight-episode adaptation by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss of Game of Thrones fame, along with Alexander Woo (True Blood and The Terror) has a foot in the British Isles as well.

As to what the opening scene has to do with sci-fi? It’s the physics. Many of the main characters are scientists, especially physicists, and things are going poorly. Particle colliders around the world are starting to give mysterious and perplexing results, throwing into chaos the known natural universe. Oh, and they’re killing themselves off for some reason. As a detective investigating the deaths (Doctor Strange’s Benedict Wong) says, “It’s a bad time to be a scientist.”

Then there’s the shiny gamer helmets. After one such suicide, it’s revealed the victim was playing some sort of virtual reality game, a plot twist that will enable the series to travel often to a CGI fantasy land. At the premiere, the entire audience at the Paramount donned swag versions of this headgear and posed with the cast and crew – a promo shot made in heaven.

If this series is a success, casting will be a big factor. Audiences will see some familiar faces from Game of Thrones, with Samwell Tarly, Davos Seaworth, and the High Sparrow looking out from the screen. Jovan Adepo and Jess Hong as two physicists will be key, but it’s Eiza González who drives the action forward in the first installment. Will she be the next to succumb to whatever is leading these scientists to an early grave?

Other than the large-scale selfie after the show, there was no Q&A or anything of the like, a missed opportunity with what appeared to be the entire cast in attendance. That said, this was a big bang to start SXSW’s full-throated endorsement of television as a medium and major component of the festival. There really is something to be said for watching TV with a big audience. Now we’ll see if viewers watch from their couches at home.

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3 Body Problem

Television, World Premiere

Friday, March 8, Paramount

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