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I loved the murderbot books! :) I didn't really love the tv adaptation :(
after pretty much bingeing all available books and short stories, I'm all caught up with the murderbot diaries series. safe to say it's now one of my favorite series of all time, and murderbot my favorite character. network effect is now one of my favorite books! I was completely entranced by every page, every dialogue, every little thing about that book, for some reason.
and the thing is, the more time passes, the less I understand the appletv adaptation. silly of me, of course, because the same channel adapted foundation and completely missed everything I liked about the books, so what did I expect? but it's truly baffling how the show feels, to me, like the antithesis of everything the books are about. and the author was an exec producer! just baffling.
imo, two of the strongest points of the book are a) the critique of capitalism and b) the easy diversity in the universe. the first one is obvious, and I'll get to that in a second, but the second is something I find even more refreshing: these books are plainly, straightforwardly diverse. murderbot is a genderless construct (we could start there) that doesn't pay that much attention to human relationships, and yet we KNOW from the very first book that polyamory is completely normal. as a matter of fact, it's so normal that murderbot never explains it: many characters have more than one marital partner, and that's it, we're already taking that as canon. it's also clearly a universe in which lgbqt+ relationships are not out of the norm, at least in preservation alliance - iris has two dads, and that's never "explained", because it doesn't need to be explained. that's just how things are.
pronouns? we have them! I think there are more characters that do it as well, but I remember that specifically matteo uses they/them. there's a character in the second book(?) that I forget the name that uses neopronouns, and every feed profile includes the pronouns information because as murderbot points out, "humans care about that sort of thing". everyone respects murderbot's it/its pronouns too, btw. very easily. there's no confusion, no long paragraph explaining why everyone cares about pronouns. they just do!!!
that's what I mean by easy diversity - it's just there. it's part of the story, the author doesn't try to justify it or create conflict out of it. same thing with how many of the characters are non-white, which is something an uncaring author wouldn't bother pointing out, since murderbot very easily ignores other descriptions (what they hell does IT look like, btw?), and yet! we know for certain that many characters have dark skin, or wear their hair a specific way, because that's something the author makes a point of describing. that's important, and so exciting as a reader who always wants things to be INTENTIONAL. (growing up as a harry potter fan traumatized me, okay.)
the casting was the only thing I appreciated about the adaptation, because I really did love mensah's and ratthi's actors. pin-lee was great too! so at least that part was faithful to the books - not everyone is white. thanks for something, appletv! you did the bare mininum!
murderbot's casting, though? nah. and I adore alexander skarsgard, he's been dear to me since he played eric northman in true blood... but I don't think he was a good call for murderbot. as good of an actor he is, it plays a little too close to the handsome hunk stereotype, something I don't think fits the character at all. AND. I have reason to think that, because why the hell did they come up with a side plot of a female character hitting on murderbot? what was the point? why go there at all? the purpose seems to have been comic relief (which, sure, I guess?) and a red herring so no one would pay too much attention to leebeebee's real intentions. but... seriously?
the entire ot3 plot felt played for laughs. again, I understand them wanting to lighten up the episodes with some comic relief, but in this case it felt so... disrespectful. at no point was the polyamory taken seriously, it was really just for laughs. and for a series that was so refreshingly inclusive regarding polyam relationships, the show treating it like a cheap joke was just surreal to me. but then again, maybe not - expecting any different from an appletv show made in hollywood was just naive of me lol
I guess my expectations for how they would approach the capitalism critique were lower for that exact reason. so many small things went away in the adaptation - even murderbot's repair cubicle wasn't a cubicle but a gigantic hi-tech room. from a TV perspective, I can see why they needed a bigger room for better photography, but it kinda... flattens that part of the plot, doesn't it? I feel like a lot of it felt flatter in the adaptation. we see murderbot itself is an older, outdated model in the show, but that's not exactly what I feel like should be highlighted - all the other machinery is made cheaply, murderbot has gaps in the modules it gets loaded with, but the point isn't that it looks "old". it's that it's treated as a piece of machinery that's supposed to work hard in suboptimal conditions and still deliver high-quality service or be completely discarded. you know. like every worker in a capitalist society.
we didn't see (or at least I didn't notice?) how completely overrun by ads that universe is. we don't hear much about the contracts preservationaux signed with the company, and how exploitative bond contracts are. to symbolize how constructs are treated as objects, we get povs from... the people responsible for making/disassembling them? WHICH ACTUALLY!!! that one scene showing indentured laborers working on the constructs was interesting, but again, rather flat. we get (1) scene about them and never again, basically; or if we do see them again, I've already forgotten.
I wasn't a big fan of the sanctuary moon spoof either. it was a smart way to connect us to what murderbot sees, and to show us how bots are portrayed in media, but I think they leaned a little too hard into the comedy and forgot what the point even was. murderbot watches media for comfort, just like many of us do. later on in the series, the books make a very clear point about how media can enact real change in society, and how important it is to have people empathize with others even if it's through a show. sanctuary moon may be shit (even murderbot admits it), but it serves a purpose, and it mirrors what many of us seek in media: a safe place where we can navigate our emotions quietly, on our own.
in the show, sanctuary moon is just... a big nothing. a comedy skit we're supposed to laugh at. "haha how ridiculous, murderbot is so weird for watching that obsessively." whoever wrote these scripts and directed these episodes wasn't laughing with us, it was laughing AT us. it's just a very weird position to take when adapting these books in particular. it was trying to reach an audience that is not the audience for the books, and maybe it succeeded? idk. alexander skarsgard playing a robot with no dick (because we got TWO scenes to make that clear, mind you) who watches stupid tv shows must surely be entertaining for a lot of people. not me, but surely, a lot of people.
the smaller things I disliked were normal adaptation things: too much focus on action scenes, too little meaningful dialogue or exposition. a brand new character that served no purpose other than to change essentially the entire plotty part of the first book. very weirdly timed reveals (why did they kill the suspense about deltfall so early? no idea). new romance that doesn't really exist in the books and only serves to fluffen up the episodes (unless I completely missed gurathin being in love with mensah in the books??? but she's happily married??? what is even happening).
those things are minor and expected from an adaptation, though. different mediums, different ways to tell a story. I get that. what I don't appreciate is when things that are established and purposefully included in the book are played for laughs in the adaptation, especially since it really wouldn't kill the script to take those things seriously. they had an amazing cast in their hands and a huge budget, I'm sure they could figure out the comedy part without sniping at the things that form the core of the books.
BUT ANYWAY. excellent, incredibly entertaining books that hit close to home to me and characters that I absolutely love reading about. the worldbuilding, the side plots, the sci-fi aspect of it, everything is perfect. I gave everything 5 stars lol I was giggling and kicking my feet reading rapport. ♪ ART and murderbot sitting in tree d-e-b-u-g-g-i-n-g ♪ and network effect changed me as a person, I want to read that book over and over like murderbot watches the rise and fall of sanctuary moon.
and the thing is, the more time passes, the less I understand the appletv adaptation. silly of me, of course, because the same channel adapted foundation and completely missed everything I liked about the books, so what did I expect? but it's truly baffling how the show feels, to me, like the antithesis of everything the books are about. and the author was an exec producer! just baffling.
imo, two of the strongest points of the book are a) the critique of capitalism and b) the easy diversity in the universe. the first one is obvious, and I'll get to that in a second, but the second is something I find even more refreshing: these books are plainly, straightforwardly diverse. murderbot is a genderless construct (we could start there) that doesn't pay that much attention to human relationships, and yet we KNOW from the very first book that polyamory is completely normal. as a matter of fact, it's so normal that murderbot never explains it: many characters have more than one marital partner, and that's it, we're already taking that as canon. it's also clearly a universe in which lgbqt+ relationships are not out of the norm, at least in preservation alliance - iris has two dads, and that's never "explained", because it doesn't need to be explained. that's just how things are.
pronouns? we have them! I think there are more characters that do it as well, but I remember that specifically matteo uses they/them. there's a character in the second book(?) that I forget the name that uses neopronouns, and every feed profile includes the pronouns information because as murderbot points out, "humans care about that sort of thing". everyone respects murderbot's it/its pronouns too, btw. very easily. there's no confusion, no long paragraph explaining why everyone cares about pronouns. they just do!!!
that's what I mean by easy diversity - it's just there. it's part of the story, the author doesn't try to justify it or create conflict out of it. same thing with how many of the characters are non-white, which is something an uncaring author wouldn't bother pointing out, since murderbot very easily ignores other descriptions (what they hell does IT look like, btw?), and yet! we know for certain that many characters have dark skin, or wear their hair a specific way, because that's something the author makes a point of describing. that's important, and so exciting as a reader who always wants things to be INTENTIONAL. (growing up as a harry potter fan traumatized me, okay.)
the casting was the only thing I appreciated about the adaptation, because I really did love mensah's and ratthi's actors. pin-lee was great too! so at least that part was faithful to the books - not everyone is white. thanks for something, appletv! you did the bare mininum!
murderbot's casting, though? nah. and I adore alexander skarsgard, he's been dear to me since he played eric northman in true blood... but I don't think he was a good call for murderbot. as good of an actor he is, it plays a little too close to the handsome hunk stereotype, something I don't think fits the character at all. AND. I have reason to think that, because why the hell did they come up with a side plot of a female character hitting on murderbot? what was the point? why go there at all? the purpose seems to have been comic relief (which, sure, I guess?) and a red herring so no one would pay too much attention to leebeebee's real intentions. but... seriously?
the entire ot3 plot felt played for laughs. again, I understand them wanting to lighten up the episodes with some comic relief, but in this case it felt so... disrespectful. at no point was the polyamory taken seriously, it was really just for laughs. and for a series that was so refreshingly inclusive regarding polyam relationships, the show treating it like a cheap joke was just surreal to me. but then again, maybe not - expecting any different from an appletv show made in hollywood was just naive of me lol
I guess my expectations for how they would approach the capitalism critique were lower for that exact reason. so many small things went away in the adaptation - even murderbot's repair cubicle wasn't a cubicle but a gigantic hi-tech room. from a TV perspective, I can see why they needed a bigger room for better photography, but it kinda... flattens that part of the plot, doesn't it? I feel like a lot of it felt flatter in the adaptation. we see murderbot itself is an older, outdated model in the show, but that's not exactly what I feel like should be highlighted - all the other machinery is made cheaply, murderbot has gaps in the modules it gets loaded with, but the point isn't that it looks "old". it's that it's treated as a piece of machinery that's supposed to work hard in suboptimal conditions and still deliver high-quality service or be completely discarded. you know. like every worker in a capitalist society.
we didn't see (or at least I didn't notice?) how completely overrun by ads that universe is. we don't hear much about the contracts preservationaux signed with the company, and how exploitative bond contracts are. to symbolize how constructs are treated as objects, we get povs from... the people responsible for making/disassembling them? WHICH ACTUALLY!!! that one scene showing indentured laborers working on the constructs was interesting, but again, rather flat. we get (1) scene about them and never again, basically; or if we do see them again, I've already forgotten.
I wasn't a big fan of the sanctuary moon spoof either. it was a smart way to connect us to what murderbot sees, and to show us how bots are portrayed in media, but I think they leaned a little too hard into the comedy and forgot what the point even was. murderbot watches media for comfort, just like many of us do. later on in the series, the books make a very clear point about how media can enact real change in society, and how important it is to have people empathize with others even if it's through a show. sanctuary moon may be shit (even murderbot admits it), but it serves a purpose, and it mirrors what many of us seek in media: a safe place where we can navigate our emotions quietly, on our own.
in the show, sanctuary moon is just... a big nothing. a comedy skit we're supposed to laugh at. "haha how ridiculous, murderbot is so weird for watching that obsessively." whoever wrote these scripts and directed these episodes wasn't laughing with us, it was laughing AT us. it's just a very weird position to take when adapting these books in particular. it was trying to reach an audience that is not the audience for the books, and maybe it succeeded? idk. alexander skarsgard playing a robot with no dick (because we got TWO scenes to make that clear, mind you) who watches stupid tv shows must surely be entertaining for a lot of people. not me, but surely, a lot of people.
the smaller things I disliked were normal adaptation things: too much focus on action scenes, too little meaningful dialogue or exposition. a brand new character that served no purpose other than to change essentially the entire plotty part of the first book. very weirdly timed reveals (why did they kill the suspense about deltfall so early? no idea). new romance that doesn't really exist in the books and only serves to fluffen up the episodes (unless I completely missed gurathin being in love with mensah in the books??? but she's happily married??? what is even happening).
those things are minor and expected from an adaptation, though. different mediums, different ways to tell a story. I get that. what I don't appreciate is when things that are established and purposefully included in the book are played for laughs in the adaptation, especially since it really wouldn't kill the script to take those things seriously. they had an amazing cast in their hands and a huge budget, I'm sure they could figure out the comedy part without sniping at the things that form the core of the books.
BUT ANYWAY. excellent, incredibly entertaining books that hit close to home to me and characters that I absolutely love reading about. the worldbuilding, the side plots, the sci-fi aspect of it, everything is perfect. I gave everything 5 stars lol I was giggling and kicking my feet reading rapport. ♪ ART and murderbot sitting in tree d-e-b-u-g-g-i-n-g ♪ and network effect changed me as a person, I want to read that book over and over like murderbot watches the rise and fall of sanctuary moon.