Murderbot (2025) is a sci-fi action-comedy series on Apple TV+. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, the show introduces about five bi characters in its first season. Most of the time, they’re seen in their plain mission uniforms as they explore — and try to escape — a hostile planet.
The series is based on The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, a bestselling book series that has earned her four Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards. Season one mainly adapts the first novel, All Systems Red (2017).
The show follows the titular character (Alexander Skarsgård), a security cyborg who is brought along on a mission and who hacks its own programming to disable the government’s controls and gain its own free will. Members of a science team from the planet, the Preservation Alliance, rent Murderbot to oversee their project as they explore and research a supposedly abandoned planet. But as it becomes clear there is something afoot on the planet beyond their scientific directives, Murderbot struggles to keep its newly-won freedom under wraps.
Murderbot is extraordinary in its level of representation for bisexuality in a modern series. One of the main secondary plots revolves around the formation of a bi triad — wormhole expert Ratthi (Akshay Khanna), biologist Arada (Tattiawna Jones), and scientist/legal counsel Pin-Lee (Sabrina Wu — both character and actor are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns). At the Preservation Alliance, bisexuality and polyamory are so destigmatized and accepted that there are legal contracts the triad signs off on when they form their relationship to confirm terms and nuances of their dynamics. Though initially Pin-Lee and Arada opened up their marriage due to Arada’s sexual attraction to Ratthi, Pin-Lee also finds him agreeable. The relationship becomes more complicated when Ratthi develops deeper feelings and admiration for Pin-Lee, throwing off the balance of the relationship. The three as a group decide to amicably dissolve the relationship due to the imbalance.
But this is not the sole display of bisexuality in the first season. It turns out, mission leader and terraforming expert Mensah (Noma Dumezweni) mentions to Murderbot that there are different stakes for her than maybe others on the mission — that she has children and that at least two of her partners tried to dissuade her from taking on the project.
Even a minor character, Leebeebee (Anna Konkle), acknowledges and acts on her attraction to Murderbot, presuming it is a him, as well as another female member of the crew. This illustrates that bi attractions are known and not questioned in this universe and beyond the Preservation Alliance.
Additionally, all the characters are fleshed out well beyond their sexuality, with attention given to their growth, fears, and hopes. Even Leebeebee, who ultimately becomes a minor villain, is quirky and funny. She also adds an interesting — if reprehensible —worldbuilding perspective on how service cyborgs and indentured servitude are viewed and regulated on other planets around the Corporation Rim.
Wu weighed in on how queerness and polyamory are a great part of the material. From an interview with Autostraddle, Wu commented:
“Rendy: Your character Pin-Lee, they find themselves in a nice little polycule with their wife Arada and Ratthi, and it’s depicted in a positive light. How was it to portray something that is divisive in our culture, but in this futuristic lens is so positive?
Sabrina: As somebody who has been poly, I was like, “Damn, people hate us. I actually can’t do this anymore. I just feel too alone trying to do this thing.” But I did. That was one thing I did appreciate about the show is just that there are contracts or these agreements, and also it’s not like everybody is equally on board. It felt like all the jokes that were about polycules were from the perspective of someone who really does know poly people or knows that world. For me, I was just like, “I cannot believe art is reflecting my life right now.” I don’t want to be in this polycule, which is great because I don’t think my character super wanted to be in that polycule either.
But yeah, it was nice to see a polycule story where I felt like we were still very much people. I think sometimes in comedies it’ll be like, you meet a throuple and you’re not really meeting the individuals in the throuple. They’re just one big joke. “That’s the throuple, LOL.” So I think that was cool. And I love my queer community and I love the poly community and the sort of way, I don’t know, I’m like, Hey, good luck to y’all. Sorry. I tried. I earnestly have tried.”
Murderbot has been renewed for a second season.
Bisexuality in Murderbot is treated as completely matter-of-fact — something that shouldn’t feel groundbreaking, but still does. Instead of the usual struggle to get even one bi character, the first season gives us five, most of them played by people of color. Their bisexuality isn’t their defining trait, and there’s not a trace of the tired #KillYourGays trope. In this universe, queerness is simply normal — even legal. The result is a stellar example of bi representation in modern television. If you want to know more about this show, check out our Unicorn Scale review, here.