# Apple TV turning Martha Wells Murderbot book series into an episodic TV series
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, apple
**Created:** [December 20, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883 "2023-12-20T14:26:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2025, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/81 "2025-07-12T09:32:58Z")
> [@Mops](#):
>
> Now at Episode 8, and still looking forward to Fridays. A few thoughts:
>
> - As mentioned upthread I’d have preferred SecUnit’s internal dialogue to be displayed as text, as opposed to a voiceover in its voice.
> - The first departure from the books: An extra character is introduced and later got rid of in a way that works very well in reminding the PresAux crew that their SecUnit may be a moral person but is not a nice person.
> - The _Sanctuary Moon_ snippets are very well done in a deliberately over the top way.
> - From the books my mental image of SecUnit’s appearance was ‘androgynous’; in the TV show it presents as ‘prickless hunk’ instead.
I like it as voice. I often use subtitles, but I don’t want to be required to read the screen.
Agree on the other points. Secunit is also a lot “whiter” than my mental image from the books. I expected a sort of bland “average human being”. That being said, i think the actor does a good job of portraying the character.
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/82 "2025-07-12T10:49:05Z")
Having just finished it in a single binge, and knowing zero of the books, I found it well done, good quality production and design, few enough loose ends to make you jump out of the story, snappy and fun and enough intrigue to keep watching. Alexander Skarsgard is fine, but if posts above are right, there would be lots of actors who could fit the bill. Part of his ‘otherness’ is expressed in his height and physicality relative to the others.
Given that a lot of TV sci-fi on offer is over-long, over-produced, ponderously written and just garbagey, this was a very refreshing change on all counts. When I become Boss of the World I will get it remade to my specifications, but until then, it is perfectly cromulent television. 4 chefs hats.
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### Author:  [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2025, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/83 "2025-07-12T10:53:37Z")
I think Skarsgard was fantastic - and it’s a tough role. An emotionless, one dimensional robot, like the Terminator, isn’t a terribly challenging acting job. But MB isn’t emotionless - it just thinks it is. That’s much, much harder, and I think he hit it out of the park.
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### Author:  [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/84 "2025-07-14T13:39:30Z")
I have thoroughly enjoyed the series in all it’s sarcastic internal monologue.
Just one question at this time. The intro animation. Is it actual stop motion or CGI in stop motion style?
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/85 "2025-07-14T13:53:00Z")
Looks like it was made on a computer, if I understand the techspeak.
Created in Cinema 4D and rendered using Redshift, with compositing and finishing touches in After Effects, the three-minute sequence contrasts rigid control with playful freedom. Glass shards mark _Murderbot’_ s forced return to duty.
[Motionographer® Elastic – Hazel Baird | Murderbot – Opening Titles](https://motionographer.com/quickie/elastic-hazel-baird-murderbot-opening-titles/#:~:text=Created%20in%20Cinema%204D%20and,rubbery%20physics%20and%20neurodivergent%20whimsy.)
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/86 "2025-07-14T14:14:07Z")
Finished it over the weekend and I thought it was… fine. Not terrible, nothing special. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see another season, but if I happen to have Apple TV when the next season comes, I’d probably watch.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [July 14, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/87 "2025-07-14T14:43:41Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#):
>
> it was… fine. Not terrible, nothing special.
That’s where I am. After 10 episodes I don’t really care what happens to any of the characters. From what I’ve read in this thread, the Preservation team is really important to the whole series, but I’d just as soon see Murderbot find a different cast of characters to engage with next season.
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### Author:  [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/88 "2025-07-15T01:02:51Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#):
>
> After 10 episodes I don’t really care what happens to any of the characters.
As a fan of the book series, this encapsulates my dislike of the adaptation. In the books, while the Preservation Alliance team are (mainly) fish out of water in the corporation controlled regions of the story universe, the series portrays them as bumbling, insecure and incompetent. This is so far removed from their presentation in the books that I cannot enjoy watching. I did stick it out to the last episode but won’t be watching any more. It’s like the Apple team took their cues from the Netflix treatment of the Witcher books.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/89 "2025-07-15T02:38:25Z")
> [@moes\_lotion](#):
>
> the series portrays them as bumbling, insecure and incompetent
Huh. Again not someone who read the books, and everyone is entitled to their take, but I instead saw them growing and demonstrating their competence by the end, especially in the last episode. They _did_ take on The Corporation and save MB from being melted down, and even restored his memories. But trained explorers or military they are not.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/90 "2025-07-15T12:07:58Z")
They were all smarter and more competent in the books. That is, by far, the most annoying thing about the series. All these characters that i liked and cared about are portrayed as unidimensional buffoons.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/91 "2025-07-15T12:59:45Z")
All I can say is how it comes off to me as someone viewing it as a show, not by a standard of accuracy to the book.
My take was that we were seeing them mostly as MB saw them. And that MB was at first seeing them at their Dunning-Kruger peak. By the end the group was showing their chops.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/92 "2025-07-15T13:02:29Z")
In the book, murderbot was impressed by them fairly early on. Mostly because they were nice to each other, and to it. But murderbot’s impression of them was much better than what we see in the show.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/93 "2025-07-15T13:36:53Z")
Yeah MB, and thus we, are not seeing them that way until closer to the end of this season. Allowing the show to have human/human interaction being the strange and goofy thing rather than MBs not understanding those interactions be what is goofy.
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### Author:  [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/94 "2025-07-15T15:16:08Z")
One thing I really liked was the final scene between Gurathin and MurderBot. I won’t go into spoiler-y details, but the subtext they communicated through silence and eye contact was touching and a satisfying resolution to their relationship arc. That was quality acting and directing.
I think they overused long silences in the series overall, which to me made MurderBot seem slow and ineffective, but in this instance they nailed it.
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### Author:  [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/95 "2025-07-16T00:32:24Z")
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> They _did_ take on The Corporation
Another minor nit-pick, there isn’t a single monolithic “The Corporation”, the murdered exploration party is from the DeltFall corporation, the murderous crew after the alien remnants are from the GreyCris corporation, and the Preservation Alliance team rented their equipment, including Murderbot, from yet another corporation which is never named in the books, MB only refers to it as “the company”. In the books we run across dozens of other corporations, and a few non-corporate planetary organizations besides the Preservation Alliance.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/96 "2025-07-16T01:13:34Z")
And we know that preservation alliance is based “outside the corporate rim”.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/97 "2025-07-16T01:13:53Z")
I actually understand that. But in this case they took on “the company” that the group referred to as “the company” not what SecBot called it. Not DeltFall, Cris whatever, or another one.
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### Author:  [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2025, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/98 "2025-07-16T01:17:43Z")
Fan of the books and loved the series. Lots of fun.
I may have laughed too hard and Leebeebee’s fate.
I think they went more for tone and it worked. We didn’t really see the PresAux people do their jobs because it became about survival pretty quickly. I do think we are supposed to see them as different, such as the flashback to just before they left and are in the restaurant. They are making a scene but none of them care.
They did change the ending but it works. Given how series never know if they will get renewed, I’m fine with the changes due to that.
Very interested in who voices Perihelion.
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Not DeltFall, Cris whatever, or another one.
GreyCris was the other company mentioned.
Thanks for the discussion!
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### Author:  [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/99 "2025-07-19T05:37:11Z")
I watched the whole season this week on the recommendation of a friend. I’m very much on the ShadowFacts train; it was fine, but I’m not anticipating more. Probably a 5.5 out of 10.
The friend thought there was a political statement being made with the socialist group being a bunch of idiots, but I feel like the GrayCris team was pretty stupid too so less likely to be a commentary on politics I think.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2025, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/apple-tv-turning-martha-wells-murderbot-book-series-into-an-episodic-tv-series/994883/100 "2025-07-19T12:42:17Z")
The socialists might be stupid, but the corporations are all definitely evil.
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