To understand, you first need to know a bit about the background to the TV show, and its premise. The story is based on Liu Cixin's epic sci-fi trilogy, the Remembrance of Earth's Past, of which The Three-body Problem is the first book. The original trilogy is characterised by the author's attention to scientific detail. The adaptation is less so, but still crammed with scientific ideas. The TV series focuses on the ''Oxford Five'', who all studied under the same professor at the University of Oxford. Some have gone on to become scientists themselves (a post-doctoral physics researcher, a founder and chief scientific officer of a nano-tech company, and a theoretical physics academic), one has become a school physics teacher, while the fifth is now a snack-food entrepreneur. Scientific credentials abound.