Latest news with #TheMurderbotDiaries
Straits Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Murderbot review: Apple TV+'s sci-fi series delivers thrills and comedy
Alexander Skarsgard (left) is a cyborg guard and David Dastmalchian a scientist in Murderbot, showing on Apple TV+. PHOTO: APPLE TV+ Murderbot (M18) Apple TV+ ★★★★☆ Poor Murderbot. The titular cyborg guard has secretly hacked his obedience circuits and become a sentient being with free will. But he does not long to escape slavery, nor does he want to become human. All he wants is to be left alone to watch soap operas. His human masters are a group of scientists with the survival instincts of infants, who muddle around a planet filled with elephant-size centipedes and other dangers, forcing him to rescue them over and over. That is the premise of American novelist Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries books (2017 to 2023), which the Apple TV+ streaming series Murderbot has maintained. The Weitz brothers, Chris and Paul, are the show's creators. They bring the same laid-back drama-comedy energy seen in their 2002 movie adaptation of Nick Hornby's 1998 novel About A Boy. Murderbot's first season, which premiered on May 16, is a faithful adaptation of All Systems Red, the 2017 novella that launched the book series. Here are three reasons to binge the science-fiction action comedy. Accurate, funny satire The narrator in both the book and the show is a security unit, or SecUnit for short, who calls himself 'Murderbot'. Played by Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard, the unit observes quietly but judges harshly. To his eyes, his human masters are emotionally weak, needy bags of meat. The series is grounded in a workplace sitcom set-up – the grumpy nerd main character forced to get along with a bunch of kooky colleagues. The story milks that premise by making the scientists goofy Silicon Valley stereotypes – giddy optimists who discuss their feelings too much for Murderbot's liking. The misanthropic robot secretly calls them 'hippies' because he is frustrated by their touchy-feely work style and preoccupation with gender-fluid, polyamorous relationships. Decisions take forever because consensus must be present. That – and the group hugs and singalongs – makes him roll his mechanical eyes. Murderbot himself is a parody of masculinity. He hates emotions in real life but, like many men, is addicted to melodramatic entertainment that makes for hilarious show-within-a-show interludes. Noma Dumezweni in Murderbot. PHOTO: APPLE TV+ Strong performances and set design Apple TV+ has built up a storehouse of quality fantasy and science-fiction content, from Silo (2023 to present) to Severance (2022 to present) to Foundation (2021 to present). These shows, and Murderbot, look good – money has been spent on sets, props, locations and digital effects. Casting is also strong. Skarsgard is surrounded by solid actors, including John Cho, who plays the pompous starship captain in Murderbot's favourite soap opera, Sanctuary Moon. David Dastmalchian as a scientist who suspects that Murderbot has free will and Noma Dumezweni as the team leader provide credible supporting performances. No mystery, no problem Too often, science-fiction shows are propelled by a Big Mystery or Big Twist. What lies outside the silos in Silo? Why does the employer in Severance require employees' brains to be compartmentalised? That form of storytelling often leads to disappointment – the final unveiling must feel momentous yet inevitable – and many fail to hit the mark. Murderbot ditches sci-fi mysteries in favour of workplace drama-comedy tinged with corporate espionage and spiced up with the thrill of occasional attacks by house-size insects. It is a low-stakes, often rambling affair that relies on the ensemble of characters bickering good-naturedly – when they are not busy trying to bed each other or fighting giant bugs. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Scientific American
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scientific American
The Neuroscience of Murderbot's Cyborg Brain
Murderbot, the titular character of a new television show on Apple TV+, doesn't do much murdering. Instead it enjoys the freedom of having hacked its governor module, the internal control system that punished it for disobeying orders from its corporate owners. Now you could say it's 'quiet quitting': slacking off by watching its favorite soap operas on the job and trying to keep the humans under its protection from realizing that it's gone rogue. The show, based on a book series by Martha Wells called The Murderbot Diaries, features a main character made of cloned human tissue and robot hardware. It isn't a human, and it isn't a bot; it's something in-between called a 'construct.' It can see with security cameras or with its eyes; it can talk to computer systems with code and humans with language; its digital memory can be wiped by its creators, but its biological memory clings to traumatic flashes that can't be purged. It does not always understand human emotions, yet it feels, deeply. Exactly how this integration of cloned human neural tissue and computer circuitry works, we don't know—and the creators of the TV version told me that they don't know either. Wells, the books' author and a consulting producer on the show, keeps it vague. '[Wells] likes playing with the possibilities, but her world creation isn't so intensely detailed that we don't get to find our way through it ourselves,' says Chris Weitz, who adapted the series for TV along with his brother, Paul Weitz. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. For me, a Murderbot fan and brain science nerd, 'finding my way through it' involved talking to neuroscientists to understand how this seamless integration of brain and computer might work—because mixing brains and computer circuitry is not only science fiction. 'It's a very cool idea that we're moving toward in many ways,' says Alexander Huth, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at Austin (and fellow Murderbot fan). And as neuroscientists get better at linking up our minds with computers, they're revealing some of what is so unique, and confounding, about the human brain and how we consciously experience the world. The Electrical Brain On the surface, it seems like brains and computers should be compatible enough—both work using electricity. Scientists have been using electricity to interact with the brain since 1924, when the psychiatrist Hans Berger first used electrodes to measure brainwaves. Fifty years later the first brain-computer interfaces used electrical readouts to affect the outside world—by controlling a cursor on a computer screen or, in the case of one avant-garde composer, converting brainwaves into music. Today brain-computer interfaces are far more advanced. Electrodes implanted inside the brain (or in some cases, simply sitting outside the scalp) pick up subtle patterns of neuron activation in the parts of the brain that generate movement and speech to guide prosthetic limbs or allow people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to communicate, respectively. Some researchers are working on devices to bypass spinal cord injuries to send signals from the brain to paralyzed limbs. And, increasingly, researchers are feeding the brain sensory information with computers, too, by developing prosthetic limbs that send physical sensations of touch back to the brain. Retinal implants for vision, similar to cochlear implants for hearing, are being developed to send visual information directly to the brain for some people who have lost their sight as a result of a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. And some groups are developing brain prosthetics to restore vision by directly stimulating its visual processing centers. It's still pretty low-resolution, Huth says, but 'this is happening.' The Brain's Big Principle None of these advances will allow scientists to create a bot-human construct like Murderbot anytime soon. In fact, the deeper you get into this research, the more it becomes clear why: although both run on electricity, human brains and computers have entirely different strategies for processing information. Take a classic sci-fi trope that happens to be one of Murderbot's core abilities: seeing a digital display in its mind's eye. What would it take to beam an episode of TV into someone's head? 'We don't really know,' Huth says. The most obvious method involves sticking electrodes into the region at the back of the brain, called the primary visual cortex, which first processes visual information from the eyes. But there's a problem. 'You'd need millions and millions and millions of electrodes to be able to read in a high-resolution image into your brain. And that's not plausible, at least in the near term,' Huth says. Some researchers are getting around this problem by forgoing the high-resolution details entirely. They're experimenting with stimulating higher-level visual regions that process more abstract information, such as faces. 'You would have the experience that there's a face' even without seeing all the details, Huth explains. The problem, says neuroscientist Rodrigo Quian Quiroga, is that the brain is an abstraction machine. Unlike a computer, it isn't set up to care about the details. We forget the details of most of what we experience—in fact, we never commit them to memory at all. 'The human brain doesn't want to remember. It wants to understand, which is very different,' says Quiroga, who studies visual perception and memory at the University of Leicester in England. He explains that most of what we remember perceiving is a construction rebuilt from a few pillars of meaning that we determine are important. Vision, memory and consciousness are all built from sparse details. 'The big principle of brain function, for me, is that it's all a construction,' Quiroga says. Computers, on the other hand, encode every single bit of information. Unlike a human, who would likely remember only the gist of what they've experienced, 'a computer can play [ Blade Runner ] from beginning to end without any errors,' Quiroga says. Might a brain-computer interface one day exist that can augment your brain to play back the entirety of Blade Runner (or Murderbot's favorite soap opera, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon) in your mind's eye? Maybe. 'Imagine that this is possible. Do you want that—because one of the key features of how the brain works is that we forget a lot of things,' Quiroga says. This prevents us from getting lost in endless unimportant details. 'If it works like that, it's because of millions of years of evolution. So there might be a reason for it,' he warns. The Age of AI Though brains may never work like computers, computers are increasingly working more like brains. 'ChatGPT is much more brainlike than a laptop,' says Huth, who studies the human language system. Artificial intelligence large language models are 'a really good match to how our brains represent information and language—the best that we have,' he says. Scientists are also developing computer hardware that mimics neuronal circuitry. And some have tried hooking AI hardware up to brain organoids, or cultured clumps of neurons grown in a lab, to process information. It's no wonder, then, that Murderbot strikes a chord now. All the way back to Frankenstein, science fiction has reflected our deep cultural fears about the technology we're currently birthing. 'On a certain level [ Murderbot 's story is] topical because people are preoccupied with AI,' show co-creator Paul Weitz says. But Murderbot caught his attention because 'it felt like a great literary character more than anything else.' Chris Weitz adds: '[Murderbot] sort of flips the trope—we're so used to the idea of this artificial person who wants to be human and wants to experience human emotions. And [Wells's] character, which is brilliant, doesn't want to do that.' Murderbot isn't human. That much it makes very clear to everyone who projects that desire onto it. But it is nonetheless a person, and that reality can't be changed even by those who seek to control it. It's that 'irreducibility of personhood,' Paul Weitz says, that drives the story. 'That to me was the huge, beautiful lesson in it.'
Indian Express
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
What are The Murderbot Diaries? The award-winning books behind Apple TV+'s sci-fi hit Murderbot starring Alexander Skarsgård
Apple TV+ has just premiered an adaptation of the award-winning sci-fi book series titled Murderbot. And if you're confused by the scary or maybe off-putting title, let us tell you, the show will introduce you to this strange, reluctant hero who likes watching soap operas. Set in the far future, the title is just a cheeky nod to its laid-back personality — and honestly, it's not very good at being a killer. Played by Alexander Skarsgård, the robot gives the title to itself after declaring 'humans are idiots' and breaking free from the system that used to control its actions. But the one who hates and is always horrified by human emotion is vulnerable as well. The books that inspired the show come from Martha Wells. She wrote a series called The Murderbot Diaries, which has seven novellas, two novels, and a couple of short stories. Also read: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, in all its exhaustive and bloated messiness, stands as a tribute to the myth of Tom Cruise In the very first book of the series that came out in 2017, Murderbot says, 'As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure,' and that pretty well sums up the whole point of this lighthearted series that can also turn dark and self-reflective at times. Fed up with human emotions, Murderbot—who was designed to make humans' lives easier in the future—hacks its own control system. Martha Wells, who is no stranger to writing fantasy novels, having already worked on Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura as well as Stargate and Star Wars-linked books, published the first Murderbot book, All Systems Red, in 2017. The first part is a quick read, and the next three follow the same pace. Then, in 2020, the first full-length novel in the series, Network Effect, was released. But when it comes to the adaptation, the show is based on only the first part. Also Read | Tom Cruise says 'Bharosa karo, ek aakhri baar' as he gets nostalgic about Taj Mahal, Mumbai: 'Want to make Bollywood-style film' If you want to go through the books first, this is the order Here's how the books came out: The story revolves around a group of scientists who are on a quest to explore an alien planet, and to protect them, security robots are appointed by a ruthless corporation called The Company. But to add to its annoyance, the humans around Murderbot are all kind and treat it like one of them. Murderbot finds people exhausting, they're emotional, they want eye contact, and they keep trying to talk and touch it. But he is nothing like them, though he's still vulnerable to a few, but often ends up needing a break to recharge. Interestingly, because of how it acts and feels, many neurodivergent viewers really connect with the character. The robot calls itself 'Murderbot' as a joke, but it's actually pretty shy and awkward around humans. It pretends the whole time, knowing humans might panic if they find out it's free-thinking. And since it's someone who doesn't want to overthrow humans or fight aliens, and instead just wants to do their job while binge-watching soap operas and TV serials, the humour part instantly kicks in. Murderbot likes judging humans around, but as the story goes on, it understands the harsh realities of the corporate-run future, where humans and robots alike are just tools in a bigger game. 'I was built to protect and obey humans. And humans… are idiots. But now that I've hacked my programming, I can do whatever I want… as long as they don't find out,' Murderbot says in the trailer. Unlike many robot stories where machines try to conquer or destroy humans, Murderbot is more about learning what it means to be free and to connect with others, even if it's reluctant. It's funny and clever, and sometimes sarcastic, often taking a jab at human emotions. 'Why did you even want freedom in the first place if all you're going to do is shut yourself away from the world?' The series sticks closely to the first novella, but it also expands the story with new characters like Leebeebee (played by Anna Konkle). New episode of Murderbot are released every Friday.
India Today
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Murderbot review: Alexander Skarsgard elevates show with deadpan delivery
At a mining station far, far away in a hyper-capitalistic society, we are introduced to a cyborg security unit that has hacked its Governor Module and, for lack of a better description, gone rogue. It names itself Murderbot after rejecting alternatives like Freedom Unit or Rogue Bot, as SecUnit 238776431 simply 'doesn't have the right ring to it.'Thus begins Apple TV's sci-fi action comedy based on Martha Wells' Hugo Award-winning series, 'The Murderbot Diaries'. The first two episodes debuted on May 16, with the remaining instalments releasing every Friday from May 23 a replicant from 'Blade Runner' equipped with bone-dry wit and an evolving personality. That's Murderbot, portrayed by Alexander Skarsgard — a sentient being which, now that it's no longer governed by the Governor Module, would rather watch entertainment programmes in the Company's time than embark on a killing spree or flee to a remote Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics, the governor module — a built-in obedience device — concerns itself less with ethics and more with liability control, forcing SecUnits to follow orders and only kill when authorised by the Company. Murderbot's decision to hack this module early on, enabling it to skip tedious meetings and choose not to murder humans purely out of personal disinterest, creates the show's machine, part organic human material, Murderbot conceals its autonomous status rather than announcing its freedom, pretending to remain under control to avoid being dumped in an acid bath by Corporation Rim, its owner. 'Stupid f**king humans' becomes its constant inner refrain when it's assigned to protect 'a bunch of hippie scientists from some tiny non-aligned planet out in the middle of nowhere.'advertisementThis eclectic crew from the Preservation Alliance, led by Dr Ayda Mensah (Noma Dumezweni of 'The Little Mermaid' and Hugh Grant-starrer 'The Undoing'), includes geologist Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), Arada (Tattiawna Jones) and her wife Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Ratthi (Akshay Khanna) and the augmented human Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Most treat Murderbot with basic decency, some even attempt conversation as if it were one of them, unexpectedly changing everything for the stands apart, being the first to suspect something is 'wrong' with their security companion. Called Gura by teammates, he represents the suspicion Murderbot perpetually the trailer of Murderbot here: At its core, 'Murderbot' follows an android who detests humans, abhors small talk, and would prefer binge-watching favourite programmes to social interaction. It eavesdrops constantly, is slightly paranoid, and it believes its favourite soap opera scenarios would work in reality; Murderbot embodies social awkwardness in mechanical show's brilliance emerges from its impassive first-person perspective, giving viewers direct access to Murderbot's inner monologue. Constantly balancing fear of exposure against protective instincts toward the crew, Murderbot navigates tense situations with quiet works when instead of seeing a robot, the viewer sees someone who is awkward, reluctant, profoundly introverted and is merely trying to survive each performance is the backbone. He voices Murderbot with such dry precision that every moment of discomfort resonates. His stumbling through human social customs feels oddly relatable, while his internal commentary — equally cynical and honest — provides perfect comedic timing. Dumezweni delivers excellence as Dr Mensah, treating everyone, including Murderbot, as family. Dastmalchian's portrayal of the suspicious Gurathin also demands viewers' enjoyment may depend on their expectations. 'Murderbot' isn't a snazzy sci-fi series: it's muted, slightly off-centre and somewhat goofy. Despite being designed to kill, Murderbot simply wishes to be left alone, though circumstances never permit this luxury. Significant screen time goes to 'The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon' — essentially a soap opera version of 'Star Trek' featuring John Cho and Clark Gregg as apparent counterparts to Kirk and AI, aliens and androids, 'Murderbot' explores identity, loneliness, and existing between programmed purpose and potential evolution. This thoughtful dimension, wrapped in dan humour and genuine character development, makes it worth watching.3.5 out of 5 stars. The review is based on the first two episodes.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alexander Skarsgård wants to be left alone to watch TV, just like Murderbot
Can't a killer robot just watch some soap operas in peace? It's a theme Murderbot star Alexander Skarsgård tells Yahoo Entertainment he certainly relates to. Skarsgård plays the titular role in Apple TV+'s new sci-fi series, out on Friday, about a security unit ('SecUnit') gone rogue who must hide its free will from its clients. Although Murderbot is a killing machine horrified by human emotion, it's drawn to protecting a team of clients more confusing than its favorite soap opera, Sanctuary Moon. The comedic thriller is based on author Martha Wells's bestselling book series The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot is a genderless cyborg in the books, with no physical human-looking attributes of note. So, how on earth did Skarsgård fit the bill to play the titular character? The show's creators, brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, knew it would be an impossible task to cast someone who fit 'everybody's version of what they were thinking of.' They even considered a female lead. But when Skarsgård showed interest, they say, the casting choice was a no-brainer. 'Alexander's a deeply eccentric person. He's somebody who has this exterior that can be intimidating. He was in the Swedish special forces. He appears from characters he's played like he could really kill somebody,' Paul tells Yahoo. The Weitzes know fans of the books have 'headcanon,' which, in fandom terms, refers to how people envision what a character is going to look or feel like. They say fans won't be disappointed by Skarsgård. (Early reviews agree.) 'He has a really good sense of humor and he's an oddball. Those characteristics were characteristics which one felt would suit Murderbot,' Paul adds. 'We just wanted it to be an actor who was really specific.' Skarsgård is happy to show off his eccentric side in the series. 'It's such a weird, unique character that I definitely hadn't played before, and I was also excited about doing something slightly more comedic compared to The Northman or Infinity Pool, other, slightly darker projects that I've done recently,' he tells Yahoo. 'I was beyond excited when I came across this weird sci-fi action plot, but centered around a socially awkward android who loves soap operas.' Skarsgård says he personally relates to Murderbot's 'procrastination.' 'I thought that was quite interesting how it calls itself Murderbot and it's going to go on these epic adventures. And that's kind of what you expect to see when you're watching a sci-fi show — that it's actually heroic and confident and goes out there and kicks ass. But instead ... Murderbot procrastinates and gets stuck just watching its favorite show, Sanctuary Moon,' he laughs. 'I find it quite relatable that, you know, you've got these grand plans, but they can wait till tomorrow. You just got to watch a few more episodes of something.' Since sci-fi always touches on real-world themes and the closest thing we have to a SecUnit is ChatGPT, I signed up for the AI chatbot to enlist its help for a lightning round of Murderbot and Skarsgård-themed questions. The 48-year-old Swedish star was excited to see how it did. I'm going to fire them off. Are you ready? Yeah. Would you rather binge-watch a show or explore a new city? Explore a new city. Twenty-four-hour robot bodyguard or 24-hour robot personal chef? Personal chef. Be a brilliant villain or forgettable hero? Forgettable hero. Forgettable hero is really nice. I like that. Acting in a heavy costume or acting with heavy CGI? I'm quite lazy. I like practical stuff that's not CGI, but I'm also lazy. The thought of doing something in pajamas in front of a green screen? I'll go for that one. Skarsgård family game night. Is it board games or chaos? I would say chaotic board games. What would be a favorite recharge, sleeping in or an outdoor activity? Outdoor activity. Watch a bad movie with friends or a masterpiece alone? Bad movie with friends. Robots taking over or aliens invading? Aliens invading. Be famous in a tiny galaxy or totally anonymous on Earth? I'd like to be famous in a tiny galaxy. I like that idea. See, these weren't too bad. I mean, I took out the really weird and creepy ones, so my job still needs to be here, but... Give me one creepy [question]. OK, you asked. Would you rather keep taking your shirt off or only wear clothes in films? Keep taking my shirt off. The first two episodes of premiere globally May 16 on Apple TV+.
