Murderbot is more than a sci-fi series. The new Apple TV Plus show, based on the novel All Systems Red by Martha Wells, is the story of a security robot who'd rather watch space soaps than protect humans. What to Watch's Murderbot review highlighted that star Alexander Skarsgård is "so good at being bad" in the new series, but honestly, I didn't plan on laughing out loud as much as I did.
Despite being a rather high-concept sci-fi series, the story is not complicated to follow. In the future, security robots ("SecUnits") are used to protect humans. They are programmed to follow every command, even if it means putting themselves in danger. Skarsgård plays a SecUnit who hacks into his programming to sever the governance module, adopting the name Murderbot (because why not?). But even though he's "free," he has to pretend he's still following the rules or risk being melted down.
The pilot episode sets up the story in a very palatable way, and in a large chunk of it, viewers only hear Skarsgård's voice while the SecUnit tells its story (don't worry, he eventually emerges from the suit, in more ways than one...) so everything depends on his delivery of the lines.
Look, if it were any other actor, I probably wouldn't be making such a big deal out of how those lines are delivered. But in this case, I was cracking up because of Skarsgård's delivery, and for good reason.
True Blood fans will recall Skarsgard's iconic portrayal of Norse vampire leader Eric, whose imposing presence and larger-than-undead-life personality helped him to steal every scene he was in. Skarsgard has played a lot of memorable characters, but Murderbot is most similar to Eric, and that's what I love the most. Like Eric, Murderbot's disdain for humanity is joyous and palpable.
Murderbot delights in his loathing of the human race, but he also delights in their antics, as demonstrated by his love of the human space soap opera that he's obsessed with.
Skarsgård can play all kinds of roles and we've seen him excel over the years in drama (Big Little Lies), adventure (Battleship) and parody (Succession), but rarely does he get to be funny.
In Murderbot, as with True Blood, Skarsgård's role isn't meant to be comedic per se (the show is a sci-fi comedy but the main character isn't trying to be funny, if that makes sense), but Murderbot's utter revulsion of the humans around him make the delivery of his persona hilarious. Skarsgård is so funny, I was cracking up through his monologues and throughout his uncomfortable interactions with the humans around him. Despite his protestations, Murderbot is surprisingly human, even though he's not human at all.
Murderbot is a very refreshing series that absolutely needs to be at the top of your must-watch list. Alexander Skarsgård deserves an Emmy nod in the Best Actor in a Comedy category for his memorable performance that left me laughing out loud.
New episodes of Murderbot are available to stream Fridays on Apple TV Plus.
