For the uninitiated, here’s the basic rundown of what “Murderbot” is: The titular bot is a Security Unit (“SecUnit” for short), a semi-organic robot programmed to protect the humans to which it’s assigned at all costs. But this SecUnit, played by Alexander Skarsgård, is different. It’s managed to hack its governor module and free itself from the mandate of obeying humans, giving itself the name “Murderbot” and embracing its newfound freedom. Instead of going on a Kill All Humans rampage, though, the SecUnit gets caught up watching thousands of hours of streaming TV it can now access.
So when SecUnit gets assigned to protect a group of hippie scientists investigating a backwater planet, it thinks it’s just going to stand by and watch its stories while they do their work. The trouble is that the group’s leader, Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), is annoyingly intrigued by SecUnit’s not-quite-human behavior, and the augmented human data expert Gurathin (David Dastmalchian) is convinced that SecUnit is somehow compromised, ready to betray the group to corporate interests at any moment. The thing is, SecUnit actually is hiding something, just not what Gurathin thinks, and as the world around them gets more dangerous, the SecUnit and the augmented human will have to find a way to work together if any of them hope to get off the planet alive.
All of this unfolds to us as an audience with the help of narration from SecUnit itself, who throws its own commentary about the humans into every scenario, lets us know what it’s thinking, and gives us a peek at its favorite show, “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon,” a “Star Trek”-style soap opera featuring gloriously over-the-top performances from John Cho, Jack McBrayer, and others.
One of the smartest things about the way Martha Wells tells the “Murderbot” stories, something the show quickly grasps and reflects, is the constant juxtaposition of disparate elements, all through SecUnit’s eyes. It’s a corporate product, and because of its TV addiction it’s constantly consuming other corporate products, but it’s also constantly on the hunt for emotional context. It finds humans disgusting and far too dependent on their feelings, and yet it can’t look away from the very real drama playing out in their lives. It’s not bound to obey humans, and yet it feels a sense of duty. These are all key to making “Murderbot” work as a series, and creators Chris and Paul Weitz seem to instantly realize their vitality, giving the show a very strong start.
