I’ve been watching Murderbot as it comes out on Apple, and… it’s ok.
I don’t hate it, but I also don’t love it the way I hoped
to, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. Here’s the thing: I share with the
SecUnit-of-the-book a dislike of watching helpless people, and a preference for
watching the smart ones solve problems. In making Murderbot a comedy
show, the Apple team has gone for slapstick and this has had an overall
flattening effect on everything.
The book PresAux are a group of researchers who are used to
thinking their way through situations. When they’re overwhelmed, they think
about the situation. The book SecUnit is a very, very smart unit who has kept
itself hidden through stealth and cunning. It wins many of its battles the same
way—by not charging in firing. The TV team and unit are stumbling and
fumbling their way through everything, whining when they are rescued the “wrong
way” and attempting to head-butt attacking Security Units. Both teams are
overwhelmed when they find themselves under attack by unknown Corporate
entities, but one reacts intelligently and makes plans; the other just reacts.
The one time I’ve felt like I was watching a group of
researchers was during Complementary Species when Arada marvels at the
two alien animals and the team speculates about the shuttle’s probable
resemblance to a warm rock; that, sadly, was buried in horrible CGI monsters, a lot of random
reactivity, and followed up by the team being spectacularly lucky when attacked
by a rival SecUnit – and to To quote the book SecUnit, “I hate luck.”
This leads to another, less important but still notable
change: at no point to I feel like the Murderbot of the show is “a horrifying
murderbot” or that SecUnits in general are “terrifying killing machines.” The
fights shown so far have been short, slow, and unimpressive. No one human
should be able to charge, unarmed, up to a SecUnit and live (see Complementary
Species). I don’t object to the TV team being shocked and horrified when
MurderBot shoots LeeBeebee; I object to Murderbot’s abilities being so deeply
downplayed. Look, even LeeBeebee, the Corporate person, made sexual comments
about it and gave it an awkward kiss which—SecUnits are terrifying. No one
flirts with them, even while pretending to be an idiot. They all know the Unit
could kill them in seconds.
Character changes are inevitable when a book is made into a TV show, and they are not always bad. I initially thought I would like the work being done to parallel Gurathin and Murderbot more explicitly. I mean, both characters are augmented, both (in the show) come from the Corporate section, both have seen how low and murder-y the Rim gets. The TV show did also just (clumsily) establish that Gurathin was controlled by drugs—a semi-parallel to MurderBot’s governor module. That could be fertile territory for mutual suspicion based on misunderstanding. However, all we’ve seen is Gurathin having a sort of creepy crush on Mensah which is leading to sexual jealousy, and –why? Sexual jealousy is boring and overused as a motive. Intelligent suspicion based on knowing just how dangerous a SecUnit could be, and/or intelligent suspicion based on Gurathin knowing just how dangerous he, himself, could be would be interesting. This—is not.
Similarly, we haven’t seen anything of the competent lawyer in Pin Lee, the impressive leader in Mensah, or the analyst in Gurathin. We’ve seen a little of the compassionate side of Ratthi, but he’s also being a doofus most of the time, so that’s pretty much a wash as far as I’m concerned.
It's not really that Murderbot is a bad show, exactly;
it’s just it’s not living up to what it could be. I also wonder if people who haven't read the books will have any idea what is going on. Everyone has been so busy emoting that the mystery of what is happening on the planet and why is being left by the wayside.
--
1) The Murderbot Diaries are, actually, often funny;
it’s that SecUnit’s style is much more of a dry, ironic humor.
2) And don’t get me started on the three-way marriage that
the writers shoved in only to have two of the three over it almost immediately.
**Yes, they do have a number of multi-partner marriages in the books, but the
on-screen one is created for the show, and no one seems to know what to do with
it now that it’s there; the last episode had it “hilariously” (I think it was
meant to be funny?) turn into a tiresome triangle.
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