Erin Watches: Murderbot (TV), season 1
Jul. 16th, 2025 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
erinptahGot an Apple TV trial, just in time to binge the whole Murderbot TV adaptation before the Friday finale.
(General note: The platform doesn’t have a watchlist? Just a “continue watching” list, which removes anything you finish — no saving a list of faves to rewatch! — and adds stuff it autoplays, whether you want to see more or not? Weird and unpleasant design choice.)
I like it! Plot-wise, it’s a very close adaptation of the first book, All Systems Red. Same overarching plot, a few things rearranged along the way. Character-wise…a bunch of things have been shifted around. Everyone is recognizable as a version of their original self, but. If you’re already a book fan, the question of “will you like the TV series?” may hinge on “when they changed Character X, did they keep or discard the traits you were most invested in?”
General, no-spoilers overview:
Some of the changes are obvious “doing it this way worked better on-screen” things. Scenes that were just-MB in the book become group efforts, giving the PresAux actors more to do. Plot points that were just inner-monologue realizations in the book are delivered in conversations instead.
I mostly like them! Even with the characters, even a few dramatic personality shifts — look, I’ll be mad if some of them start bleeding into book!fandom, and fans stop writing the original versions of the characters. But as a standalone AU, most of them work really well.
The few changes I actively don’t like are all “why did you even add this, what was the point?” kind of things. No huge dealbreakers. Just some low-key annoyances.
There are a few particular exchanges from the book that you really have to get right to make a satisfying adaptation. They’ve all landed. And a bunch of the comedy moments have been had-to-stop-the-episode-while-I-cracked-up funny.
The biggest advantage of doing Murderbot on TV is, The Rise And Fall Of Sanctuary Moon is also TV. Which means the showrunners can film Actual 100% Authentic Sanctuary Moon Footage, and cut to it while MB is watching. It’s ridiculous and amazing.
