Murderbot

As someone who loves the MB books, I feel the adaptation hits all the right notes. It stays true to the source material while making sharp adjustments for the different medium. And while I always pictured MB as an androgynous woman, Alex Skarsgard does an amazing job bringing this unique character to life.

One effective change is the depth of the supporting cast. In the books, everything is told from MB's POV; that just wouldn't work on TV. I enjoy the time spent focused on MB's new clients. This adds a lot of suspense in the early episodes, and allows us to grow attached to them along with MB.

I love The Murderbot Diaries, which has been the only book series I've bothered to preorder in the last decade. When i heard about the Apple TV series i was hopeful, but also worried it wouldn't match the series i love so deeply. The first 2 episodes have put all of those worries to rest and replaced them with enthusiasm to see the rest, absolutely every Friday as they come out. There are a couple casting and direction choices who don't match my mental picture of the characters, but not in a significantly discordant or negative way, just different. David Dastmalchian is not the way i pictured Gurathin, he is better, and i will without a doubt be seeing the actor's appearance and mannerisms when i next reread the series, his paranoia, abrasive personality, and social discomfort are perfect for the role, as well as an ideal echo to the experience of the titular character. Mensah is well casted and nicely fits the role i saw in my mind's eye when reading. Which brings me to the brightest spot: Alexander Skarsgard brings Murderbot to life and has now become my canon mental picture of the character. His portrayal is as close to flawless as i could have hoped, physical enough to make the action very believable, so visibly uncomfortable with social interactions that it echoes the deep alienation and discomfort with "personhood" the character feels in the books. I'm especially pleased with the directorial decision to pull tight focus on Murderbot when he is at his most socially uncomfortable, making the viewer feel his discomfort as the zoom is uncomfortably close on his wide eyed, tense, uncertain non-verbal signals that he absolutely hates interactions without the safety of his helmet to shield him and keep him anonymous. The mixture of practical and digital effects really works, giving the universe a gritty lived in realism. I wouldn't call the series perfect, but it's as close as i think anyone was ever going to get with a series that relies so heavily on internal monologue and social discomfort to drive the maine character. I am praying for enough seasons to cover at least all the novellas, and i am chomping at the bit for a confirmed season 2, especially curious who will get the extremely important role of doing the voice for ART (murderbot's "best friend"), as that choice could truly make or break how the series moves on from its first season.

Follows the book series written by the brilliant Martha Wells. Skarsgård nails the deadpan, snarky, judgmental sec-unit. His character is perfectly balanced against the others. For those saying the other characters are boring, they are all just like the characters from the books. People in the future create security units for their protection. I love that the leader is named, Mensah. Get it? She's very intelligent, calm and pragmatic. Gurathin is something of a foil to the sec-unit. As the series progresses, the characters grow and learn from the sec-unit. I look forward to the series continuing.

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.

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.