All Systems Red

Imagine if Wall-E and a Terminator had a child, and that child just wanted to watch TV in peace. That’s Murderbot.

All Systems Red is what happens when your main character is a security robot who’s hacked its own governor module—which means it’s technically free—but instead of going full Skynet, it decides the only thing it really wants is to be left alone to binge-watch soap operas.

Murderbot doesn’t want to save humanity. It just doesn’t want to get fired (or deleted). Its internal monologue is pure gold:
• 40% tactical threat analysis.
• 30% social anxiety.
• 30% “I wish I was watching my shows instead of dealing with humans.”

It’s like reading the diary of a burnt-out IT guy who also happens to be physically capable of breaking you in half. But would prefer not to, because that would mean paperwork.

And yes—about the movie adaptation: I loved it. They actually managed to capture the core mood, which is surprisingly rare.