Love, Death & Robots?
Saw the first four episodes so far. Even though animations are usually not my thing, I have to say it's pretty good.
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It's hard to judge the whole series, as each episode is made by different studios and features different plot and style. Some of the episodes were meh, like Ice Age, Fish Night, Alternate Histories or The Witness. Others were really good, e.g. Good Hunting or Three Robots.
Personal best for me was Zima Blue. Great style and actually a non-trivial plot with an ending that makes you think.
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Glad to see Fish Night mentioned as meh. It's all I've seen so far (picked a random one based on running time), and I'd agree, it was meh. Sounds from all the posts that Zima Blue should be the last one I watch to cap it off on a good note.
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I was disappointed by most of the shorts - they were really shallow, had sooooo much sexual and sexualized violence in them, and it felt like OVER ALL the creators took 'animation for adults' to mean 'omg we get to make cartoons swear and run around with titties and bush out!'
Zima Blue justified the entire season, though, and I thought Lucky Thirteen and the short with the farmers fighting the alien invasion was nice, too. The animation across the board was amazing... I just wish it was to more of a point /shrug emoji
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Pretty much my exact feeling.
If it helps to contextualise it, I believe it was supposed to Heavy Metal animted series, but they didn't get the licence.
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I actually found it refreshing that they were not afraid to deal with the issues of sexuality, homosexual relations, rape, etc.
Too many "mainstream" shows prefer to ignore these subjects, and just hide any trace of nudity like it's taboo. Using special angles, to god forbid not to show any once of nudity, or wrapping people in towels (after a shower) or blankets (after sex) to prevent any accidental glimpse of human flesh.
This show shows it as it is - with dangling weeners, and balls, and boobs and bush.
This is how life looks like - and art is supposed to imitate life, not censor it.
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They didn't deal with or contend with them, though - there wasn't a point. Having people be casually naked when they're meant to be naked is one thing (and it's done fine in these shorts from time to time), but having a woman run around an entire city for an extended sequence completely full-frontally naked isn't what life looks like. Watching the woman from Good Hunting get her legs chopped off after being raped multiple times isn't what life looks like. It's titillation and fetishization. We don't watch anyone visibly take a shit, do we? That's life, after all. The artists here depicted what they chose to depict for a reason, and it wasn't to reflect life.
Saying 'this show had way too much sexual and sexualized violence' isn't a call for censorship, it's a call for some responsibility.
You can like the show and find it refreshing, that's your opinion - but don't piss over a balcony and tell me it's raining. What they chose to depict had little to do with 'that's life!'
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I disagree.
When a stripper notices mid-show her assailant/killer/rapist, and starts to flee him as fast as she can, it's only logical she doesn't have time to button up her shirt and change into something more comfortable (as it would be done in most shows).
And the woman having her legs chopped is what happens to the character (there's no rape there btw). Would you have preferred the leg-chopping scene if the woman was fully clothed? You can find the scene too dark, scary, disgusting or violent - that's understandable. But I feel it's the strong point of the show, not being afraid to do such scenes as well. It's supposed to shock and horrify you, you're supposed to feel that the people who did this to her are animals and don't deserve to live.
Like in the first episode, where the rape is described but not visualized, does it make it any different?
Funny thing you mention visibly taking a shit, because in one of the episodes a dude is attacked by a monster while taking a piss - so he continues to fight the monster with his pants around his ankles and his dick and balls hanging out. Simply because he (understandably) doesn't have the time to stop and pull up his pants and zip them up (having to run away from a deadly monster and such).
So yeah, that's the realism of the show for me - they show it as it is.
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The problem with this short is, the character being a stripper adds absolutely nothing to the plot. If her profession had an impact on the story arc, then yes, by all means. Sadly, it doesn't, at all. Her being a stripper is but an excuse to have a bunch of nudity. By the way, I'm not against nudity-- in "Beyond the Aquila Rift" it actually enhances the horror behind the truth, there's a point to it. In "the Witness" it was just nudity for the sake of nudity.
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The problem with this short is, the character being a stripper adds absolutely nothing to the plot.
Most things never add to the plot. If it did, movies and shows would be fucking garbage since they would be as predictable as yesterday's lottery numbers.
In my opinion though, the sequence was unnecessary because she just flat out did dumb things all the bloody time. Same with the guy. Every decision was a bad one. It feels like the development studio had an idea, but they just didn't know how to make it happen, so they just forced all of it.
When you get free reign in America, it's a rare opportunity. It's obvious they felt they should get the most out of it. So in The Witness, you suddenly have, tits, fetish clubs, hints at sexual assaults (though no actual sexual assaults) and just other seedy stuff like that. If this became a more commonplace thing, then most studios would calm down over it and the mature aspects would take a backseat and they'd just become another possible tool in the studio's toolbelt.
With "Beyond the Aquila Rift", you had probably the best use of nudity possible. Visceral sexual passion, realistic movements and no reason to fake it like in almost any mainstream live action movie. It was a sex scene at its best. There was nothing hardcore, yet it felt hardcore enough not to be the cookie cutter "Slam dick in, AHHHH, 2 second pause, slam dick in again, AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, zoom in on stomach and back with some sideboob" bullshit you see otherwise.
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I kinda agree with you somewhat. Some of the gore and nudity felt like it was there just for the sake of it. It felt more like eye candy, than an actual narrative element. This wasn't always the case, thankfully and the series overall was interesting even if some of the episodes were more like tech demos than short films.
Zima Blue was also my favourite, but I found Suits to be one of the weakest episodes.
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This show shows it as it is - with dangling weeners, and balls, and boobs and bush.
Way more T&A and lady bits than dangling bits though. Of course.
I've only seen 5 or 6 episodes so far and I'm enjoying it more than the new Twilight Zone disaster but I must say that the Witness episode was trying very hard. The animation was awesome and the atmosphere really well done but it seemed like they just sat there and thought "how many ways can we get naked women in there?"
I'm all for adult animation but it doesn't have to have naked women to be interesting. If it fits in there, ok, but if not, alright, we get it, it's Netflix and it's not kids.
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Some episodes were good, others were just alright. Worth the watch but I expected a bit better
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The first episode was great. The next, meh. Then the live action with animated tracing over it [The Witness] threw me. I haven't moved beyond that one.
But a few others point out here that Zima Blue is worth it, so I might revisit just for that one.
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Interesting, was completely different for me. After the first one I almost switched it off, because I found that one rather dull. The ones after that were great, though.
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I really liked the first one because I knew the story.
Looking back, the short doesn't stand as well on it's own. Like they couldn't fit enough context into the 12 minutes.
Though the twist is still good.
EDIT: I really like John Scalzi and Alastair Reynolds as well, so now I'm excited to watch the rest.
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In all honesty, the twist just felt like a "Nothing personnel kid" meme.
Mind you, the animation for that short was bloody brilliant. But everything else was either mediocre or downright bad in my eyes.
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I remember the twist being epic when I read it. But it was close to 20 years ago. I'm gonna have to read it again.
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It's entirely possible I didn't give it enough of a chance to find the gems. I was actually a big fan of the Animatrix, so the format is not the problem.
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The first episode was great. The next, meh. Then the live action with animated tracing over it [The Witness] threw me. I haven't moved beyond that one.
I liked the humor in episode 2 and it was obviously meant to be a jarring contrast to the genre and violence of the (excellent) first episode but I agreed that The Witness was just a little too... everything, and not enough of anything. Looked good. Was trying too hard. Meant little if anything at all.
Took me two days to force myself to try the next episode and it was incredibly boring, even though the animation was pretty good. It felt like an overextended intro to a mech shooter game where you are just waiting for it to end so you can start blasting aliens. Not much point to it either.
The next episode was pretty much the same deal.
I guess it's to be expected of anthology types where the showrunning and premise is very loose. Without an actual unifying theme, and different writers and direction, it's a mixed bag but at least it's different.
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I saw the first few minutes of the first episode, didn't like it much, then tried Suits and enjoyed it well enough. Might watch some more later, based on recommendations here.
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Seen and it was ok. There are a few AMAZING episodes, either really clever writing (Three Robots!) or visually stunning (The Witness is one of the most impressive pieces of work I've seen in years), but majority is just ok, nothing more, nothing less. A lot of episodes feel like just some generic cutscene from generic video game, and it's a shame. Authors were given almost unlimited creative freedom, and only a few could use it, while majority even while given this freedom produced just another generic short movie.
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Agreed, I was slightly disappointing in the work of Digic, (the guys responsible for AC and Witcher 3 trailers among many others). They had a hand in Ice Age and made Secret War and both felt like tech demos. Episodes like Beyond the Aquila Rift, Shape Shifters and Zima Blue were much more interesting to think about.
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Agree, with exception of Shape Shifters, it was very disappointing episode, at least for me. I loved the setting and premise, Afghanistan War gives you opportunity to make some really good cinema, unless you decide to go full-hooray-america, it can be controversial, can rise moral questions etc. Racism or any kind of bigotry inside an army can also be great premise and you can do awesome things with it. And what did the creators do? Wasted this setting and premise for simple few minutes long badass fight among warewolves, something that could be great got turned into another cliche action-packed scene, not much more.
Beyond the Aquila Rift was great piece thou, awesome writing, and Zima Blue was not only great writing but also had really unique style, something that most of shorts lacked.
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I liked the concept of Shape Shifters more than the execution. I liked that the story was kinda about how fantastical elements would be incorporporated in the armed forces, how the military would utilize something like this in tactics and how it would effect the army morale. All of this was somewhat shown. Even the honor system of the werewolves was an interesting idea. For a short film, I think this was enough. Some of the other episodes barely had this much to think about.
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But shape shifters only signalized these things you mention, yet didn't explore any of them, if it actually explored any of these themes (like supernatural used in army, or normal soldiers reactions towards it), it could be great, but it only signalized that these themes exist, but instead decided to explore flashy and gory warewolfe vs warewolfe fight scene ;P
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How werevolves are used in combat was certainly "explored", they showed multiple interactions with military personnel, and the opening scene was exactly this. For a 15 min short, this was okay. Agree to disagree?
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Agree to disagree?Guess we'll have to, because for me just "showing" that something exist isn't really equal to exploring the theme ;p
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My honest opinion is that everyone will find episode that they like. As these episodes are not same, by that I mean that every episode is different with art-style, story and everything else you can imagine. But they all have 1 thing in common, they make you think (Or at least they made me thing). So yeah I think that every person will find at least some episodes that they will like, for me it was around 11/18 episodes that I liked. Other thing to note, is that they are quite short 7-19 min length, so it wont take one that much time to check it out!
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Yeah, I agree.
I don't think every episode was on the same level, but all were at least ok. And some were simply amazing.
In none of the episodes I felt bored or that I didn't want to finish watching it.
To me, it feels very similar to Black Mirror, with the difference that Black Mirror has 1 hour episodes, while here each episode is much shorter.
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Oh yep. Nice you brought this up! I ended up signing up for the Netflix trial thing just to watch this. Last episode I saw was the 4th one/Suits where the couple runs a farm and they control/ride in mechs. Overall enjoyed it so far. The first & third episodes were insane. I was a bit flustered by the matureness of it all, ngl. The cute three robots episode gave me some chuckles, especially with the unexpected ending Who knew cats would be super alpha & survive more than humans and everything else lol?
As a lover of animation, that was the first thing that attracted me to this. It's amazing (imho). I was in awe the first time seeing Sonnie's Edge & The Witness's art style. Though reading others opinions and not liking or enjoying it as much is interesting and understandable. I gotta finish the series to form my own thoughts.
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Never heard of it. You made me interested though. Excited about it since I love David Fincher's stuff. Will probably watch it tomorrow.
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Some were good, others were kinda weak. I was quite surprised, the show relied so much on visuals and less on stories or narratives and I felt like some episodes were focused entirely on spectacle and gore without having any actual substance or things to say. I like it more, when a show makes me think. Some episodes were just too simple or uninteresting, despite their beautiful execution.
This is why, for me, Zima Blue was by far the best one, with Beyond the Aquila Rift coming in as second and the Witness coming in third, just because of the unique art style it employed.
Overall, I am happy with this series, since it will pave the way for a second season, which will probably be much better.
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As with others above I loved the show, there were a couple of episodes I thought were pretty average yet every time I sat down to watch one quick episode I'd end up watching 4 or 5. I didn't try to analyse the episodes, I just sat down and enjoyed them for what they were, quick short stories and entertainment done well. Well done to Netflix for this one.
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Seen only 4 so far.
Sonnie's Edge was pretty cool, and those UV / glow in the dark tattoos and clothing style was super awesome.
Three Robots - simple but a lot of fun.
The Witness - liked the art style and the camera a lot, and a nice story.
Suits - It was badass :3
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Never heard of it before, but I'll check it out. Thanks!
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pole option missing...seen it, some good some ok
yes i have seen it. i expected robots in every episode.
some were really good. some were ok.
where are the damn robots!!!
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I knew several of the stories the episodes were drawn from, and overall the adaptations were very good. I think it's a terrific project, and a nice big jump into classic genre territory. Good on Netflix.
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I was surprised to see the Joe R. Lansdale story about the fish ghosts in the desert
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I have it on my watchlist but haven't checked it out yet.
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Just a heads up, apparently netflix has it set up is that there are at least 4 different orders that the shorts can be shown in. So if someone here writes "I didn't like the 1st one" their 1st one might be different from yours.
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That's interesting, and an odd decision from their part.
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Watched the whole thing over the weekend (my dad was in the hospital and I had to do something to stay awake during the night), I really liked some of the episodes and the overall concept but found the title to be a bit of a lie. Every episode deals with death, you could interpret some things in certain ways and also say that they also deal with the subject of love, but only half or so have anything to do with robots.
The witness is kinda impressive in how well executed it was, and the three symbols at the start are a perfect synthesis of the whole story although a bit spoilery (I figured out the plot as soon as it started thanks to the uroboros).
I'll probably re-watch them again at some point to enjoy them on a big screen.
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Ok, so there's this amazing new animated series on Netflix, released on March 15, called Love, Death & Robots
It's hard to describe it exactly, but it's something between the Animatrix, Black Mirror and Oats Studios Volume 1.
It's a series of short animations, each with a distinctive animation style, each representing a complete and unique story, each being only 5 - 20 minutes long, and exploring different SF genres (Space opera, Fantasy, Steampunk, etc.).
But the description does not do it justice.
Each and every story is simply a masterpiece!All stories are fun to watch, but some are real masterpieces!If you have Netflix, and haven't checked it out yet - please do. You won't regret it.
The entire series is very short (around 2-3 hours for 18 episodes), and each episode is very short (as I mentioned 5-20 minutes).
You can see the regular and NSFW trailers on the Netflix page
It's supposedly created by Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, Gone Girl, etc.) but according to IMDB, David Fincher is just the executive producer, and only Tim Miller is the creator.
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