Content warning: This review includes discussion of, and 3 Body Problem includes depictions of, self-harm.

Adapting Liu Cixin's science-fiction novel, The Three-Body Problem, is no small feat. The sweeping story leaps across timelines and bounces between the perspectives of a number of characters. All that goes to convey big ideas about physics and astronomy in the context of a mystery full of strange occurrences. Netflix's series adaptation of the story, 3 Body Problem, succeeds because it takes care to tighten the scope of that vast narrative, focusing on the human element of its mystery and the people caught up in its weird events.

And there are a lot of weird events in the world of 3 Body Problem, starting with an apparent breakdown of science. High-level physics experiments suddenly no longer seem to work, and the greatest minds across the planet can't make sense of the results they're seeing. It's as if the laws of the universe have become nonsensical, and the impact is so profound that physicists keep turning up dead, many seemingly taking their own lives.