Murderbot Is a Funny, Violent Exploration of What It Means to Be Human

On a distant planet in a future where space travel through wormholes is routine—and corny soap operas are considered “premium entertainment”—surveyors make a discovery that would surely be deadly, if not for the Security Unit they’ve reluctantly brought with them. That’s Murderbot, Apple TV+’s latest sci-fi venture, which layers that premise with many nuances, delights, shocks, and multidimensional characters, including the robot. Especially the robot. Alexander Skarsgård, who also executive produces, stars as the sentient construct made partially of metal, partially of cloned organic materials. The humans on the survey team are initially unaware it’s secretly named itself “Murderbot,” so they call it “SecUnit.” They’re also initially unaware that SecUnit is curious enough to have hacked its own “governor module,” the part of its programming that makes it have to obey all human commands, and is therefore completely rogue. However, Murderbot still takes direction, albeit while grumbli ... Read full article.