Murderbot
By Sioph W. Leal
Murderbot follows a private security cyborg calling itself Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) as it must hide its newly acquired anatomy all the while it completes dangerous assignments. But Murderbot is being drawn to humans, disgusted by their weakness. Murderbot (first known as Sec Unit) no longer has the mechanism that he needs to follow orders, but turns out to be a amusing series.
Based on a series of the same name, a story about a security cyborg with violent tendencies would have easily been a dull series, but Murderbot manages to find a great way to show off the best part of the series effortlessly. Hacking its control trip and binging bad TV offers a humorous and exciting series. It manages to make questions about humanity and compassion compelling and fun to watch, which is a credit to the writers and Alexander Skarsgård’s portal. It’s refreshing to see a piece of media where there is no longing from the robot/cyborg to be human, to taste the mundane of humanity or become “real.” Instead, Murderbot has a constant irritation with humans.
Alexander Skarsgård’s talents are known throughout the entertainment industry, but Murderbot showcases his emotional range while still keeping true to the cyborg nature. Skarsgård master’s the art of micro-expressions, managing to express these emotions while still keeping true to the stoniness of a machine. Skarsgård brings a personality to Murderbot that few others could have achieved. Alongside Skarsgård’s impressive skill is the human characters. From Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) the team’s leader, she offers a lot to the dynamics of the show, especially when paired with Skarsgård on screen.
Murderbot is thoroughly entertaining, showing that adaptations can stand on its own without fully referencing the source material, but it’s the human characters that lose the most with this adaptation, which isn’t an entirely bad thing. The characters still offer a different insight into the series, but the book had none of their perspective.
Murderbot offers a fresh perspective on artificial intelligence, with Skarsgård delivering a captivating performance. The adaptation shifts focus from human characters to the cyborg's emotional depth, proving that adaptations can thrive independently.