Brews N' Reviews - First Take: Three Body Problem; Launchpad Brewing Strawberry Moon

Brews and Reviews With Micky Pat

Speaker 1 0:04

we ride together , we die together and be bare force for life . Get busy living or get busy dying gang , first , last are you not entertained ? Are you not entertained ?

Speaker 2 0:26

welcome to brews and reviews with micky pat . I'm mick and I'm pat and each week we sit down with you degenerates to pretend we're certified cicerones and cinephiles that is right .

Speaker 1 0:37

So grab a cold one and join us as we review launchpady's Strawberry Moon and give our first takes of Three Body Problem .

Speaker 2 0:46

And if you've been with us before , you know what time it is . Release the Kraken .

Speaker 1 0:57

Oh , I got it on my new laptop , that's pretty synchronized . It was right in there . That was professional .

Speaker 2 1:03

This is stanky . It was right in there , that was professional . This is stanky . I don't know what . I expected a strawberry shortcake beer to smell like , but that's stinky dude .

Speaker 1 1:13

I don't know if I'm actually excited for the flavor we're about to drink but I am excited about the way the can looks .

Speaker 2 1:20

I think it's not Breckenridge Brewery , maybe it is Breckenridge Brewery . Maybe it is Breckenridge Brewery the one who does the Christmas ale . Yeah , they have a strawberry shortcake blonde . Oh , really . Yeah , billy Jean really likes it . I mean , I like it a lot too .

Speaker 1 1:42

It is strawberry colored coming out of there . When it settles in it's strawberry colored for sure , and the yeah , it's a strawberry shortcake blonde . So that's a lot of all . Three of those things are kind of it sounds like a birthday cake or something you know , things are kind of it sounds like a birthday cake or something you know , but on this can we have ?

Speaker 1 2:13

it's a black can , what's actually ? Yeah , and it's . It's a little matte black can which has been grabbing our attention at least mine personally ever since we've been on the true brewery kick so matte black .

Speaker 2 2:22

Uh , matte black background .

Speaker 1 2:24

Yep . Matte black background . There's a lot of verbiage on here . What's going on here ? We've got the main icon . We've got this blood red moon with some mountains in the moon and a lake shore . I like it . It's a little . It's like true brewing adjacent .

Speaker 2 2:44

You know , it's like I'm leaning off . They were like hey guys , like you see those guys over in west denver and what they're doing with their beer , we should do the same . Marketing . Yeah , because I mean that could be like a probably not , I don't know , that could be a metal oh yeah , it's a . The only reason I don't think it's true is because , it's too big , Yep , yep . But if it was less , you know , if it was a little bit more tempered , I would be like , oh yeah , that's Blood Moon .

Speaker 1 3:11

True Brewing's Blood Moon . Yep , they would blend right in there , for sure .

Speaker 2 3:16

Especially with the tasteful silvery moon rim and the bluish teal lake reflection yep , which I know people don't probably care that much about , but I mean I I really do respect it because it really is what makes me I will not pick up a can if I think the logo looks too silly or cheap especially like like this was , I think , 16 for you know , four beers yeah right , they're tall boys , but still 16 bucks .

Speaker 1 3:52

So it's like you gotta . You're not supposed to judge a book by its title , but you kind of do bro dude , there are like I know .

Speaker 2 4:01

I know funk works makes a good beer , yeah right , but there have been some funk works labels that I've seen I won't drink that . There was there was one that was called like fruity pebbles , bubble gum , sour , and I was like I'm not picking that beer up , like for 14.99 for four pack , and like it has that name and label , like , no , I'm not touching it . So maybe I'm a Scrooge , but I just don't want to drink Fruity Pebbles , milk , bubble gum flavored beer .

Speaker 1 4:29

Right , it sounds a little gnarly , that was a little bit like too much is going on .

Speaker 2 4:36

Sounds like Juul . You know they're trying to market to the youth , yeah .

Speaker 1 4:40

It sounds like if you wanted to drink that , you just have that instead .

Speaker 2 4:44

Exactly .

Speaker 1 4:45

But we got on the top . It says hashtag craft beer is sour rocket fuel . Is our rocket fuel ? I was reading . It is sour rocket fuel . I get it now . Is our rocket fuel ? Yeah , yeah , I was misreading that . I was confused . Craft beer is our rocket fuel . Launch pad brewery , aurora Colorado . And then what's ? Oh , they got Aurora Colorado , earth , orion , arm , milky Way , galaxy . So for the address , they really get specific . Just in case any of those of you out there listening beyond In case there's any Trisolorans .

Speaker 1 5:24

Yeah , need to try some of this Strawberry Moon . You know where to find them . And these guys , they started . They were founded end of 2014 and really got started 2015 . They are kind of cool . They're Air Force veterans , you , you know . Respect , respect , respect for sure , but , surprisingly or not , one of them what did . What did he maybe like to do when he ?

Speaker 2 5:57

was ?

Speaker 1 5:57

I don't know maybe brew beer in his basement ? He was . He was an avid home brewer . Wow , the word avid .

Speaker 2 6:04

Like a drink .

Speaker 1 6:05

Like a drink .

Speaker 2 6:07

I haven't even taken a sip yet . I wish I knew someone who brewed beer like not professionally and they're like he wasn't a home brewer , though he brewed it in like the copier room at his office .

Speaker 1 6:21

You know what I mean . Like just something else . Like that Like , rather than be be like he's an avid home brewer , it's like so is everybody else . Yeah , it's so funny . Um , one thing I do like is he went to his best friend , you know , uh , so one guy , he was getting all excited about starting a brew and he was , um , uh goes to his best friend , says , hey , I'm really serious about doing this . Will you do it with me ? And he said I don't know anything about brewing , but I have good credit . So they partnered up and here they are .

Speaker 1 6:51

My credit score is 767 , so yeah , I guess so almost 10 years later and they've , uh , they're still doing it . So , um , yeah , these guys out of aurora color , like I said , they've got a tap room there . You can check them out , go in and try all their different things , and you know this can has a lot of other words on it , but there's not a . There's a lot of . You've got the Surgeon General warning , a couple of little have-to-haves , and then here we go . The Strawberry Moon is the full moon closest in the timing to the summer solstice . Its name is based on the fruits growing season , not its actual color , which may vary . I didn't know that . But there you go , the strawberry moon . So , um , astronauts recycle their urine . You can recycle . This can good little , little clever things on here . I like it . Some good effort going on , um . So I haven't really had a real good sip of this thing yet okay , all right .

Speaker 2 8:00

well , while you take your first slip you know , slip , slip , uh , sip ,

Launchpad Brewery Experience and Review

Speaker 2 8:04

um . I've been to the tap room for Launchpad Brewery down in Aurora , colorado , and I got to say it was a really cool vibe and it was almost exactly the same layout as like Zwei . It felt like it was like one-to-one with Zwei Brewing's layout . So , if you get a chance though , it's pretty cool , it's pretty loud , but it's homely small barstool area , and I've definitely had other beers of theirs that I liked and thought was fine . It was convenient because I was working it was my first job out of college and I was working as an armed contractor and they put us up in a hotel down in denver to uh stay in while we did our training and the uh launchpad brewing's um tap room was just right across the street from my hotel . It was awesome . So I just like walked over and just had beers and walked back . So , uh , anyways though , um , yeah , let's , uh , let's do the push through your teeth test I'm ready .

Speaker 2 9:12

You're ready for that all right , so I'll describe it while pat falls along and all of you out there fall along , and then I'll do it myself .

Speaker 2 9:19

Uh , but yeah , you take a tablespoon amount into your mouth , into your gullet , and let it roll over all of your taste buds , let it roll down the side of your tongue and get under your tongue and then swish it from side to side through your molars and then let it pull back in in front of your tongue , put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and push it forward so you get that kind of sucking your teeth , hissing sound and fuzziness from the beer swishing through and it should aerate the beer quite well and give you all the flavors that are in that beer . Sometimes it just brings out that one flavor because that's the only thing in the beer . Other times it really brings out the uh kind of two or three hidden notes and , uh , I gotta say , pat , I'm concerned to do it because of your expression well , you may have made a similar one earlier too , you know , you know , I I'm not sure I am unsure .

Speaker 1 10:17

Um , oh , is this ? I'm reading the um , some of the description on the website now too , which is just funny . Um , I didn't know that this was supposed to be in beer . When was this canned ?

Speaker 2 10:36

it says something 2023 is it ?

Speaker 1 10:38

720 2023 okay so this is canned . September Seven , oh geez . July , yeah , oh my gosh . Okay , so this is canned back in .

Speaker 2 10:52

July . It's old . It tastes like fucking bubblegum dude . It tastes like bubblegum gas in a liquid form . I bet you know how they pump the bubblegum flavored gas through the dentist to knock you out . I bet , before that thing is turned into a gas , you just popped open the tank and just took a sip out of it .

Speaker 1 11:13

It tastes like this well , here's the other things , which I don't know if this has anything to do with dairy or not , or if we should drink the rest of this beer , but it's been fermented so it should be fine . But so on their um website , because these make sense , so they , they brew this during the strawberry moon , I guess , which is in the summer , summer solstice , which we just hit , the spring spring , yeah , spring winter solstice , so it's like it's like spring solstice , so we're a ways off from the From when it was brewed .

Speaker 2 11:47

But we're actually closer to the next one , the next batch .

Speaker 1 11:51

Anyways , it says bold American blonde ale with strawberries , lactose and vanilla beans . The middle ingredient is concerning to me .

Speaker 2 12:05

Why lactose ? Why use that ? Because I mean lactose is a . The middle ingredient is concerning to me . Why lactose ? Why use that ? Because I mean lactose is a .

Speaker 1 12:10

And what is lactose ? I know what it is , but it's like a gluten .

Speaker 2 12:15

So it's something for the bacteria to feed on Right For the ferment .

Speaker 1 12:19

So does he use that instead of yeast ? In a beer . Is that a thing ? We might need Craig to look that up for us . It's been a while since he's done anything around here , but the anyway . So in my mind I just think I'm now . My stomach hurts because I'm thinking I'm drinking milk beer from last July .

Speaker 2 12:54

You know , I've never minded like milk bread or like milk cocktails , like what's that one with vodka and milk . It's called like a white Russian . White Russian , yeah , I mean like it was okay . I don't think like vodka milk on its own is good , but like you mix in some sweet stuff and creamers or whatever . But uh , vodka , I mean not vodka . Uh , milk and beer . Not sure I'm down with that , uh , but I mean I see people mentioning for you know , doing it um , uh , for like bread and other baking things , oat , milk and yeast . I haven't seen anyone here talking about doing it for beer and I wonder if there's a reason .

Speaker 1 13:31

Firestone Walker says Brewers use lactose to add sweetness and a thicker mouthfeel to beers because it's a sugar that brewing yeast can't ferment , so lactose is primarily used in stouts .

Speaker 2 13:47

Also , lactose is non-fermentable .

Speaker 1 13:51

Okay .

Speaker 2 13:52

What does that ?

Speaker 1 13:53

mean ? Does that mean that it's ? Is that a good or bad thing for us to keep putting it in our stomach ? You know what I'm saying , Dude ?

Speaker 2 14:02

we're about to get the runs right during this episode .

Speaker 1 14:07

Well , that's a whole other thing . That , oh my gosh , that's a alright well okay , alright , I'm gonna take two more sips and I'm ready to rate this thing , but it's a little skewed on what it oh bro .

Speaker 2 14:20

Dude , that's crazy how we both are like immediately I'm gonna try to give it like , I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt here . Like you know , I always tell people if you don't like a sour , you got to give those three sips . You got to give a sour beer three sips before you write it off it's very so it's very sweet . It tastes like bubble gum .

Speaker 1 14:43

It's very sweet and very old , that is what I'm tasting .

Speaker 2 14:48

It tastes like bubble gum , Old sweetness yeah . Oh man , dude , that sucks .

Speaker 1 14:56

Might have a like , so there's only been .

Speaker 2 14:58

I'll give my review right now . That sucks balls .

Speaker 1 15:01

There's only been this will now be the second beer that doesn't get finished on the show . There's only one other one that didn't get finished , that you didn't finish , which was the nightmare fuel and you finished it , but you didn't have a second I didn't have a second , but I finished the first and then , and so I'm probably not gonna drink the rest of this I'm not gonna drink it .

Speaker 2 15:23

I can't , can't , dude , there's no .

Speaker 1 15:25

So here's . It's insane . Are we calling a , you know ? Are we calling it fair , or are we like you know , For when it was canned ? Is this what it tastes like all the time ? Are we calling Like for Rocket Lab Bro ?

Speaker 2 15:43

we didn't give anyone benefit of the doubt when we did the kombuchas . They were like over a year old .

Speaker 1 15:49

That's true , that's true . So , as it stands , I'm giving this beer in my hand , I'm giving it two thumbs down . Oh , dude , for sure .

Speaker 2 16:02

Two thumbs down bro , I mean way down . Oh , dude for sure . Two thumbs down bro , I mean way down . I wouldn't like give this to someone who was thirsty dying of thirst . I'd be like it's better to just die bro .

Speaker 1 16:16

It's given me like , so there's things in it that smell familiar too , like something like the kombucha or just the old .

Speaker 2 16:25

It's the dentist . Bubble gum gas , bro . Don't you remember ? Did you ever have the dentist put you to sleep with the laughing gas , or whatever ?

Speaker 1 16:31

Yeah , it is like that . But I'm saying also to some beers we've had on the show , like just some of the like .

Speaker 2 16:37

I ain't never smelled beer that smelled like bubble gum on this show .

Speaker 1 16:39

It's not the bubble gum . It's something that's underlined beneath it .

Speaker 2 16:42

You smell something else in there . It literally smells like bubble gum to me .

Speaker 1 16:48

Close your eyes and think of nightmare fuel . No , it just has something . There's something in there that's not good , it's bad . That's what my lizard brain is saying . Not good .

Speaker 2 16:57

Bad . Yeah , that's what my brain is telling me too every time I try to take a sip of it .

Speaker 1 17:02

All right , tonight's show brought to you by Liquid Death , no , for real .

Speaker 2 17:07

Honestly , Liquid Death , Mango , Chainsaw and Armless Palmer as our backup beverages Wow .

Speaker 1 17:13

All right . So Rocket Pad Brewery , we're going to give it another shot the brewery , not the beer . Sure , yeah , if this came out of the tap on a summer night when it had just been brewed , maybe you'd get a zero , most like zero thumb , most likely would get a one thumb down , but at the moment this can of beer gets two thumbs down from us you can't have fucking sorry , apologize for my profanity .

Speaker 2 17:41

You can't have bubble gum flavored beer . What ?

Speaker 1 17:43

the hell is that dude ?

Speaker 2 17:44

it's , uh , doesn't even taste . It doesn't taste at all what they're going for , let alone I apologize for my profanity you can't have bubblegum flavored beer . What the hell is that , dude ? It doesn't even taste . It doesn't taste at all what they're going for , let alone Like

Discussion on Three-Body Problem Adaptation

Speaker 2 17:52

. If it had the same artificial strawberry shortcake taste as like a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar , then I'd be like okay , weird , weird , but not what I want . Yeah , but at least you're kind of close right , this tastes nothing like an actual strawberry shortcake . It doesn't even taste like a blonde beer . Yeah , like , I can't think of a single blonde beer I've had that's had this flavor . You got to imagine it's . I mean , yeah , I want to give them benefit of the doubt Because I've had their beer before .

Speaker 2 18:23

I can't tell you the beer I liked , you know it was years ago , right , but man , I don't remember any of the beer being this bad . So hey , if you guys want to send us another beer review of some of the fresh , we're always about it . Ooh , man , rough start All right , it's a good transition . Let start All right , this is a good transition .

Speaker 2 18:47

Let's just transition now into three body problem Three body , Because I will say I picked this can for the three body problem , the you know uh kind of graphic novelization of what's described in the book , in the show as a red coast project .

Speaker 2 19:10

right , like it looks like you know something you'd see in communist occupied china when uh yao hin jie reaches out to uh a whole nother civilization . I guess I should just say this too Since you and I listened to the book for Three-Body , y'all should prepare yourself for mild spoilers for both . Yep , because we're going to be going over the first episode and , holy shit , dude , does the first episode you know we're providing our first takes the first episode really does I mean blaze past the first third of the book ?

Speaker 2 19:51

I think you know what I mean . Like I genuinely think about like how much was in the first third of the book and like it's just like oh , wow , already , okay , I think the show's been on for five minutes and we're like that's within the first , like I don't know , 50 , 60 pages of the book . You know right , so , um , but anyways , uh , three body problems um , it is now on netflix and it is a show with a lot of hype around it , because the three body problem is a book series that was written by chinese author shishin lu , who's also , like in real life , um , a rather successful , uh theorist for science . Um , and I think he's got the actual title of astrophysics theorist I think is what his like .

Speaker 2 20:41

True , like you know , doctorate , phd title is , or whatever but yeah , session Liu wrote the first book , the Three-Body Problem I think it was originally in China , just called Three-Body and it was in 2008 . And it was one of Barack Obama's favorite books that he's ever read and that was one of the number one endorsements . Yeah , if you see on the cover of any of the books before the netflix adaption was being made , it used to just say like one of my , like one of the most imaginative books I've ever read . Barack obama , that's pretty legit . No , no , he he recommended it while he was in office for people to read , which was pretty whack , dude you're scary .

Speaker 1 21:22

Yeah , I don't know if that's cool or scary prepare .

Speaker 2 21:25

Yeah , we must prepare for our lord um , but anyways , uh , the three body problem is a very high conceptual sci-fi , uh , science fiction , but very grounded in real science today . So it's not like star wars where you suspend a lot of disbelief .

Speaker 2 21:50

Everything is almost boringly described at points in the book in like excruciatingly like scientific detail , whereas for me , listening to it , I thoroughly enjoyed that because I felt like I was learning from like an actually decent educator , yeah , and then it was always like whenever something was being explained to me , like the concept of what is the three body problem , I was always waiting for the shoe to drop with , like how is shishin lu gonna make this part of a horror thing ?

Speaker 2 22:21

right because the horror of the of the books is very much a uh , here's this theory and if it's true , it's very bad for humanity , um and so , um , anyways , all that said , I , uh I thoroughly enjoyed the book . Uh , one of the things that first really just gripped me from the book , uh , was this idea of extraterrestrials and uh , not even extraterrestrials maybe , but just higher dimensional beings and possibly god and uh , it was the and we talked about on the podcast before , but it was , uh , the farmer analogy and the shooter analogy in regard , or sorry , the theory of the farmer and the shooter in regards to , like , who we are in our place in the universe . Um and uh , the rest of that I don't necessarily I won't get into because we're just doing a first take on the show , but I was just kind of surprised of , like , some of the things that the show got to in the first episode and , uh , what it didn't address , you know , and it seems like they're really moving quickly through the first book , because I think they're gonna try to introduce plot lines from the second and third book . Um , because you know , some the book series has things that take place at in each book at correlating times . So , all that said , I think it's going to be a very complex series .

Speaker 2 23:48

If you liked Game of Thrones and the complexity of Game of Thrones and a lot of different characters and timelines , you might enjoy this . Game of Thrones is high fantasy , but Game of Thrones has a lot of character character driven stuff at the small scale level but also is huge , monumental plot points moving and how , like a whole civilization and society is being altered by the choices of one person and you know , deeply rippled and I think that's like a really actually like true for three body as well , true for three body as well .

Speaker 2 24:25

so , and it's also created by uh , you know it's originally ran by shishin lu , but alexander wu , who , uh , worked on the terror , did both of the seasons of the terror which we've discussed here , and then db weiss and david benioff of game of thrones fame . Uh , you know , they totally dropped the ball , you know , but uh , they , they did really good in the beginning adapting the work , and it seems like these guys are always usually pretty good at directing and writing when they're adopting source material . It seems like they really aren't that great at concluding things or wrapping things up when the source material is not there for them to work off of . Source material is not there for them to work off of . But , uh , all I said , um , the , the basic plot summary from the shows imdb and all that is , uh , the three body problem , which was first this novel and groundbreaking , award-winning series .

Speaker 2 25:17

Uh , it's set against the backdrop of the fallout of China's cultural revolution from the 60s and 70s , I believe , where a secret military project sends signals out into space to establish communication with others outside of our world and there's a little bit of , you know , dual narrative , where some of the story takes place back in the 1960s , 70s , some of it takes place in modern today when you know more and more information is revealed about what's occurring due to what happened then . Um , so anyways , uh , pat , I guess I wanted you know , let me know if you feel like there's anything I miss . And kind of trying to wrap up , know the conceptual thing of three body and trying to get people kind of prepared for , like what the show might be like , right , because it is , I think , very hard when you've read the whole first book or like you know , like I have read the other books , and not accidentally spoil what this may or may not be as a TV series adaption .

Speaker 1 26:29

Right , because a big part of the book is the mystery . It's not knowing what's real , what's not real , or really what's coming up not real , um , you know . Or what's what's we're really . What's coming up , you know , or what's going to be the ? Especially when you're dealing with something like a 60s communist country . You know the level of like misinformation and things like that you know .

Speaker 1 26:56

So what's what's really real , what's not real , what's going on here ? All that stuff , um , it's a you know uh , mystery . And then also there's a huge horror aspect to the show too as well , but not like you know or not to show it to the book of .

Speaker 1 27:09

It's not really slasher horror , it's more like a deep existential dread yeah , absolute existential dread horror , you know , um , that you can't escape , or whatever , and and so powerlessness , extreme powers , and so , um , I think that the book

Book to TV Adaptation Critique

Speaker 1 27:30

was . I don't think I could have read the book . I don't know if I could have either listening to it . I could , I listened to it and I liked it . I don't think I could have read it because of the um , it was some painstakingly slow , uh , explanations and descriptions of things going on , but when you listen to it , it was it like you said , it was some painstakingly slow explanations and descriptions of things going on , but when you listen to it , it was like you said , it was a more learning experience , and so , um , yeah , I think that , as far as what this show is going to be , uh , the , you've set it up Well . You've set it up well , and , and just especially since we don't know what they're actually gonna do in comparison to the book , um , I think like getting into it .

Speaker 2 28:13

You know , the one of the like really great , excuse me , build-ups um in the book is that like you don't even know what the hell is going on . Right , like I remember people were like disappointed when the like I was reading things online where people had read the first book and you know , even recently , uh , and they're like , wow , I'm really disappointed that this is the thing . Like I'm really disappointed .

Speaker 2 28:42

It was like this is the cause or the issue at hand and I was like , really I thought it was kind of well done , but also , I guess it wasn't what I was prepared for . I guess I thought it was kind of silly . And pat I , if I remember correctly , you were one of the people who was like yeah , I'm not sure I want to read the second one right because it kind of felt like the ending was a little too .

Speaker 2 29:02

The ending felt like it was downgraded from this massive mystery of physics and the cosmos to this reveal that then feels a little cheap or a little hokey . I'm not sure I understand it or got it because it felt a little like a short sell , one of those things . Because , like , I guess I get that and I really think this show will skip way fast to that reveal , right ?

Speaker 2 29:32

you know what I mean . I think they're gonna do that reveal like episode two , episode three , and not wait for that to be at the end of the season .

Speaker 1 29:37

Right , because ? Because part of the thing here is , like you know , the uh , adapting any book is very difficult , sure , just whatever it is you know , um , and then to have it also be something that is really like end of book one is you know or you know is just a setup for the next , for the rest of the series .

Speaker 1 30:03

Yeah , right , and so then it's not a you know , the whatever ending of the episode of 24 yeah , right you know , like , you're like , oh my god , like I gotta know what's going on like , like this like on the edge of your seat thing . So I I will see how they do . I wonder if they'll commit to it or not . That way they'll probably , like you said just maybe skip further into the story .

Speaker 2 30:27

Yeah , I think it's gonna be so much sooner than like you and I would think that or be used to according to like reading the books . But , um , because I mean , I think one of the like best parts too is that , like the book follows this character named uh wang miao , and , keep in mind , chinese , the proper way to introduce someone is , or talk about someone , is their surname first and then their last . I mean , sorry , their surname first and then their first name . So , like Yao Wenjie , her first name is Wenjie . Last name , yeah , wang Miao . Last name Wang . First name Miao , which is , I think , you know , something to understand when you're watching the show and you're like , wow , those people both have their first name yeah , everybody , and it's like yeah everyone's named .

Speaker 2 31:16

Yeah , it's like no , no , no , that's , that's showing that they're all family , um , but anyways , wang mao in the book he has this cool thing where he's taking pictures and while he's just like taking pictures to decompress about the stress of his job and he's got like a newborn son at home who's like kind of stressing him out and his wife is very distant and he's really pressured at work working on nanofiber stuff he's just taking pictures on this nice camera with old film and as he's developing them , he starts seeing just so , so , faintly , little time stamp numbers in the center of the footage or in the center of the pictures , as he's like air drying them out and , uh , processing them . And then he notices like when he takes a picture with a dark background they're illuminated , and with a light background they're dark , and he's like what ? Oh my gosh , wait a second . He starts patterning them up and he realizes it's not just time , it's a countdown , it's not a time stamp of the camera , because this is an analog film camera , it doesn't imprint the time stamp on anything . And as he's starting to get like obsessed with trying to figure out where this time stamp's coming up from , eventually it just burns into his eyes and he just sees , no matter where he looks .

Speaker 2 32:31

A countdown and that build-up was for me , probably over the course of like two or three days of reading , of like listening to the book , yeah , and just like the , the , the fear and psychopathy that is like developing for this guy who's like in the books themselves never try to like make phenomenal really well-built written characters . The characters are always just purely supposed to feel like everyday people who are vehicles for you to understand the gravity of what is happening . Um , and in the show Augie Salazar , which I think is supposed to be our Wang Miao , for the most part , right , uh , which I'm not a huge fan of . A third third third , wang Miao .

Speaker 1 33:21

Oh yeah , I was like .

Speaker 2 33:21

I was like I'm not really a big fan of them . Like , just like I get it you're gonna make . You got to make it like so more accessible and not just be based in China and Chinese subtitles all the time . You want it to be accessible to like the globes , you're going to make it English . Why did you have to make Wang Miao a like uh , I would imagine Venezuelan woman ? Yeah , um . And why does Wang Miao's , as a Venezuela movie , not seem like a scientifically cool , calculated individual , but kind of just like a like , just like a chick from Sex and the City ? Yeah , like . You know what I mean .

Speaker 1 34:00

Well cause . So if we're getting into the first episode too , we're just like all right . So there was a part in there where I was like am I watching this beginning of how I Met your Mother ? Yeah , or am I watching this horror sci-fi mystery , yeah , while these friends like grab ass and talking in the bar .

Speaker 2 34:17

And I was like the profanity was also off-putting . Yeah , don't get me wrong . I swear a lot .

Speaker 1 34:23

Forced profanity , though Sucks , so cringe when they do that .

Speaker 2 34:36

And they do that in shows all the time where it's just it's like aren't we mature ? Yeah , isn't this a mature show ? Yeah , and I was just . It just felt like so out of place and uh , uh yao , and jay says time's a motherfucker yeah , and I'm just like yao and jay never said like anything remotely like never swore in the original book she was always like this kind of like android , cool , calculated person .

Speaker 1 34:55

Yeah , I don't think like old physicists cuss that much they may . But at the same time , like I just don't think they do the same as like a couple of like co-eds .

Speaker 2 35:08

Yeah , you know whatever .

Speaker 1 35:09

And so it just felt like sloppy , sloppy . They're trying to make them connect with us . I , yeah , I feel like the um , the um , the nerd community should be very um up in arms about being underrepresented in this , uh , and like falsely represented in this , in this tv show .

Speaker 2 35:26

So far it's just like only like very , very good looking people who are like not on the autism spectrum I mean , except for what I'm saying , except for the guy who plays uh , I think his name is will he's . He looks like an average dude , right like he's not . He's not ugly , but he's not like or jack jack well , jack , yeah , jack roomy , who's also played by , uh , john bradley from game of thrones there's definitely like quite a few game of thrones alum in here uh the onion knight , sid davos .

Speaker 2 35:59

He's in uh this , as well as uh thomas wade , which , if you've read the rest of the series , you know that's a big name yeah , that's I'm like , and you'd be surprised that they brought him up in the first episode so fast . Well , no , and that's the thing I was like . Okay , so like they're definitely going to rush to something , because Thomas Wade is a dude you only hear about in the third book , like he's not in the first or second book , he's in the .

Speaker 1 36:33

Thomas Wade is not in the first or second book . I thought he was in the first one . Really , really well , I'm not . I don't approach into so many spoilers now , for like for the actual show , but the uh , all right , so they're skipping way ahead then , mike evans yeah , is in the first book .

Speaker 2 36:43

I think he's like . Oh , he's the only like english name in the book okay , that's the guy I'm thinking of , then , all right the philanthropist , yeah billionaire oh , that's not him .

Speaker 1 36:51

Okay , I see , this is a different guy mike evans in the show .

Speaker 2 36:55

We already saw him . He came to vera yay's funeral okay and he , he was also oh , that game of thrones . Okay that , mike evans , I'm mixing up the two now I see , yep um , but uh anyways , um , all I said , like the augie salazar , just she sees the countdown within the first five minutes of the show and I'm like boo that was just scary at all like there was no dread , it's just like she's on drugs , I don't know , like you know , I mean like that's what I would think if I was her right .

Exploring Character Development in a Series

Speaker 2 37:28

So we just don't get enough time to see her , which is odd Because , like I already said , the book doesn't do a lot of character development , but it does make you , like , empathize for the fear and stress that a lot of the characters are going through that a lot of the characters are going through and dude like I don't .

Speaker 2 37:54

I did not care about Augie Salazar's panic over these numbers and stuff like that , because there was no dread lead up , yeah , and then I'm sure she's just going to shut down her project , Like you know they tell her to , and just like they tell Wang Miao in the books , and I also feel like it's not going to be nearly as much of like a tension thing as it was in the book , because in the book it was like right , a crap load of tension and here's where part of part of this , where they're uh straying from being in like communist china .

Speaker 1 38:22

That also takes away a lot of this , like this dread piece too . Being like uh piece too , being like uh wang mao has to like he's under like ccp rules , like he and he's not the owner of , he's not a potential billionaire , like like the augie character , potential billionaire with this huge nanotech company .

Speaker 2 38:42

He's just she can she can file a harassment thing .

Speaker 1 38:45

She can file a like you know , or anti-woman workplace infringement or also she can , um , like just liquidate and say sorry to her investors and like , see you later , whereas , like this other dude , like he's poor , lives in an apartment , like , and like he's being forced to shut something down . That's really like he's not supposed to shut it down .

Speaker 1 39:07

He doesn't have the control to shut it down exactly , but he has to make it shut down that was , and so there there's this like this underlying thing , and the opening of the show was actually , I thought , really done well to be like set the stage of communist china , where the opening scene is where , just like in the book , where there's a um , a big rally going on and you see just the kind of in the scientists yeah the insanity of what it's like to be in a full mob mentality governed by you know , basically , you know , a fully godless group who's just all eyes straight to the state and like all allegiance to the state .

Speaker 1 39:47

And so now , now they're , they've moved this story into , like the free market world where it's just like you know so like , like elon musk is like I'll just go start a different company or I'll do whatever , so like there's the a big part of the whole .

Speaker 2 40:03

Like internal anxiety and dread .

Speaker 1 40:07

Yeah is , uh , foundationally based upon the fact that this is communist china and so not all . So like , what you do , what you say and all that stuff is being monitored , it's being , it's being see , there's secret police , there's people who have control over you , that , that you , you , just you don't have any control anyway . So , and to go bigger picture here , where we're talking earlier about where the show shows um , how much control or how nobody has control or major impact , by looking at the whole big three of all the three books , because they're really just using individuals to move the story forward versus build characters and , uh , they use that . That same feeling people have , um is shown via you know what it feels like to be in communist china , and so they've already , like , by the practicality of production to move it out of that place , they've already degraded the foundation of the show yeah , dude , and you know what I think you're really .

Speaker 2 41:09

I didn't even think about that and how that plays into it feeling less dangerous . But , dude , I do remember in the book the dread of dude . I know as an American enough about China that this guy , if he just turns the switch off and lies about oh , there's a gotta work on some code , code failed to run he could be , he could be going to jail disappeared , like yeah disappeared for a long time , would not get food right , and I think in this , I think in the book , he wasn't poor necessarily .

Speaker 2 41:39

I think he was like middle class chinese , right , but he like did not have the income to choose , right . It like what he wants , right , what's he wants to do , excuse me , um , so , yeah , you're right , that does remove a lot of intent , a lot of tension . Um , I do think I wish , I thought they did a really good job in the introduction . I think they would have spent , I wish they would have spent more time uh with , uh , yeah , when jay , during that time , because in the beginning of the book , if you remember , like it is just one blow after another before she even gets out to the woods , right , it's like dad is murdered , mom , literally , is sociopath , like broken mentally both of her mentors one mentor has committed suicide , another mentor she goes to talk to has committed suicide because they're educational like they're professors and they know they're going to be killed if they don't like kneel and katao to China's .

Speaker 2 42:38

you know political , scientific beliefs , right , and it was one of those things of .

Speaker 2 42:43

just like you realize , she was utterly alone and she had no choices and anyone who she could have thought of as a friend was dead . So I just wish they would have had those in there to some degree , just to show , because that's the thing with , like , when Yao Wenjie does what she does . You understand why ? Right , because you're like , she's seen the most darkest , wretched , vile , selfish part of humanity for the last probably 10 , 15 years , and she has yet to find another person that she trusts and puts her faith in . You know what I mean yeah .

Speaker 2 43:24

So I guess that's why I wish they would have had more and more and more and stack it it up , because you're supposed to , I think , feel like , yeah , what ? Yeah , when jay ends up doing in the book is evil or wrong , but you understand that like the reason why she has no faith in humanity anymore . But anyways , all that said , uh , I do think like the parts in the 60s that I saw in the episode one were really well done . Uh , I just wish they would have spent a little bit more time cushioning it

Critique of TV Show Adaptation

Speaker 2 43:54

. Um , a couple characters , uh , jack being introduced . Jack is definitely based off of a dude from book three that had , like I don't know , five lines about him that I think they were just like he could be a comedic relief character because , honestly , in the first book that's dasha yeah you know , dasha is the detective looking out for and protecting wang mao and trying to solve everything in dasha , honestly , is like .

Speaker 2 44:21

the reason I think the first book works so well is because he is he's you . He's you the reader . Like , he is your shoe into this world of like I don't know what's going on and you know what the world is , so effed up as it is .

Speaker 2 44:37

I don't care , because every day there's a new person saying this is the end of the world , leading a cult and doing evil things , but every day regular people like me have to wake up and stop them to protect the other regular people . And he's just like a chain smoking alcoholic , just comedic cop in china yeah and , like I , just love him bro like it , like . So I'm kind of a little bummed that they didn't , instead of having and giving a Benedict Wong's character the opportunity to just be Dasha and be you know Darkly comedic , uh Detective .

Speaker 1 45:22

He just seems like A washed up detective , but it doesn't seem Like he gets to say anything funny yet or do anything funny , and I think that's because they're going to have Jack Rooney be the comedic relief and they'll go with kind of like cheap , poorly written stuff , just it's like kind of funny or not even actually applies to the show , whereas , like the Dasha character really is , you know , a huge pivotal character of the first book and I think and you don't even know that much about him in the first book .

Speaker 2 45:53

You're just like this guy is me .

Speaker 1 45:55

He's reacting to how I'd react and I do think , I do think he's the best cast person in the show , like I'm like like when I saw him I was like that's that guy .

Speaker 2 46:06

That's Dasha .

Speaker 1 46:07

And I was like so we'll see if they also develop his character into like what it could be . I don't know that they will , and so you know , all right , this first episode not in comparison to the book as a just as a pulled out piece of media it's so hard to like separate .

Speaker 2 46:30

You know what I mean .

Speaker 1 46:31

Yeah , do you think it's good TV ?

Speaker 2 46:34

I think it's better than any . I think it's better than any of the episodes after the first one of night country .

Speaker 1 46:43

Maybe yeah , yeah .

Speaker 2 46:46

Okay .

Speaker 1 46:46

All right , let me ask you right , let's just settle it out , would you ?

Speaker 2 46:49

rather watch this episode or the second through sixth episode of night country again again , like you , just get right , like all of them .

Speaker 1 47:00

Not all of them , but just like you you don't know , it's a grab bag .

Speaker 2 47:03

You might watch episode five again , again .

Speaker 1 47:05

You might Right , I'd say , I'd say no , I'd say I agree with you . Yeah , okay , you know , in this , in this sense , you know that it is , um , it has more guts to it or it has more um , it's easier to follow , even though it's mystery and it's just , it's a , not just a cluster , like you know , like the , like the , like night country was , and so you know , I think that it's probably as a piece of just a show , um , I think it's okay . Now , the fact that it was like kind of a pilot in a sense , or like the first , you know , yeah , it's like , did they ? Did they do it as good as a pilot can be , with like grabbing audience , grabbing , like wonderment and all this stuff , and I think they tried to at the end of it with , like you know , the the universe winking at them .

Speaker 2 48:01

But I also just felt way too early for that yeah because that was like a thing that was like halfway in the book .

Speaker 1 48:08

You know what I mean .

Speaker 2 48:09

Right , and that just felt like it was too early .

Speaker 1 48:11

I don't know , yep , it also didn't look that good it did dude , it looked really bad it looked like so phoned in . It was like just full on and off . I couldn't tell , Anyways , the editing on that , yeah , the , anyways the editing on that . Yeah , the guy really did just like on the editing floor was like so just turn the sky on and off , Okay , and I was like those shouldn't seem like they're in front of the clouds , but they do .

Speaker 2 48:37

Whenever he turned it , like whenever they were blinking back on Right , I was like the stars look like they're in front of the clouds rather than behind them , which makes no sense . Yep , yeah , the stars look like they're in front of the clouds rather than behind them , which makes no sense . Yeah , um , yeah , uh , I , here's the thing . It's like I know three body , right . I also know that I really wasn't hooked in the beginning of three body until they got to the . Uh , it's not the theory , it's the parable , not the parable .

Speaker 2 49:05

Yeah , is it the parable of the farmer and the parable of the shooter ? Yeah , yeah , once I heard those was when I was hooked right which is just sad because I don't think at this point they're going to introduce those right and I always thought those were like the hook that reels you in , like if you get through the first I don't know 30 minutes of that book , you're rewarded with like this idea and this idea of how that's kind of scary , yeah , and that's kind of what keeps you ready , like going for the rest . I think that's like what reels you in and I just don't know what that's going to be in the show .

Speaker 1 49:41

And that's why I don't know , looking at this thing as a whole , I don't know if this show can be successful because of they're going to force it for these , the , the depth of these characters and their storylines . It's something that makes you think way bigger than yourself and it makes you wonder .

Speaker 2 50:18

I'm not wondering , you know , at this point , and so yeah , and I I genuinely think , though , that , like it , it could be pretty good . I think it could be pretty good , um , because my belief is that the end of the first book happens in like episode six , maybe episode five of this season , because of the people , the characters that they've already introduced that are definitely from the second book or based on characters from the second or third book , right , and I'm like , all right , like how would you ?

Speaker 2 50:53

well , okay , yeah , so I know what events those people are a part of . That would happen relatively at the same time of the events of the first book , and so you kind of need to have the first book done if you're going to finish those stories right and there was one thing I saw in the trailer that really made me think , like , okay , the first book will not be the like , the ending won't be the final episode , right ?

Speaker 2 51:21

um , and it's what's called the their staircase , which was a big deal in the third book . It's kind of the crux of the whole third book and so , all that said , I liked it . I really did think to myself this is okay , it's not how I would have done it , it's not how I wanted it to be , but I see the approach they're going in and I'm okay with it .

Speaker 1 51:53

Yeah .

Speaker 2 51:53

I do think the Augie Salazar character played by whatever her name is . Did you put her name ?

Speaker 1 51:58

in there . I uh uh , isa , isa , isa , gonzalez Gonzalez .

Speaker 2 52:06

Yep , um man , I just feel bad , but like I'm just gonna be honest , like I think she got cast cause she's hot .

Speaker 1 52:13

Yeah .

Speaker 2 52:13

I just think she just got cast cause she looks like , uh , she looks like a taller and kind of more tan and a dearmus and uh .

Speaker 1 52:30

I don't think she got cast because she acts really well . Um , that's her . I think that the the scenes from the 60s were all while we wanted more time there . Those were done really well , they were done . Those were awesome .

Speaker 2 52:38

That was cinematic the chinese just sounded good . Yeah , like it sounded , not like english people speaking chinese it sounded like dude . Those are chinese actors . Yeah , and it's dreadful . Yeah , like you see it , and you're like , oh my gosh , that sucks yep , and I think that it's .

Speaker 1 52:57

I think an audience too would forgive , like you know where , where , when the lazy way to get around doing language is like the first five sentences of exchange are in the language and then they just shift to English , right Well ?

Speaker 2 53:12

or you do the . It was a great mini series . One season , chernobyl , where everyone in Chernobyl is a Russian or Eastern European , Yep , but they all they actually just all have English accents Right . Like and that was the idea is like everyone is just going to speak like a Cockney English accent appropriate to the time period Right , Rather than us have trying to do like everyone speaking Russian , and it was weird , Like even like the you know civilians or in like privates in the military , just were english people , right , none of them had like an eastern european accent which , you know , I just thought was like okay , like I was , like I get it .

Speaker 2 53:57

This is supposed to be like the direct , like transliteration , right , if we were speaking it right . So , all that said , though , um , I think that could have worked . I think , though , the met the quota wouldn't have met , because you look at that , you look at that spread uh and you got the uh .

Speaker 2 54:19

I think she's chinese , I think jen is chinese , supposed to be chinese I don't know if they changed her yet , but you got her and her uh indian boyfriend and then you have uh isaac gonzalez as augie salazar uh-huh and then you have uh , what's his name ? Uh , uh solvin is sol polvin add up as , yeah , a black american in oxford england ? Yep , and then you have , uh , I guess you got your two white guys . Um , but neither of them are very intimidating or you know , they aren't gonna like . You know like jack and will right what are their names ?

Speaker 2 55:01

yeah , jack um you know they're , they're just white dudes , yep , average white dudes . Um and like . It's just one of those things that , like , I don't have a problem with the smorgasbord or anything like that , like diversity , but it also makes me wonder , like why ? Why did it ? Why ? Why couldn't they have all just been chinese ?

Speaker 1 55:18

they could be paying like paying like one person instead of six to be an actor in this too , but also like , and just because they are , they are really straying from the overall vibe of the . Yeah , we've said it was multiple times . But just like it's not about the characters and so they're gonna pour into the characters and stuff and and the um it just I feel like it really could like the . The whole vibe of the show when it's in modern day just does not feel like three body , like the 1966

3Body

Speaker 1 55:52

stuff does . I'm like oh , that's three body feeling right there , you know , and so I will say one thing I am excited for .

Speaker 2 55:59

Spoiler alert Skip 30 seconds ahead if you don't want to hear this . One thing I really am excited for is seeing the nanofiber cut that ship in half I know like I just hope that's really good , I know I'm probably gonna watch the show just to see that .

Speaker 2 56:14

Yeah , you know , I mean because that's like that's like , uh , iconic yep and I'm excited for the game yeah , the game I think will be cool . I like that the game . So you mentioned the chinese series . I watched a little bit of it . The chinese series for some reason did cgi , for whenever they were in the game like they were just rather than looking ultra realistic people , they were just cgi people oh yeah , um it was all right right like in this .

Speaker 2 56:44

I'm like , yeah , that's the move , just put them in different costumes , but have them be the real actors , yeah , rather than like making them all cgi . Uh , one thing that billy jean said that I'm gonna be paying attention to , though , is that she thinks there's a lot of dubbing , like people messed up their lines or something . She swears that the Eliza Gonzalez's character uh , isaac Gonzalez's character , um Augie Salazar , was dubbed a lot . Her lips didn't match , and I was like honey , that might just be because she's got lip filler . She was like no , they're like they're dubbing her voice , like over recording it , and so I'm wondering what , where else they would have done this .

Speaker 1 57:26

Where is she from ? Did her accent not stick ? You know like uh like she didn't keep her british accent yeah , because she's a mexican actress and singer oh god , you know born in mexico city , so I wonder if her uh , they might have had a dubber voice . Yeah , you know , we'll see .

Speaker 2 57:42

We'll be looking out for that sure , but all right , let's uh give it decide how you feel . I'm going to give it a thumb up of like , give it a shot , yeah , you know , worth checking out .

Speaker 1 57:54

Yep , you know what is it .

Speaker 2 57:56

Eight episode season , something like that .

Speaker 1 57:59

You know . So I'm going to watch them , I'm going to keep watching it at this point and then , you know , I think it's got a thumb up as well . You know , for me , and I think that there's always a book's never going to be adapted to the satisfaction of fans , and then , especially , a book like this is very hard to if you don't really stick to certain parts of it . And so I think that I'm just gonna take it for what it is and we'll see . You know , if it , if you know also the , the guys who were , who did game of thrones , uh , you know david and uh , db wise , like , let's see if they pull out some of their magic or not . You know , on the , on the things of game of thrones , it did keep us like gripped into that show and wanting to watch the next episode and like , oh my god , I cannot believe that just happened type of stuff .

Speaker 2 58:49

Yeah , some red weddings yeah exactly those sorts of things .

Speaker 1 58:52

So we'll see what they uh , um where that goes and um , I'm gonna keep watching it . Um , are we gonna do episode by episode on this show ? Nah , no , and will we do a full season review ?

Speaker 2 59:08

maybe I , yeah , I'm on a maybe for that you know , I mean yeah , it just depends like if it's if it , if it's better than the night agent , then yeah , you know which I think it will be . I'll be honest , like the night agent was just so mediocre , uh-huh like , okay , I'm not gonna do a full season review of that or reacher , right like they're just they're very mediocre shows that have like the . The purpose of them is to like be able to watch them without looking at them you're like working on your computer or eating food or talking and the show's on and you don't miss anything important because , right , it's that kind of show right so , uh , if it's better than those , then like , yeah , I'd be down .

Speaker 2 59:51

I guess also too , if it's just like if it pulls it off you know right and here's my thing is like . My hope is that , if I am right and they're introducing all these plots early on from the other books , my hope , pat , is that it gets you if I say I'm gonna have to start reading the book other book before I finish the show do you remember what I told you , though , about book two and book three ?

Speaker 2 1:00:11

some I do like I guess just they are the story right . Book two and three are the story . Book one is just like we gotta set it up , and book one when think about it . I don't even think of book one as the three-body problem as like the book series . Book one to me is honestly just like the prologue yeah , it really does feel like that .

Speaker 2 1:00:36

Like when you think about , like the scale of the other books and like everything that goes on , and so that's why I will be excited for this , because they already said they greenlit it for season two .

Speaker 1 1:00:47

Okay .

Speaker 2 1:00:48

So it's being worked on right now as we speak . All right , which that stuff is what I'm excited for . There is some stuff from those books that I'm like good luck putting that into screen . Yeah , Anyways , All right , Cool . Well , hey , folks check it out . Anyways , all right cool . Well , hey , folks check it out . Definitely skip the strawberry shortcake beer from Launchpad Brewing , but check out the first episode of 3Body . I'll say this it didn't feel like a lot of science conjecture . It felt pretty easy to digest and understand as a layman .

Speaker 2 1:01:26

I don't think anyone will have a hard time with that . It might be a little boring . Maybe it's hard to say , bro , because of the bias of knowing what is to come Right . But uh , you know , give it a shot , Let us know your thoughts . Um , hopefully it turns out to be good . I want it to succeed . I'll say that I want it to work out . But yeah , Pat , anything else .

Speaker 1 1:01:49

Till next time .

Speaker 2 1:01:50

Till next time .