Apple TV+’s Delightful Murderbot Adaptation Is a Snarky, Surprisingly Heartfelt Ode to Connection

Entertainment has long been used as an escape mechanism from the world around us. But who do we turn to when literally everything is grim and terrible, and there is seemingly no relief in sight? Maybe a central protagonist who’s just really, really over it is precisely what we need in the year of our lord 2025. Enter Murderbot, the Apple TV+ sci-fi comedy about a sentient robot turned extremely reluctant hero who keeps doing the right thing, even when it doesn’t particularly want to (and actively dislikes the very people it’s helping).

 Based on the popular series of novels known as the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, the series is one part sci-fi adventure, one part workplace comedy, and one part snarky excavation of the nature of free will, all interspersed with some truly hilarious snippets from a futuristic space soap opera. (Yes, really.) It is both genuinely funny and surprisingly moving, a sharp-eyed social commentary, and a meditation on the role of both technology and connection in broader society (in every definition of the word). And most of all? It’s so much fun. 

Set in a far-future version of human society, the story follows a rogue SecUnit (Alexander Skarsgård)—short for Security Unit—a sentient, part-organic security android that manages to hack and disable its own governance software. It nicknames itself Murderbot for no other reason than that it thinks it sounds cool. But it doesn’t want to destroy the world, Terminator-style. Honestly, it would rather just be left alone. Released from the control of the Corporation Rim company that owns it, Murderbot is forced to hide its burgeoning free will or risk being physically melted and recycled. This is how it ends up being rented out by a gang of hippie scientists from a planetary commune known as the Preservation Alliance. Bullied into taking security measures on their expedition and convinced that employing sentient constructs is tantamount to slavery, they’re only willing to spring for the cheapest refurbished model. Yup, that’s Murderbot. 

As a general rule, Murderbot is not a huge fan of humans. Not in a humanity must be wiped out sort of way, just that they’re really annoying. It thinks their bodies are disgusting, their music disturbing, and the intricacies of their personal relationships exhausting. If it had a choice, it would much rather be watching the copious amounts of saved entertainment programming it’s downloaded, particularly the long-running and hilariously over-the-top soap opera known as The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which happens to be its favorite.  But as it is forced to spend more time with this motley crew of weirdos, who all behave quite differently than most of those inside the Corporation Rim, SecUnit becomes increasingly curious about the everyday lives they live. 

The basic narrative beats of the story are fairly simple: Murderbot attempts to hide its “unique” governance situation (or lack thereof)  from its new clients, frequently counting on them being too dumb or unobservant to notice that it’s behaving in ways well outside its permitted parameters while it figures out what it wants to do with its newfound freewill. But though it’s no longer specifically required to do so, it can’t seem to stop saving their lives, and the tension between its robotic nature and growing consciousness gives rise to questions of identity and purpose it doesn’t entirely understand. 

But despite its high-end sci-fi feel and frequently heavy philosophical themes, Murderbot is not a show that takes itself particularly seriously. Its characters don’t sit around ruminating on the nature of consciousness, and there are no easily packaged platitudes at the end of each episode. Though the Apple TV+ version is less gritty than Wells’ novels, there’s still a fair amount of violence, and most installments feature at least one segment from Sanctuary Moon itself, with John Cho and Clark Gregg playing Star Trek-esque characters in outrageously high camp style. (It is, as Murderbot would say, premium entertainment content.)