Murderbot Is Perfectly Fine

You expect a show called Murderbot to elicit big reactions, and in some cases it has: an NPR critic, for example, called the new Apple TV+ series "the best new comedy of 2025."

In the latest episode of the Low Key podcast, we don't go that far. But we like Murderbot well enough. You can listen to our thoughts wherever you get your podcasts, or here:

One of the strengths of the series, starring Alexander Skarsgård as a security droid that gains sentience, is that it's a dark comedy that looks, on the surface, like a sci-fi action series. (Apple categorizes it as "sci-fi." hence NPR's cute headline calling it a comedy.)

And yes, there are sneaky laughs to be had, the darker things get.

The coolest and most original part of Murderbot — besides the great title — is that Murderbot, like us, just wants to enjoy watching its little stories. We're very much enjoying the show-within-a-show The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, and especially love when, in Episode 2, Murderbot uses the lessons he learns from the soapy space series to perform his job better in real life.

But if we have a preliminary complaint about Murderbot, it would be that it doesn't swing too far, in the first two episodes, into either comedy or sci-fi. The show's feelings about AI feel kind of old-hat, in a world where AI is already so prominent that many of us feel like our jobs are under threat from it. And perhaps someday our lives will be, too.

The Murderbot Dilemma

Murderbot reminds us a little of Mike Judge's 2006 Idiocracy, in that it's satirical power is diminished if your world view is so jaded that it doesn't feel that satirical.

Some of the show's observations were a bit more incisive back in 2017, when author Martha Wells published the first of her stories in The Murderbot Diaries series, of which there are seven books and counting. The takes were also a little fresher in 2023, when it was first announced that Skarsgård was developing the series with Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz.

Like all stories with elements of satire, Murderbot can be quickly overtaken by the absurdity of a reality that makes its most outrageous ideas feel, in retrospect, quaint. The AI girlfriend of Spike Jonze's lovely 2013 film Her, for example, is now very much a fact of life.

So as much as we enjoy Murderbot, nothing we've seen so far really expands our minds.

Are we shocked that a corporation forces a band of idealists to hire a potentially violent robot as protection? Not in a world where home-sharing apps insist on cleaning and service fees that can climb higher than the cost of the rental.

Are we shocked that a robot hired to make our life better could actually make it worse? We've been on the internet too long to say no.

But still: The cast is good, the writers keep things moving, the landscapes look cool. It isn't Murderbot's that every day brings news of some AI advancement that sounds more terrifying than a SecUnit gone rogue.

And Apple TV+, as we mention on the podcast, is on a tear. Starting with the intense attention around Succession Season 2 this year, the streaming service has really found its footing with The Studio (which is, with respect to NPR, the actual best new comedy of 2025), and Your Friends and Neighbors, a desperately addictive drama about family and status.

Also Read: Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos Makes Screen Acting Debut — on an Apple TV+ Show

We also talk on the pod about an important email we received from a publicist informing us that Murderbot is an "it," not a "he," which the show's shots of its Ken Doll lower body should make very clear.

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Main image: "Murderbot" in Murderbot. Apple TV+.