Murderbot TV Series Review
Murderbot is an American science fiction action comedy television series created by Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz; based on the book series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, who also serves as a consulting producer. The first season premiered on Apple TV+ on 16 May 2025.
Season 1 of Murderbot is based on All Systems Red, the first book of the The Murderbot Diaries where a private security construct unit No 238776431 acquires autonomy and must balance its free will with its mandated missions, while evading detection of its anomaly.
The Good
The Security Unit with the hacked governor module, is a sarcastic, socially awkward, anxiety-ridden, murderous robot, that simply wants to be left alone to watch the entertainment feed, and is oh so utterly relatable. The character felt reminiscent of Marvin The Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and would not be surprised if some inspiration was drawn from there.
Alexander Skarsgård the breakthrough actor of the True Blood character Eric Northman, nails the role of Murderbot. He brings the character to life in a nuanced performance that captures the sarcastic wit, social anxiety and awkward human interactions in a quirky but endearing manner.
I need to check the perimeter.
Other characters who stand out are Noma Dumezweni as Mensah, team leader of Preservation Aux and David Dastmalchian as Gurathin, a tech expert and augmented human, who bring an emotional complexity to the plot.
While this show could seem like its about robots becoming self-aware, something technological advancements could be on the verge of, beneath the veneer it’s an autism spectrum coded show, which is relatable to people who have faced any kind of social awkwardness.
The TV series is a mostly faithful adaptation of the book series although the are a couple of changes, it pays to have the author as part of the production team.
The Bad
Why doesn’t The Rise And Fall Of Sanctuary Moon exist? It’s a Star Trekesque space opera that Murderbot considers to be premium entertainment and spends hours watching.
The average running time of each episode is about 22 minutes with episodes ending on a cliffhanger, which made it a torture to wait a whole week for sitcom length episodes, which is what lead me to reading the books the series is based on…
Episodes have a slow buildup, picking up speed to an abrupt cliffhanger ending that can feel a bit rushed. Having read the book the show was adapted from, which is a 160 page novella, I can see how they didn’t want to add too much filler content and that was the end result…
The Ugly
The dry humour and quirky tone might not be for everyone and they also water down the impact of some thematic elements on individuality and autonomy.
At the end of the day nothing that happens in the series really matters except to set up for a sequel.
Final Thoughts
Murderbot is a smart and witty sci-fi comedy about a quirky robot with existential dread and a love for soap operas, that greatly honours the spirit of Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries. The series was renewed for a Season 2 so go check the perimeter or whatever.
Have you seen Murderbot or read the books?
Becoming The Muse 
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