Apple’s New Comedy Sci-Fi Is A Great Vehicle For Alexander Skarsgard, But Not Without Its Problems

Don’t let the name fool you: Apple TV+’s new science-fiction series Murderbot isn’t actually about a rampaging robot killing everything in sight, though Alexander Skarsgard’s SecUnit certainly ponders the idea from time to time.

SecUnit stands for Security Unit, a cyborg manufactured by the nefarious Corporation Rim, a somewhat nebulous hyper-capitalistic organization that uses, among other things, indentured servitude in its various corporate practices. This particular unit is unique: It’s managed to override its “governor module” – the tech that allows humans to tell it what to do, and protects them from a robot going rogue and killing everyone.

The thought crosses Murderbot’s mind when he first hacks his system, but he realizes that it’s probably in his best interest not to go on a murder spree. This act of self-preservation leads him to a new job, when scientist hippies on an exploratory mission are forced to rent a SecUnit for security purposes.

These hippies are part of the PreservationAux team, a group that belongs to the Preservation Alliance, a commune-style society that has remained free from the dystopian rule of the Corporation Rim. They don’t even want a robot onboard – they view it as a form of slavery – but for insurance purposes, they have no choice. So they take the cheapest model, who just so happens to be Murderbot.

The PreservationAux team is made up of Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), and Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Gurathin is an augmented human that can tap into computer systems and is by far the most mistrustful of their new cyborg companion. The team is led by Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), a mothering figure who plays a big role in bridging the gap between robot and human this season. What this team is actually up to is quite vague: They’re researching . . . something, on a planet that at first seems benign but ends up being far more dangerous than anyone anticipated.

Lucky they brough a SecUnit along, even if it has no desire to be there. The best part about Murderbot, by a long shot, is Skarsgard’s performance. He doesn’t like people, but he’s forced to protect them. Well, not really forced since he’s hacked his governor module, but to keep up appearances he does his job. He’d rather be watching TV.

The most endearing thing about Murderbot is it’s / his (nobody quite knows how to refer to SecUnit when it comes to pronouns, a running gag) obsession with The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which is basically the show you’d get if Star Trek and Days Of Our Lives had a lovechild. The show has 2,797 episodes and we get little glimpses of them in action because Murderbot spends every waking moment glued to his entertainment feed, and is annoyed when pesky humans and their problems get in the way.

Sanctuary Moon has its own cast: Clark Gregg, John Cho, DeWanda Wise and Jack McBrayer all play various roles in the space soap. It’s hilariously over-the-top and ridiculous, but Murderbot refers to it as “premium” even if nobody else agrees. He turns to it constantly when attempting to figure out how to deal with human problems, often quoting it or using various episodes to try to figure out what he should do in a tight spot.

I’m reminded, in no small part, of Resident Alien, though the two shows are quite different for the most part. Still, in that show we have an alien disguised as a human with very underdeveloped social skills who turns to TV in order to learn human ways. In that show, it’s Law & Order. Alan Tudyk plays the alien, Harry, with gleeful abandon. Skarsgard’s Murderbot is awkward in a totally different way, unsure how to deal with emotion, tortured just by having to look someone in the eye. Both often contemplate killing everyone.

Murderbot is completely confounded by the kindness of the PreservationAux team, though this does little to warm him to them – at first. He’d rather be left alone with Sanctuary Moon. Of course, things don’t go as planned on the mission and a series of unfortunate events leads to various precarious situations, betrayals, shoot-outs and daring escapes, all of which get in the way of Murderbot’s screen time. I won’t spoil any of that.

I can’t speak to the quality of the adaptation as I’ve yet to read The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells upon which this show is based. What I can say is that while Skarsgard’s Murderbot is consistently hilarious, the rest of the show is less so. The funniest bits are Murderbot’s observations and reactions; the team itself is often played for laughs that don’t quite land, though we get a few funny bits and some good slapstick here and there.

Of the supporting cast, it’s (unsurprisingly) David Dastmalchian who leaves the biggest mark. His mistrust of the SecUnit is rooted in his own unique abilities and backstory, and Dastmalchian gives depth to the role that isn’t necessarily in the text. Other than Dumezweni, who adds a welcome layer of emotion and warmth, the rest of the cast feels a bit like throwaway characters used for gags that fall flat more than anything. Do we really need an awkward throuple subplot? No, the answer is no.

Perhaps the biggest issue with Murderbot, however, is that episodes are only 20-ish minutes long and Apple is releasing them weekly. The first two come out this Friday, May 16th, with one episode a week after that all the way up to July 11th. It took me a few episodes to really get invested in the story, and outside of the titular character I found myself more irritated with the others at first, though this is perhaps by design, since Murderbot himself is mostly irritated and vexed by his new companions.

The point is, this might have worked better using Netflix’s binge-release model, allowing people to really dive into the show rather than trickle it out weekly. Sure, episodes often end on cliffhangers, but the story is pretty thin, especially at first, with a somewhat generic sci-fi look and feel, and I’m not sure it’s enough to capture and then hold interest over the course of 9 weeks. It certainly picks up as it goes along, but expecting audiences to wait four or five weeks to get to that point is a big ask. Watching all ten episodes over two nights helped enormously, but audiences won’t have that luxury. I don’t feel this way about Apple’s other shows currently airing, like The Studio or Your Friends & Neighbors, which are both well-suited for the weekly release model.

Still, this is one I can definitely recommend, mostly because I enjoyed Skarsgard and his narration and internal dialogue so much. A security droid obsessed with TV shows, struggling with his “humanity” and what the possibility of freedom might mean is right up my alley. Perhaps it’s just that I can relate. I like my alone time and my TV shows, too, and humans are terribly puzzling creatures. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s entertaining enough, a mostly light and breezy glimpse into a fictional universe that certainly feels like it has a lot more potential.

I’m certainly curious to see where the story goes if Apple picks up a second season. I’ll have to read the books before then, though sometimes it’s fun to go in without a lot of preconceived notions. I’m curious what book readers will think of the show and of Skarsgard’s interpretation of the character.

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