Alexander Skarsgård’s full-frontal scene in AppleTV+’s Murderbot may be his most outrageous display of nudity ever. And that’s saying something, considering the actor is no stranger to dropping trou and baring it all for the world to see.
That said, you may not be getting what you bargained for…
This go-round, Skarsgård’s full-frontal, is well, genital-less. It’s just smooth. Let us explain.
It all goes down in the pilot episode.
In the sci-fi comedy series, Skarsgård plays Murderbot, an asexual security cyborg who overrides their governmental programming and secretly gains free will. To hide his abilities from others, the robot joins a new mission protecting a group of researchers from unforeseen alien dangers.
The only problem? Their newfound free will makes them want to spend their days binge-watching the TV show Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and make fun of humans.
This little hobby turns out to be an issue during the first episode, when Murderbot gets too absorbed in the TV series, causing them to miss a warning signal about impending danger. As a result, Dr. Bharadwaj (Tamara Podemski) gets hurt, and so too does Murderbot (there is a chunk missing from the side of their body).
On its own, this isn’t that big of a deal. What is a problem is the whole emotion that comes with free will. When he rescues the scientists from the alien threat, Murderbot accidentally exhibits some human-like behavior, making the scientists grow suspicious of the cyborg.
“How long would it be until they realize that there is something wrong with me?” Murderbot wonders during its internal monologue.
The thought of killing them all does cross the robot’s mind.
“But what would be the point?” the cyborg asks, realizing it would be more effort than it’s worth.
And so, Murderbot just hopes the scientists don’t notice any oddities in their behavior. Except, they do.
When the cyborg gets their organic parts reprinted by a machine in the basement of the spaceship, Dr. Mensah (Noma Dumezweni), one of the researchers, comes down to make sure Murderbot is okay after getting hurt.
And suddenly, she sees it. Her eyes flick downward, taking in Murderbot’s Ken-Doll-esque lack of genitalia. An expression of surprise crosses her face, as if to say, “That was not what I was expecting.”
It wasn’t what audiences were expecting either. Perhaps it’s because people have already seen Skarsgård nude many a time throughout his career, thanks to projects like True Blood and Infinity Pool.
Still, there was something almost silly about expecting to see something when the camera pans down, only to reveal, well, nothing. The robot does not have a sex organ.
In an interview with People, Skarsgård once explained that he has no issue with filming nude scenes. It’s not a big deal.
“I spent seven years on True Blood, and there was a lot of graphic nudity on that show,” the actor said.
Given Murderbot is asexual, it seems unlikely that a True Blood level of graphic scenes will happen in this show. At the very least, viewers will get to see Skarsgård enjoy some of the finer things in life outside of sex, namely watching soap operas.
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