Murderbot (2025) and UNTAMED (2025)

Each were entertaining, but not stunning.

Murderbot (2025)

Murderbot reminded me of a coworker who once described the Alien spinoff Prometheus like this: “The movie works if you believe that she hired the dumbest people in the universe on purpose.” He was referring to Charlize Theron’s character, who assembles a crew of the Prometheus which turn out to be massive idiots, and you think that maybe she did that intentionally to screw over her Dad. I thought about that a lot while watching Murderbot.

The premise: a powerful but outdated security robot with guns in its arms secretly hacks itself, disables the equivalent of the Three Laws of Robotics, and gains free will. What does it choose to do with that freedom? Watch TV. But when it’s leased out to the dumbest, hippie millennials in the universe—with orders to protect them—it begrudgingly starts to like them and actually does its duty.

The show is based on the first book in a series of four or so novellas, and Season 2 has already been greenlit. A quick glance at Wikipedia suggests that Season 1 follows the book closely enough. It was well acted, in the sense that I truly hated all the characters. Alexander Skarsgård stole the show with his sardonic android schtick; however, there wasn’t much to steal.

IMDB gives it a 7.4. I’d give it a high 6’s

Watch: Sure, if you want to mock idiots.

Re-watch: prob not.

Season 2: maybe.

UNTAMED (2025)

The trailer for the Netflix show UNTAMED sells it as a murder mystery in Yosemite with Eric Bana and Sam Neill. Was I hooked when I saw the trailer? Yes. Is the scenery gorgeous? Yes. Do Eric and Sam do a great job? Yes. Is this the most convoluted, complicated, disappointing, paint-by-numbers murder mystery I’ve seen in a long time? Yes.

The show starts off well enough. Murder in the first few minutes, introduce the cop with a past, give him a rookie sidekick he doesn’t want, and you’re off to the races. Honestly, if it had just stuck to that, it might have worked—simple, maybe too basic—but throw in gorgeous drone shots of the Yosemite wilderness and the audience won’t care. Just solve the mystery and throw in a good twist at the end. Don’t get me wrong, the show did throw in a twist, but twist was guessable, and the show threw in a half-dozen side quests and storylines, all wrapped up within six episodes. There were just too many subplots for only six episodes, and it made the story disjointed, and I felt pulled all over the place with unrelated material. And for all their horseback riding, Yosemite felt like it was only ten acres large.

Eric Bana does a good job, Sam Neill had a smaller role but delivers in the end, but it was Lily Santiago that I really enjoyed on screen. She did a fantastic job.

IMDB gives it a 7.3. I think that’s a point too high.

Watch: Sure.