Fans of the trilogy might be disappointed with the simplification and changes, but this adaptation is goodlooking and bingeable

Remembrance of Earth’s Past

Cast: Benedict Wong, Jess Hong, Jovan Adepo, Eiza González, John Bradley, Alex Sharp, Rosalind Chao, Zine Tseng, Jonathan Pryce

Episodes:

Storyline: Theoretical physicists are dying all over the world and it is left to a group of five fabulous physicists and one dogged detective to mount the resistance this happens halfway through the first episode.

We are simultaneously shown Wenjie’s life in Mongolia where she is first doing hard labour and then joins the Red Coast, a military project tracking spy satellites and also secretly trying to communicate with alien life forms. Wenjie makes a breakthrough and is able to send a message to the aliens. Her choice at that moment has horrific repercussions in the present.

Jin finds a sophisticated virtual reality game Vera was playing before she died. The gameworld ricochets between stable and chaotic weather systems and the objective is to be able to predict the switches. Characters dressed as scientists and thinkers from history including Galileo, Isaac Newton, Alan Turing and Aristotle feature in the game positing their theories.

In the shadows are the rich, radical environmentalist Mike Evans ( Jonathan Pryce) who seems to be following the presentday events with great interest and Wade (Liam Cunningham), who is some sort of topsecret government official. There is of course an impending alien invasion to prepare for and it is all hands on deck for the

earthlings.

Thanks to Chris Nolan and Cillian Murphy, physicists are suddenly the coolest dudes on the planet and the fabulous five is empirical proof of that theory. If only that geek god, Jeff Goldblum, could have popped by to play chess or say oops!

works spectacularly well in parts — that human abacus scene was sheer jawdrop quality as were the dehydrate/rehydrate cycles. Scenes of cold beauty jostle for space with those of heartwrenching terror— the scene where the repurposed oil tanker, the Judgment Day, comes up against the nanoweb is the stuff of nightmares. The scenes in China and Mongolia featuring a young Wenjie are moving. Ramin Djawadi’s music is spookily spectacular.

Where falters is in its awkward love story, sappy sentimentality and shoehorning of inclusivity (‘tum keede ho’, the aliens beam helpfully on an Indian street). Some of the dialogue could have used by some scissor work by script doctors. The series also suffers from an unseemly haste as in its desire for pace, it jams high concepts into cardboard philosophy.

Despite these flaws, moves smoothly, not asking much of the viewer but to luxuriate in the wonderful visuals as beautiful people tentatively spout quantum theory. While Jin pouts at her Naval officer boyfriend, Raj (Saamer Usmani), and Will pines for his unspoken love, one can always pass the time looking for Game of Thrones connections. Apart from Djawadi, Bradley, Cunningham,

Pryce and Kevin Eldon (as Sir Thomas More) are GoT alum. Incidentally, George RR Martin championed Liu Cixin’s novel. For those upset with playing fast and loose with Hugo Awardwinning epic, the books will always be there. is streaming on Netflix