If I hadn't read the books I'm not sure I would feel the need to stick with this. The stories themselves are quite simple, with the emphasis on wry humour, distinctive characters and an awakening sense of self - as experienced on the inside by another-quite human and viewed from the outside by a societal group who can be excessively and idealistically human. The shoot em up romp is just the backdrop. The 25 minute format feels rushed. You can't make TV based on Murderbot's inner narrative, so you are left with something that feels a bit thin. You have the framework (hippy scientists, monster, rescue, mystery goings on) but none of what makes the story more than the Scooby-doo level plot. I'm pretty sure the author was happy just stringing together sci-fi tropes to satirise them from an entertaining often first person view. But if you lose that, what you are left with is Saturday morning TV. Disney would have been pleased with the result, they could run this alongside the Mandalorian. But Apple? As for allowing the main character a human face, we're seeing him as human from 10 minutes in. Nice for the actor, but the journey of the other characters to slowly discover humanity in a machine that scares them is a bit of a theme. But what the hey, it's not classic literature being taken liberties with. Early days, but not sure that the zippy format is going to help with character generation. Maybe we'll just have to live with sketches. I'll stay with it for now and live in hope.

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