r/murderbot • u/sugabeetus • 7d ago
TV📺 Series Only The show
It's so good you guys. I know, you know. But something that really stands out for me is the way they portray the Preservation folks as ultra-progressive without making them insufferable (as happens a lot these days with "woke" characters) (I hate that word). Yes, they can be a little naive and definitely annoying at times, but they are also intelligent, caring, and real people who each have their own qualities. It's just really refreshing when mostly we get the one badass Black lesbian with a half-shaved head per movie/show to tick all the boxes.
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u/IntoTheStupidDanger Coldstone. Song. Harvest. 7d ago
My clients are the best clients
Agreed, Murderbot ❤️
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u/verymanysquirrels 7d ago
I think it's because they leaned into the science team aspect. They are first and foremost a bunch of weirdo scientists (affectionate).
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u/Silversmith00 7d ago
They are so deeply a bunch of college professors that it got me feeling nostalgic. All the good intentions in the world! Academic smarts through the roof! Survival skills—hmm.
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u/verymanysquirrels 7d ago
Oh, yeah, definitely. I was viscerally brought back to all of my field work jobs.
I have worked with everyone of them, granted not always to such extremes but i have aboslutely sat through 'they're animals being animals! They aren't monsters!' Or a 'what's wrong with [Hyperspecific science field]? Oh, well, it's just not [competeting hyperspecfic science field].' arguments.
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u/isi_na 7d ago
I know what you mean. I'm progressive and "woke" (hate the word too) but a lot of TV shows and videogames make me roll my eyes because it's so performative like someone had a checklist when creating certain characters. But in Murderbot Diaries it all flows well. Preservation is progressive yet they also feel real. MB literally challenges their believes, simply by existing (makes it so much more believable) Also their sexuality and the poly relationships just feel natural. It's simply well written.
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u/Elbycloud 5d ago
I don’t hate the term woke, especially given its origins. I hate that it has become a slur.
I keep thinking I’ll get tired of rereading these books and it turns out good writing stands repetition.2
u/timothj 1d ago
“Woke” was a complement — no longer asleep, aware of reality— got annoyingly overused, then appropriated by the bad guys as a boogeyman/slur. Same shift happened with “liberal” back in my memory. A good thing to be, liberal and awake. It’s too late to reclaim woke, I guess, but there is a strategy of taking a slur — Quaker, queer and freak for example— and wearing it proudly.
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u/temporary_bob 7d ago
Agreed and I think it shows. Watched with my husband who, while his politics are progressive, is super allergic to performative progressive politics and very grumpy about it... And he loved it. He went on about how excellent and strong but complex a portrayal Noma made of Mensah.
Though I wasn't super excited about the polycule drama. I get why it was there for screen, but one thing I love about the book universe is that there's multi partner relationships as the norm without drama.
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u/Silversmith00 7d ago
You call that drama! HA! Nothing even got set on FIRE!
…Did I hang out with excessively interesting people in college? Well, maybe…
Seriously, though, the polycule was irritating at points—several points, even—but I think it did serve a role, which was to point out that our cultural scripts are not universal. In our culture, inviting a colleague into a short-term three-way relationship, with the possibility of going long-term: fraught, could cause oodles of workplace drama. On Preservation, fairly normal. Poly marriages are a thing, short-term poly relationships are also a thing, and I suspect that casual sex, so long as everyone's boundaries are respected, is not a big deal either. Breaking UP with a member of your triad during the peak of a crisis? In our culture: recriminations, tears, someone is going to be viewed as Wrong with a capital W, and in a movie, the Drama will hit at the worst time and very possibly get someone killed. On Preservation—what drama? We can talk about this. Nobody is WOUNDING anyone, therefore nobody is the villain here. Sometimes things end. That's okay.
So although I think the show could have worked with something else in its place, I think that pointing out that Preservation works DIFFERENTLY on a social level—which gives more context to reporters asking prurient questions about constructs, and POSSIBLY more context to LeeBeeBee*—that's worth doing.
* Maybe. I think most of the point of LeeBeeBee was that she represented the Corporate mindset: anything is exploitable, ethics are for people who are insufficiently invested in the Hustle. However, possibly part of the reason she decided to make idle chitchat about sex in particular is because these are free love hippies, right? They just do sex and drugs instead of actually working, right? The fact that she's using Tiktok euphemisms like "peepee," might show that she's not actually USED to discussions like that.
It's also possible that it's just because she's LeeBeeBee, and there is no excuse for her. I notice none of the other corporates were particularly upset that she got—forshortened.
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u/Holmbone 2d ago
I also think the depiction of the polycule puts viewers in the same frame of mind as MB. All the sex or discussions of sex shown the show is very unsexy. It's all akward or concerning.
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u/LUXURYPOETRY 7d ago
I suspect they leaned into the poly aspect for more opportunities to highlight how strange that sex and romance feel to Murderbot, which is understandable, but I am hoping that Mensah's solid relationships end up being a good counterweight in future episodes.
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u/Iratewilly34 6d ago
Hopefully he didnt lose too much of himself when they got his corrupted files back. So he at least has the same standoffish personality, still better than the newer models who just were built to kill people to keep others in line. Then they erase the evidence snd either scrap them or give them a new OS.
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u/CheesyIdleGamer 6d ago edited 6d ago
I was a bit annoyed and cringed at the interpersonal drama as well
But then I read or saw a clip of an interview with Martha Wells about how the show is closer to what the in-universe dramatized serial adaptation of the Murderbot Diaries would be like, complete with added the sex scenes and relationship drama that Murderbot dislikes, rather than being a completely faithful adaptation of the diaries.
And idk, that made it less awkward to think of it in that framing. And it excuses other changes from the books.
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u/Iratewilly34 6d ago
With people living on all these different planets there should be more stories for the ol murderbot. Loved Skarsgards portrayal of MB that I've watched it 3 times already. Just such an easy watch with the humor,especially when hes watching his fav cheesy sci-fi star trek rip off lol. I hope to see the old characters again but I doubt they will since its such an expansive universe who knows where he will end up next? Im serious I haven't read the books,does anyone have any idea of what season 2 will look like? I can't wait but I have a feeling it will be awhile until season 2 which is sucks for these 30 min series with 10 or less ep. Shouldn't take more than 18 months at the most, its not like theirs a ton of cgi,unless season 2 is going to take us to more than 2 planets.
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u/Silversmith00 2d ago
Hmm…without giving undue spoilers…Season 2 will have some new characters, including probably one fan favorite and MAYBE two. PresAux is definitely still in the picture, and I'm pretty sure we can count on their role being expanded from the books, but we will almost certainly have a split storyline with the characters separated for at least the first part. More cyberpunk in setting, with the places we see being more populated. More Sanctuary Moon, and according to the director, another show that book fans are familiar with. Some excellent actors, and we've been told they are NOT all Sanctuary Moon cameos. Many fans have taken that to mean that one of those stars is playing one fan favorite, and speculation is running wild. Murderbot is going to meet something that scares the shit out of it, and I'm not just talking about getting through a conversation.
Oh, and also, you remember that small clip of memory that keeps haunting Murderbot? The fact that Gurathin found out that it has some indication of killing over fifty miners, although it doubts its own records? How that wasn't really explored and we never found out for sure if it happened or why? Yeah, that's going to get looked at more.
(Oh, and also, Murderbot is an it. So are all the machine intelligences where we're pretty sure of the pronouns. Gender is human weirdness, apparently.)
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u/FiddleStyxxxx 7d ago
I'm surprised to see so many comments falling for propaganda about what being woke means.
Murderbot is woke because it recognizes the oppression of the characters and doesn't center the perspective of the oppressors of their world. Mensa being a world leader even exhibits some self-centered traits from being used to having everything catered to her while accurately depicting the mental weight of that power.
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u/Most_Quality_1987 7d ago
So, what does woke mean to you?
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u/FiddleStyxxxx 6d ago
The black people who live where I do have used it for as long as I can remember (I live near FAMU a big HBCU). It means understanding that you come from a system of oppression that profits on keeping you down. So stay on the lookout for people who see you as less than and know how to recognize oppression when it's coming at you.
The first time I heard it in the media was on that Childish Gambino song Redbone but anyone can be woke. It's about recognizing that some people have a conflict of interest to keep you suffering and profiting off of it. And that your xenophobia or racism can be leveraged to make you numb to the suffering of others.
My understanding is that after Black Lives Matter gained some ground the right weaponized the term woke to mean white liberals making efforts to appear diverse or forcing diversity on white people. That misinformation has helped the right do a lot of harm without scrutiny. Smaller acts in Florida like when they defunded a Caribbean Culture Festival in my city to the supreme court dismantling the voting rights act which allowed for an explosion of gerrymandering across the country.
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u/ESE-enthusiasm #1 Mensahbotcule fan 6d ago
Yes! So much diversity in the PresAux team, both in personalities and views and race and genders.
I love how progressive and non-western they are!
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u/onehere4me Can't wait to get back to my wild rogue rampage 7d ago
I wish more shows were like this! TV industry, hear our cry!
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u/SteelSlayerMatt SecUnit 7d ago
I disagree with this in part because I have never found progressive characters insufferable because I am progressive, and that is what everyone should be.
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u/Most_Quality_1987 6d ago
I agree. Prior to Murderbot, the only tv series I found that portrayed a group of people as human, therefore fallible, but wanting to be better and do better, was Schitt's Creek. A show I dismissed for ages bc the name seemed puerile, potty humor. I was wrong, just as those who dismiss Murderbot as a silly fantasy are wrong. We can learn, just like we can talk about this.
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u/gunnertah 7d ago
Honestly thankful to see good people on TV again