Guest Post: Text vs Telly - The Muderbot Diaries

Comparing television shows and their inspirational literary works is hardly a good idea, but alas, we are doing it today with The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and Murderbot created by Apple TV.

An introductory note: I followed Martha Wells and her time during the production of the series and she was heavily involved in the making of it. The shows that have authors involved in the development usually end up being much closer to the plot line of the book.

And this is the case with Murderbot Season 1 as it follows the novel All Systems Red (the first installment of The Murderbot Diaries) almost exactly. I think that the point of view from the character Murderbot in the books is something that is very hard to replicate on the show without it looking like a video game, so the first couple episodes had an evaluation period as I was stuck with the book narrative in the back of my mind.

Once past the difference in point of view expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed the setting that Martha Wells puts out into both the books and the television series. It’s futuristic and shows the direction of a mostly human society where corporation control is a large umbrella of this sci-fi universe, but there are some people out there fighting (and winning) in cases of rights-for-all and humane endeavors. Robots and artificial intelligence is a large part of the society that is created and there are several awesome characters who are various forms of robots. I think that one challenge the streaming series has is managing the fun relationships of Murderbot and other computers, bots, and network systems. This is an aspect of the books that I loved and hope that it doesn’t get lost in future seasons.

Speaking of characters, let’s talk about some of the human characters and how the two versions stack up against each other. I liked the characters that Martha Wells put into the books, especially the ones that have a closer relationship with Murderbot, but I think the Apple series gives them more life. The book series is limited in how humans look and act from the robot’s POV. In the streaming series, I think characters like Pin-Lee, Gurathin, Ratthi, and Mensah are much more developed (as I am sure that they have to be). I really enjoyed all the characters from the new series from Apple and I am excited to see how the show mocks up the characters from the rest of the series.

In both works, there is a fictional drama series called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and holy cow, these scenes where clips of this series played were hilarious! The new series captured quirkiness, ridiculousness, and dramatics perfectly when it comes to these small clips of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. My opinion is that The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon is imagined on the screen way better than what is portrayed in the books.

The last take I have is about Murderbot itself. I think that Alexander Skarsgard does an excellent job at playing a robot in this series, I don’t know I’m totally sold though. Maybe it’s the voice, maybe the script, maybe the guy. I think that it might’ve been too cheesy or too difficult to make the character Murderbot less gendered. I say that because I liked the narrator in the audio books. I think the show does a good job of showing what a future universe controlled by corporations would make a security robot look like, but I also think it’s also a difficult role to fill.

I liked series by Martha Wells a lot and I do think, without her involvement in the production of the Apple series, Murderbot would be much worse. I really enjoyed watching the show and I recommend it heavily, even if you didn’t read the books. It’ll still make sense and be a fun show to watch.