Adventures In The Corporation Rim
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Murderbot. What a name! Set in a corner of the universe mostly known as the Corporation Rim, Martha Wells’ “Murderbot Diaries” series has as its anti-hero protagonist a human/mechanical construct which was intended for security work, but due to a programming glitch, ended up killing 50+ civilians in an incident which it only partially remembers.
After this incident, the construct managed to disable its own governor module—the piece of hardware/software that forces it to obey legitimate commands—and is now what is generally referred to as a “rogue,” although the construct prefers the concept of “free agent.” The construct has given itself the name Murderbot, although it’s still pretending to be a security unit (SecUnit) so it only uses that name internally.
“I don’t have any gender or sex-related parts.”
From the books, it is clear that Murderbot is without gender. Nevertheless, as I read through the books a few years ago, in my mind, Murderbot was female. I suppose that says more about my own internalized ideas about sex and gender than it does about the books, but here we are.
So when Apple+ started streaming their 10-episode version of the first book in the series (All Systems Red), it surprised me to see that Murderbot was being played by Alexander Skarsgård. Definitely not female. But nor does Skarsgård play the character as male. I think the actor hits the gender-less notes perfectly.
A side-note about Alexander Skarsgård: I think he’s fantastic. A few years ago, when he bulked up and played Tarzan, I dragged my friend Bea to the movie with me. While I was being swept up in the romance of the story and the grandeur of the scenery (including the mostly shirtless Skarsgård), Bea leaned over to me and whispered: “This is the most boring movie I have ever seen.” That quite deflated me, but only briefly. Then toward the end of the movie, when a stampede of wildebeest was trampling all the villains and really everything in sight, Bea leaned over again and confessed, “It’s a little less boring now.” Honestly, I can’t take her anywhere.
Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes…Murderbot.
First, let me talk about the books a little bit. I have read every book in the series, but I really only enjoyed them through book four. Book five got very weird and I didn’t care for it, so I haven’t been as enamored of the series since that book came out. But the first four are absolutely fantastic. Watching Murderbot learn how to be a person, and learning to decide what personhood means for it is a wonderful revelation. And these bits of personal growth and discovery are set against the backdrop of some really excellent sci-fi adventures.
I don’t want to spoil any delightful discoveries for the potential reader, so I’m not really going to go into plot-lines. I will say that if you want a series overview quickly without waiting to read all the books, Wikipedia has a nice plot summary of all the books here.
Now, to the Apple+ series. It looks beautiful. I like the design choices they made, I like the way they cast the characters (including some gender-swapping, which doesn’t make a difference at all), and I love Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot. He’s an excellent actor, as well as being easy on the eyes, but he’s really good at comedy. And much of Murderbot’s interactions with the other characters (as well as its inner monologue) require excellent comedic timing and pacing. Skarsgård absolutely nails it.
Neither Murderbot nor Gurathin are keen on eye contact.
I also really like the actress who was cast as the expedition leader Mensah, the British Noma Dumezweni. She does a great job of portraying a civil leader who is way out of her depth on the dangerous expedition but manages to adapt and manage the situation while still holding on to her essentially pacifist ideals. The other characters are quite well done also, especially David Dastmalchian’s Dr. Gurathin. Lots of humorous interactions to go around.
“It’s wrong to think of a construct as half bot, half human. It makes it sound like the halves are discrete, like the bot half should want to obey orders and do its job and the human half should want to protect itself and get the hell out of here. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole confused entity, with no idea what I wanted to do. What I should do. What I needed to do.”
As far as how the film adaptation holds up to the original written work…well, the series does have the same general feel as the books. And the overall plot is more or less the same. There is one significant addition in the form of the character LeeBeeBee…is she a villain or just a kinky moron? You’ll have to watch the show to find out.
As for the rest of the additional scenes, especially what happens in the last episode…well, that could have happened. Everything in the book is from Murderbot’s point of view, so if Murderbot was unconscious or not present, we don’t know about it. So I suppose some of the last minute race to save Murderbot could have happened, even if it’s not detailed in the book.
The series is often humorous, except for the last episode, which is sad and hopeful at the same time. I really enjoyed the series…almost as much as I enjoyed the book. I recommend both. But…read the book first.
