Review: Love, Death & Robots (2019)

Love, Death & Robots (2019)

Love, Death & Robots is the highly-anticipated Netflix anthology series headed by directors, David Fincher and Tim Miller. It is a re-imagining of sorts of the Heavy Metal reboot that the two had, for long, planned on making. The series is eighteen standalone science fiction stories, each brimming with violence, nudity and profanity; though the series is animated in gorgeous fashion, it is definitely not for children.

As with most anthologies, LD+R can be somewhat of a mixed-bag; for every successful segment, there is likely an equally weaker one. The genres range from strictly action, to philosophical and existential, tense thrillers or straight absurd comedies, all within a unique sci-fi setting. As mentioned, one area where the series succeeds across the board is in its highly diverse and exceptional animation. You can see from this images that the segments range from fully-rendered and realistic computer animation, classic hand-drawn animation, cel-shaded hybrids, goofy cartoony styles, and even one with combined live-action. The diversity here makes each segment unique and a fun surprise to see what style the directors for each subsequent segment have chosen to utilize.

For anyone familiar with Heavy Metal, you may already know that the inclusion of ultra-violence, nudity and profanity does not always necessarily serve the story it is contained within. For better or for worse, that trend continues throughout most of LD+R. It is clear early on that this is simply the tone/genre that the showrunners are going for here - that of plentiful blatant and unabashed NSFW content. If that kind of thing isn't for you then unfortunately LD+R may not be your cup of tea.

The fact that the segments range from seven to seventeen minutes long is actually quite refreshing and absolutely lends to the 'binge culture' of today's content streaming. The stronger segments, making the most of their short run-times, are well-written and paced with meaningful and exciting stories (i.e. Sonnie's Edge, Three Robots, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Zima Blue and The Secret War). The weaker segments, on the other hand, nicely do not overstay their welcome and are, at the very least, still entertaining and fun to look at (i.e. Sucker of Souls, Fish Night, and Alternate Histories).

Love, Death & Robots is quite the refreshing release in this day-and-age where continuity-driven and longer form content is the norm. Having short, beautifully rendered and entertaining sci-fi stories that one can sift through at their leisure in short or longer sessions is something to be appreciated. I would recommend the sci-fi lovers sit down and try a couple out, and, I, having already run through all of them, will likely give them all further watches while I wait excitedly for the eventual second series of LD+R to come out.
8/10