MIDNIGHT REVIEWS 3 Body Problem Episode Five
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
3 Body Problem Episode 5: ‘Judgment Day’
Series created by: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Alexander Woo
Featuring: Benedict Wong, Eiza Gonzalez, Jovan Adepo
Synopsis: A secret mission to retrieve valuable information is planned out, but has terrible consequences. The aliens, having stopped communicating directly with Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce), have a message for the whole of humanity.
Review: I recently had a short discussion on Twitter which helped me discover the issues I have with 3 Body Problem. Despite loving episode two, and parts of the third episode, I really struggle with the show due to its proclivity to shove grounded character-based material to the side in lieu of drab, blandly done gun and light shows. The show, for me, had reached its own Judgment Day as repetition and tiredness kicked in. I was reassured, to a degree, as I started watching.
The opening for this episode features Wade (Liam Cunningham) having a terse conversation with Raj (Saamer Usmani) concerning a gigantic battleship, featured prominently in the background (how can a battleship feature any way other than ‘prominently’?)
I realised that, for Netflix, 3 Body Problem was this ship. Hugely expensive, and for its money gloriously realised. The surface-level sales pitch from Raj is self-assured and full of buzzwords. But underneath, the truth of it, is that it isn’t fit for purpose. How delighted I was, though, to find that this metaphor fell apart and that the opening scene of episode five shows off a drive and conviction the rest of the episode follows through on.
It’s a delightful uptick in form.
It was confident before the name of the show had even appeared. As Raj gave the smallest of glances to Wade, the show giving us a second to register this before smashing into the opening titles, I felt 3 Body Problem kicking itself back into life.
This is one of the best-reviewed episodes and it easily fits that bill. While there’s very little of the specific character interaction mentioned in earlier reviews, the plot barrels forward at a pace and we get to enjoy characters either shoving or being shoved into positions they don’t really want to be in. How can they get out of their own respective jams? Depending on who we’re talking about, whether they’re doing the shoving changes on a scene-by-scene basis. The main trifecta for this episode, Wade, Raj and Auggie, all having something to do and key choices to make that’ll affect the entirety of humanity. So no pressure then.
Visually arresting.
The person in charge, as played by Liam Cunningham, is a delicious bastard. Wade is the self-proclaimed busiest man in the world and it shows in his short, sharp dialogue, any spare time usually spent on dolling out sarcasm to prove his own point. Cunningham has shown snippets of this character in previous episodes but like John Bradley in episode two gets the chance to shine.
Jonathan Pryce, meanwhile, gets a decidedly different character to play. Mike Evans is someone who has placed himself at the top, communicating with ‘our Lord’ in private whilst publicly he utters quiet arguments that are empty, yet impossible to argue against. The question linked to his character seems to be whether humanity is making the same mistakes, or going through the same routine, as it usually does when it comes to religion. An interesting concept when Evans is also the person teaching these aliens the basics of human interaction. What does this say about Evans? That he is teaching God? What does it say about our generation? These are the high-minded questions I’ve wanted from the show and again, it’s a delightful uptick in form.
Saamer Usmani as Raj successfully gets the tight-lipped, straight-backed Royal Navy man down to a tee. Usmani sells us on a character that observes a lot more than he lets on, imbuing his performance with nuance and tales to tell with every glance. Even when he’s just standing there, it’s as if you can see every little emotion he’s feeling as characters around him try to keep the puzzle from falling apart.
In the middle is Auggie (Gonzalez), trying to make sense of it all. Whilst her inner angst could’ve had a brighter spotlight considering she helped engineer the hideous main event, the 3 Body Problem decides to show us the events in detail instead. A choice where either option would’ve worked, with the situation lending itself to some strange, truly gruesome results that help ingratiate us before things get really weird.
The ending is visually arresting, particularly some of the final images of a sequence that even after everything he’s done leave Wade flabbergasted. The way it’s shown as well as told is clear enough to fill the soul with dread without spilling over into exposition. With three episodes left, and humanity hindered, can anything be done to solve this impossible problem?
3 Body Problem is available to stream in ite entirety on 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
