I Am Ready For Murderbot

ALSO THIS WEEK: The White Lotus music feud continues and a real-life Anchorman moment

The Five Spot is a weekly Friday roundup where I rank and riff on my five favorite things from the week. Most of the entries will be about film and TV, but there might also be ones about weird local news or sandwiches I ate or anything else, really. The opening section is free but the rest is an exclusive for paid subscribers, so if you want to read the top four entries, you can do that by upgrading…

Off we go.

FIVE: Let him watch his stories

This is the trailer for Murderbot, an upcoming sci-fi/comedy Apple TV series based on a bunch of bestselling novels by Martha Wells. I knew nothing about Murderbot before I saw this video earlier in the week. Now, I love Murderbot very much. I clicked on many Murderbot-related links and downloaded the first audiobook in the series and I’m about halfway through it. Murderbot is a good boy.

The gist of the story goes something like this: Murderbot, played on-screen by Alexander Skarsgård, is a humanoid robot who is programmed for security and is rented out to scientists and explorers who are out gallivanting through the galaxy, but has also — and this is just a lovely twist — hacked his own programming to become self-aware and spends most of his time watching space soap operas.

But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s the official description via Apple.

Murderbot is a self-hacking security construct who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients. Played by Skarsgård, Murderbot must hide its free will and complete a dangerous assignment when all it really wants is to be left alone to watch futuristic soap operas and figure out its place in the universe.

This is already the most relatable character on television even though the show doesn’t start for another month.

Oh, about those futuristic soap operas. Murderbot’s favorite is called The Rise And Fall Of Sanctuary Moon. Guess if the trailer shows clips of this show within the show. Guess if we get to see Murderbot’s favorite binge-watch. Guess if one of the characters is played by Jack McBrayer.

The only complaint I have about any of this is that now I kind of wish the show starred Jack McBrayer as Murderbot instead of Alexander Skarsgård. I say that with no disrespect intended toward Alexander Skarsgård. I just really want to see Jack McBrayer play a bloodthirsty robot who is going through an existential crisis. Maybe someday. Until then, we shall remain cautiously optimistic about Murderbot.

FOUR: I hope the White Lotus music feud never ends