By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 26, 2024 |
By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 26, 2024 |
There’s a great 2015 piece on Slate about The Martian and “competence porn” that is insightful for the way it traces the history and defines competence terms, even if the reliably contrarian website ultimately concludes that The Martian qualifies for the genre.
“Part of the appeal of competence porn is the vicarious rush of watching someone deploy intelligence you admire yet can’t quite access. But the genre’s best moments lasso the audience into the work of problem-solving, too. Good competence porn… illuminates, elevates, and even fetishizes the step-by-step process of achievement,” Sharon Shetty writes.
That article resonated with me while watching Netflix’s new series 3 Body Problem from Alexander Woo and the duo behind Game of Thrones. The series revolves around a group of brilliant scientists grappling with an apparently unsolvable puzzle or, failing that, devising a workaround for the problems spawned by the unsolvable puzzle.
In the series, numerous problems arise, not solely for the scientists. Benedict Wong portrays a detective-esque character endeavoring to unravel the mystery of why so many brilliant scientists are inexplicably killing themselves. Meanwhile, the exceptional minds of the scientists are trying to figure out why the fundamental laws of science appear to be faltering on Earth. Additionally, there’s a virtual reality game simulating the titular 3 Body Problem, challenging these scientists to solve it. This problem involves a planet influenced by the gravitational pull of two suns, resulting in distinct climates during Stable Eras and Chaotic Eras, which ultimately decimate the planet’s population.
Simultaneously, the aliens responsible for the virtual reality game, the San-Ti, are en route to Earth, with plans seemingly aimed at conquest upon their arrival in 400 years. These same scientists are striving to preemptively thwart their impending arrival or, failing that, devise a means to defend Earth upon their arrival. It’s more problem-solving steeped in science beyond my comprehension — the essence of “competence porn,” witnessing intelligence in action that’s beyond my reach while relishing in the process of achievement.
Although the storyline of 3 Body Problem is speculative fiction —- there’s no evidence of aliens hurtling toward Earth from 400 years away —- the grounding in hard science also lends an illusion of plausibility. The stakes feel heightened because the three-body problem is a genuine problem that’s been studied in quantum physics (and it really is unsolvable).
3 Body Problem is adapted from the Hugo Award-winning hard sci-fi novel by Chinese author Liu Cixin. My fascination with the series led me to delve into discussions of the novel, but the daunting complexity of the hard sci-fi is not appealing to me. I rely on compelling characters to demystify complex sci-fi concepts, and that’s precisely what Alexander Woo and the Game of Thrones creators achieve (and what I had hoped from the adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s equally impenetrable Foundation). In fact, the main character in 3 Body Problem is reimagined as a close-knit friend group in the television series, and the interpersonal dynamics among these friends drive the narrative. They are the reason I’m so invested in their problem-solving adventures.
Competence porn is a rarity on contemporary television, especially amidst the algorithm-driven content of Netflix. Most plots these days seem to be driven by characters’ stupid mistakes and bad decisions. It’s refreshing to witness intelligent characters grappling with a predicament that is not of their own making. What’s more, they’re employing science to engineer their solutions. The more intricate the science, the more impressed I am, not only by the complexity of the concepts but also by the writers’ ability to spoon-feed it to me without making me feel dumb. It evokes the exact “vicarious rush” that Shetty describes.
‘3 Body Problem’ is currently streaming on Netflix. It deserves a second and third season (based on Cixin’s sequels), but it’s also an incredibly expensive series to make ($30 million an episode), so it needs a lot of viewers to keep it going. I’d really like to see the next two seasons because I do not want to try to read what sounds like impenetrable novels.