Reviewed: Netflix's "Love Death + Robots"

Whenever I watch some Netflix original production, I am reminded of the words of Omar Bradley who chided the world for being one of "nuclear giants and ethical infants."  Much the same is going on in the world of contemporary entertainment where CGI giants and narrative midgets abound.  Tim Miller and David Fincher's Love Death + Robots is a perfect example.  While each of the eighteen episodes is brought to spectacular life with some truly astounding animation, the vast majority of the narratives are rather, well, juvenile.



This is a shame as I love nothing so much as a science fiction anthology series.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that my first introduction to literary science fiction was via one of those ubiquitous "best tales of sci-fi" anthologies that are found on every bookstore's sci-fi shelf (science fiction has always had a close relationship with the short story, perhaps because many sci-fi tales are built around ideas with short legs), or maybe it has to do with my lifelong love affair with The Twilight Zone, the greatest sci-fi anthology series of all time.  Whatever the reason, the absence of a good science fiction anthology series has been an itch I wanted to be scratched for some time. On the one hand, I am glad Netflix stepped up to the plate.  On the other hand...

The problem with LDR is the same as with most of Netflix productions: the content seems geared towards a juvenile viewership. (Really, only the excellent Stranger Things breaks with this sorry Netflix tradition.  Interestingly, Stranger Things success took Netflix by surprise.  Says a lot, doesn't it?) As such, LDR suffers from the usual horseman of the juvenile apocalypse.  Those are:

1) Mother&$^@!  (i.e., laughably bad dialogue)

Here's a good example from LDR's first episode, "Sonnie's Edge":

Jennifer: "Fucking men.  Its cunts like you who fucked her up to begin with.  Fuck."

Somebody actually took the time to write that.

Here's another example:

Jennifer: "Get 'im!"
Generic bad guy #1: Surprise, motherfuckers!
Generic good guy #1: "Her heart rate is spiking!"
Generic bad guy #1: Come on, motherfucker!
Generic good guy #1: What is that?
Jennifer: "Fuck me!"

...Sorry.  Sorry.  I just had to take a minute to stop laughing as I typed that.  I am assuming someone over sixteen years old actually thought that was good dialogue.  Can't...stop...laughing....

Sadly, most of the stories in LDR contain dialogue that is little better.

2) Boobies! (i.e., sex and nudity)

I wonder what it must be like to be a talented CGI artist who is forced to spend his time and talent animating genitalia.  Is that something you put on your resume or mention in a job interview?  "Yes, I was lead CGI animator for 'Love Death + Robots" where I specialized in animating penises."  Yet there must be a few unfortunate individuals in this situation because the viewer is subjected to a bunch of sex and nudity scenes.  Yeah, yeah, that's in keeping with a show geared towards the twenty-six and under crowd, but it remains a terrible waste of talent.  Worse, in the wake of the Weinsteinian horrors that spurred the #MeToo movement, do we really need to start sexually exploiting pixels now?  The entertainment industry's obsession with sex would make a sixteen-year-old boy blush.  Hopefully, the hiring of Jennifer Yuh Nelson as supervising director for Season 2 of LDR will bring some balance to the show and stop the portrayal of women as mere sex objects (sometimes with guns - the ultimate teen boy fantasy!).

3) Explosions! (i.e., violence)

Completing the juvenile trifecta, we have a show where the bulk of the episodes are little more than excuses for explosions and gunplay.  Perhaps this is LDR's biggest crime as it runs contrary to what I love about science fiction: its sense of wonder, discovery, its sociological introspection and, yes, at times its ruminations on conflict (as opposed to the glorification of war, as seen in a few episodes here).  Unfortunately, largely due to the influence of Hollywood corporations, the genre has since become an excuse for fantastical action sequences and little else.  LDR reflects this trend as more than a handful of the episodes are just excuses to blow things up in CGI glory.


Those are the (all too common) sins of Love Death + Robots.  However, I am happy to report that there are a few episodes that buck the juvenile trend and offer something far more mature.  These are the ones I encourage you to watch:

Three Robots

This is a laugh out loud episode in which three robots tour the ruins of mankind in the same fashion as modern-day tourists tour the ruins of Pompeii.  What results is an eleven-minute long smart satire that only gets funnier when the trio encounters cats for the first time and learns the real reason for the downfall of man....

When The Yogurt Took Over

Based on a short story by John Scalzi, this tongue-in-cheek tale of, well, when the yogurt took over (truth in advertising!), is reminiscent of a Pixar flick, complete with old fashioned belly laughs.  I dare you not to laugh when you get a load of the yogurt space ships....

 Zima Blue

This episode, based on a short story by Alistair Reynolds, is by far my favorite.  Not only does it embody that sense of wonder that is at the heart of all great science fiction, but it also is a surprisingly endearing tale of an individual's search for happiness in a limitless cosmos.  Oh, it is also a love letter to pools.  Science fiction at its best!

The Secret War

Science fiction needs more horror and "The Secret War" delivers.  It is a tale of a Russian infantry unit that is tasked with hunting down the hell-spawned monsters released when the Bolsheviks dabbled in the occult during the Russian revolution (Marxists as the bad guys? How refreshing!).  The animation across LDR is stunning, but this particular episode is incredible for its photo-realistic qualities.  If this continues, it won't be long before flesh and blood actors are laid-off and have to start earning an honest living!


And that's about the best of the crop.  Four episodes out of eighteen - a dismal score.  That is not to say that some of the other episodes didn't have their moments - Suits had a cool Starcraft vibe to it, and Beyond the Aquila Rift was on the right sci-fi horror path until it fizzled with an overly long sex scene that led to a banal ending - but the rest of the shows were largely forgettable.

Overall, I am glad to hear that Love Death + Robots will be getting a second season...but I might not be around to see it.  The juvenile flaws of LDR are quite common with most of Netflix's original content, something that has been making me question if I am the target audience for the streaming service (I think you know which way I am leaning).  That, along with Netflix having one of the worst user interfaces I have ever encountered in any app - it routinely crashes all three of my Roku streamers, and is only marginally more useful on my PC - has me ready to pull the plug.  Oh, look!  I just got an invite to reactivate my Netflix DVD plan with an included free month!  At least with the DVD plan, I can get access to a far larger movie library that includes something other than shows made for kids.

 I think I made my decision.

Perhaps I will be back when the third season of Stranger Things arrives.

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