Murderbot: Season 1

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I feel as though Apple TV+ has several series that were AI generated and put on the service as an experiment. Just ridiculous stuff that isn’t really made for anybody, but also feels like it may also appeal to the brain-rot crowd of drooling scrollers who see a familiar face, some creatures and some violence — with a smattering of completely unfunny comedy in this case — and just allow the series to keep running in the background while they shove Doritos and vape pens into their gobs. Or like Europeans or something. Whatever the case, there’s a strange artifice to this and a lot of the more sci-fi Apple TV+ stuff that gives this whole uncanny valley vibe that you’re actually watching produced television, but you may actually just be watching a bunch of ones and zeros crapping themselves out of a computer deep in the Cupertino mothership. It’s soulless and poorly considered drivel that is made for nobody. See Hello Tomorrow! and Extrapolations as prime examples.

My reading tells me this show is based on a book series. I’m going to assume that these books have some sort of cult following and that the books are way more clever than this TV series based on them. At least I hope so. Because this is a truly terrible show. Dull and unfunny, off-putting and cheesy either on purpose or not, I’m not sure. You know those shows with the CGI that looks pretty bad, but you’re unsure if it’s supposed to look like that. Or there were just budget constraints that gave them the c-team? Or, maybe, they figured because this thing was a “comedy” that it’s totally fine that the graphics looked like something out of Starman or an early Tim Burton movie. Whatever the case, we have expectations, and this just feels like a little bit of gas-lightning if I’m being honest. The aforementioned familiar face, of course, is Alexander Skarsgård. He is the Murderbot. So named (by Murderbot himself) because he’s a security bot who has what amounts to robot PTSD about a mass murder he keeps flashing back to in his robot brain. A mass murder perpetrated by him, but also may be an implanted memory or just a glitch of his robot brain. Whatever the case, he’s hacked his governor module that overrides his ability to harm his human bosses, so he knows that if he is, in fact, the murderous being his thinks he might be, all the humans around him may be in serious danger. Yes, it’s convoluted.

I don’t think I even need to explain the setup other than to say that Murderbot is placed on a ship with a crew of folks on a research mission as their protection. Part of an insurance thing that required them to have security in order to fund the mission. Or something. This crew is made up of a bunch of do-gooders and hippie types who are interested in their science, but also concerned that this SecUnit is somehow being forced against its will by an evil corporation to serve as a glorified security guard for humans. Despite the fact he’s an android. As mentioned, all of these SecUnits — which are deadly in their rawest form — are supposed to have a directive not to harm humans. But, unbeknownst to the crew, Murderbot has disabled that function. So, he is a danger. But is also the one thing protecting them from evil alien snake things and other SecUnits and pirates and marauding space assholes. And, hell, when he lowers his helmet, he looks like Alexander Skarsgård.

The “funny” part is that with freewill now secretly part of his day, Murderbot watches really lame sci-fi soap operas and is an awkwardly bad liar and generally acts like a murderous fish out of water in his conversations with his human clients. So much so that they start to suspect maybe something’s up. But, really, if my deadly robot was acting as dumb and shady as Murderbot, I would be more worried than most of then seem to be. Most of the show seems to rotate around them discussing Murderbot and seeming to be surprised that he can either hear them and/or figure out what they’re up to. Over and over again. These smart people, scene after scene, just shocked that their robot meant to keep tabs on them is keeping tabs on them. It’s one of those comedies that thinks it’s funny by making what we have to assume are very intelligent people act like idiots or jackasses. Scientists, they’re just like us! Meanwhile, Murderbot fights off creatures and bad guys and continuously takes damage, but is seemingly never in real danger of getting completely destroyed. And, while the storyline is both rudimentary and also unnecessarily complicated, the point of this whole thing is that Murderbot learns what it means to be human, while the humans show their humanity. Or something. Once again, it’s on-the-nose, but also clumsy, as the humans see the warming of this killing machine and band together to protect his autonomy, but it’s just completely unclear why. Other than him just doing his job and saving them. And looking like a tall, handsome Swedish actor.

But it’s not even the plot or the message that irks me most about this show. It’s something about the way it looks and the way it feels. The artifice. The voiceover. Yes, most of Murderbot’s dialogue is internal and voiced to us in what I imagine the writers think is clever monologuing. His thoughts about humans softening over time. His thoughts about these particular humans softening over time. His self-doubt and maybe, possibly guilt over this murder stuff. And perhaps I’m missing the point here. Maybe it’s supposed to feel like another show I found really janky: Doctor Who. A show I know people love, but also a show that feels uniquely un-American to me. It’s not American, of course, but there’s something about the sets and the bleep-bloop that doesn’t connect with me. Basically I found the show to be kind of dumb. The characters are dumb. The plot is kind of dumb. And just the whole thing in general left me cold. I don’t know if an Apple problem, or what, but someone somewhere needs to inject some warmth into these shows, as we are not the robots. That’s them.