We're deep into the first season of Murderbot on Apple TV+, and the hits keep coming. In the fifth episode of the series, our reluctantly heroic SecUnit played by Alexander Skarsgård was brought back from the brink by the Preservation Alliance team after it sacrificed itself to save them from a rogue SecUnit at the ruined DeltFall habitat. This led to some frank conversations where Murderbot's biggest secret finally came out. But by the time the credits rolled, it was once more in a dire situation as the emergency beacon it was flying toward with Doctor Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) exploded, causing their shuttle to crash. Can't a Murderbot catch a break?
The show is excelling at these sorts of quick, catchy cliffhangers. Thank goodness we've still got five more episodes of the series left to go.
The cast has been out there drumming up excitement for the show and giving fans plenty of interesting soundbites to tide them over between episodes. Recently, stars Tattiawna Jones (Arada) and Tamara Podemski (Bharadwaj) appeared on a Canadian talk show called The Good Stuff with Mary Berg where they discussed the series, meeting The Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells, and how intimidating it was to join a show with such a passionate pre-existing fanbase.
Murderbot stars you should think you should read the books
Despite the intimidating name, Murderbot is a series about a self-hacking android who would much rather spend its time watching soap operas than committing murders. Or acknowledging the humans around it at all, for that matter. "Rude. Rudebot, that's what I call it," joked Podemski.
The first season of the TV show is based on All Systems Red, the first book in Martha Wells' series. Were the cast members familiar with the books before they learned about the show?
"No, I hadn't read any of the books. I actually came to the books by way of this audition," said Jones. "So once we got the audition...we're doing research and discovered this incredible world that Martha Wells has written and created, and there's such a fan following for the book. I play Arada on the show, and she's a combination of a few characters in the book. So I'm very excited to see what the book lovers think, and how they respond to our adaptation."
"It's also like, a shout out to also read the books," added Podemski. "You have like 10 hours, 10 hours before it comes out, but they're nice, short books. There's like seven of them."s
On meeting The Murderbot Diaries author Martha Wells
Martha Wells published her first Murderbot Diaries book in 2017. Since then she's released four more novellas and two full-length novels, racking up numerous awards along the way including the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus. The fanbase for this series is extremely passionate, and host Mary Berg was curious about whether that was intimidating for the actors.
"Yeah. There are boards...Reddit boards devoted to this show," said Podemski. "I think because Martha Wells, the writer, is also a producer on the show and we had her blessing, you know that you are in good hands. You know that...everything goes through her, and she's kind of, she's said, 'You guys are on the right path.' So that was very comforting."
This isn't the first time people connected to the Murderbot show have sung Martha Wells' praises, and I doubt it will be the last. Jones recalled having an incredibly positive experience meeting the author on set during filming. "We did get to meet Martha on the day, and personally I was like, 'Is it like meeting God?' Because she created [everything]. Incredible human being. So talented and lovely."
On Murderbot's "vibrant" aesthetic
The fact that this interview took place on Canadian TV is no accident; Murderbot is filmed in Toronto, and both Podemski and Jones are Canadian actors. Berg points out that this makes filming Murderbot almost like a "homecoming" for the actors.
So what was it was like for them to step on set for the first time? "I cried," said Jones.
"I think we all cried," added Podemski. "So, Sue Chan, who's the production designer — and she will always say, 'It's my team, it's my team — and yes, it is the team, but...the world she imagined and created, when we walked on set into our, you know it's kind of a hub, when you go to a planet and you set up a habitat...it's breathtaking. And I think it does translate to the screen. The aesthetic of the show is stunning, and it is not your usual sci-fi, kind of dreary gray, harsh contrast. It's so colorful and beautiful. This is why we dress like this when we are representing Murderbot, because it's a colorful, vibrant, rich world."
The lushness of Murderbot's aesthetic is absolutely one of the things setting it apart from other sci-fi shows of our current era, making it a very joyful show to watch. And that's before we even get into the acid-drenched colors of The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, the in-world soap opera that Murderbot is obsessed with. This is a fun world, from its design to its dialogue to its acting and music. It's nice to see a book series that is so well-loved by genre fans getting this kind of treatment.
You can catch Tattiawna Jones and Tamara Podemski in new episodes of Murderbot, premiering Fridays on Apple TV+.
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