Apple TV’s Murderbot is a security robot that gives itself free will and then spends an inordinate amount of time watching bad TV, wracked with the fear that someone will discover it has a mind of its own. The show is a textbook example of sci-fi with a strong undercurrent of contemporary critique.
The core story is about a crew of scientists conducting research on an alien world, having purchased security from an all-powerful corporation of dubious intent. Gaps in the crew’s data reveal they’ve been given false information by the corporation and aren’t alone on their new world. Murderbot’s their discount security android.
The show excels as a black comedy parodying a future peopled by sheepish social progressives. The line “they’re complementary genders of the same species”—about two monstrous lifeforms menacing the human crew—lampoons a society peopled by Gender Studies graduates. Pick any year prior to now and this line wouldn’t be as funny as it is. One crew member goes all tree-hugging hippie over a sack of gestational fluid left behind. The crew tries playing along but is clearly revolted.
The show has characters that are a dysfunctional mix of ethnicities and identity politics clichés. As a team, they argue and achieve nothing. The showrunners expose ideological hypocrisy when one member of a lesbian couple wants the male of the group to become the third member of their throuple—motivated by his and her heterosexual attraction. The third party, excluded from the sex and the decision, is much less enthusiastic. The same male character is later mocked for not being toxic male enough to hold his gun the right way. It’s clear the writers created them as one-dimensional cyphers parodying a vision of life on Planet Safe Space. We get stupid scene after scene of them expressing their emotions.
Characters saying, “We can talk about this” in response to escalating crisis becomes a running joke. Even Murderbot wishes they’d stop talking. His internal monologue narrates the show, expressing incomprehensibility at the crew’s behaviour and emotions. Through his eyes the showrunners give a cautionary tale of how such progressive types are paralyzed by imagined emotional traumas and are cannon fodder for the more aggressive. They need a stoically violent Murderbot to protect them as they’re too neutered to save themselves. By mid-season, you’ll hope he kills them all and moves on.
The show is based on The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, adapting her novella, All Systems Red. The show was created by American Pie’s Paul and Chris Weitz and stars Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot. Episodes run for 30 minutes and are released weekly.
