Murderbot S1: For the love of Sanctuary Moon

[dmsilev]

Perihelion was such a fun character, and it’s crew doesn’t even bat an eye when Murderbot explains why it calls the ship AI ART.

It’s even better than that. Murderbot referring to the ship as Asshole Research Transport is how it convinces the crew that it’s not a plant or under some compulsion or something. Quickly flipping through Network Effect to find the scene,

Spoiler

“How do we know you’re really Peri’s friend?” Seth said. He was the one I’d gotten the brief image of on DockSecSystem, tall, very dark skin, with less hair than most SecUnits. From ART’s records, he was Iris’s parent. “The colonists uploaded some sort of system when Peri was offline, they could have access to all Peri’s archives, they could know what you look like.”
That didn’t make any sense but using logic with traumatized humans never works. (I could make a remark there about logic not working with humans, period, but I’m not going to do that.) I could give them video clips of me onboard ART, but that wouldn’t help. Conversations between me and my humans could be faked, and the conversations ART and I had were in a data exchange language that humans wouldn’t be able to read without an interpreter, which could be faked, too.
I said, “The name I call Perihelion is ART, which stands for Asshole Research Transport.”
Seth’s grim expression relaxed and Tarik said, “You definitely know the real Peri.” Kaede, standing by my left elbow, added, “Peri has a very dry sense of humor.”

 

[dmsilev]

Re the woman that everyone tagged as totally suspicious, I think I can claim "called it" on how things went down:

Yeah, I'd agree with that speculation. In fact, I think I know what might be coming (though not how we get there), just based on looking at the trailer and asking "which scenes haven't yet appeared in the show". Specifically, the clip at about 1:50, featuring a suddenly blood-splattered wall.

Also, if you're going to overwrite vast swathes of work-related data with your own private media store, make sure not to get busted by your boss. I feel this is a general life lesson that the show is teaching us.

 

[designmerc]

View: https://youtu.be/u8KPF8H3TAI

 

[rtrefz]

Re the woman that everyone tagged as totally suspicious, I think I can claim "called it" on how things went down:


Also, if you're going to overwrite vast swathes of work-related data with your own private media store, make sure not to get busted by your boss. I feel this is a general life lesson that the show is teaching us.

I thought they would have strung it out a bit longer

 

[Pont]

I thought they would have strung it out a bit longer

With short episodes released a week apart, they better not string anything out.

 

[dmsilev]

View: https://youtu.be/u8KPF8H3TAI

Someone had a bit too much fun making that. I do want to know where the trailer hitch attaches though.

On second thought, maybe it's best not to know.

 

[GaitherBill]

LeBeeBee had it coming!

SecUnit gonna SecUnit.

 

[dmsilev]

Hmmm. An interesting episode. We're now deviating a lot from the book. The plot details, yes of course (Lebeebee is a character written for the show), but also in terms of the arc of the relationship between Murderbot and the Preservation crew. In the book, it's a very steady and essentially uninterrupted "learn to trust and rely on each other" progression. In the show, we had that for let's say the first 5 or so episodes, and then things went sideways in a big way especially in this latest episode. If the show is going to echo the ending of the book (as the show runners have said it will), there's going to have to be something to rebuild that trust before the ending. Guess we'll see either this week or next.

Also of note, I skimmed through the book and as far as I could see, there aren't any examples of Murderbot killing humans in front of the Preservation team. They find out about the massacre in its past, but that's not really the same as seeing first-hand the blood-splattered wall that we get here.

 

[rtrefz]

I loved how they showed everyone's reactions to the shooting.

 

[nquinnell]

I have seen a lot of good press on this, and some folks I respect have said this show was awesome, so I watched it this weekend. I thought it was amazing! I'm enjoying the storyline, the characters, and how things are playing out.

 

[whoisit]

It's been enjoyable. I just wish the episode were a little longer.

 

[elitegimp]

I've been really enjoying how they've stayed true to the general humor of the books. Murderbot on screen is pretty close to how I imagined in my head while reading, while the humans are a little different in a way that makes it feel fresh and new (also I don't really remember the plot of any of the books, just that they are short and fun... glad to see Labeebee was made up for the show and not someone I had forgotten about).

This is something I can look up, but how many episodes will be in the season? I see another one drops on Friday, but don't know when to expect the season finale

 

[dmsilev]

This is something I can look up, but how many episodes will be in the season? I see another one drops on Friday, but don't know when to expect the season finale

Ten episodes total. The one that drops this week will be #8, so two more after that.

 

[dmsilev]

Episode 8 just dropped. Never mind the main plot, I want to know what happened next on Sanctuary Moon. Damn cliffhangers.

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

I waited out #6 and when 7 dropped watched them both, one hour is better than 30 minutes.

 

[Klockwerk]

Yeah, but then I have to have self control for a week. That simply isn't going to happen for a show as good as Murderbot.

 

[Demento]

I often say that I wish some shows would do 30 minute episodes, to make it more digestible when I don't have a lot of time or know what I fancy. Especially when it's not one coherent storyline for the whole episode. (I thought this a lot about The Great, even though I like it) This is a very rare reversal of that wish.

 

[SnoopCatt]

I often say that I wish some shows would do 30 minute episodes, to make it more digestible when I don't have a lot of time or know what I fancy. Especially when it's not one coherent storyline for the whole episode. (I thought this a lot about The Great, even though I like it) This is a very rare reversal of that wish.

Agreed. I find I'm just getting settled into the meat of the episode, and BOOM, the end credits are rolling.

 

[SectorS9]

Feels like it will be fun to do a full binge of the show again before S2 comes out. Even if its 10 episodes, that's basically a long movie with 22 minutes for each.

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

Apple TV+ won't load E8 tonight. I'm going to have to wait. Just sits there, no count down, no nothing.
If all you selfish assholes would stop watching it when I want to, it would make my night.
But noooooo , I have to wait.


Is Apple's app fussy on anyone else's W11 desktop? Seems like it from here.

 

[dmsilev]

I've not tried the W11 version of the app, but on my iPad occasionally it gets fussy. Quitting and restarting it usually seems to clear that up.

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

I refuse to reboot!

later:
errr ... I rebooted and got my 22 minutes.

 

[dmsilev]

Ep 9 is up. For people who have read the book, it ends right where you'd expect, at the end of the second to last chapter of the book.

One of the key pillars of the book, the development and evolution of the relationship between Murderbot and its clients, pretty much reaches fulfillment in this episode. The show has done a pretty good job of capturing that arc over this season. So, well done there. Between that and the personality/inner life of Murderbot itself, this has definitely been one of the better/more faithful adaptions in recent TV. Unless the last episode absolutely face-plants the ending of the book, of course (seems unlikely). Next week, Apple also releases S3 of Foundation, which is ...not one of the more faithful adaptations.

Side note: Sanctuary Moon is, evidently, a very polarizing love it/hate it show in-universe....

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

Visited a pal today who thinks the creation of Sanctuary Moon was a huge fuck up, ruined the show for him. He's a crusty old SF purist who also hated Foundation. So I tried to tell him TV and books are two very different media and I thought they did a great job on that.
He didn't buy it, they could have left it out!

 

[dmsilev]

Oh man, I guess everyone has their own opinion, but I think in a visual medium you pretty much have to actually show a bit of the show-within-a-show, rather than just dropping one sentence references here and there the way the books do. And given that, I think the show creators did a wonderful job bringing it to life.

Edit: As for Foundation, the books as written aren’t filmable. Too much of the action takes place off stage and the characters just talk about it afterwards. For the most part, the characters themselves are barely drawn sketches. I’ve enjoyed the show so far and will watch the third season; it’s a visual treat, the idea of the cloned Emperors was great, and Lee Pace in particular has brought that wonderfully to life. But it’s definitely 'inspired by' Asimov's stories rather than a fairly faithful adaptive retelling.

 

[Demento]

Oh man, I guess everyone has their own opinion, but I think in a visual medium you pretty much have to actually show a bit of the show-within-a-show, rather than just dropping one sentence references here and there the way the books do. And given that, I think the show creators did a wonderful job bringing it to life.

I mean... they could probably get away with showing less of it, but they've gone to great lengths to make it spectacular so I won't deny them the opportunity to sneak a bit more than the story needs in. I think it's a big point in favour for most book readers.

 

[GaitherBill]

Visited a pal today who thinks the creation of Sanctuary Moon was a huge fuck up, ruined the show for him. He's a crusty old SF purist who also hated Foundation. So I tried to tell him TV and books are two very different media and I thought they did a great job on that.
He didn't buy it, they could have left it out!

Your friend doesn’t sound like they are fun at parties.

Me and the girlfriend love the Sanctuary Moon cutaways.

Who doesn’t like Jack MacBryer for fucks sake!

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

I paid the reboot toll again last night to get the Apple TV+ thing to work right on my WIN11 desktop.
The only fucking app I have that requires this once a week sacrifice to the Paramount gods.
But I did enjoy E9, esp. knowing how the story must go after his terminal failure.

 

[rtrefz]

I enjoy the Sanctuary moon bits. They are campy enough to be funny and they flesh out Murderbot.

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

Over on The Atlantic, an essay about Murderbot. Nice construct about how AI might not even care to associate with humans, or could.
Gift link, might not suit everyone, NSFYO, or Not Safe For Your Opinion.

 

[Gub]

Murderbot has been renewed ahead of the season 1 finale, so it looks like we'll get to see ART.

 

[dmsilev]

Murderbot has been renewed ahead of the season 1 finale, so it looks like we'll get to see ART.

Oh, I hope so. Such a great character, and probably the closest we can reasonably expect to a tv version of a Culture ship. An ROU, I’d say. Definitely has the Offensive part of the acronym.

 

[swiftdraw]

Over on The Atlantic, an essay about Murderbot. Nice construct about how AI might not even care to associate with humans, or could.
Gift link, might not suit everyone, NSFYO, or Not Safe For Your Opinion.

I wouldn’t want to associate with humans either. Humans are assholes.

So, a couple of things:
1) ART? ART! My favorite ego maniacal, sometimes murderous academic research transport! This season has been… OK. Didn’t care for a couple of things and a few things didn’t match up how I understood them in the book, but I am down for S2.

2) While I generally considered Sanctuary Moon bits to be cringey at best, it did get me last episode. Did the Navbot really murder the captain? Was Sideburns McGee a treacherous weasel the whole time? Was that the Fall of Sanctuary Moon?

Overall, not bad. I am curious what they do with it next season. I am somewhat dreading that one scene at the end of Artificial Condition when a group learn that bots don’t threaten , they are just telling you what they’re going to do.

 

[whoisit]

It was a fun ride. Looking forward to season two. It's nice to get some good news, even if it's about a silly streaming show.

 

[dmsilev]

Nailed the dismount. Ok, the stuff in the first half of the episode, which was written for the show, was a bit superfluous. There really wasn’t much tension since you pretty much know how it’s going to play out. Once that was over and done with, though, seeing the interactions between the humans and MurderBot in the changed context was great, and thankfully they reproduced the last page or two of the book verbatim (or nearly so).

Overall, one of the best book->TV adaptations I’ve seen in recent years. Not perfect, but very good. Definitely looking forward to season two in a year or so.

 

[Scifigod]

I'm about halfway through so far and loving it. The sanctuary moon bits are exactly as soap opera cringe as I expected them to be. I low key love how John Cho's wardrobe is channeling 70's anime.

 

[whoisit]

Clark Gregg with the sideburns reminds me of a dime store Dr. Robotnik.

 

[lightspd]

I enjoyed the series having never heard of it before. I do hope though, they do 2 episodes per week or something, this 20 min 1 a week was annoying to me.

 

[Auguste_Fivaz]

Nailed the dismount. Ok, the stuff in the first half of the episode, which was written for the show, was a bit superfluous. There really wasn’t much tension since you pretty much know how it’s going to play out. Once that was over and done with, though, seeing the interactions between the humans and MurderBot in the changed context was great, and thankfully they reproduced the last page or two of the book verbatim (or nearly so).

Overall, one of the best book->TV adaptations I’ve seen in recent years. Not perfect, but very good. Definitely looking forward to season two in a year or so.

Yep - yep - yep - they wrapped it up very well, or as well as they could. I finished that series feeling like I did when I read the book, good story, good finish, good opening for the next book. M. Wells deserves the kudos she must be getting.

(Makes me wonder what she thinks of the series?)

Found it - Martha Wells says:

I saw the complete pre-production version first, and it was so incredibly good, even without the special effects or the final version of the music or anything. And I saw the last part of the post-production version probably in March, and I was even happier with it. The thing that struck me is that it was so gripping, even after knowing the story, and reading the different versions of the scripts.

full interview at https://winteriscoming.net/exclusiv...derbot-show-queen-demon-and-a-career-in-books

 

[dmsilev]

I low key love how John Cho's wardrobe is channeling 70's anime.

Clark Gregg with the sideburns reminds me of a dime store Dr. Robotnik.

You definitely got the sense that the instructions to cast, wardrobe, hair and makeup, etc. was 'Cheesy. No, cheesier. No, go Full Gorgonzola.'