Murderbot 1×01 & 1×02 Review: “FreeCommerce” and “Eye Contact”

The first season of Murderbot has premiered on Apple TV with two episodes. The show is an adaptation of All Systems Red, the first novella in The Murderbot Diaries book series by Martha Wells.

This science fiction series is set in a futuristic world, where sentient robots are denied autonomy. The story unfolds when a bot obtains free will, naming itself Murderbot. While its name suggests a violent nature, in reality, Murderbot is a sarcastic introvert who slowly opens up to others over the course of the story.

As a fan of the book series, I am very interested in how the show adapts the first novella.

To my surprise, the first episode begins with a scene not present in All Systems Red. Set before the start of the main story, the audience is shown a glimpse of Murderbot’s life prior to it attaining free will. Murderbot, like all SecUnits (security robots), was created to serve humans, providing security for them on dangerous interplanetary missions. Although fully sentient, the bots cannot rebel or do anything to deviate from the programming in their “governor modules”.

When the story opens, Murderbot is finishing up a mission on a mining station with a team of humans. The humans treat Murderbot very cruelly, with one even burning it for laughs.

Murderbot manages to hack its governor module, gaining free will for the first time. Despite having its own autonomy now, Murderbot decides to keep pretending to follow the Company’s orders to avoid detection as a rogue bot. If caught, Murderbot will be killed by the Company via what it terms an “acid bath”.

Right from the beginning, Murderbot’s characterisation from the books – its humour and intelligence – shines through.

Sometime later, Murderbot is assigned to another mission, to protect a different team of humans during their scientific research. The PreservationAux team is opposed to the enslavement of bots, but begrudgingly agrees to bring Murderbot with them to secure their funding.

During their meeting with the Company, the PreservationAux team asks to have their own private discussion. In lieu of a discussion, however… they just sing together, which I cannot say I was expecting at all. When Murderbot and the team arrive at the planet, the humans’ unconventional characterisation is expanded on with scenes of them dancing and painting their building.

Throughout the two episodes, I thought the human characters came across as more eccentric than they did in the books. Although the humans did have comedic moments in the source material, those moments felt less frequent than in the show, with most of the books’ humour instead deriving from Murderbot’s dry wit.

And speaking of humour… While keeping its cover, Murderbot has discovered a very relatable love of watching TV.

Murderbot’s favourite program is ‘The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon’. Initially, it looks as though this show is a sci-fi drama in the vein of Star Trek, but it’s quickly revealed that ‘Sanctuary Moon’ is, in fact, a cheesy soap opera. Although plotlines from ‘Sanctuary Moon’ are mentioned in the books, the show’s visual medium means that more detailed clips of the soap can be shown to the audience. The melodramatic excerpts of ‘Sanctuary Moon’ that play in the first and second episodes were funny, so I look forward to seeing more of them in future episodes.

(Viewers familiar with the books will also catch a reference to another program Murderbot has watched, called ‘World Hoppers’, which becomes important in the second book, Artificial Condition.)

While Murderbot is watching its show, some of the humans run into trouble – Arada and Bharadwaj are attacked by a monstrous creature! Resembling a centipede, the creature significantly injures Bharadwaj. To rescue the humans, Murderbot has to break some of its protocols, expressing empathy towards Arada in a way that SecUnits are not programmed to. (Humorously, it’s later revealed that Murderbot learned this technique from ‘Sanctuary Moon’.)

After this happens, the PreservationAux team starts to become suspicious that Murderbot is behaving differently from other SecUnits. Gurathin insists that Murderbot poses a threat to the team, but team leader Mensah is less convinced that it is dangerous.

Murderbot is deeply uncomfortable, not only with the prospect of its free will being discovered, but with the humans’ attempts to include it in their team, in ways such as inviting it to stand with them and to wear human clothes. Throughout the two episodes, the show effectively highlights Murderbot’s emotional state with close-up shots of its helmet-less face, where its discomfort is starkly visible.

After the group discussion, Mensah also speaks privately to Murderbot. The episode ends with Murderbot suspecting that Mensah is onto it, but unsure if she will use this information to report it to the Company or to help it.

The second episode picks up shortly after the first. The PreservationAux team has identified that something is amiss on the planet, as the dangerous centipede creatures aren’t supposed to be there. The humans ultimately decide to investigate an unmapped area.

Still distrustful of Murderbot, Gurathin pushes for the team to investigate without it. Murderbot is concerned when Mensah and Bharadwaj head out alone, but is unable to stop them without exposing its autonomy.

Stuck on the base, Murderbot is then interrogated by Gurathin. Once again, Murderbot is made very uncomfortable, not only because it is afraid of being caught, but also by being forced into the social situation. Even more than in the previous episode, Murderbot becomes anxious.

Gurathan also tries to learn more about Murderbot’s missing memories. One important storyline in the series is an incident in Murderbot’s past in which it seemed to attack people. Murderbot has very few memories from this incident, but what Murderbot can remember is, of course, a great source of guilt for it.

Although the interactions between Murderbot and Gurathin are important, contributing to both the development of the plot and their characterisations, I did feel that the episode was a bit slow-paced, compared to the briskly paced novella.

Eventually, Murderbot distracts Gurathin by showing him the video feed of some of the other team members: Arada, Pin-Lee, and Ratthi. In the book, Arada is in a relationship with Overse, one of the characters who was cut from the show. In the TV show, Arada is instead married to Pin-Lee, but also has feelings for Ratthi. Pin-Lee agrees to Arada’s wish to have a relationship with Ratthi, but she does not seem to be entirely happy with the way things play out. I was surprised by the inclusion of this plotline, which looks set to continue in future episodes, because there is virtually no romance in the book series.

Meanwhile, Mensah has a run-in with another centipede creature. The trauma of the experience causes her to have a panic attack. Mensah’s experiences with trauma and recovery are a part of later books in the series, so I respect the show’s decision to address such an important topic in the first season.

Mensah and Bharadwaj manage to escape the creature and return to the base. There is an exchange between Mensah and Gurathin where Mensah expresses her unhappiness with him for insisting that they leave Murderbot behind. I like this moment, but I wish there had been another scene where Mensah and/or Bharadwaj had said something to Murderbot or even just gave it a knowing look to convey that the humans made a mistake and will bring it along next time. Maybe this will be in the next episode?

The PreservationAux team theorises that all of the problems have been caused by alien remnants on the planet. They decide to contact DeltFall, another team working on the planet, to find out if they know anything. The episode ends by giving the audience a brief look at DeltFall’s base – not only has there been human death, but a SecUnit has also been killed. It looks like the PreservationAux team and Murderbot will be in a lot of danger in the coming episodes…

Additional thoughts

First of all: The opening credits, which appear to reimagine the characters as action figures, were a nice surprise.

Secondly: One of the key aspects that makes The Murderbot Diaries book series so unique and enjoyable is Murderbot’s internal monologue, but this isn’t the easiest thing to incorporate into visual media. Going into the series, my biggest fear was that the audience would hear either too little of Murderbot’s thoughts, or alternatively, too many, and it would become overbearing or confusing. Thankfully, I think the show has managed to strike a good balance so far.

I did have some critiques, however. Throughout the two episodes, text appears on screen to represent some of Murderbot’s SecUnit functions, such as indicating its performance capacity. I’m glad that this part of the book was incorporated into the show, but I do think its execution could have been better. In some instances, I found that the text was too small and that its orange and white colour scheme blended in with the backgrounds, making it not always clear to read.

Overall, however, I am enjoying Murderbot so far and am looking forward to watching the rest of the adaptation.

Author: Iris Autumn

Iris has a degree in Digital Media and a passion for writing. She has published in cultural arts magazine The Artifice. Iris’ interests include intertextuality, media portrayals of fandom and creativity, and stories that are campy.

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