Rabelaisian
Ra·be·lai·sian ˌra-bə-ˈlā-zhən -zē-ən
1: of, relating to, or characteristic of Rabelais or his works
2: marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism
Liu’s “The Three-Body Problem” takes place in Beijing during the novel’s setting in the mid-aughts, with flashbacks to the countryside 40 years earlier. It is superficially a mystery, with a mismatched pair, the reserved physicist Wang Miao and the Rabelaisian cop Shi Qiang, investigating a rash of suicides among high-level scientists. Discovering what lies behind the deaths involves uncovering a conspiracy that dates to the Cultural Revolution; it also involves Wang’s frequently donning virtual-reality gear to play an elaborate, cosmically expansive video game.
| Mike Hale, ‘Three-Body’ Review: A Chinese Series Beats Netflix to the Screen