It's like someone asked ChatGPT to turn the book into a dumb anglo sitcom.
-Every character is emotionally immature, spiteful, and sassy. None of the 'friends' act like friends. None of the characters talk like real people. They're constantly insulting or hitting each other. It's just embarrassing. The actors have nothing to work with.
-All the major twists/reveals are shown in the first two episodes. No suspense, no build-up, no pay-off. Rushed is an understatement.
-Single characters from the book have been unnecessarily split into multiple new characters adding nothing to the story.
-The story is a cosmic horror but comedy and romance have been forced in for no reason whatsoever except as filler, which is even more mind-boggling because they've essentially rushed all of the good stuff in the book to make room for unfunny jokes.
-Apparently they could barely afford any sets and extras, so scenes and locations that are supposed to be bristling with sights and people just feel oddly empty. Even the special effects feel muted. The budget is just weirdly limited, and the show looks much cheaper than the Tencent series.
-Almost all of the science (which is the interesting stuff) has been gutted from this science fiction.
I hate anglo slop. Where is the kino. Tencent pls adapt The Dark Forest.
I could watch it, but the pacing really is a problem. The show rushes out answers to questions that it would have been fun to have some time to think about. Also, really egregious use of CGI for things they really shouldn't have to use it for. The not being able to afford extras thing seems very apparent there as well. In an army of 30 million of course you're going to have to use CGI, but standard practice would be to have the first rank of soldiers - the ones really close to the camera - be played by real people. No such luck here I'm afraid.
The new Percy Jackson series did this too. There is lots to praise about the new adaptation, but the plot feels rushed, propelled forth by characters having sudden realisations multiple times per episode.
the live action ATLA also has similar problems.
The rehydration scene is supposed to feature millions of Trisolarans. There's like 10 on screen.
They did have the millions of soldiers for the computer lol, but the rehydration scene was just an excuse to
afaic