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?
I’ve been loving it so far, tempted to pick up the books now.
The show is good, the books are fantastic!
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.
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.
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?
I find the lens they used to film many of the shots incredibly distracting. The bokeh is outta control.
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.
The episodes are too damn short!
I’ve never read the books. But I’m loving the show.
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 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.
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 🤷♂️
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.
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?
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’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?
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.
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.
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 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.
