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3 Body Problem’s Imagination Problem
In ignoring humanity’s wider reaction to the end of the world, the Netflix adaptation fails to find gravity in its final scene.
Each episode reveals new ways these disparate pieces are tied together until halfway through the season, when the friends, Wade, and Clarence realize an alien race named the San-Ti are responsible for the mayhem, invited to Earth by Vera’s own mother, Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao), a Chinese woman convinced humanity was no longer worth protecting in the wake of the Cultural Revolution. That’s not the only setback the anti-alien effort suffers: Auggie quits Wade’s team and takes her research with her, traveling to Mexico to install water-filtration systems for the needy, and Saul, chosen for a secret project affiliated with the United Nations’ Planetary Defense Council, is nearly assassinated by a San-Ti acolyte. But in that absence, 3 Body Problem had an opportunity to emphasize the paranoia and panic felt by all of humanity — by children who must be taught about the San-Ti’s “Eye in the Sky” surveillance device, by astronauts monitoring for potential advance guards sent by the aliens, by employees at The Stars Our Destination, a nonprofit tasked with raising money for global defense.
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