Murderbot

The technical execution is impressive, in depicting the habitat and planet in Murderbot.

I was, however, hoping for a more visceral and gritty interpretive depiction of the characters and uniforms and interactions which, to me, seem frivolous and immature.

Murderbot is a dangerous killing machine of immense power and aggression, that forms protective and emotional bonds with humans who, by and large have serious mature relationships with each other and Murderbot, using their reasoning skills as scientists to overcome extreme threats with Murderbot's help.

Is this show aimed at a young adult audience with

I get no sense of this quality from the TV series.

Two episodes in and it has the awkward charm of the books down pat.

Skaarsgard is excellent in the role of murderbot, the shy, nerdy and obsessive protagonist of the latest science fiction tale to grace our screens courtesy of apple tv.

It's light hearted (mostly) though with graphic injury details which give it just enough edge to cover off the very cutesy right on hippy crew that have (so far) hired our antihero to protect them while they do some geological survey work.

The effects are effective, the characters are interesting and the story should take some cool twists and turns ( ive read the books).

The sanctuary moon scenes ( there's a show within the show) are funnier than the book tbh and it looks like they have plenty of support out there among the stars judging by the quality of the cameos.

This is a show with so much potential, suffering from split personality disorder. On the one hand, you have the brilliant Alexander Skarsgard playing the titular character to perfection. His dry inner monologue is just perfect. Every scene he is in he steals. Unfortunately, there are other characters as well. The expedition is peopled with the most boring, unattractive, unappealing characters (and actors) with no redeeming value whatsoever. Whenever the plot centers on the supporting cast, the show grinds to a halt, and we are forced to wait and hope for some danger to arise so we can return to Murderbot. Hopefully, the show will begin to minimize or kill off these characters to allow it to reach it's potential.

If I hadn't read the books I'm not sure I would feel the need to stick with this. The stories themselves are quite simple, with the emphasis on wry humour, distinctive characters and an awakening sense of self - as experienced on the inside by another-quite human and viewed from the outside by a societal group who can be excessively and idealistically human. The shoot em up romp is just the backdrop.

The 25 minute format feels rushed. You can't make TV based on Murderbot's inner narrative, so you are left with something that feels a bit thin. You have the framework (hippy scientists, monster, rescue, mystery goings on) but none of what makes the story more than the Scooby-doo level plot. I'm pretty sure the author was happy just stringing together sci-fi tropes to satirise them from an entertaining often first person view. But if you lose that, what you are left with is Saturday morning TV.

Disney would have been pleased with the result, they could run this alongside the Mandalorian. But Apple?

As for allowing the main character a human face, we're seeing him as human from 10 minutes in. Nice for the actor, but the journey of the other characters to slowly discover humanity in a machine that scares them is a bit of a theme. But what the hey, it's not classic literature being taken liberties with.

Early days, but not sure that the zippy format is going to help with character generation. Maybe we'll just have to live with sketches. I'll stay with it for now and live in hope.

Murderbot is an engaging adaptation that captures the spirit of the source material-an AI who wants nothing more than to be left alone to binge media but keeps getting dragged into human problems. The show mostly nails the tone: sarcastic and dryly funny.

However, one choice that undercuts this is the decision to have Murderbot remove its helmet. For a bot that claims to despise human interaction, exposing its face feels like a contradiction. It unnecessarily humanizes a character that works best as an enigma, and it opens the door to subtle facial expressions that make little sense unless the AI's programming explicitly includes them. Murderbot isn't supposed to emote like a person-it observes and calculates, not frown or smirk.

Also frustrating is the episode length. At barely 25 minutes, the weekly format feels like a ploy to stretch out content for subscription metrics. A series like this deserves tighter pacing or longer episodes, not a drip-feed of story that barely satisfies week to week.

Overall, it's a strong adaptation, but some creative choices and the format hold it back from being truly great.

Will definitely watch more and see how it goes.