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Murderbot

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Murderbot (2025): Depressed Robot Just Wants To Watch TV - Season 1 - RECAP@skiptvads163d

Murderbot Season 1 is one I had two episodes pending and last night binge both so I wanted to share how much I like it although at first like the first two episodes you dont know exactly what to expect, specially when you havent read the books, because most of the main character and humor side comes from inner monologue, all those sarcastic thoughts running through Murderbots head while dealing with humans and their bullshit, but honestly they pulled it off way better than I expected, even though it has some issues here and there that bug me, I mean no series is 110% perfect but this one I really enjoy. Alexander Skarsgard plays the this robot that is suppose to keep safe humans during a research expedition and he does a solid job bringing that dead man flat energy to life, you can see how much Murderbot just wants everyone to leave him alone, so he can binge tv shows in peace, which I personally so damn relatable sometimes that I understand the bot, like I get it sometimes you just want people to shut up and let you watch your series without all the small talk and leave you alone for 1 hour. The season starts hard with disaster after disaster where each situation gets wrapped up without destroying everything, there is conflict sure but you know the main crew is going to make it through and honestly that works for this kind of thing, because you are not here for some dark twisted ending where everyone dies, you are here to hang out with a robot who hacked their own programming just to watch soap operas and avoid conversations, which is the most human thing ever when you think about it realy. What I really dig about this adaptation is how they handle the bots personal angle almost like he is human and at the same time faking he is a bot although I never felt like they were going over the top with but it was very sarcastic most of the time. Murderbot just want to be treated LIKE a person although doesnt mean he wants to feel like a human, he just want to have some damn autonomy, which feels way more interesting than the usual AI wants to be human crap we see everywhere else, the friendship between Murderbot and the humans around grows naturally too and it is not forced by programming or some code bullshit, these people actually earn Murderbots trust over time and you can feel that weight as the season goes on, especially with Mensah who becomes Murderbots favorite human, lol favorite human like he was a dog or something but yeah he doesnt want to be human so its expected.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
Platform: AppleTV+

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source The thing builds up with Murderbot basically working as a bodyguard at this mining facility, where its been slowly hacking its governor module for months, this module is basically what keeps robots like him from harming humans and forces them to obey orders no matter what, so getting rid of it is a huge deal but also super dangerous for everyone around the bot, although very very dangerous for him as he will have to cover up for his strange human like reactions and behavior that he usually slip with. Once Murderbot finally breaks free from that control, it doesnt go on some rampage or try to escape the planet, it just keeps doing its job because running away would get it caught and melted down for parts, which makes total sense when you think about the corporate world this show builds up, everything is about money and contracts, and nobody gives a shit about the bots themselves unless they malfunction or kill someone. Murderbot gets asigned to the Preservation Alliance team, this group of researchers who are basically hippies from outside the Corporation Rim and they treat bots like actual people instead of property, which freaks Murderbot out at first, because its not used to that kind of respect from humans at all, well except for one of them called Gurathin, so its just obvious that the rest of humans just see bots as walking weapons that ocasionally need charging and updating. The team includes Mensah whos the leader and a terraforming expert, Arada the biologist, Pin Lee the lawyer, Ratthi whos into wormhole travel theory, Gurathin the augmented human who can interface with data streams directly, and Professor Bharadwaj the geochemist, at the start of the season Arada and Pin Lee are married and then Ratthi joins their relationship later when he signs a contract to become part of their trio, which Murderbot finds disturbing as hell but also uses it to mess with Gurathin later, when he tries to hack into Murderbots mind during a tense moment between them since he has this enhancements that are basically robot parts added to him. Things get intense real quick when this giant centipede creature attacks during one of the mining operations and Murderbot has to save Arada and Bharadwaj from getting eaten by this thing, the special effects on these creatures are actualy pretty dam good for a TV show and they dont look cheap at all so that was cool, no green screen like crap CGI. After the attack Murderbot does something weird, it takes off its face shield and shows Arada its face to calm her down, then it tries to do small talk using techniques it learned from watching Sanctuary Moon, which is this cheesy soap opera about a ship crew and a romance between a captain and a navigation bot, this moment is huge because it makes Gurathin suspicious as hell and he thinks Murderbot is malfunctioning, because bot units are not supposed to act like that at all or show emotions to humans. Its that moment that start to get things complicated for Murderbot and its when things get interesting although its because of all those inner conversations that Im sure most of use are not use to that at first the show feels weird but they make it work.

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Source The whole Sanctuary Moon thing is honestly one of the best parts of the show, Murderbot has downloaded thousands of hours of this space opera because yeah he pirates this shows too and uses it as a coping mechanism, whenever things get stressful or humans start talking to it too much, its so stupidly relatable that I found myself loving these moments, even when they felt a bit repetitive after a while, the show uses clips from Sanctuary Moon to show whats going on in Murderbots head, when its processing trauma or trying to figure out how to deal with human emotions, without actually having to talk about feelings with anyone on the team so you can image how hard and strange must be to keep your mouth shut specially when you are starting to learn and like the human emotions, its all so contradictory. The season really starts to heat up when they try to contact the Delta research team on the other side of the planet and get no response at all, so Mensah decides they need to go check it out, even though Murderbot thinks its a terrible idea and warns them multiple times that its dangerous to just fly over there, without knowing what happened to the entire team first. When they finaly get to the Delta habitat, they find everyone dead, with all the humans slaughtered, and the bot units destroyed in different ways too, turns out someone hacked them and made them kill their own teams, which is exactly what Murderbot was afraid of happening to itself this whole time, those flashbacks it keeps having of the Ganaka Pit massacre where malware caused all the SecUnits to go rogue and kill 57 people including ComfortUnits who tried to stop it start making more sense now and you realize Murderbot might have been used as a weapon before it hacked itself free from company control years ago. A rogue SEC unit ambushes Murderbot and beats the absolute shit out of it in this brutal fight, dumps it on a work table and installs a combat override module, that would force Murderbot to kill the Preservation team and make it look like it went rogue on its own, without any outside interference from GrayCris or anyone else, but Murderbot fights back just long enough for Mensah to save it and they escape together barely alive, and covered in synthetic blood and oil leaking everywhere. Surprisingly Murderbot realizes the override is already taking effect and in a few seconds it will lose control completely and murder everyone on the team without even knowing what its doing, so it tells Mensah to kill it right there, but she refuses because she actually cares about this damn robot, so Murderbot grabs her gun and shoots itself in the stomach to protect the humans, this temporary at least would shut him down, stop the attack override from taking over and let the humans diagnose him, which is one of the most emotional moments of the entire season and Alexander Skarsgard plays it perfectly, without going over the top with the drama or making it feel fake and forced.

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Source After Murderbot shoots itself, the team has to remove the combat override module before it fully takes control of its systems, Bharadwaj does the surgery while Gurathin digs through Murderbots code and discovers that it hacked its governor module months ago, which means its been free this whole time and could have killed them whenever it wanted to without any consequences. The Delta survivor Leebeebee turns out to be a spy working for GrayCris, the company that orchestrated the whole massacre on the other team, she pulls a gun on everyone and admits she blew up the emergency beacon that would have called for help from Preservation, and then gets killed which shows how dangerous the situation really was all along, the whole thing proving that yeah Murderbot can be a killer when it needs to be, but only to protect the people it cares about now and not because programming tells it to, but because it chose to and thats the whole difference between being property and being a person with proper character. The final episodes deal with the team trying to escape the planet, while GrayCris sends more SEC units to hunt them down and eliminate any witnesses to what happened at Delta, Murderbot comes up with a plan straight out of Sanctuary Moon, where it pretends to betray the team to get close to the enemy, then launches the emergency beacon from the GrayCris camp itself, and blows everything up in a massive explosion that takes out most of their forces, Mensah flies in to save Murderbot at the last second and they barely survive the blast together.

The series at some point look like it was going to end in a very frustrating way because after they get rescued and make it back to Corporation Rim territory, the company wipes Murderbots memory completely and installs a new governor module, turning it back into a mindless slave that follows orders without question or thought, but the Preservation team fights back hard and threatens the company with a massive lawsuit, until they agree to return Murderbot to them which shows how much they care. Gurathin does this insane hack where he transfers all of Murderbots memories back into its system, including every single episode of Sanctuary Moon that it had downloaded over the years for comfort, this detail was hilarious, so when Murderbot wakes up and recognizes the team again, its one of those moments that makes you feel joy and happy for all them even for Gurathin who was a dick most of the time. They just look at each other and you can tell everything has changed between them and they are actual friends now. Mensah offers Murderbot a home with them on Preservation but makes it very clear that its a choice not an order, she wants Murderbot to be free to decide its own future, which is all its ever wanted from the very beginning and in the final scene Murderbot leaves anyway, because it needs to figure out its past and deal with those memories of the Ganaka Pit massacre years ago, you can see it hurts Mensah to watch it go but she gets it. Overall this first season is way better than I thought it would be, it a type of series that Im not use to considering most of it is from Murderbot perspective and his internal problems, its like watching Inside Out but playing inside an androids mind. The main character feels real from the start even though its a robot considering how annoyed he gets from other people bullshit and see through them, stuck between worlds and identities, and the production quality is solid, even if some of the costumes looked a bit cheap, especially the SEC unit outfit which looked more like crappy jumpsuits than actual body protection that could stop bullets or alien claws from ripping through. Alexander Skarsgard carries the show and brings so much depth to Murderbot, without making it too human or too robotic, he gets that balance just right most of the time, my only real complaint is they show his face way too early, I would have preffer a bit more mistery but I guess that was to enforce how much he wanted to feel whats been human even though the whole point is that Murderbot hides behind the face shield to avoid human interaction and eye contact with everyone around them which is a huge part of the character, that was one of the first things Gurathin actually pick up, eye contact. The pacing drags in a few episodes especialy in the middle where they spend too much time on the drama stuff between Arada, Pin Lee and Ratthi having relationship problems, I did not really care about their feelings, when there iss a conspiracy happening and people are getting murdered by rogue SEC units all over the planet and nobody knows who is behind it all. 7.5 out of 10 for me sounds fair and solid, if you like sci fi that focuses on characters over non stop action or speed light traveling, and you enjoy that dark humor with a twist of emotions, then I think Murderbot is absolutely worth watching, just make sure you are not waiting for a ton of action or adventures discovering planets but more about a slow dragging series about a robot who just want to watch TV and be left alone.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #murderbot, #scifi, #android, #robot, #apple, #skarsgard, #sanctuary, #construct, #mensah, #preservation, #corporation, #autonomy, #freedom, #hacking, #governor, #humans, #alliance, #delta, #override, #gathan, #series, #season, #artificial, #intelligence, #drama

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›Murderbot (2025): Eye Contact - S01E02 - RECAP@skiptvads333d
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Murderbot episode 2 really cranks up the psychological tension compared to that wild pilot and it felt like a pretty brilliant shift in gears even though it slows things down a bit. The whole episode basically becomes this super uncomfortable interrogation between Murderbot and Gurathin, who is this augmented human that clearly don't trust robots worth a damn and watching these two go at it is like watching a chess match where one player is secretly having a panic attack. Murderbot is tryin so hard to act normal but you can see every micro expression screaming that this thing has no clue what normal even means anymore, it's like watchin someone try to pass a lie detector test while their brain is melting down in real time. Skarsgard is absolutely killing it here, playing this character who is desperately trying to compute human expectations while fighting against whatever the hell is happening to its programming and so far it's some of the best method acting I've seen in a sci fi show lately. The way he handles the forced eye contact scenes, you can practically feel Murderbot's skin crawling, which is pretty damn impressive considering it's supposed to be part machine and what makes this even more fkn awesome is how the show makes you complicit in Murderbot's deception, like you are rooting for successful manipulation which says something kinda disturbing about how we relate to authenticity these days. The paranoid environment that builds up perfectly its a perfect painted picture of what is going on inside Murderbot's head and you can almost see it calculating conversation responses in real time like some kind of socially anxious computer trying to pass as human, reminds me of when ppl use Ai to pass job interviews in the back.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating

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Meanwhile the rest of the Preservation Aux team is having their own drama with Mensah and Bharadwaj deciding to go check out these blank spots on their maps without bringing their security unit along, which is obviously a terrible idea but humans gonna human, or dumb I guess. The whole sequence where Mensah is hiking up this steep hill in bad weather while having a panic attack is so intense and you can feel Murderbot's frustration through the screen as it watches these people it's supposed to protect making dumb decisions without it, it made me mad about it. When that massive centipede creature shows up behind Mensah, I was sure she was gonna become bug food but instead the thing just crawls over her and heads toward this weird alien force field that is apparently killing everything that gets too close. The discovery of all those dead centipede creatures around some kind of crater with a mysterious energy field felt terrifying and when their drone gets blown to pieces by whatever is down there, you know they have stumbled onto something way bigger than just mapping anomalies. This whole alien tech subplot adds a really nice sci fi horror side that balances out the psychological thriller stuff happening back at base and the way Mensah comes back all shaken up from the experience really shows how dangerous this planet is even without the corporate conspiracy as they constantly talk about.

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The team is almost a group of weirdos tbh and its very interesting who is going to die first, especially with Arada, Pin Lee and Rathy forming their trio / orgy situation which gives Murderbot something awkward to accidentally show Gurathin when he tries to hack into its memory banks, it was hilarious, like when women put up dildos no their bag so when TSA check. That whole scene is hilarious and uncomfortable at the same time, it perfectly shows how Murderbot is learning to use human behavior against the humans themselves and its all from thos TV shows he has been downloading, the entire fact that an Ai is getting trained itself with pirated content is hilarious, the writers of this series are so creative generating this contradictory scenarios. Gurathin's backstory about coming from a place where constructs get treated as people adds some good context for why he is so suspicious but also why he might eventually come around to trusting Murderbot, assuming it doesn't malfunction and kill everyone first. The way the episode handles these character moments while building tension is pretty skillful, never letting things get too heavy without some kind of relief valve, whether it's awkward robot behavior or humans being adorably stupid about obvious dangers, you can see the writers really understand how to balance the comedy with the thriller elements without making either feel forced or out of place.

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By the time the episode wraps up with the team trying to contact that other survey group and getting radio silence, you know something real bad has happened over there and the quick glimpse of the massacre at DeltFall habitat confirms that this corporate conspiracy goes way deeper than just mapping cover ups, now Im not so clear on the hole conspiracy theme because until now they are just assuming although the first rogue SecUnit shows up and intensifies the question of who is behind all this. The fact that even their SecUnit got destroyed suggests whatever is happening might get more than just human bad guys and when Mensah decides they need to take Murderbot along for the investigation, you can feel both relief that they are finally making a smart decision but they still acting irrational and dumb about what they might find, they dont have a drop of malice of that wise kind of thinking that you only get through age, it seems like they are just all some old teenagers. Murderbot's sarcastic "what could possibly go wrong" internal monologue perfectly captures the mood of everything going on but even though he gets it he still doesnt know much on how to improvise and gets caught on big pause before continues, like everyone knows this is a terrible idea but they gotta do it anyway because the alternative is staying ignorant while people die. The episode does a great job of building up these multiple sub plots and character development, from the alien tech to the corporate conspiracy to whatever killed the other team, without making it feel overwhelming or confusing about what the main story, Murderbot eventually going rogue because he eventually get fed up with humans or at least I think thats the assumption the series wants you to think about.

In my opinion this episode is prove that the series can handle and balance between robot jokes and sci fi action, not just full blown comedy and also starting to dig into the suspense part of the series, who is behind everything wrong that is going with both teams. On the side we got the entire situation of what happens when artificial intelligence develops anxiety disorders and has to deal with human social structure as it was never design to deal with this kind of situations, situations that some times can not be quantified since they are more of the irrational feelings. The psychological tension between Murderbot and the team creates this paranoid environment that keeps you invested on the episode even when nothing explosive is happening and that is the mark of really solid writing and acting working, well acting is not crazy good, I guess its more about the script tha let this actors been great at been awkward with each other. It's slower than the pilot and some of the interrogation scenes drag a little but the character development and world building more than make up for the pacing issues and Skarsgard performance alone makes it worth watching just to see him nail this impossible role. I'm giving this one an 8/10 because it successfully shifts the show from quirky comedy into great thriller territory while keeping all the elements that made the first episode work so well and that's not an easy balance to pull off without falling flat on your face.

https://i.imgur.com/AbuDA6i.png

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #murderbot, #android, #scifi, #skarsgard, #interrogation, #trust, #crater, #alien, #centipede, #panic, #gurathin, #security, #corporate, #mystery, #drama, #tension, #awkward, #surveillance, #autonomy, #feelings, #humans, #dangerous, #conspiracy, #technology, #uncomfortable

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›Murderbot (2025): FreeCommerce - S01E01 - RECAP@skiptvads338d
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Apple TV dropped Murderbot couple of weeks ago and Im just starting to catch up on some of the TV series, I wasn't expecting to get this hooked on a cyborg having an existential crisis but here we are. Its kinda different watching a Robot come up with so much drama, not your typical robot show where some shiny android learns to love humanity through heartwarming moments and cheesy dialogue or go totally rogue on humans, this is about a security unit that hacked its own programming and now spends most of its time watching soap operas while secretly wanting to avoid human contact at all costs, not only because he finds humans stressing but to not blow his cover. Alexander Skarsgard voices this antisocial killing machine with the kind of stealth although not dead man style that makes you forget you're watching a sci fi show, it feels more like listening to your most introverted friend complain about having to attend a work party or just been around others in the office cafeteria. The story could not be more simple but brilliant, take a corporate owned security robot, give it free will and watch it realize that freedom is way more complicated than just jail breaking himself, especially when you are stuck protecting the very species you find incredibly annoying. I found the first episode very entertaining as I can relate a lot to the introverted bot, the series doesnt try to be an action series even though there is some shooting and monsters but its more about how Murderbot tries to be as stealth as possible between humans, its neither about be profound or preachy about artificial intelligence, instead it just lets our reluctant hero bitch about everything while secretly caring more than it wants to admit.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating

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The episode starts with this cyborg finishing up a mining gig where the human workers treat it like garbage, using it as entertainment by making it raise its arm for no reason except to be assholes, I think this was the OG flashbacks he kept getting before going full murderbot, he mention several times how they get recycled so I wonder if a little piece of that falty software or material stay with him. Six months of been treat like crap and our future murderbot finally cracks the code on its governor module, the thing that forces it to obey every human command no matter how stupid or degrading and suddenly it's free to make its own choices. But instead of going on a killing spree or escaping to some distant galaxy, it does something weirdly human, it goes back to work because the alternative is getting melted down by the corporation that owns it. He self named Murderbot, he then gets assigned to a new team of scientists from some hippie commune called Preservation Alliance and right away you can tell these people are different because they actually feel bad about essentially renting a sentient slave for their expedition. Dr. Mensah and her crew are describe as these well meaning environmental researchers who hold hands and hum together to make group decisions, which obviously makes our cynical cyborg want to crawl into a corner and die from secondhand embarrassment, I think we going to get a lot of context and character development on this series as how they started describing every other person that comes up going through the entire team.

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Things get interesting when a giant centipede creature attacks two of the scientists during their survey work, forcing Murderbot to spring into action and save them even though it technically doesn't have to anymore but all he wants is to continue downloading content and avoid humans, does this cyborg goes full pirate on the humans downloading all kind of content? a moving Piratebay? jajaja thats hilarious. This rescue scene is where we see the real conflict at its core, our rogue bot could have just stood there and watched these people get eaten but instead it throws itself into danger to protect them, getting seriously injured in the process and the aftermath is even more complex because when one of the scientists freezes up in shock, Murderbot removes its helmet to show its human like face and tries to comfort her by basically saying "everything will be alright, you got my word", something it learned from watching too much television. Taking off his helmet make him look vulnerable and ends up being a huge mistake because it's completely outside normal security behavior, leading to suspicion from the team's tech expert who starts questioning whether their protection is malfunctioning or worse almost blaming Murderbot of them not getting proper secure data about their maps or worst been it operating outside of the system control. Right from episode one there seems to be this perfect balance between the action sequences with character development, never felt one sided, showing us that beneath all the sarcasm and misanthropy, there is something heroic about this character that it doesn't even recognize in itself. You can feel the internal struggle as Murderbot grapples with having choices for the first time while still being trapped by circumstances beyond its control, creating this perfect metaphor for anyone who has ever felt stuck in a job they hate but can't leave.

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The mystery element kicks in when the team realizes their corporate supplied maps are missing crucial information about dangerous wildlife which explains why nobody warned them about the giant death worms lurking underground, but then again their tech leader Gurathin, who is a human with implants that enhance his capabilities, still believes there is something wrong with their security cyborg when in fact was never his fault, you will grow a grudge against this Gurathing for sure. There is definitely some corporate conspiracy building up, probably involving the same company that manufactures security units and then deliberately creates situations where they are absolutely necessary for survival. While all this is going on the core of the series starts to heat up as Murderbot is dealing with fragmented memories of its previous assignment, seven seconds of footage showing what appears to be a massacre involving security units and dead humans but it can't tell if he was the perpetrator or just witnessed the violence. These flashbacks add a dark enigma to the character that keeps you guessing about whether our security unit might actually be dangerous, even though everything we have seen suggests it's more likely to quote soap opera dialogue than hurt innocent people. The social relationship between the team members create additional tension as they debate whether to trust their obviously unusual security unit, with some seeing it as a person deserving of kindness while others view it as a potentially lethal piece of equipment that needs to be shut down immediately. The episode ends with Dr. Mensah checking on Murderbot's wellbeing, a gesture of genuine care that completely terrifies our antisocial hero because it's never experienced anyone treating it with basic human decency before, all he does is day dream how he kills every human around him to not blow his cover.

I know this show is going to be so relatable for many, I actually do a 100% from the point that most of the time I enjoy been alone and not having people around me but there are sometimes when I do want to go out and do it to feel different for a moment until I go back to the same capsule mode, this time combine those circumstances with a literal cyborg assassin, every awkward social interaction and desperate attempt to avoid human contact feels like watching someone with severe social anxiety trying to navigate a workplace full of extroverts. The series has this perfect balance between humor and emotions, making you laugh at Murderbot's internal monologue while also feeling sorry for a being that's trapped between two worlds without belonging to either one. Alexander Skarsgard brings exactly the right energy to this role, delivering the kind of dry, self deprecating personality that makes you forget you are watching someone play a robot instead of just a really antisocial person. The production values are solid without being flashy, creating a believable future world where corporate capitalism has extended its reach across the galaxy and turned sentient beings into rental equipment. This first episode sets up what promises to be a fascinating exploration of identity, freedom, and the question of what it means to be human when humanity itself seems pretty questionable most of the time, all wrapped up in a package that's entertaining enough to make you forget you're getting a philosophy lesson. I'm giving this one an 8 out of 10 because it manages to be funny, thoughtful and truely engaging while avoiding most of the pretentious bullshit that usually comes with AI stories, definitely worth watching if you just want to see a robot complain about having to give speeches.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #murderbot, #cyborg, #skarsgard, #apple, #robot, #security, #android, #corporate, #dystopia, #comedy, #antisocial, #television, #scifi, #artificial, #intelligence, #freedom, #awkward, #introvert, #drama, #future, #conspiracy, #violence, #humanity, #entertainment, #streaming

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