From Wall-E and RoboCop to Short Circuit and I, Robot, we are well-served with stories of robots built to serve that develop distinct personalities and humanity, and then eventually save the day. Apple TV+'s Murderbot, the latest entry in this subgenre, mashes up several versions of this story into something that straddles the line between the familiar and the new. The titular character combines several robots and robot tropes — part Terminator and part Replicant — and its story ends up being something akin to Terminator 2 or an adult version of The Iron Giant, but with a lot more swearing. It would be the easiest thing in the world for this series to feel cheap and derivative, but thankfully, while it definitely lands in familiar territory, it still manages to carve out an identity of its own.
Set in a far-flung dystopian future where humanity has expanded into the stars but corporations retain control over everything, the series follows a team of scientists who take on a contract to explore and study a planet. Things go sideways almost immediately when a large, combative millipede monster attacks two members of the team, who saved by their Security Unit ("SecUnit"), the titular Murderbot played by Alexander Skarsgård.
They soon discover important information missing from their survey packet, including maps and records of the large, aggressive fauna. Not only that, they learn that their SecUnit has a face instead of just the helmet they've seen, which is perhaps an even greater revelation.
SecUnit has a secret though: he's hacked the governor module in his system that removes his free will and is hiding in plain sight, walking a delicate line between acting like a security robot and finding humans stupid and repulsive (except the ones on the soap operas he'd rather be watching).
Skarsgård more than rises to the occasion of this funny premise. SecUnit undergoes a predictable arc — from aloof and cynical to something softer and more empathetic — and that journey becomes a little rote since we've seen it so many times before. Because the series takes his point of view, we also get his inner monologue, a conceit that allows for some of the show's biggest laughs as he tells the other characters one thing (usually a reassuring platitude) but thinks another (usually that they are stupid), and this duality in his performance allows for thoughtful development of the character.
Noma Dumezweni as Mensah, the senior member of the team and the one who advocates most for SecUnit as a person, and David Dastmalchian as Guarthin, an augmented human who takes the opposite position, also lend strong performances to the series. The push-pull of Mensah's trust and Guarthin's animosity put SecUnit into the most emotionally trying positions, leading to some of the funniest, and also the tenderest, moments in the season.
While the rest of the cast offer commendable turns, they're a little underused. Series creators Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz provide them with some subplots to round the supporting characters out, but they never develop like the main three characters of the show, although they do each bring something to their scenes. The entire ensemble offers something interesting enough to hope the show gets a second season so that we can get to know them better, too.
The series sprinkles in clips of Sanctuary Moon, the fictional soap opera that SecUnit watches, which are delightfully over-the-top, exactly as a parody of a soap opera should be. The special guest cast members in these segments (John Cho, Clark Gregg, DeWanda Wise and Jack McBrayer) all seem totally game for the bit, creating fun moments in every episode that are well worth looking forward to.
The future world of Murderbot is functionally impressive and gets the "used future" look right in a way where it looks like all the used equipment came from an Apple Store. It's a fantastical future populated by dull greys and banal corporate architecture, making for an interesting visual clash, even if not all that original, perfectly exemplifying the series: well made and acted, but a little too familiar.
