TV Talk: ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners launch ‘3 Body Problem;’ KDKA-TV adds reporter

For their first series after showrunning HBO’s mammoth hit “Game of Thrones,” writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (with Alexander Woo, “The Terror,” “True Blood”) adapt Chinese sci-fi author Liu Cixin’s “3 Body Problem” for Netflix and the result is a show that begins semi-intriguing and by its fourth episode shifts into “Oh snap!” high gear.

While some in fandom want to write off Benioff and Weiss due to the disappointingly rushed final season of “GOT,” let’s not forget the brilliance of the show’s earlier seasons when the writers had author George R.R. Martin’s source material to work with. Only after the story moved beyond Martin’s published novels did the show take a bad turn.

In this first season of “3 Body Problem,” now streaming all episodes, the writers again have a template to guide them as they deliver a fresh take on what ultimately revels itself to be a familiar existential-threat-to-humanity story.

As “GOT” did, “3 Body Problem” jumps around among different characters in different time periods but this is handled in a more straightforward, less confusing manner than “GOT” in its first season. The assorted threads don’t take multiple seasons to connect; they start to come together in several jaw-dropping reveals halfway through the season.

“3 Body Problem” begins with a scene in 1966 Beijing as Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng at younger ages; a steely Rosalind Chao as the older Ye) watches her physics professor father as he’s murdered during a demonstration for daring to espouse the Big Bang Theory, setting the stage for Ye to later throw in the towel on humanity. (Shades of “GOT” brutality and gore are surely intentional.)

Ye gets sent to a forest work camp where she’s busted for reading Springdale native environmentalist Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” but Ye’s scientific background eventually leads her to a position at a research station that’s reaching out to the cosmos in search of alien life.

In the present, Vera (Vedette Lim) is one of a string of scientists who appear to commit suicide, leaving her colleagues — self-sabotaging Saul (Jovan Adepo), brilliant and heroic Jin (Jess Hong), comic relief Jack (John Bradley, “GOT”), pining Will (Alex Sharp) and stressed-out Auggie (Eiza Gonzalez) — to mourn. Some of them begin to play a virtual reality game whose technology seems … otherworldly. This show makes the VR story, which explains the show’s title, as intriguing as the real-world plot, no small feat.

Da Shi (Benedict Wong) and his boss Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham, “GOT”) investigate the suicide deaths (or are they murders?) which brings them into the orbit of Vera’s colleagues.

From there the series dives into mysteries at every turn, ending its first episode with the night sky winking on and off.

“3 Body Problem” hits its stride in episodes three and four but the story turns anti-climactic after that – more rushed telling than showing as humanity moves to defend itself — and worldwide reaction (riots, non-stop news coverage) to the possible arrival of a threat 400 years in the future seems unrealistic considering the muted real-world reaction to the planet’s current climate crisis.

Still, “3 Body Problem” is the rare series that consistently surprises, making me (mostly) forget my worries during initial episodes that this could be another “Lost,” a show with great ideas but no concrete story path.

‘Diarra from Detroit’

In its hilariously profane first episode, BET+’s latest original series “Diarra from Detroit,” furthers the niche streamer’s reputation for quality shows after last summer’s Pittsburgh-set “Average Joe,” which had a similarly well-balanced tone of comedic drama.

Now streaming, “Diarra from Detroit” follows elementary school teacher Diarra (series creator Diarra Kilpatrick) who turns into an amateur sleuth after her Tinder date disappears. Her friends think she was ghosted but the show resolves any doubts about what really happened to her MIA date by the end of its first episode.

Episode two proves a bit of a letdown from the pilot – it goes off on a tangent that distracts from the main plot – but the third episode, guest-starring Phylicia Rashad in a very un-Mrs. Huxtable-like role, gets “Diarra” back on track.

‘Palm Royale’

Apple TV+ clearly spent a lot of money on this 1969-set comedic soap that’s loosely based on the novel “Mr. and Mrs. American Pie” by Juliet McDaniel. But “Palm Royale,” now streaming its first three episodes, is neither soapy enough nor funny enough to make much of an impression.

Kristen Wiig stars as Maxine Simmons, a striving wannabe who attempts to scheme her way into an exclusive Palm Beach club using the wealth of her husband’s incapacitated aunt (Carol Burnett).

The show features an impressive all-star cast that includes Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb (“Palm Royale” reminded me somewhat of Bibb’s 2012 ABC comedic drama “GCB”) and Bruce Dern. It’s also fantastic to see Julia Duffy (“Newhart”) and Mindy Cohn (“The Facts of Life”) again in significant roles.

Director Tate Taylor (“Filthy Rich”) nicely spotlights the costumes and period details but the show’s plot feels stretched out to fill 10 episodes rather than a series that merits 10 episodes. After six hours “Palm Royale” didn’t make me care enough to continue, though I did skip to the last episode and discovered the show does not wrap up in a way that suggests it’s intended to be a limited series.

KDKA-TV adds reporter

Next month KDKA-TV adds reporter Richard “Ricky” Sayer as the station’s newest MMJ (multimedia journalist, those who can act as their own videographer in addition to reporting).

A native of Lower Merion Township near Philadelphia, Sayer graduated from Syracuse University with a major in broadcast and digital journalism and a minor in political science. He previously appeared on air at WBNG-TV in Binghamton, N.Y., and WLEX-TV in Lexington, Ky. An Eagles fan, Sayer says he’ll find a way to root for the Steelers as long as they’re not playing the Eagles.

WTAE-TV’s latest ‘Chronicle’

WTAE-TV’s Janelle Hall and Ryan Recker host “Chronicle: Pittsburgh After Dark” (8 p.m. March 27), an hour-long documentary about those who work the night shift (in hospitals, repairing roads), late-night fun and early-morning workers and daybreak fitness regimens.