★★★★☆ Murderbot, Season 1, by Roseanne Liang, Paul Weitz, Toa Fraser, Aurora Guerrero, Chris Weitz, Martha Wells
Fun, but it's not quite Murderbot
Murderbot, Season 1
Roseanne Liang, Paul Weitz, Toa Fraser, Aurora Guerrero, Chris Weitz, Martha Wells
Fun, but it's not quite Murderbot
The last episode of Murderbot, Season 1 dropped today on Apple TV+. I am a fan of the books (see, for instance, my review of the first book, All Systems Red). I enjoyed the series, but I’m a little disappointed.
Let me begin by confessing that I am one of those tedious people who often say, “It’s not as good as the book,” and that will be the substance of my criticism. I don’t always say that—in fact, I hold the heretical opinion that Peter Jackson’s three Lord of the Ring movies are better than Tolkien’s novels. (This high opinion does not, of course, extend to the bloated films nominally based on The Hobbit.) So I like to think that I can be open-minded.
Murderbot, Season 1 is a good science fiction adventure show. There are also some fun Easter Eggs that fans of the book will enjoy. For instance, we get to see excerpts of Murderbot’s favorite show, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, and they’re a lot of fun. The Pew! Pew! space adventure parts of Murderbot are convincingly and fairly faithfully transferred to the screen. Sanctuary Moon is a clever bit, because it is so clearly the kind of cheezy science fiction drama we all know, and it contrasts well with the uncheezy Murderbot.
What the series lacks that the book has, however, is Murderbot’s voice. Murderbot is a caustically funny grumpy introvert, a lovably cuddly ball of barbed wire. I think I am not alone in loving Murderbot’s unique voice. The creation and expression of this personality is Wells’s great achievement in the books, I think. They are all told in Murderbot’s first-person point of view. Skarsgård has voiceovers that replicate this voice to a small degree. But they can’t replicate the experience of hours of unfiltered exposure to Murderbot that one gets reading the books.
So, fun, definitely worth the watch, but No Substitute For The Real Thing.