Apple TV+ has carved out a niche for itself as the home of high-concept sci-fi series such as For All Mankind, Foundation, and Silo. The latest entry into this super specific niche is Murderbot, a series adaption of Martha Wells’ popular book series, The Murderbot Diaries. Coming from sibling creators Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz, Murderbot is a sci-fi/comedy centering on “Murderbot”, the self-named robot that achieves free will and wants to use it primarily to binge watch “premium quality content”. Instead, it’s stuck babysitting a group of space hippies who come to challenge its sense of self.
Alexander Skarsgård stars as Murderbot, an acerbic robot disgusted by humanity. He gives a very impressive performance as a machine with limited expressions, essentially doing double duty through his physical performance and his voice performance as Murderbot’s inner monologue. Skarsgård monologues a LOT, and it is a credit to his nuanced vocal performance that he lands as many jokes as he does, and that he ably establishes the gap between what Murderbot thinks and what it shows the world. Murderbot is initially disdainful of humans, who are weak petty assholes, but slowly the space hippies begin to soften its regard. Rather than lead to instant friendship, though, these emotions confuse and annoy Murderbot, who just wants to be left alone to watch its shows.
Its favorite of the premium quality content—one of the series’ best running gags is eliminating terms like “TV” and “film” entirely in favor of “content”—is space soap opera The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. A lot of Murderbot’s lessons in humanity come from the cheesy soap opera, and we get to see bits of it performed by John Cho, DaWanda Wise, Clark Gregg, and Jack McBrayer, all sporting ludicrous hairdos and cheap costumes. Murderbot’s attachment to the show makes you wonder if it’s got bad taste, or if Sanctuary Moon is as good as it gets in a hyper-corporatized environment that prizes profit above all else—another running gag is everyone commenting on how sh-tty everything is in the future.
Murderbot looks great, with visual effects that are the right combination of slick and kitschy. The show evokes a two-tiered retro-futurism, as both the production design of the show itself is a little bit tacky on purpose, and so is the world within the show, which exists in a galactic realm of corporate conglomerates and independent, non-corporate planets. The look of the show is very charming, thanks to production designer Sue Chan; art directors Barbara Agbaje, Karl Crosby, and Samantha Dick; set decorators MahadAhmed1 and Rob Hepburn; and costume designers Carrie Grace, Laura Jean Shannon, and Joyce Schure.
At the beginning of the series Murderbot is a Security Unit, a robot programmed to protect humans—unless ordered to kill them by someone else, maybe?—and it has been refurbished and is showing signs of age and wear. It is not the hot new unit rolling off the assembly line, but a group of non-corporate space hippies elect to take it along on an exploratory mission because it is the cheapest option to guarantee insurance for their trip. The hippies are led by the warm, maternal presence of Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), and the group also includes the suspicious augmented human, Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Coming from a non-corporate planet that recognizes the personhood of “constructs” like Murderbot, they make Murderbot uncomfortable with their friendliness and overall humanity. Some of the best moments in the show come when Murderbot has to grapple with its responses to their messy humanity.
But as good as Skarsgård is, and he is GREAT, the rest of the ensemble falls a bit flat. The writing just isn’t there for the other characters. Dumezweni and Dastmalchian fare the best, not for nothing, their characters contribute most directly to Murderbot’s emotional arc through the season. At times, Murderbot’s combination of sci-fi, action, and comedy scratched my Firefly itch, but the writing for the ensemble just isn’t strong enough to make this a worthy successor to that short-lived space adventure.
On its own merit, though, Murderbot is a breezy, fun watch—episodes run about 30 minutes—anchored by Alexander Skarsgård’s stellar performance. It’s worth it just for him, he’s doing the acting equivalent to a high-wire act (his subtle expressions are outstanding for communicating Murderbot’s slowly growing array of emotions). Despite a somewhat uneven start, the show around him is promising enough to make a second season desirable. This first season really feels like a prologue, and that by the end, Murderbot—and Murderbot—are just getting started.
Murderbot is now streaming the first three episodes exclusively on Apple TV+, with new episodes premiering every Friday.
