'Murderbot' Episodes Are Just Way Too Short

“Appointment TV” used to be synonymous with water-cooler shows, the ones you’d tune into every week because everyone else was watching too, and you wanted to be a part of the conversation. Now it seems like appointment TV is more subjective; between linear and streaming platforms, weekly releases and binge drops, and with so many options for delayed viewing, any show that makes you want to tune in as soon as it’s available feels like an occasion.

Murderbot is my appointment TV show at the moment, and it has become the best and worst part of my week. Sitting down to watch it at the end of my week is a delicious feeling … for about 22 minutes, until it ends with a cliffhanger and ruins the rest of my night. It’s too short! It’s over so fast, and I have to wait another week just to go through that emotional spiral again! Of course, that’s exactly the way television should be, right? That’s downright nostalgic! It’s refreshing to watch a show that’s consistently less than a half-hour long, and I love having something to look forward to every week. On paper, Murderbot is giving me everything I claim I want, when I’m complaining about TOO MUCH TV and WHY IS EVERYTHING SO LONG these days. So what’s the problem? Why is Murderbot killing me?

It’s because it’s clocking in at a classic sitcom length, but it’s not a sitcom. It’s a comedy, to be sure, but it’s also a serialized sci-fi show. The episodes aren’t self-contained, with a beginning, middle, and end. They’re simply chapters of the season’s overarching narrative, and they’re small chapters at that. You don’t get the satisfaction of watching a complete story told in under 30 minutes, and you don’t get to settle into a substantial chunk of the longer space-cyborg-mystery either.

Remember Quibi, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s failed mobile streaming service? It specialized in short-form content delivered in 10-minute episodes. By that measure, each episode of Murderbot clocks in at basically two Quibis and change. You can thank Dan Hamamura for inspiring that damning comparison, as you’ll hear on this week’s Podjiba, but I think it’s useful context. There’s a reason people didn’t click with Quibi, and I’m feeling that same friction here — but Murderbot is giving double-Quibi, and maybe that’s the solution. Maybe two-plus Quibis is the sweet spot for serialized storytelling. It’s frustrating, to be sure, but not off-putting. In fact, the frustration is also part of the fun.

In so many ways, there’s nothing quite like Murderbot out there. It’s unique in every aspect, from its blend of sci-fi and humor to its iconic, apathetic narrator, and we can add its release structure to the mix, too. “New and Improved Quibi” wasn’t a rollout strategy I expected or wanted, frankly, but it works. I’ll keep tuning in every Friday, and it’ll be the highlight of my week, until it makes me mad all over again because it’s over too soon. That’s what television should be, dammit.