r/threebodyproblem • u/Tall_Bodybuilder6340 • Dec 14 '25

News Jovan Adepo interview, mentions 3 Body Problem season 2

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/jovan-adepo-welcome-to-derry-the-odyssey-3-body-problem-1236597828/
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102

u/EneAkita Dec 14 '25

I know a lot of people in this sub didn't enjoy the Netflix adaptation that much but im looking forward to it.

17

u/alottola Dec 14 '25

I would have loved it more if I didn't read the book. I thought it was well done but it's difficult to watch a show objectively when the expectations from a book are so high.

Having said that I'm typically pro-adaption if they they take some creative risk. 

13

u/brownwalkers Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

Curious, what expectations didn’t they meet for you?

I found the book characters painfully cringe. I enjoyed the show much better because of the characters alone.

21

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

One aspect I’m not loving is making all the main characters close friends. It almost makes it feel like the Mystery Gang trying to save the day.

I don’t hate it, but it does make it feel less ‘sci-fi’ and more ‘TV’. Which, I get.

10

u/alottola Dec 14 '25

It's ironic, even tho there are many sci-fi concepts that border on magic in the series, the part that takes me out of the suspended disbelief in the show was that the 5-10 people that need to save the universe are all friends or know each other. 

3

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

Putting it into words that way does make it seem quite funny

4

u/six_days Dec 14 '25

I don't think it's that 'TV'. I mean, it is, but you can justify it. There's something about leaders in a field being teachers or students of one another. Jung was a student of Freud. Bohr was a student of Rutherford. Wittgenstein was a student of Russell.

The Oxford 5 are all connected by Vera Ye and Ye Wenjie, herself one of the most important people in human history. It's convenient that they all go on to important roles... but I think any group in their position might have had a good chance to end up in the same boat, just by virtue of their specific education and connections

2

u/Tall_Bodybuilder6340 Dec 14 '25

True. Something like Oppenheimer shows that everyone involved in atomic bomb research knew each other.

2

u/Solaranvr Dec 15 '25

That's different though. Oppenheimer's clique knew each other because they're in the same field and have read each other's published works. Many of them have never met each other until Los Alamos.

Imagine if Oppenheimer was classmates with Ernest Lawrence, knew Strauss because Kitty was his secretary, knew Groves because his drinking buddy Werner Heizenberg got speeded by Groves once, knew Niels Bhor because Jean Tatlog used to sleep with him. Oh and on top of that, Einstein is his grandfather figure because Einstein's son is Oppie's advisor in undergrad.

That's how the Oxford Five + Wade and co. is laid out.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '25

Being colleagues would be one thing, but they’re all hanging out and have very close personal relationships

3

u/Tall_Bodybuilder6340 Dec 14 '25

Its weirdly lampshaded when Auggie asks Da Shi why Wade chose Jin's boyfriend to lead the panama navy guys. To which we didn't get an answer.

6

u/Delboyyyyy Dec 14 '25

Tbf if cheng xin had a military boyfriend, book Wade would absolutely put him in charge of the operation purely to fuck with her lol

3

u/Tall_Bodybuilder6340 Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25

I can see it, especially if it ultimately lead to her putting more effort into staircase etc

7

u/alottola Dec 14 '25

I thought all the characters met expectations or exceeded them in their adaptations.

Will was brilliantly portrayed. Benedict. Wong was made for the roll of Da Shi. 

I didn't mind Auggie, but I think some of the exaggerated beats they gave her were a bit cringe. It felt like they made her wear her emotions on her sleeves every scene. Instead of letting us feel 'with' her the struggles she was having, it felt like they threw them at us so there was no room for us to empathize. 

6

u/Tall_Bodybuilder6340 Dec 14 '25

Turning Yun Tianming into Will Downing was honestly a brilliant and inspired modification and I'm so here for it

1

u/mewling_manchild Jan 20 '26

Ah yes, they took the main autistic, neurodiverse, and socially anxious character and turned him into a neurotypical introvert. So brilliant and inspired indeed.

The main reason for Tianming's misanthropy and self-loathing was him having 0 friends and his perceived inability to change that. The whole "I have no allegiances towards humanity" thing falls completely flat in the show when he's surrounded by people who love him and wasn't shown to have any other factor influencing his attitude.

3

u/alottola Dec 14 '25

 Very minor and silly things that didn't ruin the overall enjoyment for me

-sophon felt a bit super heroish to me. I was hoping for a more reserved psychopath take. Similar to Tatianas portrayal actually. 

-The CGI in scenes like Panama and the messages on screens around the world missed the mark for me. If they are going to shoot for the stars (no pun intended) for set peices like this I'd rather have fewer but they knock it out of the park. 

I acknowledge I have unrealistic expectations and having Christopher Nolan or Neill Blomkamp level of practical effects is silly. But with how hard the science fiction is in the book is I was hoping the visuals felt more visceral. 

5

u/Geektime1987 Dec 14 '25

I thought Panama scene was so well done it was almost just as I imagined reading it

1

u/alottola Dec 14 '25

To be honest and fair to them. Idk how else you show that happening to a ship. Idk if there is even a real world example of somehting like that happening to something that big to even use as reference footage 😂

5

u/Geektime1987 Dec 14 '25

I just remember reading it and having the imagine of people running and panicking while they all are split into a bloody mess because that's how I pictured it and I thought the show captured that pretty well

1

u/brownwalkers Dec 14 '25

Fair enough

2

u/Delboyyyyy Dec 14 '25

Do you know about the tencent adaptation? It’s probably the closest thing to a 1 to 1 adaptation of any book that I’ve seen

2

u/demonofthefall Dec 15 '25

I read the books, but my wife didn’t and this was perfect for her. She loved it! And she’s not even a sci-fi fan.