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To the surprise of everyone, especially myself, I really like the Murderbot adaptation so far!
You can read my thoughts (along with spoilery stuff for TLoU and Andor) in my newsletter, but to save you scrolling past a lot of spoilers for other things, I'll also pop them here.
Anyway, I loved Murderbot.
No, I was surprised, too. Earlier in the day I stumbled across this lukewarm review from Wired, which confirmed all my fears.
Or so I thought.
I won’t lie, the first act is rough. The comedic pacing in the first scene is non-existent, and the whole “PreservationAux team chooses their SecUnit” scene wasn’t much better.
But by the time you get to the planet, and the actual opening scene from the book, it suddenly hits its groove. I was afraid this meant that we’d have a stark “everything based directly on Wells’s work is good, everything new is bad” situation, but I very quickly forgot what was new and what was based on the book.
I was watching with two friends, my flatmate and a houseguest, and they also enjoyed it. For the record, it was not me but my flatmate who declared that The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon is clearly Strange New Worlds: “I could see it was meant to be a Star Trek, but it was stupid, soooooo…”
Our houseguest said she could see a Firefly influence, which is interesting, because I cannot, but everything made sense to her when I explained Wells’s background writing tie-in novels for Stargate. Murderbot feels very much like a series that understands its place in the wider context of science fiction and media, and also in conversations about queer identities and neurodivergence.
Does it still bug me that they cast a cis white actor as Murderbot? Yes, but having seen the weird way reviewers are talking about its pronouns and sexual identity, I’m glad that a famous straight white man is carrying the burden.
There was a conversation on Tumblr recently — or, rather a conversation a few years ago that crossed my path the other day — about how movies like To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar were important to queer culture because the straight A-list actors involved were able to use their social capital to play drag queens and trans women, and in doing so made it safer for queer actors. I hope we can look back and see Skarsgård doing the same thing here.
The rest of the cast are great. Honestly, Wired’s complaint about the PreservationAux team being neurotic feel more like a nerd going, “Ummmmm, there are FEELINGS in my science fiction and I am expected to pay attention to them?”
I will say, however, that I’m on the fence about Mensah being given a panic disorder. Yes, it adds a layer of complexity to a character who often seems ultra-competent and impervious, but I think Murderbot really depends on her ultra-competence (even as it rolls its eyes and protects her). And it feels a bit undermining to go, “Here’s an older Black woman in command! And HERE’S her big weakness! She really needs this white robot to save her!” I feel like I could go either way on this.
I will say that I find it odd that the PreservationAux team are depicted as “hippies”, complete with singing and holding hands to build consensus and painting their hub. In the books, these are basically Star Trek characters dropped into a cyberpunk capitalist hellscape. But I don’t know how that is going to play out, and it might, for example, be a choice designed to distinguish them from ART’s crew in future seasons.
All in all, I’m very glad that I enjoy the series so far, and I will not be reading the books to refresh my memory and give rise to further nitpicks until the season is done.
No, I was surprised, too. Earlier in the day I stumbled across this lukewarm review from Wired, which confirmed all my fears.
Or so I thought.
I won’t lie, the first act is rough. The comedic pacing in the first scene is non-existent, and the whole “PreservationAux team chooses their SecUnit” scene wasn’t much better.
But by the time you get to the planet, and the actual opening scene from the book, it suddenly hits its groove. I was afraid this meant that we’d have a stark “everything based directly on Wells’s work is good, everything new is bad” situation, but I very quickly forgot what was new and what was based on the book.
I was watching with two friends, my flatmate and a houseguest, and they also enjoyed it. For the record, it was not me but my flatmate who declared that The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon is clearly Strange New Worlds: “I could see it was meant to be a Star Trek, but it was stupid, soooooo…”
Our houseguest said she could see a Firefly influence, which is interesting, because I cannot, but everything made sense to her when I explained Wells’s background writing tie-in novels for Stargate. Murderbot feels very much like a series that understands its place in the wider context of science fiction and media, and also in conversations about queer identities and neurodivergence.
Does it still bug me that they cast a cis white actor as Murderbot? Yes, but having seen the weird way reviewers are talking about its pronouns and sexual identity, I’m glad that a famous straight white man is carrying the burden.
There was a conversation on Tumblr recently — or, rather a conversation a few years ago that crossed my path the other day — about how movies like To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar were important to queer culture because the straight A-list actors involved were able to use their social capital to play drag queens and trans women, and in doing so made it safer for queer actors. I hope we can look back and see Skarsgård doing the same thing here.
The rest of the cast are great. Honestly, Wired’s complaint about the PreservationAux team being neurotic feel more like a nerd going, “Ummmmm, there are FEELINGS in my science fiction and I am expected to pay attention to them?”
I will say, however, that I’m on the fence about Mensah being given a panic disorder. Yes, it adds a layer of complexity to a character who often seems ultra-competent and impervious, but I think Murderbot really depends on her ultra-competence (even as it rolls its eyes and protects her). And it feels a bit undermining to go, “Here’s an older Black woman in command! And HERE’S her big weakness! She really needs this white robot to save her!” I feel like I could go either way on this.
I will say that I find it odd that the PreservationAux team are depicted as “hippies”, complete with singing and holding hands to build consensus and painting their hub. In the books, these are basically Star Trek characters dropped into a cyberpunk capitalist hellscape. But I don’t know how that is going to play out, and it might, for example, be a choice designed to distinguish them from ART’s crew in future seasons.
All in all, I’m very glad that I enjoy the series so far, and I will not be reading the books to refresh my memory and give rise to further nitpicks until the season is done.