Murderbot (TV Show)
Dec. 28th, 2025 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorWell, I finished watching the Murderbot TV show last night. Had to wait until I could watch it without paying Apple money (and without doing anything too hard). I find it interesting to do comparisons between books and their adaptations, which I can do here, since I've read most the Murderbot series now and the adaptation only covers the first book.
Here's my thoughts:
My initial impression from the trailer that they made the PresAux team seem like way over-the-top commune hippies was unfortunately quite correct. This annoyed me because it was so unnecessary. All the PresAux team are scientists and none of them have any combat experience, so there's no need to 'explain' why they need Murderbot's help with giant creatures trying to eat them or people trying to murder them.
I did enjoy the Sanctuary Moon additions, though. A tv show is the perfect format to depict a fake tv serial.
I don't think LeeBeeBee was a particularly necessary addition, but I'm not surprised she was added since she creates an extra element of tension in the show, particularly since they often tried to actively avoid interpersonal tension between the PresAux crew.
There was *alot* of body horror in the show. Like I was not expecting that much body horror. Did not enjoy that part lol.
I did find the show's use profanity amusing, though.
I don't remember all the book details to be sure about everywhere the tv show deviates from the book but I do know that the show has a number of deviations, one of the most noticeable being whenever it shifts to 3rd person perspective. The book is told from 100% first person perspective. I personally liked the 3rd person additions and thought they helped the show.
The standout characters in both the book and show besides Murderbot are Mensah and Gurathin. The black nail polish for Gurathin was a nice touch. The actor did a great job portraying the character.
Now I want to talk a bit about the themes here regarding the corporations, workers, and slavery. The show expands on the Corporation Rim stuff in a way that's in line with how it's portrayed in the books. Which is to say, it portrays the corporations as evil while avoiding any kind of class-consciousness.
Now, that may be a bit of a controversial statement, so I'll elaborate.
Neither the indentured workers nor the enslaved bots outside Murderbot are portrayed particularly sympathetically in either the book All Systems Red or the show, and they certainly aren't portrayed to advance any thematic call for liberation of workers, even enslaved workers.
Preservation is portrayed as good because it is a place where slavery doesn't happen, but it's not working to liberate slaves any more than the Jedi are in Star Wars. And just like how Qui-Gon upholds the legitimacy of slavery in Star Wars by purchasing Anakin from Watto, PresAux upholds the legitimacy of slavery by purchasing Murderbot from the corporation. These sci-fi stories have more regressive politics than what came out of the Civil War, where former slaves successfully fought for chattel slavery to be abolished.
The message in this show, as in the books, is that the system is inevitable, the system is undefeatable, and nothing you can do can change it. It's political nihilism dressed up as anti-capitalistic messaging. I don't think this was necessarily intentional by Martha Wells, but I do think it's why Apple found this particular story such an attractive one for adaptation. Like Severance, it gives the appearance of anti-corporate messaging that actually reinforces the beliefs and behaviors that allow corporations to continue doing what they currently do.
Corporations are also emphasized to be rational actors that would never intentionally do anything that jeopardizes the corporation's profits in both the books and show which is just not true in real life. Additionally, corporations are also shown as necessarily losing money getting people killed which is far from being a given in real life.
So, I thought it was a fun show. Just nothing revolutionary.
Here's my thoughts:
My initial impression from the trailer that they made the PresAux team seem like way over-the-top commune hippies was unfortunately quite correct. This annoyed me because it was so unnecessary. All the PresAux team are scientists and none of them have any combat experience, so there's no need to 'explain' why they need Murderbot's help with giant creatures trying to eat them or people trying to murder them.
I did enjoy the Sanctuary Moon additions, though. A tv show is the perfect format to depict a fake tv serial.
I don't think LeeBeeBee was a particularly necessary addition, but I'm not surprised she was added since she creates an extra element of tension in the show, particularly since they often tried to actively avoid interpersonal tension between the PresAux crew.
There was *alot* of body horror in the show. Like I was not expecting that much body horror. Did not enjoy that part lol.
I did find the show's use profanity amusing, though.
I don't remember all the book details to be sure about everywhere the tv show deviates from the book but I do know that the show has a number of deviations, one of the most noticeable being whenever it shifts to 3rd person perspective. The book is told from 100% first person perspective. I personally liked the 3rd person additions and thought they helped the show.
The standout characters in both the book and show besides Murderbot are Mensah and Gurathin. The black nail polish for Gurathin was a nice touch. The actor did a great job portraying the character.
Now I want to talk a bit about the themes here regarding the corporations, workers, and slavery. The show expands on the Corporation Rim stuff in a way that's in line with how it's portrayed in the books. Which is to say, it portrays the corporations as evil while avoiding any kind of class-consciousness.
Now, that may be a bit of a controversial statement, so I'll elaborate.
Neither the indentured workers nor the enslaved bots outside Murderbot are portrayed particularly sympathetically in either the book All Systems Red or the show, and they certainly aren't portrayed to advance any thematic call for liberation of workers, even enslaved workers.
Preservation is portrayed as good because it is a place where slavery doesn't happen, but it's not working to liberate slaves any more than the Jedi are in Star Wars. And just like how Qui-Gon upholds the legitimacy of slavery in Star Wars by purchasing Anakin from Watto, PresAux upholds the legitimacy of slavery by purchasing Murderbot from the corporation. These sci-fi stories have more regressive politics than what came out of the Civil War, where former slaves successfully fought for chattel slavery to be abolished.
The message in this show, as in the books, is that the system is inevitable, the system is undefeatable, and nothing you can do can change it. It's political nihilism dressed up as anti-capitalistic messaging. I don't think this was necessarily intentional by Martha Wells, but I do think it's why Apple found this particular story such an attractive one for adaptation. Like Severance, it gives the appearance of anti-corporate messaging that actually reinforces the beliefs and behaviors that allow corporations to continue doing what they currently do.
Corporations are also emphasized to be rational actors that would never intentionally do anything that jeopardizes the corporation's profits in both the books and show which is just not true in real life. Additionally, corporations are also shown as necessarily losing money getting people killed which is far from being a given in real life.
So, I thought it was a fun show. Just nothing revolutionary.