‘Murderbot’ Episodes 1 and 2 Review
AppleTV+ have launched their latest sci-fi show with the two episode premiere of ‘Murderbot’, based on the book series ‘The Murderbot Diaries’ by Martha Wells.
The titular character is a SecUnit, designed to provide security and protection for humans. It’s assigned to a group of researchers heading out to a hostile planet. What they don’t know is that it has secretly broken its programming that prevents it from disobeying orders, and now, with free will, it prefers to spend its time watching bad TV shows rather than helping the humans it despises.
The series is off to a bad start with these first two episodes. The main character, Murderbot, is one of those typical android types who doesn’t really know what it’s like to be an individual and struggles to understand the nuances of human personalities. It’s a pretty old device, used in shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation with Data, but there’s still room for interesting explorations if done right. The issue is, the show doesn’t do it right.
The titular character isn’t very likable. It has little love for its human charges and considers them an inconvenience, sticking around mainly because there’s not much else it can do, all while hiding the fact it has broken its programming. Unfortunately, this means it’s not very interesting, delivering long stretches of internal monologues that could be a lot more fun and snarky. It’s mostly awkward and uncomfortable around other characters, which would make the decision to keep it behind its mask understandable and effective—like C-3PO. Instead, it removes the mask at every opportunity, leaving you watching a human face that doesn’t show emotion rather than a blank mechanical one.
It might be helped if any of the other characters were likable or compelling, but they aren’t. There’s no chemistry between them or with Murderbot, and they just come off as a collection of slightly odd eccentrics who neither act in a natural way nor fully commit to their wacky characteristics. This just makes them dull, leaving no reason to care whether they live or die. They also follow the lead of the colonists in Alien: Covenant, frequently making bad decisions and seeming to be the worst possible choices for a mission like this. Maybe they’ll be developed more later, but after the first two episodes, there’s nothing to like about them.
In fact, the show reminds me of Mickey 17, which I also wasn’t a fan of. It has a similar plot with a mission to a remote planet and a similar kind of humor—one that never fully commits, so it ends up feeling more like a cringey attempt at being funny rather than a proper comedy series.
I get the feeling that the ending could be similar too. There are some hints that the corporation controlling this section of space is shady and untrustworthy, and it ends with just enough of a cliffhanger to keep hope alive that things will get more interesting next week. But these first two episodes have done nothing to sell the show to me.
See our Murderbot Episode 3 Review
