The eponymous rogue security cyborg (Alexander Skarsgård) at the center of Apple’s Murderbot is less a vengeful killer than a quiet quitter. Having hacked the module that compels it to follow orders, Murderbot doesn’t seek revenge against the humans who birthed it into a lifetime of corporate bondage; it just wants to be left alone to watch TV. The robot continues to give its security job the absolute minimum of attention while downloading soap operas directly into its eyeballs for covert binging.
Based on Martha Wells’s acclaimed series of sci-fi novellas, Murderbot is premised on a fun idea, as evidenced by the way our protagonist must deal with the hippie scientists who are its latest clients. Where most humans in the series are apathetic or outright callous toward their biomechanical help, this touchy-feely group is determined to treat Murderbot like one of the gang, even asking it to display its human face. Which means that it has to work even harder to conceal its free will, because there’s nothing it hates more than eye contact.
But as inspired as Wells’s concept may be, it’s stunted by some clumsy execution. The early episodes are the most strained for their heavy reliance on Murderbot’s snarky internal monologue, which features none of the rhythm that makes a great narration-heavy story work. There’s little in the way of expressive editing and camerawork to key us into the character’s POV—especially since Skarsgård’s security bot is otherwise subdued and, well, robotic. As a result, the narration never quite gels with the on-screen proceedings, even as Skarsgård gives exactly the sort of amusingly awkward performance the material calls for.
Murderbot’s very premise is a casualty of its bland visual sensibility, all beige and brightly lit to a degree that does the CGI no favors. Fight scenes are edited to incoherent ribbons against bland backdrops, and Murderbot’s pop-up holographic interfaces are so generic that they fail to emphasize the jokes meant to accompany them. The lone bit of visual panache here is Murderbot’s favorite show, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, a Star Trek-like soap opera that’s meant to look stilted and gaudy, with preposterous hair pieces under a constant purple hue. The series only blunders into a distinct style when it’s trying to look like crap.
Once Murderbot’s internal narration takes a back seat to tracing the character’s interpersonal dynamics with humans like pragmatic leader Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) and prickly skeptic Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), the series can be funny and even endearing, namely for the way Murderbot grows attached to these people who refuse to leave it alone. Buoyed by some blissfully short episode runtimes, Murderbot eventually finds tension and intrigue in its home stretch, but you need to wade through some graceless filmmaking to get there.
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Genuinely think you might consider a new career as this is not for you…
This is the only honest review among the myriad uncritical ones. Through Episode 4 the show is incoherent and dull. We’ll see if it improves as promised.