In 1970s China, at the radio telescope, Ye Wenjie takes destiny shaping matters into her own hands, while in 2024 the friends become increasingly obsessed by the mysterious video game, and Auggie wrestles with how seriously to take the countdown ticking away in her head.

As we get into the meat of the series, 3 Body Problem continues to lay out its stall with well-paced clarity. There’s a lot going on, but as long as you are happy for the various strands to unfold in controlled stages and don’t expect everything to be explained all at once it makes for an absorbing watch.

The jumps between the two timelines are well managed, and we’re given space to get our heads round those before the world of the shiny-headset-video-game adds another timeline of its own. The game world is wittily defined – not just by the convincing high-end graphic style, but with some fun cameos from the likes of Phil Wang, Kevin Eldon, Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith.

I’m still impressed by the clunk-free nature of the dialogue, although as we get to know the friends better, with some lovely scenes played out between Jack (John ‘F-Bomb’ Bradley) and Will (Alex Sharpe) it does expose Eliza González’s Auggie as perhaps the least convincing of the gang. Her performance seems to belong to a different series altogether.

Verdict: 3 Body Problem is proving to be a masterclass in series structure, where the story telling is strong enough to allow the characterisation to breathe, and the creative team know that if we care about the characters then we will be far more receptive to all the narrative twists and turns they want to throw at us. 9/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com