Haven’t seen any chatter here a out the new Murderbot show.
My wife and I are absolutely loving it so far, feels like a really faithful and respectful adaptation to the books, with most of the changes being positive!
Anyone else watching this?
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!
🦜🏴☠️
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I’ve been loving it so far, tempted to pick up the books now.
The show is good, the books are fantastic!
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 🤷♂️
Didn’t know it was out, thanks! (Love the books)
I find the lens they used to film many of the shots incredibly distracting. The bokeh is outta control.
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.
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.
Hmm, yeah, that one’s maybe not as strong, though I kind of look at Network Effect and System Collapse as one story (confusing because there’s a book in between them, but that one chronologically comes before Network Effect). I liked it, but agree it’s not as strong.
Absolutely fucking yes w.r.t. the characters being stupid in the show. In the books, the people from Preservation are incredibly competent.
TV SHOW AND BOOK SPOILERS
As an example, book Mensah would NOT have had a fucking panic attack dragging a sensor up a mountain alone because she would not have been foolish enough to put herself in that situation. Book Mensah does not take needless risks. She only does inadvisable things when her moral code requires her to do so.
Mensah and the other preservation folks are acting too much like the corporates. The books show you that living under a corporate boot makes you stunted and limited because that’s a natural consequence of the profit-focused environment they create. Preservation cares about people, so the people from there are well rounded and don’t do stupid things quite as often.
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?
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.
“ I wish they would leave me alone so I can watch my shows”
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!
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.
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.
