Apple TV’s Murderbot Episodes Are Short For A Perfectly Logical Reason – SlashFilm

The Apple TV collection “Murderbot” is definitely some of the enjoyable science fiction reveals on the market, however there’s only one tiny downside: the 23-minute lengthy episodes appear to be over earlier than you recognize it. Whereas most different motion or drama reveals are usually near an hour and may typically really feel like they’re dragging on a bit, “Murderbot” strikes alongside at a surprisingly fast clip. Typically it is refreshing, and typically it is a bit irritating as a result of the episodes are so nice that you just simply need extra, however what provides, anyway?

In an interview with Collider, collection co-creators and brothers Paul and Chris Weitz revealed that the episodes are so brief as a result of the Martha Wells novella, the primary season is predicated on, “All Methods Pink,” was solely 140 pages. As an alternative of placing in filler or making it a miniseries, they merely determined to make shorter episodes. That is the sort of logical considering Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) could be happy with, as a result of it not solely retains issues expedient, nevertheless it retains audiences wanting extra. Since “Murderbot” is without doubt one of the greatest issues the actor has ever completed (and Skarsgård has been part of some actually nice films and TV reveals), seeing the tip credit begin to roll can really feel fairly brutal.

Within the interview, Paul Weitz defined that the shorter episodes have been “purposeful” as a result of with an hour-lengthy present, they’d have been pressured to do “padding” since there simply wasn’t a wealth of supply materials to attract from. Not solely that, however Chris Weitz defined that they have been drawing from serials a bit for the pacing of the collection: 

“It is a serial, a little bit of the sort that Murderbot would watch in a manner. It was good to sort of string issues out a bit extra slightly than simply being a miniseries in that sense. I really feel like there are quite a lot of reveals the place individuals sit in convention rooms and focus on what simply occurred within the final scene and argue about it, and we did not need these scenes. So, it felt as if if we stored it extra in a type of half-hour size, however unfold it out, it would be like an album. […] We favored the concept of it being like a collection of fine pop songs.”

One factor that works so effectively is that “Murderbot” permits Skarsgård to be actually bizarre, obsessing over serials like “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” as a substitute of doing his job and staring on the wall when he will get overwhelmed. (Actually, Murderbot, identical.) It is nice to find that the present’s brief episodes are supposed to really feel type of like previous sci-fi serials, too, making Murderbot’s love of “Sanctuary Moon” much more of a meta-commentary. 

Other than sometimes leaving you on a cliffhanger (which is very previous-faculty serial — simply consider “Flash Gordon” or “Buck Rogers within the twenty fifth Century”), the one actual downside with the brief “Murderbot” episodes is that we do not get to spend extra time with the Preservation Alliance crew that Murderbot is tasked with defending. Paul Weitz identified that every character was “so distinct” that “any line {that a} character has, you recognize it got here from that character,” making every of them extraordinarily lovable in their very own manner. Sure, even the grumpy Gurathin, performed to perfection by David Dastmalchian. 

As a result of Murderbot finally ends up with a distinct crew after “All Methods Pink,” we cannot be seeing an excessive amount of extra of the PresAux nerds, which is perhaps the most important problem season 2 of “Murderbot” faces. In any case, with out individuals we care about for Murderbot to guard, there actually is not a lot of a present. I do know the Weitzes wish to keep away from filler, however possibly we will have just a bit little bit of the PresAux crew popping up in season 2, as a deal with?