Love, Death and Robots is a series that is equal parts enchanting and frustrating. They are opportunities to show off cutting edge, genius visual animation and yet it is constantly stymied by the terrible quality of the stories. Whilst Season 1 had its ups and downs, I didn't even bother to review season 2 because I came away from it having not seen a single animated short movie that I liked. Season 3 is almost as poor.
The main problem is that the stories have a bias towards puerile humour and hyper gory action. I read somewhere that the first season had exactly one woman writer/creative director, which shows. It feels like these projects were put together by a brainstorming session in a Call of Duty lobby, where a horde of 12 year olds insist on yet another bloody exploding skull or Islamophobic joke. Of the nine episodes of season 3, most involve soldiers or combat in some way. There always seems to be bugs or vermin or monsters that need killing. For a show called Love, Death + Robots, the death is constant, the robots are occasional, and the love is next to non-existent.
And yes, it has to be said that it looks spectacular. Each vignette has its own distinct animation style, each are beautifully crafted in their own way. The stand-out prettiest is Jibaro, in which a band of conquistadors are attacked by a siren that looks like she stepped out of a Klimt painting. The cinematography and visual style is unlike anything I've ever seen, and it is a must watch for that reason alone. And yet despite reaching that high water mark for animation standards, it is still a dumb episode. Once again it is soldiers versus another monster. There are vaguely established themes around colonialism, exploitation, abuse etc, but it is not really saying anything meaningful. They're all just loose parts, troublingly attached to justified sexual violence against a fetishized, hyper exotic woman.
The best of the bunch is probably Bad Travelling, in which a group of sailors find themselves at the mercy of a giant crab. Yes another monster, but this one at least had some interesting dynamics between the crew and their tentative understanding of democracy. There's an actual dilemma set up, there are tension and distrust between the surviving sailors. An actual story and characters. Trailing far behind in second place is The Very Pulse of the Machine, which stands out by keeping the extreme violence to a minimum, and by briefly managing to have two women characters in one episode. So it gets half marks for that, but loses marks for still being boring in spite of its beauty.
There is definitely an audience for Love, Death + Robots, but it definitely isn't for people hoping to see more thoughtful sci-fi. It's for people who want to see 9 episodes of skull crushing.
Season 3: Bugs, Gore and Swearing
Love, Death and Robots is a series that is equal parts enchanting and frustrating. They are opportunities to show off cutting edge, genius visual animation and yet it is constantly stymied by the terrible quality of the stories. Whilst Season 1 had its ups and downs, I didn't even bother to review season 2 because I came away from it having not seen a single animated short movie that I liked. Season 3 is almost as poor.
The main problem is that the stories have a bias towards puerile humour and hyper gory action. I read somewhere that the first season had exactly one woman writer/creative director, which shows. It feels like these projects were put together by a brainstorming session in a Call of Duty lobby, where a horde of 12 year olds insist on yet another bloody exploding skull or Islamophobic joke. Of the nine episodes of season 3, most involve soldiers or combat in some way. There always seems to be bugs or vermin or monsters that need killing. For a show called Love, Death + Robots, the death is constant, the robots are occasional, and the love is next to non-existent.
And yes, it has to be said that it looks spectacular. Each vignette has its own distinct animation style, each are beautifully crafted in their own way. The stand-out prettiest is Jibaro, in which a band of conquistadors are attacked by a siren that looks like she stepped out of a Klimt painting. The cinematography and visual style is unlike anything I've ever seen, and it is a must watch for that reason alone. And yet despite reaching that high water mark for animation standards, it is still a dumb episode. Once again it is soldiers versus another monster. There are vaguely established themes around colonialism, exploitation, abuse etc, but it is not really saying anything meaningful. They're all just loose parts, troublingly attached to justified sexual violence against a fetishized, hyper exotic woman.
The best of the bunch is probably Bad Travelling, in which a group of sailors find themselves at the mercy of a giant crab. Yes another monster, but this one at least had some interesting dynamics between the crew and their tentative understanding of democracy. There's an actual dilemma set up, there are tension and distrust between the surviving sailors. An actual story and characters. Trailing far behind in second place is The Very Pulse of the Machine, which stands out by keeping the extreme violence to a minimum, and by briefly managing to have two women characters in one episode. So it gets half marks for that, but loses marks for still being boring in spite of its beauty.
There is definitely an audience for Love, Death + Robots, but it definitely isn't for people hoping to see more thoughtful sci-fi. It's for people who want to see 9 episodes of skull crushing.