Murderbot!

[JJ Litke]

The first two episodes are out! Who else is watching?

In most respects, I thought they did fairly well with the adaptation. With a BIG exception: the choice to make Murderbot somewhat arbitrarily choose its name without initially remembering the massacre at Ganaka Pit, and the bizarre fantasy sequence showing Murderbot slaughtering the PreservationAux team. This all feels way out of character to me, and it's the biggest thing that concerns me about where this may be going.

They cut some characters, which didn't surprise me and I actually think works okay. I mean, it was realistic that the team would be that big but also it was a lot of characters to track. The first time I read All Systems Red, I had to flip back and forth a bunch trying to remember who everyone was.

I liked the hippie culture lean-in. That was fun and felt right, plus it'll help highlight the difference between them and Corporation Rim culture.

But the very best change was the choice to show us scenes from The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Fucking loved that! They did a stellar job with the casting for that, too. If they turned that into its own actual series, I'd watch the hell out of it.

 

[Maryn]

I have this, ah, thing, where I need to be able to watch an entire season on consecutive nights. So I'm going to wait until all the episodes have dropped. Maybe I'll even have time to reread the first book.

Glad to hear it's okay. It's such a disappointment when an adaptation doesn't go well. (It must be substantially more difficult than it seems.)

 

[VeryVerity]

I have this, ah, thing, where I need to be able to watch an entire season on consecutive nights. So I'm going to wait until all the episodes have dropped. Maybe I'll even have time to reread the first book.

Glad to hear it's okay. It's such a disappointment when an adaptation doesn't go well. (It must be substantially more difficult than it seems.)

I hear you – that's what we normally do, but we're between series at the moment so we went for it anyway and I loved it.

I've not read the books yet; my husband keeps telling me I'd like them, but I've been on an extended romance binge, so it hasn't happened yet. But he said for the most part it's pretty close to the book.

I don't know how I feel about reading books after watching a series, I've never done it that way round before...

 

[JJ Litke]

I have this, ah, thing, where I need to be able to watch an entire season on consecutive nights. So I'm going to wait until all the episodes have dropped.

That'd usually be my preference, too. This time I couldn't stand to wait.

I don't know how I feel about reading books after watching a series, I've never done it that way round before...

I think going movie-or-series-to-book tends to work out pretty well. I saw the movie first for Howl's Moving Castle, it works in that direction. And Going Postal and Hogfather, I saw both of those before reading the books.

Maybe going book-to-movie is tougher because you develop your own mental images that may not jibe with the movie's visuals.

 

[VeryVerity]

I think going movie-or-series-to-book tends to work out pretty well. I saw the movie first for Howl's Moving Castle, it works in that direction. And Going Postal and Hogfather, I saw both of those before reading the books.

Maybe going book-to-movie is tougher because you develop your own mental images that may not jibe with the movie's visuals.

That makes sense. I've never tried it the other way round. I was just having that rant the other day with someone, about how frustrating it can be when a favoured book is put on the screen

Maybe I'll read the first book to get ahead of the series...

 

[Maryn]

As I recall, it's a pretty quick read.

Ordinarily I prefer to read first, then view, but there are quite a few times in which the order worked either way, and a handful where view first was better. (Anything with a huge cast, like LOTR or GoT.)

 

[ElaineB]

With a BIG exception: the choice to make Murderbot somewhat arbitrarily choose its name

I had the same thought about that!

And soooo...what do folks think? I feel like it has strayed a lot from the book but maybe I just don't remember (though I read the first one twice). I like it, but hate that the episodes are only a half hour. I feel like we just get going and it stops.

 

[JJ Litke]

I’m really enjoying it! I’m okay with most of the changes, and it has stayed close to the source for a lot of elements. The relationship between Mensah and Murderbot is really well done, which I’d fully credit to Noma Dumenzweni. That was a brilliant bit of casting.

And yeah, the episodes being so short is really annoying. After the last two episodes, I plan to rewatch the whole thing.

I’m glad I’m not the only one watching!

 

[Sage]

I watched a few eps, then started listening to the books as audiobooks. I like the story better on the show, but I like Murderbot better as a character in the books. It could be the narrator is more appealing to me than how Alexander Skarsgård is playing it, not sure. I don’t know, there’s a point in the book when it says something like, “I have the best clients,” after Bharadwaj removes the override, & I read that right before I saw the corresponding episode, & the show is just taking a different approach with Murderbot’s relationship with the crew.

The crew are way more interesting, IMO, on the show, though.

I think the short episodes are easier to take if you think of the show as a SF sitcom. Like I see why each ep can be cut to be about this single situation, while slowly progressing the overall plot of the series. Still, they do seem so short.

 

[Sage]

 

[ElaineB]

Mensah

I love Mensah on the show. Loved her in the books, too, but I feel like I know her better on the show.

I like the story better on the show, but I like Murderbot better as a character in the books.

I agree.

And I'm honestly not a fan of the Sanctuary Moon snippets in the show.

I'll see #9 tomorrow! Or is that a reference to the show overall?

 

[Sage]

It was for #9, particularly the very end of the ep, though the whole thing was great, IMO