With their sci-fi show 3 Body Problem, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have pulled off the same near-impossible feat as their last show, Game of Thrones.
With their new sci-fi series on Netflix, 3 Body Problem, Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have pulled off the same near-impossible feat as their hit medieval fantasy series on HBO. Adapted from the Hugo Award-winning novel of the same name by Liu Cixin, 3 Body Problem revolves around an astrophysicist who is sent to a secret military base in 1960s China and ends up making first contact with alien life. This communication has massive ramifications for a group of scientists confronting a major threat to the human race in the present day.
Genre-wise, 3 Body Problem couldn’t be less similar to Game of Thrones. Whereas Game of Thrones is a high fantasy story set in a world with dragons and sorcery, 3 Body Problem is pure science fiction tackling thought-provoking questions about technological advancements and humanity’s place in the universe. But in terms of its scope and ambition, 3 Body Problem is comparable to Game of Thrones. What Benioff and Weiss have been able to do with Liu’s literary opus is just as impressive as their adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga.
3 Body Problem & A Song Of Ice & Fire Were Both Considered Unfilmable Books
Like Dune, Watchmen, and The Lord of the Rings before them, both 3 Body Problem and A Song of Ice and Fire were considered to be unadaptable tomes before Benioff and Weiss got their hands on them. They were considered unfilmable for totally different reasons, but they were both thought to be too complicated and expansive to be adaptable for film or television. 3 Body Problem is told across three books and balances its storytelling between three separate timelines – an alternate past, present, and future – which is easier to track on the page than on the screen.
Martin’s medieval fantasy saga was considered to be too epic in scale for a movie franchise or long-running TV show to do it justice – not to mention the books’ sprawling cast of complex, challenging characters and all the X-rated material found within their pages. But Benioff and Weiss found a way to translate that gargantuan narrative to the screen in a prestige HBO drama. They had a great sense of which elements to keep and which elements to cut, and they brought that world to life visually. With 3 Body Problem, they’ve pulled off the same magic trick.
Benioff & Weiss Did A Great Job With Game Of Thrones (When Adapting GRRM’s Books)
Whether fans who were disappointed by the last two seasons want to admit it or not, Benioff and Weiss did a great job of adapting Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books in the early years of the HBO series. When they had fully fleshed-out novels to work from, they did a fantastic job of translating the most crucial plot points and the most poignant character development into the first six seasons of Game of Thrones. It only took a nosedive when they ran out of books and had to work from rough, insubstantial story outlines.
At the beginning of the series, the duo’s approach to the source material was really admirable. It’s not easy to pull off blockbuster spectacle on the small screen – especially with the somewhat limited budget that Game of Thrones was given in its debut season – but Benioff and Weiss managed to capture the scope and scale of Martin’s literary world. And it wasn’t just the spectacle that they got right; they also nailed the intricate storytelling, balancing dozens of major characters, and making all the right cuts and changes for televised consumption.
3 Body Problem Is Another Excellent Adaptation From Benioff & Weiss
3 Body Problem has just provided further proof that Benioff and Weiss are great adapters. When they have finished novels to work from, they can turn those novels into compelling television. They know exactly what to change to make a story that worked in book form work in TV form. They’ve changed the central setting from China to London. They’ve expanded on some characters and combined others into composite characters for clarity and concision. All these changes have made the story work a lot better for TV.
Despite the missteps of Game of Thrones’ ending, 3 Body Problem proves that Benioff and Weiss are still two of the best adapters that Hollywood has to offer. They know what to keep, what to omit, and how to bring these worlds to life on-screen. And since the 3 Body Problem books have been finished in their entirety, the Netflix show won’t face the same problem as the final seasons of Game of Thrones.
