MIDNIGHT REVIEWS 3 Body Problem Episode Two
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
3 Body Problem Episode 2: ‘Red Coast’
Series created by: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Alexander Woo
Featuring: Benedict Wong, Eiza Gonzalez, Jovan Adepo
Synopsis: While few apart from those who actually suffer from seeing it know about the mysterious countdown, the entire world knows something is up. That’s because everyone saw the stars as the entire night sky blinked like a thousand broken lamps. How many aliens does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Review: Moving on from the apparently unsolvable problem of how to set up a TV show without exposition, episode two of 3 Body Problem reveals a series that has quickly found its groove. It’s still early days, so the sense of connectivity with the characters is loose at best but there are constant inklings that something is going to go wrong for most, if not all of them.
While it was perhaps too much to ask that the countdown from episode one actually reached zero and we saw what happened, it was probably also the most realistic move for Auggie (Gonzalez) to do what she did. Even though the show is being sold on sumptuous visuals and big, nay massive ideas, episode two works because the focus is on characters acting like human beings. Even the ones that might be aliens.
Apart from our brief sojourn into Auggie’s professional life, we’re also privy to Saul (Adepo) not being the man of science he’s always wanted to be. One of the few people in a position to actually help, ends up behaving in a way that perhaps most people would: he ignores the problem completely, deriding it as ‘fake news’, before going to a bar and distracting himself. Jovan Adepo convinces as the guy who isn’t convincing anyone but himself and the feeling that Saul is doing his best to turn his back on a problem he can’t escape makes me wonder what his role in all this is.
That’s the problem most on the brain with episode two and so far 3 Body Problem has found the perfect balance between providing us with enough questions to itch our brains without being facetious. This is not a show that asks questions just for the sake of it. These questions feel meaningful and I’m hopeful that each thread, like the ones on Saul’s computer screen in episode one, will lead somewhere.
John Bradley as Jack Rooney shines here. After his brash opening salvo in the previous episode, Bradley shows off fresh new dimensions to the character and proves Rooney isn’t just here to play comic second fiddle. Despite the eye-catching moments where he investigates what appears to be a technological marvel hundreds of years more advanced than anything else on Earth, it’s a walk in the park where he showcases his best work. Bradley gives a wholly rounded and eye-opening portrayal of the mixed emotions a human being feels when told something awful isn’t here yet, but it’s coming. Saying anything more would be spoilers. But the way he sits on a park bench and takes the news is probably the most human moment in a show that could’ve so easily been cold and distant.
Speaking of someone cold, we also get to see more of younger Ye Wenjie’s (Zine Tseng) story back on the mountain in China. It’s the greatest compliment to the show, and the performance, that Ye Wenjie’s actions at the end of the episode, cliff hanger and all, are both despicable and wholly understandable.
Tseng gives so much when all she seems to do is walk from one space to another in a tiny lab, her only company some bored guard. All of her story so far leads up to this moment and it all culminates after the briefest of pauses, then a look that could tell us everything she’d been through, even if we hadn’t been witness to it already. Zine Tseng is outstanding and her portrayal of quiet rage and grief without mourning is even more amazing when you consider how few acting roles she’s had. The start of what could be a superlative career.
Like the hidden enemy tying up threads of each character’s story, Red Coast uses every strand and performance to its utmost. Will the rest of the series live up to this quality?
3 Body Problem can be found on Netflix. The entire series is available to stream. Why it couldn’t be one episode a week, I don’t know, but then I’m not Mister Netflix.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smith_M_D
