The biggest shows on Netflix are so big that you can probably name at least a few of them even if you’ve never watched them: stuff like Stranger Things, Squid Game, and Bridgerton. But there are other series that fly more under the radar. That includes 3 Body Problem, which just happens to be the smartest sci-fi show on Netflix right now.

Netflix ran the first, intriguing season of 3 Body Problem back in 2024, which means fans have been waiting a while to see more. Now the show is barreling towards an ending and it feels like no one is paying attention, even though they should.

3 Body Problem is a heady sci-fi trip

The science is crazy, imaginative, and just plausible enough to be convincing

3 Body Problem is based on the Remembrance of Earth’s Past books by author Liu Cixin, a trilogy that earned high praise when it was published over a period of three years in the late 2000s. The books tell the story of humanity’s first contact with extraterrestrial life, which does not make a good first impression. The aliens at the center of the story — called the Trisolarans in the books and the San-Ti in the show; I’m still not sure why they changed it — come from an incredibly inhospitable world where they must undergo regular near-extinction events. Once they find out about the existence of Earth, they decide to travel here and make it their new home. Humanity has around 400 years to prepare.

Liu Cixin was an engineer before he became a science fiction writer, and his work feels plausible and convincing even as it delves into some pretty wild concepts. The three-body problem refers to a scientific concept describing the difficulty of predicting how three celestial objects — like stars or planets — interact with each other through gravity. The San-Ti’s home world is part of a three-body system, which is why the climate there is so unpredictable and dangerous.

The show changes a lot about the books. For instance, it splits up characters from the books into multiple people for the show, the better to give us an ensemble cast we can follow and root for. But it delves into the same kinds of knotty questions. How would people here on Earth react to a slow-but-certain alien invasion? Some start building up Earth’s defenses, but others are eager to accept their new alien overlords and actually try to sabotage those trying to resist. Both sides come up with some ingenious ways to do battle. There’s a scene in the first season involving an oil tanker and a series of super-sharp, incredibly thin nanofiber wires that has to be seen to be believed.

3 Body Problem is swiftly approaching its climax

After a years-long absence, it’s about to be everywhere

It’s been years since the first season of 3 Body Problem dropped on Netflix, but fans won’t have to wait much longer to see the story continue. The second season is scheduled to drop later this year, with the third and final season set to arrive in 2027; it just started filming in June 2026. So while Netflix took its sweet time getting the ball rolling on Seasons 2 and 3, that ball is now careening down the hill at top speed.

That means that after over two years of waiting, 3 Body Problem is getting ready to hit viewers with a one-two punch. The bad news is that while the first season had eight episodes, the second and third seasons will only have six and five respectively.

Does that mean the story will be abbreviated? Not necessarily. While the first season nominally adapted only the first book in Liu Cixin’s trilogy, it brought in elements of the second and third. For instance, the finale is called “Wallfacer,” which refers to a secret program where the governments of the world agree to give unlimited resources to a small number of people whose job it is to prepare for the coming San-Ti invasion. These “wallfacers” cannot tell anybody what they’re planning; they just make their demands and Earth’s governments come together to get it done, no matter how many trillions of dollars it take. This is done to get around the San-Ti’s advanced surveillance. They know everything that is happening on Earth, but they can’t read minds. The idea is that as long as the ultimate designs for Earth’s defense remain inside the wallfacers’ heads, humanity will retain the element of surprise.

With concepts like that already explained, the second and third seasons should be able to hit the ground running, and may not need lots of episodes.

3 Body Problem could redeem the end of Game of Thrones

It’ll make sense in a second

3 Body Problem is created by David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and Alexander Woo; Benioff and Weiss got famous as the showrunners behind HBO’s Game of Thrones, a phenomenally popular fantasy show with an ending that left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans. Many fans agree that Game of Thrones started to lose its way after it ran out of source material to adapt, author George R.R. Martin still having not finished his Song of Ice and Fire trilogy. 3 Body Problem could be a chance at redemption: Benioff and Weiss are once again adapting a book series, but this time it’s finished. All they have to do is execute.

That doesn’t mean the second and third seasons of 3 Body Problem are guaranteed to be showstoppers, but the stars are aligning in a way that demands attention be paid. If the next two seasons of the show measure up to the books, they could be spectacular, so you might as well start getting excited now.

Further watching

We don’t have a firm release date for the second season of 3 Body Problem yet, so you’ll still need some quality sci-fi to fill the gap. Happily, the entertainment industry is happy to provide. There are plenty of sci-fi series out there that are great front to back, and you probably already have access to several.