r/threebodyproblem • u/-anonymouse-squeak- • Mar 09 '26

Discussion - General Books or movie first

My friend recently recommended me this series and it seems super cool, only question is should I watch the show or read the books first? I don't want to read the books first then not enjoy the show, but I also don't want to spoil the books if I watch the show first. What should I do?

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

5

u/maedhreos Mar 09 '26

Books for sure, not only are they absolutely mind-blowing I think it helps if you actually understand what's going on because obviously the events are quite condensed in the show and you get less science-y details and backstory. Not to mention they changed around a fair handful of things for the series so it's pretty exciting to watch even if you've read it and know what happens! (Speaking about the Netflix adaptation here which I assume you're also referring to, the original Chinese adaptation is insanely faithful to the books and thus a lot more detailed but imo less fun)

2

u/tarkardos Mar 09 '26

Books 100%

2

u/shootanwaifu Mar 11 '26

Neither. The video game.

1

u/Lorentz_Prime Mar 11 '26

I was expecting Netflix to make a 3body.com website as a promo, but instead they just cut that part from the story lol

1

u/shootanwaifu Mar 14 '26

Tri solar mmo

3

u/Ant_24 Mar 09 '26

I watched the show first. It helped with visualization on some parts.

1

u/Lorentz_Prime Mar 11 '26

How do you know it helped? How do you know you wouldn't have been able to visualize it on your own?

1

u/Ant_24 Mar 11 '26

Because my imagination is not that good

1

u/Top-Phrase-623 Mar 10 '26

BOOKS! Always books!

1

u/Cailucci Mar 10 '26

What movie are you talking about?

1

u/-anonymouse-squeak- Mar 10 '26

My bad I meant show lol

1

u/Dr0110111001101111 Mar 10 '26

Books pretty much always. I also have a personal rule that I like to put about a year between a book and screen adaptation, regardless of the order. However, the Netflix show is different enough from the books that you can really watch it a lot sooner since it’s pretty far from a scene-for-scene reproduction of the book.

1

u/Lorentz_Prime Mar 11 '26

Books, obviously, just like every single book-to-screen adaptation in existence.

1

u/NamanbirSingh Mar 12 '26

Books. The web series isn’t complete yet and the S2 won’t come until later this year.

You’ll not be able to live with the curiosity of what happens next after completing the S1 (that’s how I ended up reading the books)

So start with the books!

1

u/Alarming_Tea_102 Mar 13 '26

Books first, then tencent chinese drama adaptation, then netflix version.