As one of THOSE obsessive moviegoers who stayed to watch all the end credits, sometimes I relished the little surprise a cool logo could make at the beginning of a movie.

There are many vanity production company logos in use now, some with animation of archers firing arrows or lighthouses shedding beams on rocky outcroppings. None will ever beat MGM’s lion, of course, or the 20th Century Fox logo whose fanfare was extended for “Star Wars.” Not to mention the classic Universal pictures logo that transformed every few years for most of the 20th century.

The logo for Avco Embassy was simple by comparison and not as stories as those, but still effective. Just sliding tones of blue and green that formed the AE logo.

But like the American International Pictures logo that came earlier, the Avco Embassy logo was – for me, at least – a sign that an interesting picture would follow.

(And I should note that the AE logo I cite above was not always the logo for the studio, which also operated under the name Embassy Pictures and other monikers.

I was a little surprised to find that the company dated to 1942. I really always noticed it during great films of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s.

What movies were decorated by the logo: “The Fog.” “The Howling.” “Escape from New York.” “This is Spinal Tap.” “Scanners.” Many more before Avco Embassy tapped out around 1986 or so.

Pour one out for Avco Embassy and a logo that always left me eagerly anticipating what followed.

It’s hard to go online without seeing opinions about “3 Body Problem,” the relatively new, eight-episode Netflix series that adapts the first of Liu Cixin’s three science fiction epic novels from 2008.

It’s especially interesting that, besides the books, we have two versions of the story to watch: The Netflix series and “Three-Body,” an epic 30-part Chinese television version.

I’m a few episodes into “Three-Body” but I’ve watched and I really enjoyed “3 Body Problem,” the Netflix series.

The story is basically the same in each series: Scientists around the world start experiencing strange phenomena: Many are seeing daunting visions and some are seeing a countdown that’s superimposed in their field of vision. As the countdown clicks away, some kill themselves.

Benedict Wong (“Dr. Strange,” “The Martian”) plays a British investigator who pursues the truth behind the suicides and the threat to the planet that’s implicit in the scientists’ discovery.

Slight spoiler: The warnings are coming from a civilization four light years away. Through a vivid virtual reality game, scientists learn that an invasion of Earth is 400 years away.

The news – and phenomena in the sky – is greeted with mixed reaction on Earth. It’s 400 years from now, right? Let future generations figure out what to do.

Luckily, a handful of scientists – part of a group of friends dubbed “The Oxford Five” – begin to prepare for the future, all under the supervision of Wade, a British intelligence official.

That description barely scratches the surface of this story, which is not only a cerebral sci-fi thriller but also a drama about friendship and soul-searching: what if your scientific advancement was used to fend of an invasion – and in the process killed a thousand humans?

“3 Body Problem” is fast-moving and engaging.