Murderbot
Entry updated 25 August 2025. Tagged: Character, TV.
US tv series (2025-current). Depth of Field Productions/Phantom Four Films/Paramount Television Studios. Written and created by Paul and Chris Weitz, based on All Systems Red (2017) by Martha Wells. Various directors, including Paul and Chris Weitz. Cast includes John Cho, David Dastmalchian, Noma Dumezweni, Clark Gregg, Tattiawna Jones, Akshay Khana, Anna Konkle, Tamara Podemsky, Alexander Skarsgård, DeWanda Wise and Sabrina Wu. Season 1 consists of ten episodes, ranging from 22 to 34 minutes. Colour.
An unnamed security Cyborg or SecUnit (Skarsgård) manages to remove the governor module that requires it to obey orders from humans (see Laws of Robotics). Renaming itself Murderbot on a whim, but hiding its new independent status, it is assigned to an idealistic but naïve and impractical planetary exploration team named PresAux, run by Terraforming expert Mensah (Dumezweni). One of the crew, Gurathin (Dastmalchian) is an augmented human who is suspicious of Murderbot, and is convinced it has deleted some compromising memories (see Memory Edit). Despite the fact that Murderbot is more interested in watching streamed Space Operas such as Sanctuary Moon than in its security tasks, it saves two members of the team from a giant subterranean centipede-like creature. During the expedition Alien remnants are discovered on the planet. Legally these cannot be exploited by private companies, but it appears to widely acknowledged that such laws are often circumvented.
The team discover that another expedition has been abandoned, and subsequent investigations lead to finding the crew dead and Murderbot being attacked by another SecUnit. Murderbot defeats it, but only after having been subverted by a combat override module, which he believes will cause him to kill the PresAux crew as hostile enemies. He shoots himself to avoid this. The crew take him back to the base to repair him. A survivor, Leebeebee (Konkle) turns out to be a member of a third team, GrayCris, which is attempting to illegally take control of the alien remnants, and is killed by Murderbot, but only after injuring Gurathin. While having surgery he plugs into Murderbot's data port, and discovers that Murderbot was responsible for the deaths of many of his clients, for reasons Murderbot does not remember.
When the GrayCris team arrive, Murderbot hatches a plan to destroy them and save the team, whom it reluctantly now admits it has grown fond of. Pretending to betray PresAux to get close to GrayCris, it kills them and destroys their SecUnits in an explosion, from which it saves Mensah, allowing the PresAux team to send an emergency beacon. Back on the Corporation Rim, where it originated, Murderbot has its memories scrubbed ready to become a clean SecUnit again, but Gurathin, recognizing that Murderbot has become part of the team, is able to retrieve his personality from Sanctuary Moon episodes, and reupload it. However, Murderbot wishes for independence, and with Gurathin's knowledge, sneaks off on another Spaceship, ready for further adventures.
This lightweight but enjoyable adaptation of the first instalment of Wells' very popular Murderbot Diaries is unusually faithful to its source in plot and tone (compare for example the television adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation), which no doubt contributed to its positive reception from fans. As with the books, the straightforward adventure sf plot is given freshness by Murderbot's wry comments on human fallibility, even as it becomes more human itself, and even more by the outstandingly tacky enactments of its beloved space operas. It is a formula that leads perhaps too easily to repetition, a problem that the first few books did not quite overcome, so it remains to be seen if future series will retain the first series' freshness. Skarsgård manages to convey well the complexities of a character whose voice and facial expressions never change; the rest of the characters, other than Gurathin, who surprisingly emerges as the most sympathetic, and Mensah, are good comic relief.
A second season has been commissioned. [CWa]
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