Television

Thank you, this is very aligned with how I have been thinking of the books. It's really interesting to me, because the "Cixin Liu can't write characters" critique is legitimate, but I honestly didn't notice it that much while reading and more heard about it from others after.

I think the reason why is that I am very sensitive to "lazy" plot and character conflict - e.g., a character makes a stupid irrational decision and we spend 200 pages resolving it. That is not a trope that Cixin Liu ever engages in - his characters may make decisions I disagree with (like the misanthropic decision to respond to the alien signal that underlies the entire trilogy), but they are always coherent and not "cheap" plot devices.

So in fact, the Cixin Liu style of "character" creation, where characters are basically stand-ins for different pluralistic archetypal motives and "model" humans rather than believable humans with their own dramatic arcs, I actually strongly prefer, because it not only doesn't impede the sci-fi ideas, but elevates them.

So yeah...It actually sounds like I'd hate the show! The characters are the part I care about the least, and sounds like are spent more time/attention on, whereas the ideas sound like they're deemphasized.