The Murderbot Diaries is a wildly popular book series by Martha Wells.Apple has now adapted the series for television, with Murderbot premiering today with the first two episodes on Apple TV+.New episodes roll out weekly.
The sci-fi comedy features Alexander Skarsgard as an awkward human-reclusive SecUnit robot.It is sent on assignments by a group of research scientists, protecting them from space worms and other dangers, while all it really wants to do it is relax in a corner and watch soap operas on its helmet TV.Obviously, Apple is hoping to draw in fans of the novels as well as bring new audiences to the franchise.
Author Martha Wells has said she loves the way in which her story has been brought to the screen, and critics have also reacted warmly.Murderbot currently has a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.Alongside Skarsgard, core cast includes Noma Dumezweni and Tamara Podemski.
One of the soap operas Murderbot prefers to watch to entertain himself is called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.The show-within-a-show is actually featured in this adaptation as well, so viewers get to see what the Murderbot SecUnit would rather be doing with his time.This also allows for some fun cameos from the likes of Jack McBrayer, Clark Gregg, Jon Cho, and DeWanda Wise.
Each episode of Murderbot is about half an hour, and it treads more in the domain of light drama comedy than serious hard sci-fi, so it represents a new spin on the sci-fi genre for Apple TV+.You can check it now, with the first two episodes available to stream through the Apple TV app.After this week, a new episode is dropping each Friday, with the season one finale airing on July 11.
Murderbot is exclusively available with an Apple TV+ subscription.You can watch using the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, smart TVs, games consoles and more.You can also watch on the web at tv.apple.com.
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