Sci-Fi gets weird(er).
3 Body Problem (Season 1)
Half of this series focuses on a poorly treated woman in China during the 1960's while the other half focuses on a group of friends who all happen to be super smart science types in the modern age right when the Earth's leading scientists start going crazy and either start killing themselves or stop working. I do like that as the mystery reveals itself there are more problems to solve, but this was all up quite high on the level of strangeness for me - and my tolerance for strange is pretty high! With few exceptions the general level of special effects seem "cheap" and I also felt that hopping between the 1960's segment and modern age was freaking annoying and would have much rather they just mostly focused on one or the other per episode. That didn't stop us from finishing the season though, and will probably watch Season 2 whenever it rolls out.
Fallout (Season 1)
Based on the excellent game series this currently single season show focuses on a vault dweller (played by Ella Purnell) who makes her way out into the wasteland and encounters a lot of the terrible and funny stuff all the players have to deal with. Ok that's not entirely true, there are actually three people the story follows but the vault dweller is the centrifical force that ties the narrative together. Excellent props and set design (though some reused places) and a good deal of gory violence get the thumbs up from me, but the story is... let's just say its like the game plots where things just happen right? "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every damned time" rings very true. :P
The netflix adaptation isn't too bad, but I wuld saw the chinese version is a lot closer to the book (it's also 30 episodes, so longer than needed) and easier to understand if you haven't read the book. Netflix decided to put characters that are in the trilogy, and sometime combining a few of them. Done to keep the same actors in the other seasons, unlike the books, not sure I agree with making them friends though.
ReplyDeleteThe special effects in the 3 body problem are mostly fine, but I have a hard time believing it costs 20 millions $ per episode, which is somehow more than Fallout.