The adaptation of ‘The Three Body Problem’ on Netflix
We recently talked about the challenge that Netflix faced with the adaptation of ‘The Three Body Problem’, the first novel in the trilogy written by Liu Cixin. Although Anglo-Saxon critics have received the series positively, in China, the author’s country of origin, the reception has been different. Chinese viewers have expressed their discontent with the series, generating true nationalist ‘fury’.
The unrest in China is mainly due to the beginning of the story, which is set in Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. In the series, a physics teacher is attacked by the government’s Red Guards, a scene taken directly from the original novel. However, this scene was not included in the adaptation made by Chinese public television and Tencent.
This omission has generated widespread outrage among Chinese social media users, who find the depiction of the Red Guard inappropriate and offensive. Furthermore, the adaptation of the series to suit a global market, with changes to the cast and the location of the story in London, has also been criticized in China, where these changes are considered ‘politically correct’.
Reception in other countries and on Netflix
Outside of China, the series is off to a promising start, although it hasn’t met the highest expectations. According to Netflix metrics, ‘The Three Body Problem’ has been ranked second among the most watched series in non-English speaking languages. During the week of March 18 to 24, the series accumulated a total of 81,700,000 hours watched and 11 million views. Although these numbers are impressive, they do not reach the records of other Netflix productions, such as ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’, which obtained 21.2 million views in its first three days of availability.
Despite this, ‘The Three Body Problem’ has managed to position itself in first place in the ranking in Hong Kong, Germany and Ukraine, and in second place in the United States and Spain.
Conclusions
In summary, the adaptation of ‘The Three Body Problem’ on Netflix has generated great controversy in China, where viewers have been furious over the omission of a key scene from the novel and the changes made to adapt it to a global market. Outside of China, the series has had a good start, although it has not reached the levels of success of other Netflix productions. Despite everything, ‘The Three Body Problem’ has managed to capture the attention of audiences in different countries, positioning itself at the top of the rankings in some of them.
