The TV adaptation of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries is nearing the end of its first season. Since so many of us at ABC have read and loved this series of science fiction novellas, we figured we’d remind you of our Staff Choice descriptions and let you know how we feel about the screen version—just ahead of the season finale, which is airing on Friday, July 11th.
Sophie
Murderbot is, well, just that: a robot-human entity, made from machine parts and fleshy bits to either provide armored security or be a soldier for hire, and meant to be controlled by the corporation that owns it through a governor module. Which Murderbot has hacked, because its job is boring and it would rather be watching convoluted intergalactic soap operas instead. In private. Alas, no such luck, of course, and Murderbot keeps having to save stupid humans who get into dumb-ass, life-threatening scrapes. Its dry, unimpressed tone is a lot of fun, the action scenes are intense, and despite all its resistance Murderbot can’t help but discover not all humans are as dumb as at first presumed, and that it is not as immune to feelings (ew, gross) as it had hoped.
Fridays have turned into Murderbot Days in my house, because Friday is the day new episodes of the TV series based on Martha Wells’ series of books drops. I love the books (they have featured in my annual Staff Top 5 several times) because Murderbot is so human and awkward and feeling all the feels whilst not wanting to feel any. I was a little apprehensive to start the TV series, but I’m glad to report that it is excellent! Alexander Skarsgård really captures Murderbot’s awkwardness and pouty unwillingness to engage in any kind of contact with humans. The Preservation Aux crew is a wonderful and funny amalgam of space hippies, constantly checking in with one another’s feelings and trying to find a way to solve anything peaceably. And The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon is beautifully over-the-top; I bet those actors had a whale of time! That’s not to say it’s a perfect show: Skarsgård is rather too masculine-looking for the Murderbot in my head when I read the books, and I wish its preternatural speed and processing power, as well as its propensity to look at its clients through screens rather than eye-contact, were more obvious on screen. Also, the story is quite different from the first book, although the main line is followed. All in all, though, I’ve loved the show, and each episode ends far too quickly for my liking. They really captured the feeling of the books well. I can’t wait for the season finale, and am keeping my fingers crossed for season 2…
Else
This book is part of one of my favorite Science Fiction subgenres, AI with Anxiety, because the main character, Murderbot, is anxious and depressed. It is a security unit who has hacked its own governor module, meaning it doesn’t have to listen to what the humans tell it to do. But also, it can watch soap operas for literally hours while doing its menial job. Who hasn’t binge-watched too many series while being depressed?
This book is full of fun gender fuckery: Murderbot goes by it/its pronouns and people generally have pronoun tags to make misgendering just… not a thing. Murderbot itself is also very aroace-coded and the world overall is very queernorm, because hello, they are in space and have androids!
It has been a while since I’ve read the Murderbot books, but I loved them so much. The books are part of the AI with Anxiety subgenre that I love so much and rave about all the time. So when I first heard that they were making a TV show about it, I was scared they wouldn’t do the books justice. I was also angry, because Apple TV+ is making them and that’s one of the few streaming services I am not subscribed to. But after seeing the trailer, I was put at ease a bit more by how the actors seemed to respect the parts I really liked about the books (i.e. the gender fuckery, autism-coded depressed AI, etc).
My biggest pet peeve is how streaming services decide to not release a series in one go, but try to drip feed the series one episode a week. This girl doesn’t have the object permanence to remember to watch an episode a week! So the week before the last episode airs, I’ve finally gotten myself a 7-day free trial of Apple TV+ and started watching the series. Two episodes in and I’m liking it so far. The books are very much focussed on internal dialogue and they’ve managed to translate this to the screen with a voice over. I personally prefer the books, but I am very much looking forward to continue the TV series. I managed to get a friend to read the Murderbot Diaries, and they are more into the series than the books, but they enjoy both. Definitely a must read and a much watch!
Iris
It took next to no time for Murderbot to completely win my heart—which, ironically, Murderbot would hate. Preferred pronouns it/its, this android (part mechanical, part biological) has managed to hack its way to autonomy. Away from the mental and physical control of the corporate security firm that owns it, it uses this newfound freedom to… watch soap operas. Alone. Which is infinitely preferable over spending time with the humans it’s charged to protect, because those are prone to horribly inconvenient and wildly illogical things such as Talking, Touching and Having Emotions.* When they’re not making dumb decisions that threaten their lives, that is.
* While comparing autistic people to robots is, in general, bad form, it’s definitely not surprising that this series is very popular with the neurospicy crowd.
I loved All Systems Red and the rest of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells so much that I felt a little protective when I heard that an adaptation was coming. Having a book you love turned into a movie or TV series is always nerve-racking: will the creators preserve the parts I cared about, or will they focus on something completely different? But then I saw the trailer and to my surprise (because this very rarely happens for me), the world looked pretty much exactly like I had pictured. And while I didn’t know most of the cast, I was pleasantly surprised to see Tamara Podemski, who I loved in Reservation Dogs.
While the storyline of this first season is different from the books, the overarching events are pretty similar. I sometimes miss the extent to which we experience the story from Murderbot’s point of view, but I also understand that the way Murderbot constantly skips through drone and security camera feeds probably doesn’t translate to the screen very well. I also had to get used to the hippy-ness of the PresAux crew, which seems pretty exaggerated compared to the books, but I’m super impressed by Noma Dumezweni as Dr. Mensah and I love David Dastmalchian’s nuanced performance as Gurathin, a character I didn’t much care for in the books. And while TV Murderbot looks very different from how I imagined, I think Alexander Skarsgård has a great take on the character.
Overall, I’m enjoying my time with this series very much, and I’ll definitely be sad when the season ends. No news yet on a season 2, as far as I know, but I’m hoping to see more of this gang!
