Murderbot is the latest in successes for Apple TV+

USA Today

2 days ago

The brotherly writer/director/producer combination of Chris and Paul Weitz came into their most recent project, Apple TV+'s action comedy Murderbot, in the most straightforward way.
"Paul just found it in the bookstore," Chris Weitz said in an interview with For The Win.
"Yeah, I liked the cover of the book," Paul Weitz said with a laugh, referencing the The Murderbot Diaries series written by Martha Wells. "For me, if there are numerous books in a series, there's got to be something pretty great about at least the initial books. ... The character was so distinct and such a unique literary character with its kind of roots in other literary characters."
From there, Paul sent it to Chris, and the About A Boy directors were off and running. The first season of Murderbot -- which stars Alexander Skarsgård in the titular role -- comes to a close on Friday, July 11, but the series has already been picked up for a second season. In the show, Murderbot (Skarsgård) is a security droid that is secretly able to hack his own system and gain a consciousness. Despite only wanting to watch his reality shows, Murderbot is forced to provide security for a group of scientists and attempt to hide his humanity to stay alive.
Adapting the book into a 10-episode series was easier than expected for the Weitzes, thanks to the source material and the author.
"We knew there was nothing that we wanted to change or take out of the books," Paul Weitz explained. "For a 10-episode series, we had to add some stuff. But luckily, we had access to Martha Wells, so we could bounce ideas off her, and occasionally she would give us ideas for stuff that wasn't in the books."
Chris Weitz agreed, but knew there was pressure in taking on a project with source material: "There's a tremendous responsibility, both to the the author, whose whose world you are playing in, and to the fans who are deeply devoted to the books."
The first season has a 96 percent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, joining highly rated Apple TV+ programming like Slow Horses (98 percent), Black Bird (98 percent), Pachinko (97 percent), Severance (95 percent), The Studio (93 percent) and Ted Lasso (90 percent) with stellar reviews.
In a day and age where artificial intelligence is becoming more and more common, Chris Weitz liked the approach and questions about morality that a show like Murderbot can bring to the forefront.
"We're used to robots wanting to become more human and to experience human emotions," he said. "Murderbot has absolutely no interest in being human or in dealing with all of the mess of humankind. It takes an interesting angle on AI, which is that we don't necessarily need to see it in terms of whether it's angelic or demonic, but that it have its own sort of form of personality and personhood."
All episodes of Murderbot are now streaming on Apple TV+.