Murderbot - thoughts

Friend recommended the books. Before I had a chance, came across the show. Been binge-watching and really enjoying it. Last episode of season is this weekend.

Will definitely jump on the books now.

I'm enjoying it. Some of the decisions are a little odd. The thing that's most distracting to me is that, in my head, Murderbot appears much more androgynous. That might have been hard to pull off, but Skarsgard is definitely male (even without genitalia). Some of the other characters are goofier than in the books, but I kind of understand the choice.

I hope the show gets people to read the books, but the show is entertaining.

I'm actually a big fan of that decision.
The idea that non-binary people have to visibly appear non-binary is a harmful stereotype. Murderbot's physical appearance is a part of its design that it has no control over. Why should it look androgynous? Just because it perceives itself as genderless, doesn't mean it's creators did.
I hope the show will actually dig into that at some point. I think it's really important for people to see an agender character who still has a strongly masc appearance.
- It's an interesting point, and I agree with it politically, but in the books it's made clear secunits look androgynous and non-human.
  Some change between media change is always going to happen. I think Skarsgård is doing as good a job as can be done with his face. I'm making peace with it. Maybe the bigger problem is the dismissiveness of the portrayal of Preservation Alliance society. But we did live in the Corporate Rim!
- In the books, Murderbot is aggressively no gendered. It gets upset at any suggestions that it has sex characteristics. That was enough for me to form a mental image of androgyny.
  I mean, it's fine. They had to go with someone, and that someone was going to have a body, it's just different from what I pictured.
They could of at least removed his hair and put some clear cybernetics. In the books, you couldn't mistake Murderbot for a human. Even after ART's modifications (adding hair etc) Murderbot still could only pass as a heavily cybernetically augmented human.
I do fear the shied away from the gender stuff.
- In my imagination, Murderbot looked kinda like the player character from the game 'Citizen Sleeper', pictured below.
  Which is to say, very androgynous and very obviously cybernetic.
  There's quite a bit of character similarity between them too, because the titular Sleeper is a human consciousness in a cybernetic body that has a lot of biological parts, and they are kept loyal to the company who owns them by a drug that will cause their body to break down if they stop taking it. Same intent as the governor module, but a different approach.
  I found Murderbot's physical appearance an important aspect of the books, not just for surface plot reasons (everyone knows they are a bot etc) but because it's a large part of what people need to overcome from the perspective of seeing past their prejudices.
- The show clearly shows Murderbot as being ACE and uncomfortable with the sexual and gendered reactions of others towards them — which is as important in my view the outward and physical apparent gender.
- In the books, you couldn’t mistake Murderbot for a human.
  In the books, Murderbot repeatedly remarks that it can easily pass for human among humans, but other constructs would spot it immediately.
Yea, I wish they were both more military look (shorter hair, more armor), and more androgynous... but it was one of the changes i expected to make it work with modern TV.
Same! Skarsgard was very jarring compared to my mental image of Murderbot.

I read all the books, and my only complaint about the show is that the episodes are over too soon. I know it's different in some ways from the books, but who cares? It's a great show.

I haven't read the source material, but so far I'm really enjoying it. My only gripe is that the episodes are short, I'd rather 45min episodes.

Yea, its very accurate, a lot of it is word for word, and the character adaptations are great.
They definitely padded it to hit 8 episodes of 45 minutes each (ie, in the books to confirm the map is wrong they all go, including Murderbot, and Mensah doesn't go on a solo exploration), but defiantly feel more like expanding the world than useless padding.

A lot of people are watching it, but I ducked out after episode two. I read the books and I felt like it was overly broad in comparison.

The TV adaptation rushes through the story, and doesn’t take its characters seriously. The books aren’t really a broad comedy like the show. For example, the books were more respectful of gender and sexuality. It wasn’t played for laughs except as the bot’s perspective of how he didn’t relate to it or understand the point of it. Same with a lot of the other characteristics of the humans. The humans in the book aren’t actually bumbling idiots, that’s just how the bot perceives them. I felt like the show was missing the point.

I did enjoy how the tv show portrayed “sanctuary moon” though.

If you haven’t read the books, I recommend them. There’s only like one real clunker in the set.

Absolutely fucking yes w.r.t. the characters being stupid in the show. In the books, the people from Preservation are incredibly competent.

It's really hurting my enjoyment of the show. Why can't we have competence porn like we used to with shows like TNG and DS9?
Which did you feel was the clunker?
- “System Collapse” (book 7). It was later in the series and it just felt like the second half of one of the books or something. Like filler, or a book written to fulfill a contract.

I feel like the changes to characters are really large. The feelings I have from each character in the books and the show are not close enough to be the same character. Mensa is so much more emotional and reactive in the show than she was in the books, but I like both. Murderbot is much more human than in the books, there is way less internal monologue, so it feels very different, but I still love the character in both. Same for all the rest.

As for the story changes, so far it seems good in terms of changing just enough to make it fit for TV rather than doing something insanely different with only a passing resemblance to the books. I like how the violence is shocking, sudden, and really limited. In the books it is not the whole story, one gory moment after another, and I was worried they would get sucked into the trap of violence being attention getting and shocking and therefore needed in huge quantity.

The visuals are excellent. From a purely technical perspective they have done a great job with making something easy to look at, enjoyable to experience, and mostly visually consistent. There have been very few moments where the colour balance is skewed weirdly, where the lighting requires adjusting the screen, or where the volume levelling was terrible. Great production quality.

I agree. Subtly different but overall and surprisingly very similar.
PresAux are more hippy like and a little less like the academics in the book which I find just a little annoying but it’s OK (I’m an academic).
One of the things I’m really curious about is how they flesh out the contrast between the capitalist dystopia of the Corporation Rim and the clearly socialist Preservation Aux. I feel like it’s a politically charged topic in the current capitalist dystopia American context (at least that’s how it looks to me from outside America). I keep waiting for them to water it down but they haven’t done it so far. Good on em.
- I hope they stick to their guns and keep it fully anticapitalist like the books. Right now is the time for that kind of media, there is a massive appetite for it, so if they fail to do it they are shooting themselves in the foot.
yea, i feel like the 'humanized' all the characters, including Dr Mensah and Murderbot, and added more relationship drama... but the changes feel solid, not changes for the sake of change.
- Yeah, exactly, like the idea of Mensa is there but she is shown in a more TV friendly way without completely wiping out what makes her Mensa. Also, the relationship drama from the single perspective of Murderbot is uninteresting, even a little gross, so it is described from a distance. They did not have the internal monologue stuff in the show so they did a lot more showing rather than telling. That makes it much more detailed and clear compared to the distant vantage of Murderbot describing "a sexual relationship". Different, not worse, not better, but different. Honestly I am surprised how different it is without putting me off.

I'm enjoying it, though it feels...off? Somehow, likely because its a 30m format, it seems to speed through episodes, or starts to pick up steam then abrubtly ends.

yea,
The books are all novellas, with All Conditions Red only being 160 pages, so im not surprised how short the episodes were. I wish they had adapted the first two books, as 8 1 hour episodes, but loving what they did!
Fitting, then,.for a collection of novellas.

I disagree that it’s a faithful adaptation from the books.

There have been plenty of lore and story changes. The overall ‘tone’ is different too. Books are more hard sci-fi.

That being said, I’m still enjoying it as its own thing and I wish the episodes were longer.

My general head cannon for the discrepancies especially with the additions is that the books are written by Murderbot as a record and it has admitted to being an unreliable narrator including glossing over things that it's not interested in or doesn't understand the value of. The show is more of a third-person perspective so it's entirely possible some of what we are seeing was those moments that Murderbot didn't see fit to include.

I've read the books and thoroughly enjoyed them and am now thoroughly enjoying the show. The emphasis of the show is different, certainly, but in this case I am happy with that. After the first episode in which I was all 'It's not that way in the book...' I am taking as it is.

My SO has not read the books and is also thoroughly enjoying it. It is probably her favourite show at the moment.

The episodes are too damn short!

I've read the books and loved them and am thoroughly enjoying the show. I wish the episodes were longer. It's definitely got a somewhat different tone than the books, but I think the changes that have been made are generally fine and help transition the story to the medium of a TV show, rather than books.

The visual distinction of Sanctuary Moon compared to the "real" world of the story is great. Sanctuary Moon has all the tropey sci-fi TV schtick that Murderbot is avoiding as a show. Extremely vibrant colors, overdramatic line delivery, cg sets, it's just great.

I wish all episodes were out all at once - I'd binge the hell out of it.

my wife and I are limiting ourselves to one episode a night, or else we would binge all 6 episodes in one night! we are so desperate that we re-started the series all ready, watching episode 1 after finishing episode 3!

It's fun I like it :)

Only glaring flaw is that I can no longer ignore my need for more murderbot content

This was my experience trying to get copies of the books from the library before I gave in a bought the series.
"Three month waiting period for book 6 and five month for 3" Q_Q.
The audiobook pricing though? Actually a hate crime. An ironic one.
- Murderbot IS pro pirating media... just saying 🤷‍♂️

To be honest I've only seen the first two episodes and they didn't really grab me.

I enjoyed the books a lot when I read them, but never felt like it would adapt well to TV since so much exposition happens in the main character's head.

Does it get better in later episodes?

Its more of the same. I'm loving it, but it definitly different than the books
- Thanks, I might just binge it once all the episodes have aired.

I find the lens they used to film many of the shots incredibly distracting. The bokeh is outta control.

It's pretty good but feels quite basic compared to the books.

I've picked it up as a casual follow because there's not much else at the moment. It's okay but I am not overwhelmed.

The show focuses, in my opinion, a bit too much on that human/bot mix portraying all kinds of ways he's not actually human. It distracts from the (in my opinion rather thin) storyline. Maybe this is one of those shows that is complementary to the books it's based on?

Didn't know it was out, thanks! (Love the books)

Does the series spoil the books? I haven't started watching or reading yet, although the first book went on my to-read list four years ago.

I just listened to the first book, finished yesterday (it was a whopping three hours, as it’s really a novella). It seems the show is following the first book pretty closely. Some changes sure but the main plot line seems intact. Can’t speak for later books and of course all of the episodes aren’t released yet but it seems to be season 1 = book 1, which is All Systems Red.
Well, yes, they're following the storyline of the books, so the show is going to give away what happens in the books. The books are richer (as is typical), with more going on than they cover in the show, but the basic story is the same.
At this point, the show is based on the 1st novella only.

I've been loving it so far, tempted to pick up the books now.

The show is good, the books are fantastic!

I’ve never read the books. But I’m loving the show.

I think the show feels painfully short each episode but I am loving the content itself. It feels different from the books to me, but that's okay too. I am looking forward to see what can come from it, just wish the episodes were twice as long.

My wife and I are hooked also. I bought the first book in the series and started reading it, but decided it's better to not get ahead of the plot, as every episode seems to end in a cliffhanger. (I don't think that's really necessary, as the show has enough pull to keep us coming back regardless.) I have a feeling though that once season 1 is done, I'm going to binge the novels.

yea, the books are great. My wife and i are really looking forward to the introduction of our favorite character 'A.R.T.'
- I cant wait for A.r.t - I hope they don’t change it too much. The next seasons might have to nudge up the budget for some of the scenes in the later books to work. Anyone hear about another book coming out?
My boyfriend has red the books and loved them. I'm not into sci fi usually but love the series so far and plan on reading the books in the future. Haven't been so excited about new episodes coming out in a long time.
- I love the books. Murderbot is my competence porn. It's all about smart people getting out of bad situations by doing smart things.

Haven't purchased AppleTV yet but heard great things so far.

🦜🏴‍☠️
Murderbot is pro pirating media.
So fuck the corporates and watch it for free?
- Hah, hard to argue with that!