Binge-worthy Grumpy android forced to keep saving his human masters

Poor Murderbot. The titular cyborg guard has secretly hacked his obedience circuits and become a sentient being with free will.

- John Lui

But he does not long to escape slavery, nor does he want to become human. All he wants is to be left alone to watch soap operas.

His human masters are a group of scientists with the survival instincts of infants, who muddle around a planet filled with elephant-size centipedes and other dangers, forcing him to rescue them over and over.

That is the premise of American novelist Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries books (2017 to 2023), which the Apple TV+ streaming series Murderbot has maintained.

The Weitz brothers, Chris and Paul, are the show's creators. They bring the same laid-back drama-comedy energy seen in their 2002 movie adaptation of Nick Hornby's 1998 novel About A Boy.

Murderbot's first season, which premiered on May 16, is a faithful adaptation of All Systems Red, the 2017 novella that launched the book series.

Here are three reasons to binge the science-fiction action comedy.