CNN
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The brand new Netflix sequence “3 Body Problem” isn’t actually about China’s Cultural Revolution or US tradition wars. The science fiction epic, tailored from Liu Cixin’s Hugo award-winning novel, is extra involved with large theoretical questions, like how humanity may reply to an impending extraterrestrial invasion.
However that hasn’t stopped viewers from drawing parallels between the brutal period of China’s history, depicted within the present’s opening, and present-day American politics.
“3 Physique Downside,” from “Sport of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss together with Alexander Woo, begins out with a harrowing scene set in Mao Zedong’s China in 1966. A physics professor, accused of instructing counter-revolutionary ideas, is introduced onstage earlier than a raging mob and overwhelmed to dying.
Such incidents, through which “class enemies” had been publicly humiliated and tortured, had been widespread all through the decade-long Cultural Revolution, which sought to silence Mao’s perceived opposition and ended along with his dying in 1976.
The sequence’ first season, whose eight episodes hit Netflix on March 21, debuted at No. 2 on the streamer’s high 10 exhibits and has since climbed to the highest spot. Although subsequent seasons of the present haven’t but been confirmed, the showrunners have said they envision the story unfolding over 4 seasons.
Regardless of the present’s bold, intergalactic scope, it’s that first scene that appears to have elicited the strongest reactions. As US audiences took within the extremely charged opening, which has additionally sparked controversy and debate in China, some had been fast to share what they noticed because the subtext.
“Simply watched the opening scene of Netflix’s 3 Physique Downside depicting a Chinese language cultural revolution lynching, and it’s scarily harking back to the place Woke is taking us: no freedom of speech or thought, toe the get together line or be eradicated, don’t even consider counter-revolution,” one consumer wrote on X.
“To perceive what the left is doing, I counsel watching the opening of the Netflix sequence 3 Physique Downside,” one other individual on X wrote. “The scene of the Cultural revolution demonstrates what’s happening. Study historical past or be doomed.”
However whereas some conservatives heralded the scene as a metaphor for the supposed authoritarianism of the left, some liberals and progressives reached a wholly completely different conclusion.
“To grasp what the suitable is doing, I counsel watching the opening of the Netflix sequence 3 Physique Downside,” one consumer responded to a conservative publish on X. “The scene of the Cultural revolution demonstrates what’s happening. Banning books in faculties & libraries that don’t conform to their mind-set. Then cry ‘Freedom.’”
One other individual on X wrote, “Simply watched the opening scenes from ‘3 Physique Downside,’ set within the Cultural Revolution, and the anti-science set in America is so much like that.”
That viewers from opposing ends of the political spectrum would come away with such differing interpretations is probably unsurprising. As CNN’s Brian Lowry wrote in 2017 concerning the discourse round “Sport of Thrones,” politics and popular culture have turn out to be so intertwined that folks are likely to see what they wish to see in artwork — no matter its supposed message.
Although the story is rooted in a really actual second in Chinese language historical past, the Cultural Revolution is merely the catalyst for one character’s lack of religion in humanity. Disgusted and disillusioned, she comes to a decision that places your entire planet at risk.
“3 Physique Downside” rapidly strikes on from the Cultural Revolution to the ripple results of that perilous choice, elevating deep, thought-provoking questions within the course of: How can we reply within the face of an existential risk? What position will know-how play? And the way highly effective is our resolve to outlive?
Some critics, in the meantime, see the general story as an allegory for the climate crisis — a real-life risk that many on the suitable proceed to downplay.
Artists can’t management how their work is perceived. However take it from the sequence’ creators: They are saying the opening scene isn’t sending some type of coded message about what constitutes accountability or censorship.
“This isn’t a commentary on cancel tradition,” Benioff advised The Hollywood Reporter.
“However we do have a tendency to maneuver in cycles by way of human historical past, and we’re going by means of a sure interval of the cycle proper now. There are various very important variations between the present time and the Cultural Revolution. However there are additionally some similarities,” Benioff mentioned.
“It was by no means one thing the place we had been like, ‘We should always do that present as a result of we wish to make a commentary on that.’ However it’s attention-grabbing that the parallels are there and are onerous to disregard.”