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The third new series for me to watch was also on Apple TV +. It is a sci-fi/action/comedy based on a book series called Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, specifically the first book of that series called All Systems Red.

After the first two episodes, I love this series.

What a great concept. Alexander Skarsgård played our title character, Murderbot. It was a construct designed from cloned human tissue and mechanical parts, and it was controlled by humans. However, this robot was able to gain his own thoughts and went “rogue.” It gave itself the name Murderbot.

Murderbot was purchased by a crew from the Preservation Alliance as a Sec Bot for their science mission to another planet. The company insisted that the crew had a Sec Bot, despite the crew not feeling the need for one. Team leader,  Ayda Mensah, was very much nervous around any kind of “killing machine” as she put it.

The story is told through the POV of the Sec Bot as an internal monologue tells us what he thinks about the humans… which was never anything positive. His snarky inner voice was one of the funnier parts of the show.

I am a fan of David Dastmalchian, who is a member of the crew, and the one most suspicious about the behavior being displayed by the Sec Bot (aka Murderbot).

Murderbot has a favorite TV show too, which is a sci-fi (Star Trek type) show that we get glimpses of called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. This was an absolute blast as we see John Cho playing one of the characters on the show within a show. Clark Gregg was also there as was Jack McBrayer and DeWanda Wise. This felt very much like GalaxyQuest with this TV show that Murderbot enjoyed watching.

There is a neat mystery involving the planet that they are on as well and I am finding this to be a fantastic start to the series.

As I did not read the book series this was based upon, I am very engaged with the show and I am not sure what way it will go. I feel very nervous with the uncertainty of the Murderbot’s inner thoughts. “Stupid humans.”