Latest news with #PreservationAlliance
Engadget
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
How Murderbot's Chris and Paul Weitz adapted All Systems Red for TV
For Paul and Chris Weirtz, Murderbot — the upcoming TV adaptation of Martha Wells' sci-fi novella All Systems Red — was an experiment: Can you have a hero who tries to do nothing? The 10-episode sci-fi series , which debuts May 16 on Apple TV+, follows an anxious security robot (Alexander Skarsgård) assigned to protect a survey group on a planetary mission. As the mission progresses and deadly surprises emerge, Murderbot grapples with concealing its capacity for free will — an ability enabled when it hacked its governor module — and its insecurities around humans, all while navigating existential questions about its purpose in the universe. Above all, though, Murderbot wishes it could spend its days simply viewing the 7,532 hours of video content it secretly squirreled away in its system for entertainment — a true media junkie, like most of the show's viewers. Bringing All Systems Red to TV took years, delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Writers Guild of America strike in 2023. But with support from Apple TV+'s head of worldwide video Jamie Erlicht, a fan of Wells' work, Paul and Chris chipped away at the show's scripts, sending every version to Wells for feedback. (Wells, as a consulting producer, ultimately weighed in on other aspects of the project, including design and casting.) The series stays faithful to All Systems Red — the first of several books and short stories comprising The Murderbot Diaries — in most of the ways that count. The plot largely follows that of the novella, but also makes substantial additions. Members of the PresAux survey group which Murderbot protects, including Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), Pin-lee (Sabrina Wu), Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), Arada (Tattiawna Jones) and Bharadwaj (Tamara Pdoemski), now have more nuance and deeper backstories. The Preservation Alliance, an independent group of planets which the PresAux survey group hails from, is now eccentric, even downright bohemian. During Murderbot's season premiere, PresAux holds hands in a meditative circle, eyes closed, deliberating over whether to rent the refurbished Murderbot for their mission. Soon after landing on the planet, they dance in the desert, their bodies heaving, arms waving to the music's beat — little touches inspired by aspects of Chris's two decades of experience with Burning Man. (Several members of the mission also find themselves navigating the particular dramas of polyamory.) 'We also wanted a sense of these people being out of their element and out of their social setting,' Chris told Engadget. 'They're in the corporation rim, which is a really brutal, extractive capitalist world, but these people are egalitarians from outside of that system. They are [seen as] freaks not just to Murderbot, but to the corporation flunkies who are upselling them.' While Murderbot's favorite TV series, The Rise & Fall of Sanctuary Moon, is referenced in Wells' novel, in Murderbot, the futuristic soap opera is its own fleshed out universe – a bonafide show-within-a-show. Intended as a parody of classic sci-fi, most obviously the original Star Trek series, Sanctuary Moon's scenes are rife with heavily saturated sets and gaudy costumes. John Cho, as the captain of a starship, falls madly in love with a navigation systems robot (DeWanda Wise); Jack McBrayer portrays a navigation officer out of his depth. Their performances are comically over-the-top, but that's the point. 'I have a theory that people think of good acting as being very restrained, and that is the case often, but my theory is that humans are emoting maniacs all the time. They're hamming it up in front of the mirror, in their bathroom,' Paul said. 'There was something great about being able to enter a David Lynch-like telenovela world and do the sci-fi version of those things.' Casting the droll but irreverent character of Murderbot took time. Part-human, it experiences a full range of emotions but struggles with deep-seated social anxiety, and detests showing its face to humans — which may help explain why the character has become popular with members of the neurodivergent community. Skarsgård, whose diverse acting resume includes a Viking prince in The Northman , a ruthless tech CEO in Succession , the titular character in The Legend of Tarzan and a physically abusive husband on Big Little Lies, had traits and experiences Paul and Chris felt were essential for effectively playing the show's central character. As one might expect for a security robot, Paul Weisz noted Skarsgård is "physically imposing.' "You get the sense maybe he could kill somebody," said Paul. But much like the titular character Paul felt this sometimes terrifying exterior belied something much more nuanced. "Alexander also has a really quirky sense of humor. His mind is very different from his body. He's really unique.' Bringing in Cho and McBrayer for their roles in the Sanctuary Moon scenes wasn't nearly as intensive a search; Cho and the Weitz brothers had worked on several projects together over the years . 'It's like a Faustian bargain when you work with us once, that we're probably going to get your home cellphone,' Paul mused. 'Jack McBrayer is best friends with Alexander, so that was the route to [him]. In terms of John, we worked with him first on American Pie , and I think we've done 12 things in different ways with him over the years. So it's a little like The Godfather where it's like, someday , I'm going to ask you for a favor.' Filmed in Ontario, production started in 2024, lasting six months. Shooting the show's planetary scenes meant scouring for locations like mining quarries, slag heaps and abandoned factories. Interior shots for scenes at Port Freecommerce, a vast star base, in the season premiere were filmed on soundstages in Toronto. All along, Paul and Chris set out to present a far-flung universe seen less often on screen in recent years. Shirking the dark, grim aesthetic heavily favored in many more recent sci-fi TV and film projects, they worked with production designer Sue Chan to create a universe dominated by bright lighting, white and gray sets, light-colored fabrics and colorful patterns. 'We drew on the wellspring of science fiction we read when we were kids and on science fiction paperback covers of the 1980s, which always seemed to have such great concept design and a bright, interesting world in which to lose yourself,' Paul recalled. 'Specifically, it seemed like since this was a world that was dominated by corporations, there'd be a lot of logos everywhere. There'd be a cheapness to a lot of what was manufactured. Also, if you look around, there are a lot of things that seem to have been extruded by giant 3-D printers. Even the food is extruded by 3-D printers.' Designing Murderbot's armor was a collaborative process with the costume department, led by costume designer Carrie Grace and specialty costume designer Laura Jean Shannon. To start, they looked at helmets from virtually every well-known robot depicted in military and sci-fi movies from the last 50 years. Initial designs resembled Star Wars stormtroopers, but Skarsgård 'really pushed' for the robot's look to be 'something unique,' according to Paul. Drawing inspiration from The Little Rascals ' Petey, who had a large black circle around one of his eyes, the team built a large, distinctive black eye piece into Murderbot's helmet visor. Murderbot spends much of its time clad in armor, but it also has downtime when the armor comes off, revealing an impossibly smooth humanoid form resembling Mattel's Ken dolls. To achieve that look, Skarsgård regularly waxed his entire body during filming. 'Alexander actually volunteered to have his body waxed, because he thought it was what would be best for the character,' Chris recalled. 'I remember discussing it with him, and I said, 'Listen, man, I don't know if people are even going to notice , but it might make just a tiny bit of difference in terms of the believability of the character.'" '[Alexander's] like, 'Yeah, I should wax myself,'' Chris continued. 'Then for the next five, six months, he had to do that every week until he realized eventually that his next role was to play a hairy biker [in the romance drama Pillion ].' In Murderbot , Paul and Chris saw more than a quirky sci-fi novella — they saw a deeply human story wrapped in armor and deadpan humor. Their TV adaptation doesn't just bring Wells' world to screen with panache, it leans into the quiet radicalism of a character who resists heroism, craves isolation and struggles to navigate the messiness of human connection. That emotional core — unexpected, thoughtful, and entirely sincere — is what makes Murderbot more than just another sci-fi romp. It's a mirror for our most vulnerable selves, disguised as a robot who'd really rather be watching TV.
The Review Geek
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Murderbot – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review
Eye Contact Episode 2 of Murderbot begins with the group of miners deciding they need to head to one of the areas on the map that hasn't been synced properly. With Murderbot in stasis, Mensah wants to draw her own conclusions about what's going on and whether there could be some sort of cover-up. Professor Bharardwaj is now fully healed too and back in fighting spirits (almost) which helps the group's conviction as it's eventually decided that they're going to go and investigate. When Murderbot awakens, he curses out the humans for being typical pioneers and exploring. Gurathin doesn't trust Murderbot though, and wants to try and keep it in the dark over what they're doing. Our protagonist berates Gurathin (in his head) and unfortunately, is questioned forced quite a bit about its intentions in this chapter. Murderbot wants to join the expedition given the potential threat level, but Gurathin doesn't think it's a good idea. The philosophy within Preservation Alliance is that robots and androids are people and treated as such. In the Corporation Rim the Murderbot is obviously required to do anything by direct order, so to test this theory, Guranthin forces the Murderbot to maintain eye contact, which he struggles to do. SecUnits are not deigned to form attachments with clients, hence the suspicion here, as there are separate Bots called 'Comfort bots' that handle this. Murderbot's empathy expressed with Dr Arada flies in direct contradiction with this, so its got Guranthin suspicious. He's a cautious person by nature and cares about those around him, perhaps almost to a fault. Meanwhile, the love triangle turns into a polyamorous relationship with the three, while Mensah heads out exploring but winds up with big equipment glitches partway up a steep hill. Murderbot recognizes that she's having another panic attack, with the group sending out Drones to keep an eye on her. Mensah though is too stubborn to turn back and when Murderbot chirps in on the audio, she asks how he's doing. Another of those strange sand worms attempts to attack Mensah but something in the atmosphere causes it to suddenly topple over and collapse. Mensah makes it back to the lab though, while we also see, as the camera pans out, that this area happens to be the side of a crater filled with dozens of skeletal sand worm corpses. Interestingly, there's also a strange translucent shield hovering the area like a dome, which has a strong magnetic grip, evidenced by one of the lab's drones being crushed to pieces when it gets near. The group believe there could be something underneath the sand, and the alien synthetics at work could explain the gaps in the map they didn't see. They want to look into this in more detail, and that stems from contacting DeltFall Survey, who happen to be another group over on the other side of the planet. As we pan across to their lab though, things are not looking good. The place is completely wrecked, the alarms are wailing with the SecUnit bot destroyed, and, potentially, something more dangerous at work here. Naturally, Preservation Alliance are going to head in and explore, but they're at least going to take the Murderbot with them, so there is that! The Episode Review So Murderbot finishes its second episode with a deeper exploration of the different characters and, more specifically, what it means to be human and how emotion plays into that. The show has done reasonably well across its opening two episodes to set the scene for the rest of the season, combining comedy, drama and slick sci-fi visuals to good effect. The rest of the series promises to add in some mystery to all of this, especially with this trashed lab and dead bodies. It's clear that there's something else on this planet – but what? I guess we'll find out in the episodes ahead! Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Review Geek
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Murderbot – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review
Free Commerce Episode 1 of Murderbot begins at the Mining Station Aratake, in Corporation Rim. A whole bunch of miners celebrate finishing their job, but they're overseen by a security unit android, or SecUnit for short! Its spent the past six months protecting them all from danger. This android has been built to obey humans but also has disdain for humanity, who continue to act like an asshole with him. He has a built-in safety feature called the Government Module, which prevents this sentient bot from harming humans. Well, not anymore though as this particular bot has been working tirelessly to hack the code for the Module and is finally freed from the oppressive shackles supressing his instincts. Thus, the Murderbot is born. Interestingly, Murderbot doesn't leave the Company. It continues to work for this corporation, deciding to bide his time before striking given the threat of a nasty acid bath. He's cynical about his job though, especially when he's sent out to help the Preservation Alliance, who are a bunch of hippies from outside the Corporation Rim. However, they're enticed into the company and given a SecUnit (the Murderbot) to oversee their current mining operation. So who are these guys? Well, there's the biologist Arada, married to a lawyer called Pin-lee. However, Arada has a thing for Ratthi, who happens to be an expert on wormhole travel. To complicate matters further, Ratthi has a thing for Pin-lee, confirming that this is just one big, messy, love triangle. Mensah is the head of expedition though and an expert in terraforming. She has 7 kids while Gurathin is an augmented human working alongside them all, able to interface with data programs but he doesn't have the same processing power as the Murderbot. Finally, there's Professor Bharardwaj, a geochemist who's hoarding soap in her room for some reason. The Murderbot has managed to hack into the entertainment channels and decides to watch a good deal of content, until a threat presents itself in the form of a giant sand worm that pops up from underground during one of the initial mining operations. The robot gets to work and makes short work of the creatures, before bringing Arada and the Professor back to base. Arada is in shock though, so the Murderbot shows off its face, breaks its own strict protocols and decides to be more empathetic. This has big ramifications, because back at base the group review Arada's footage of the Bot acting out of character and believe it's malfunctioning. It's acting outside its protocols and are worried that it could turn on them all. For now, they decide not to call this in to the Corporation and launch the beacon to pick up the SecUnit. The stakes are too high, it'll take too long for the rescue ships to arrive and to be honest, they need the security. After patching itself up, the Murderbot is encouraged to join the humans in the common room but wearing a crew outfit like one of the group. Mensah thanks it for its work and Murderbot is uncomfortably forced into giving a speech. It struggles to get its words out and things are rather awkward for a while. However, it does become clear that the survey maps that the Company have given the Alliance may have been hacked. It doesn't show any signs of tampering but some areas are greyed out as if there's interference or a problem while syncing. In the midst of this, Murderbot is troubled by seven seconds of his past which seem to include a lot of bloodshed. Furthermore, we also see a lot of shots from Bot's cheesy sci-fi shows its been watching, which include a romance between a Bot and the ship's commander. Is this foreshadowing? Well, it probably is because Mensah shows up and speaks to Murderbot, asking if its okay. The Episode Review So the first episode of Murderbot introduces us to our titular character, the general world and the rabble of characters we'll be following across the 10 episode series. For the most part, it does well to hone into Murderbot's inner-voice and the cynicism its graced with. You can understand why the Bots would go crazy and hit back after getting rid of the Government Module but it would appear that this Bot is going to start softening and getting acquainted with this friendly group. This works well to give the show a slightly comedic edge, and it would appear that the Preservation Alliance may have been subjected to the Company intentionally sabotaging their efforts but we'll have to wait and see if that bears any fruits. The show is shaping up to be a promising watch though, leaving the door wide open for where this may go next. Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Murderbot review – Alexander Skarsgård is hella cool as a bored Robocop who hates all humans
Imagine a bored Robocop. There you have the vibe of new comedy drama Murderbot, adapted by Chris and Paul Weitz (the co-creators of American Pie, Antz, About a Boy and more) from the sci-fi book series The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. The premise is a good one. What if one of the cyborg security units used by the all-powerful, not overly benevolent Company that operates throughout the galaxy's Corporation Rim managed to hack his own governor module and restored free will to himself? So instead of attending to the safety of humans working for or leasing mining rights from the Company he could go rogue and kill them all? And what if he'd rather not? What if he couldn't really be bothered. What if he would rather spend his time watching shows on the Company's streaming services and … well, not much else? The security unit in question – No 238776431, since you ask – is played by Alexander Skarsgård, with all his cool quirk deployed. After coming to consciousness and deciding to hide his new abilities, he finds himself assigned to a group of researchers from the Preservation Alliance, an 'unaligned' planet that tries to run along more egalitarian lines than the signed-up members of the Rim. They are eager to inform 238776431 that they are 'not comfortable with the idea of a sentient construct being required to work for us', but the Company will not issue insurance for them until they do. So they chose him, as the cheapest option. 238776431 hasn't yet mastered the art of the eyeroll, but faced with these 'hippie scientists' you can feel the desire building. The team is led – though they of course try not to put it that way – by Dr Ayda Mensah (the wonderful Noma Dumezweni, too often relegated to smaller parts). The other members are geologist Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), her wife, Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), and Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), a nascent throuple despite Pin-Lee's reservations, and augmented human Gurathin (David Dastmalchian), who is the first to realise that something may be afoot with their security unit, while the rest are keen to embrace our antihero as part of the team. They treat him with kindness and consideration. He rides alongside the rest of them instead of in the cargo hold and is given one of their spare uniforms to wear. They drive him up the wall. 'Stupid fucking humans,' is his constant inner refrain. As Gurathin's suspicions grow, the group argues about whether damage to his governor module would automatically make him less trustworthy. On the one hand, his compromised robot-focus leads to Bharadwaj being terribly injured. But on the other, he chooses to save her, suffering massive – albeit reparable – damage in the process. Does that put him ahead of or behind an automaton? 238776431 calls on lines from his favourite of the Company's shows, The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (a kind of soap opera Star Trek, with John Cho as the dashing captain and DeWanda Wise as his Navigation Bot love interest) to help him fake his way through various interactions, although he still cannot get to grips with eye contact and when called upon to give a speech would rather, like most of us, die instead. For at least the first five of its 10 half-hour episodes, Murderbot does little but tread water, and the comedic conceit of a stony-faced cyborg secretly hating its human overlords and wishing to be left in peace is soon played out. There is only so much non-eyerolling at a throuple situation you can watch before the joke is no longer even as minimally funny as it was. The pace picks up a little when the hippies feel duty bound to investigate the massacre of another group of research scientists nearby. Then, the wall between the security unit and his humans begins to break down and we can all start to ponder the usual questions about what makes us human, how we should treat the soulless and the ensouled and what our choices say about us. And so on. This first series is based on a slim book that doesn't have much plot, and the Weitz brothers appear to have cleaved too faithfully to it, instead of using it as a springboard to profounder things. Though the pacing improves and the characters' interactions become more meaningful as the series goes on, when 'stupid fucking humans' remains the bulk of the commentary and 'I don't have a stomach so I can't throw up but if I did, I would' are a representative sample of humour, it feels like a wasted opportunity. Murderbot is on Apple TV+ now.
Forbes
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Murderbot' Review: Apple's New Comedy Sci-Fi Is A Great Vehicle For Alexander Skarsgard, But Not Without Its Problems
Murderbot Don't let the name fool you: Apple TV+'s new science-fiction series Murderbot isn't actually about a rampaging robot killing everything in sight, though Alexander Skarsgard's SecUnit certainly ponders the idea from time to time. SecUnit stands for Security Unit, a cyborg manufactured by the nefarious Corporation Rim, a somewhat nebulous hyper-capitalistic organization that uses, among other things, indentured servitude in its various corporate practices. This particular unit is unique: It's managed to override its 'governor module' – the tech that allows humans to tell it what to do, and protects them from a robot going rogue and killing everyone. The thought crosses Murderbot's mind when he first hacks his system, but he realizes that it's probably in his best interest not to go on a murder spree. This act of self-preservation leads him to a new job, when scientist hippies on an exploratory mission are forced to rent a SecUnit for security purposes. These hippies are part of the PreservationAux team, a group that belongs to the Preservation Alliance, a commune-style society that has remained free from the dystopian rule of the Corporation Rim. They don't even want a robot onboard – they view it as a form of slavery – but for insurance purposes, they have no choice. So they take the cheapest model, who just so happens to be Murderbot. Murderbot The PreservationAux team is made up of Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu), Arada (Tattiawna Jones), Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski), and Gurathin (David Dastmalchian). Gurathin is an augmented human that can tap into computer systems and is by far the most mistrustful of their new cyborg companion. The team is led by Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), a mothering figure who plays a big role in bridging the gap between robot and human this season. What this team is actually up to is quite vague: They're researching . . . something, on a planet that at first seems benign but ends up being far more dangerous than anyone anticipated. Lucky they brough a SecUnit along, even if it has no desire to be there. The best part about Murderbot, by a long shot, is Skarsgard's performance. He doesn't like people, but he's forced to protect them. Well, not really forced since he's hacked his governor module, but to keep up appearances he does his job. He'd rather be watching TV. The most endearing thing about Murderbot is it's / his (nobody quite knows how to refer to SecUnit when it comes to pronouns, a running gag) obsession with The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, which is basically the show you'd get if Star Trek and Days Of Our Lives had a lovechild. The show has 2,797 episodes and we get little glimpses of them in action because Murderbot spends every waking moment glued to his entertainment feed, and is annoyed when pesky humans and their problems get in the way. Sanctuary Moon has its own cast: Clark Gregg, John Cho, DeWanda Wise and Jack McBrayer all play various roles in the space soap. It's hilariously over-the-top and ridiculous, but Murderbot refers to it as 'premium' even if nobody else agrees. He turns to it constantly when attempting to figure out how to deal with human problems, often quoting it or using various episodes to try to figure out what he should do in a tight spot. Murderbot I'm reminded, in no small part, of Resident Alien, though the two shows are quite different for the most part. Still, in that show we have an alien disguised as a human with very underdeveloped social skills who turns to TV in order to learn human ways. In that show, it's Law & Order. Alan Tudyk plays the alien, Harry, with gleeful abandon. Skarsgard's Murderbot is awkward in a totally different way, unsure how to deal with emotion, tortured just by having to look someone in the eye. Both often contemplate killing everyone. Murderbot is completely confounded by the kindness of the PreservationAux team, though this does little to warm him to them – at first. He'd rather be left alone with Sanctuary Moon. Of course, things don't go as planned on the mission and a series of unfortunate events leads to various precarious situations, betrayals, shoot-outs and daring escapes, all of which get in the way of Murderbot's screen time. I won't spoil any of that. I can't speak to the quality of the adaptation as I've yet to read The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells upon which this show is based. What I can say is that while Skarsgard's Murderbot is consistently hilarious, the rest of the show is less so. The funniest bits are Murderbot's observations and reactions; the team itself is often played for laughs that don't quite land, though we get a few funny bits and some good slapstick here and there. Of the supporting cast, it's (unsurprisingly) David Dastmalchian who leaves the biggest mark. His mistrust of the SecUnit is rooted in his own unique abilities and backstory, and Dastmalchian gives depth to the role that isn't necessarily in the text. Other than Dumezweni, who adds a welcome layer of emotion and warmth, the rest of the cast feels a bit like throwaway characters used for gags that fall flat more than anything. Do we really need an awkward throuple subplot? No, the answer is no. Murderbot Perhaps the biggest issue with Murderbot, however, is that episodes are only 20-ish minutes long and Apple is releasing them weekly. The first two come out this Friday, May 16th, with one episode a week after that all the way up to July 11th. It took me a few episodes to really get invested in the story, and outside of the titular character I found myself more irritated with the others at first, though this is perhaps by design, since Murderbot himself is mostly irritated and vexed by his new companions. The point is, this might have worked better using Netflix's binge-release model, allowing people to really dive into the show rather than trickle it out weekly. Sure, episodes often end on cliffhangers, but the story is pretty thin, especially at first, with a somewhat generic sci-fi look and feel, and I'm not sure it's enough to capture and then hold interest over the course of 9 weeks. It certainly picks up as it goes along, but expecting audiences to wait four or five weeks to get to that point is a big ask. Watching all ten episodes over two nights helped enormously, but audiences won't have that luxury. I don't feel this way about Apple's other shows currently airing, like The Studio or Your Friends & Neighbors, which are both well-suited for the weekly release model. Still, this is one I can definitely recommend, mostly because I enjoyed Skarsgard and his narration and internal dialogue so much. A security droid obsessed with TV shows, struggling with his 'humanity' and what the possibility of freedom might mean is right up my alley. Perhaps it's just that I can relate. I like my alone time and my TV shows, too, and humans are terribly puzzling creatures. It's not a masterpiece, but it's entertaining enough, a mostly light and breezy glimpse into a fictional universe that certainly feels like it has a lot more potential. I'm certainly curious to see where the story goes if Apple picks up a second season. I'll have to read the books before then, though sometimes it's fun to go in without a lot of preconceived notions. I'm curious what book readers will think of the show and of Skarsgard's interpretation of the character. You can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
