When people talk about the future of AI—and all its capabilities—they also tend to talk about the possibility of rogue AI—mostly about how some robots or viruses could take over and wipe humanity off the brink of existence.
In current media especially, these contemporary ideas have begun to take root and create the marketable sensation of the “AI apocalypse.”
However, these concepts are usually only applied from the point of view of humanity. Hence the reason why a series like Murder Drones has become such an uncommon phenomenon.
Murder Drones is an original indie YouTube series self-produced by Glitch Productions (https://www.youtube.com/@GLITCH), “a fully self-sustained Australian animation studio” founded by brothers Kevin & Luke Lerdwichagul in 2021.
According to the website, the brothers started off as YouTube influencers doing either animated or real-life comedy sketches. After eight years of experience on the platform, they decided to fulfill their lifelong dream of making animated shows.
Murder Drones is 1 out of the five animated projects GLITCH has released thus far, with a planned release schedule of 8 episodes in total. It’s a series with horror and comedy and is described as “a heart-warming story ‘to destroy all humans’.”.The show follows the journey of a helper robot, Uz ( Elsie Lovelock), a sarcastic and “angsty” teen whose abnormal and rebellious attitude has resulted in her being labeled an “outcast” by her fellow classmates and robots alike.
In the “PILOT” episode, we are introduced to the world of Murder Drones through Uzi’s presentation in class. The theory is that a long time ago, humans spread across the cosmos, inhabiting multiple planets, including one known as Copper 9—the planet where the story takes place—to mine for resources.
Along the way, humans brought helper robots to help them excavate material and had them work on Copper 9 until the humans perished due to a man-made disaster that ended up blowing up the core of the planet—making it a barren wasteland and leaving the robots behind.
Eventually, the robots form their own rogue colony, creating their own community and children. However, not long after, humans send murder drones after the colony, hoping to wipe them out.
Later in the episode, we meet N ( Micheal Kovach), a whimsical murder drone whose memory got temporarily wiped by Uzi after she attacked him. Together, these two form a bond that is further explored in later episodes.
Nevertheless, one of the reasons why I enjoyed Murder Drones so profoundly is because of its uniquely inherent talent for creating appealing characters in the horror comedy genre and its ability to parody the internet culture effectively without making me get second-hand embarrassment.
For example, Uzi is portrayed as the typical, sarcastic, and edgy loner at the beginning of the series. Still, as the show progresses, you begin to appreciate the depth of Uzi’s character. She goes through a never-ending loop of traumatizing experiences after watching her father abandon her, seeing her classmates get eaten, and trying to understand a mysterious code starting to take over her body. Her sarcasm is seen as a defense mechanism, but other characters, like N, help Uzi grow and overcome these challenges thrown her way.
Aside from the aspects I enjoyed, the only complaint I have about the series is that—to me—the story feels very incoherent and the goals of the characters seem to change every episode. Going from destroying humans to finding information about Uzi’s condition to beating monster AI, it feels like it’s changing too frequently.
Despite this minor issue, I’d consider Murder Drones a series worthy of attention and full of potential. The animation, storytelling, and character development are all brilliantly done and captivating. In this age of massive industrial movie-making, projects like Murder Drones can show us how small, self-sustained creators can make extraordinary pieces of media.
