Love, Death & Robots

[Eldan]

Surprised that we don't have a thread to yet. What a weird thing this show is.

So we have some excellent adaptations of short stories by Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton and Joe Scalzi, some mixed in experimental pieces that are hit and miss, and then just some weird stuff that are total misses for me. Like, why put a straight up vampire story into a science fiction anthology, and not even a good one.

Worth a look, absolutely. No episode so far is over 15 minutes, most are around 10 with credits.

Edit: warning for those who haven't seen it: I'm seven episodes in and in some episodes, the sex gets really uncomfortably in your face.

[Razade]

On the last five. They're short and not really over much happens in each so I'll run down the list and try to be as non-spoiler-y as possible.

I'll echo Eldan if slightly less on the uncomfortable level. I watched them all at work, in a kitchen, and other than 7 I felt fairly ok watching them around other people. Then again, kitchen work is rather blue. Still though. The sex is...there. The worst it gets is episode 7...at least up to what I've seen. Seven has a full on sex scene. No penetration is shown but that's about the only thing keeping it from it getting an X rating. Otherwise the "sex" is just a bunch of CGI penises and boobs (and the occasional vagina). Still though. If nudity and implied/overt softcore sex offends...avoid this.

1. Sonnie's Edge is the first episode, it starts out fairly cool. Battle monsters controlled by humans. Bit of lesbian second base and a twist. This sets the tone of the series as a whole and it isn't a terrible introduction to what's to come. The CGI is honestly really good, a thing that is the case throughout, and the concept is cute enough to keep up with an 11ish minute episode. The twist is...predictable. All of the twists, and there are many to come, are if you're familiar with Sci-Fi.

2. Three Robots is what it says on the tin. Three robots making fun of humans after they've killed each other. Introduces a theme in all the rest of the episodes I've seen with hula girl statues and cats. Not much else to say. It's funny but it's not really gripping outside of the humor. The humor is fairly stock standard "isn't this funny humans did this?" type of thing. There's also a mention, if I recall, to a later episode about sentient yogurt. We'll get to that.

3. The Witness is your classic surreal, Paprika inspired head trip. Fetish fuel, murder and some good CGI make it a fun watch but I didn't really get much out of it. The twist is fairly generic and until I re-read the synopsis I'd honestly forgotten this one.

4. Suits is just "What if Starcraft focused on farmers in a Zerg Rush". It's fun but the short format keeps us from really feeling for the characters and the sacrifices they have to make. The action is good, it's fun to watch but it wouldn't have benefited from being longer or lost anything if it were shorter. It's just classic giant bug killing in mech suits.

5. Sucker of Souls is great. The comedy is good, the art is stylistic and neat and it's one of my favorites. Mostly because of the amusing characters. It ends like most of the episodes, with everyone biting the dust. I'd actually watch a TV show based on the main characters. The dialog and chemistry is there and "genre savvy mercs fight famous monsters" is no worse a TV pitch than anything else on TV at present. This one is worth the ones that don't hit quite as heavy. I'd even watch it again which I wouldn't say about any of the others up to now.


Like, why put a straight up vampire story into a science fiction anthology, and not even a good one.

Because it was absolutely hilarious. It wasn't trying to be a good vampire story. It was trying to be a genre savvy lolfest and I for one enjoyed every damn second of it. It was certainly better than a lot of the later episodes so if seven episodes in you're thinking there are some real snoozers...the worst is yet to come.

6. When the Yogurt Took Over is what it says on the tin. The shortest of the episodes that I've seen coming in at 5 minutes...it's just what it is. It's not great. It's only kinda amusing. Very "Humans are crap" oriented. If that's your shtick...you'll enjoy it. Otherwise it just sorta felt...eh. One joke did land as I am from Ohio. It comes up, I laughed. But that's really all there was there.

7. Beyond the Aquila Rift has a lot of questions, no real answers and the best CGI of the ones I've seen. The twist is there...it's not a real curve ball but it's...something. The sex scene is in this one as mentioned. It's graphic and takes up at least two minutes of the 12 minute run time. I enjoyed the characters. It could have been better explained and detailed for a longer run time. Parts of me wish it was. The fact nothing is explained just made me go "Oh. Well, next one then I guess?" and everyone else who was watching it with me more or less had the same response. Like all the others, the short run time doesn't give you time to invest in the characters so the hell they go through is harder to identify with.

This, and a few others, are based off short stories as Eldan said. Poking around it does seem my questions have answers. Which is cool, because I get closure. Less cool because...if people aren't aware of this or don't care enough...well. I guess if they don't care enough then they're probably not going to be as annoyed that we don't get any answers.

8. Good Hunting is awesome. Steampunk China needs more love. The art is amazing. The concepts are great. The characters...are ok. The concepts are good but the story just has so much to cover with so little time everything kinda happens on top of itself. I'd happily watch a longer series of this so we could focus on the drama of the characters. The ending is good. It wins some easy points by torturing people who beat up women. Cathartic? Yeah. Low hanging fruit? Absolutely. No one is cheering for the other team.

9. The Dump is....eh. If it were the first episode the "twist" would have set a better tone than the episode they picked with the first. It'd have even been cool if the start of The Dump was Episode 1 and the the story it tells goes into the rest of the anthology and the end was episode 18. Give it some better framing context. It doesn't do that. It's not ground breaking, the art is just ok and there's not a whole lot more to say about it. Not bad but after Episode 7 and 8? Eh.

10. Shape Shifters was a fun one. It took the time it was given and used it well. Werewolf fights are cool, they play with the regeneration so the fight we get is particularly brutal. There's no twist, there's really nothing here. It wants to be a "war is bad" story, it hits those notes. It aims for "racism is bad". It hits those notes but much like "hitting women sex workers is bad" from Episode 8...IDK who they're arguing against. Maybe no one, but if they're not...they're just preaching to the choir I feel.

11. Helping Hand. Boy. If you thought Gravity was boring...condense it down to about 9 minutes and throw in some gore porn to round it out. As I've said before, the short format makes it impossible to connect with the characters in any meaningful way. Even less so when we don't get anything about the character in the time she's on screen. So yeah, on a visceral level we can understand that using your own frozen arm to generate some force to get you back to your spaceship after you're knocked off into the void of space is a serious thing...that's all you connect with. Wow, what a horrible thing to happen.

Then it's over. Helping Hand was my least favorite of the ones I've seen. It was the one the people who showed me the series said would be my least favorite. It was their least favorite. I predict it'll be most peoples least favorite.

12. Fish Night also hit a fairly low note for me. The characters are unlikable in the short period we see them. The end comes as no surprise. It was pretty while it was on but that's all I can say about it. The concept is also cool and a fairly solid defeater for those who believe in ghosts. That being, if ghosts are a thing then why is it just humans? Why can't it be animals and if it can be those why not prehistoric animals and fish? Watching ancient ghost life float around the Arizona desert was fun. S'bout all I've got.

13. Lucky 13 is all about giving things a chance and it was a cool thing to watch. I really wish I could say more but it was really just about a space ship and her pilot who came to love one another and then it ends.


Fairly excited to end the series. I doubt the rest will blow me away too terribly much, none of them really blew me away before the last five either though. Cute diversions to watch between food orders but nothing really other than that.

[Eldan]

See, I loved Aquila Rift. But then, I'm an Alastair Reynolds fanboy. The short story is a bit longer than what's shown in the series, but doesn't answer much more if I remember it correctly. It's been a few years. Sucker of Souls, though, did absolutely nothing for me. It was so, so boring.

As for the uncomfortable sex, I mostly meant The Witness, which I just found uncomfortable to watch. And not very head-trippy either. I think I had figured it about pretty much straight away and really wished hte twist was better.

As for the twists in general, well, I've read the short stories that, so far, about half the episodes are based on, so very little actually surprises me. I'm watching it to see what they did to the stories. Like Sonnie's Edge. Nothing new to me, but some excellent fight choreography and CGI, I thought.

[Razade]

See, I loved Aquila Rift. But then, I'm an Alastair Reynolds fanboy. The short story is a bit longer than what's shown in the series, but doesn't answer much more if I remember it correctly. It's been a few years. Sucker of Souls, though, did absolutely nothing for me. It was so, so boring.

I hit reddit to see if answers were to be found. The answers I got were enough, mostly "is Greta actually benevolent" and "what actually got the ship where it was". Those are answered in the short story. Brief as they are, but the answers are good enough.

Sucker of Souls just had the right level of snark to it for me. Not much happens sure but I don't think much was supposed to happen. It wasn't a vampire story, it was a joke on the conventions of such stories. At least how I chose to interpret it. The grizzled mercs made all of it worth while, the dialog was snappy and blunt which I like and not a lot of time was spent on the fighting which is good. Enough blood and gore in the rest to really sate me.

I was promised "comedy" when I was forced to watch the first few episodes. Sucker of Souls finally gave me a taste, brief as it was.


As for the uncomfortable sex, I mostly meant The Witness, which I just found uncomfortable to watch. And not very head-trippy either. I think I had figured it about pretty much straight away and really wished hte twist was better.


Ahhh...yeah. I can see where the fetish-esque veneer of the sex club scene might be a bit gratuitous. It doesn't help that it's pretty much right in the middle and the bulk of the episode. The twist was...really dull I agree. Having read exactly none of the short stories I still predicted 90% of the twists and the ones I didn't get were only because what I expected was better than what I got. The Witness was one of those.

[Eldan]

Mm. It didn't help that the ending of The Witness was pretty much just "a weird thing happened and it's what you expected. No, no explanation whatsoever."

[Razade]

Mm. It didn't help that the ending of The Witness was pretty much just "a weird thing happened and it's what you expected. No, no explanation whatsoever."

I feel that's how most of the stories go. I applaud Netflix for trying some more niche things. They cleared a lot of programs to try and put out new and different things if I recall the memo that got sent out as they canned Sense8 and some other shows. The short format is a problem for LDR. Longer episodes and less of them would have been something I'd have liked to see. Maybe if they do this again we'll see that. I doubt it. But one can hope.

I'm not even much a fan of sci-fi. I only watched what I've watched because the guys I work with put it on their phone, when we usually listen to music, and asked me to go along with it.

[Lemmy]

I found most episodes to be quite "Meh"... There was maybe 5 episodes that I actually enjoyed. Most are too short and predictable with too shallow a premise to really hold my interest.

Even the ones that have a cool concept simply don't have the chance of actually explore it.

It's a cool idea for a series... But didn't really pan out very well, IMO.

[tomandtish]

13. Lucky 13 is all about giving things a chance and it was a cool thing to watch. I really wish I could say more but it was really just about a space ship and her pilot who came to love one another and then it ends.


Lucky 13 is a spin-off from Marko Kloos' Frontlines (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CIXX144/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0) series and has been a short story as well.

[Eldan]

Okay, now that I actually got that far, nope, Helping Hand is really good. Certainly one of the better ones.

[Narkis]

I'm about halfway in. Oddly, Netflix seems to have them in different order for me. I've watched Yogurt, Ice Age, 3 Robots, Fish Night, Sonnie's Edge, Witness, Suits, and Sucker of Souls, in that order. Of those, my favorites were definitely Sonnie's Edge and Suits, I really disliked Witness and Sucker of Souls and found the rest to be decent enough.

[Leewei]

I enjoyed the series quite a bit. I found myself recalling Heavy Metal - and later learned that this was intended to be a reboot, but that they decided not to use the name.

The artistic quality and the hook are both quite good, then it all turns into garbage. The gratuitous nudity and threat of murder make this seem downright rapey. Almost as bad, there is exactly one other character that interacts with the protagonist / antagonist - a diabolical transvestite caricature of HIM from the Power Puff Girls.

Screaming Naked Girl and Satan-as-a-Transvestite really didn't work for me, especially in a time loop. Er, time Moebius strip.

[Razade]

I'm about halfway in. Oddly, Netflix seems to have them in different order for me. I've watched Yogurt, Ice Age, 3 Robots, Fish Night, Sonnie's Edge, Witness, Suits, and Sucker of Souls, in that order. Of those, my favorites were definitely Sonnie's Edge and Suits, I really disliked Witness and Sucker of Souls and found the rest to be decent enough.

Netflix changed the order for various regions for no real reason other than "it's a non-standard show so why do we need a non-standard format?"


Lucky 13 is a spin-off from Marko Kloos' Frontlines (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CIXX144/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0) series and has been a short story as well.

Right, but none of that matters if you don't know that. Which most won't. I wasn't giving reviews based on the works they were based off of, I was giving them as someone who wasn't aware they were based on anything at all.

[Erloas]

Netflix changed the order for various regions for no real reason other than "it's a non-standard show so why do we need a non-standard format?"
From what I heard it was a very specific test to see how much differently people viewed the series changed just based on the order in which they watched it. My guess is that tone and expectation (and if people keep watching) is set in the first one or two parts.


I haven't finished watching it, I think I'm half to 3/4 of the way finished. Not directly related, but I really only watch Netflix pretty late at night (odd schedule) and have sort of started rating shows on if they keep me up or if I start nodding off. Like Antman and the Wasp I had to watch like 3 times before I managed to finish it, but things like Daredevil and Punisher I've got to make myself stop. And on that very unscientific metric this show isn't doing so great.

So far there are some interesting stories and visuals, but nothing really drawing or keeping me in. The tone, style, and art direction all change pretty drastically between some of the parts. It doesn't feel like there is any way many of the stories are in the same universe. It is hard to really care about anything and no time to get invested in any characters or setting. The spectacle just isn't enough to draw me in. I suppose it probably works better for a YouTube generation where watching a bunch of completely disjointed shorts back to back is a thing, but that isn't me.

I'll probably finish watching them, but I can't say I'll care if more are made or if it goes away.

[theMycon]

I'm about 8 epsiodes in. I enjoy the ride, but haven't found anything to care about once I put it down. A few episodes are too non-verbal to use just as background entertainment, but I wouldn't devote more than 30% brainpower to anything I've seen.
It'd be a great 15-minute distraction when drunk, or a binge on (redacted). Sober watching feels like a waste of time.



As for the uncomfortable sex, I mostly meant The Witness, which I just found uncomfortable to watch. And not very head-trippy either. I think I had figured it about pretty much straight away and really wished hte twist was better.

As a mid-30's gay man who has attended many bachelor parties, no part of a woman's anatomy upsets me. I find certain things academically interesting*, and most guy's attempts to make a woman appear sexy are downright hilarious (see below).

Aside from seeing the twist literally the second she picked up the gun, my biggest objection to this episode was her throwing on three articles of clothing in the middle of running away, and two of them being 8" strappy stiletto heels. Then she sprints across rooftops & down a fire escape at a blazingly fast pace before taking them off to run barefoot through some puddles.

*For example, a new way of styling their body hair catches my attention the same way a new single-use power tool does- probably useless with the equipment I have, but I still want to see it work. Though a Brazilian can involve surprising amounts of blood.

[Razade]

Finished the series. The posted order on Wikipedia is the order I saw it in. The last few episodes were cool. None of them were insanely great but none of them were as bad as Helping Hand or as needless as the Yogurt episode. I enjoyed Xima Blue the most, I think. Very Zen.

[Eldan]

Zima Blue was indeed excellent. I was really happy with that one, and that they chose that out of all the Alastair Reynolds shortstories to adapt.

[Razade]

Zima Blue was indeed excellent. I was really happy with that one, and that they chose that out of all the Alastair Reynolds shortstories to adapt.

I liked both of his adaptions in this enough to look into some of his actual work. So if that was the intent they managed one person to look in on his writings. I think Xima Blue is my favorite on a lot of re-thinking. It's certainly got the deepest return in investment if you're at all interested in the concepts it offers. Most of the short stories are just tits, gore and guns. Which I'm all for! But Xima Blue at least tries to scratch some of the deeper philosophical aspects that Sci-Fi can evoke.

[Eldan]

Yeah. Beyond the Aquila Rift was not that big on the sex scene either, from what I remember, though it's been a few years. The alien just tried a long series of things in order to try and wake the humans up gently.

[Razade]

I don't mind the sex really, there's a lot of titilation in LD&R but...there was a lot of that in Heavy Metal. Was a lot of it needless? Yeah. Absolutely. Was it something I'd avoid if I knew it had a lot of it in the stories beforehand? Naw.

[Tyndmyr]

So we have some excellent adaptations of short stories by Alastair Reynolds, Peter F. Hamilton and Joe Scalzi, some mixed in experimental pieces that are hit and miss, and then just some weird stuff that are total misses for me. Like, why put a straight up vampire story into a science fiction anthology, and not even a good one.

The vampire one does feel super out of place. I was expecting some kind of techno reveal, but...nope, it was just played super straight. Okay, I guess.

The adult content feels...gratuitous sometimes. I do not mind a bit of mature content as plot requires, but some of these just dwell on that, and skimp on plot.

The episode ordering is not consistent. There are four orderings, and which one you got may not be the same as others. This makes discussing "the first episode" difficult. I'm uncertain what the value of this is.

Three Robots is top-notch. Family friendly, too.

The chase-scene episode seems...empty. The plot could fit on a post it note with room to spare.

Mecha farmers is a cool world. I'd probably watch a series set here.

Steampunk China is a beautiful aesthetic. Story aside, the world itself is amazingly pretty.

I'm kinda hoping Netflix does more anthology stuff, though.

[Eldan]

The vampire one does feel super out of place. I was expecting some kind of techno reveal, but...nope, it was just played super straight.

I would have bet money on "it's a VR game".

[Wookieetank]

Finished watching the series last night and I thought it was fantastic. I was very impressed with the overall creativity that was present with this show. I quite enjoy short stories, so seeing a show version of that was a lot of fun.

Even if they don't end up doing a sequel/continuation of this, doing something similar but with a different theme would be neat: Space, Aliens & Marines, or Magic, Castles & Critters or Life, Meaning & 42.

[Razade]

They're doing another season from what I was told. IDK if the guy was serious or if he was just getting wrong information, I haven't bothered to look myself.

[ImperiousLeader]

I marathoned through these. Liked most of them, liked the diversity of styles. Hope that they do more.

[Knaight]

These were a bit hit and miss for me - I liked about half, loved about a quarter, and disliked to hated the remaining quarter (especially The Witness, which was everything I hated about arthouse magnified by being in the same anthology as Zima Blue, which was showing what arthouse could be). The fanservice also got a bit out of hand in places, especially the otherwise excellent Good Hunting.

[Warlawk]

It felt like a pretty mixed bag to me. I don't watch TV, I think the last series that I actually watched was Heroes and Firefly. This one got so much attention in my circle that I actually watched it and I'm glad I did, not everything was amazing but there was enough fun that I don't regret spending the time after not watching TV for like a decade. The biggest issue I had was that if I wanted to watch porn (even softcore), I would go watch porn. One thing I think a lot of people need to remember is that this type of a series is not necessarily aimed at hardcore scifi/fantasy fans. It needs to appeal to the general market and I feel like over all it did a pretty good job of doing that while still being fun enough for us geeky types that have been watching this stuff all our lives. Yes we can see the twists coming, but they can still be fun stories. **As a note, I am not familiar with any of the short stories.**

Sonnies Edge) Fun story, great action. Had some fanservice but it wasn't overdone. Loved the animation style and look of the whole thing. Enjoyed it a lot. It was my episode #1 and did a good job of pulling me in.

Three Robots) Fun, lighthearted, something I could watch with my kids. Nothing new or revolutionary here but it was fun.

The Witness) The first complete dud for me. I guess it kind of looked nice? The art style didn't do much for me, the headtrip was... not. It was 12 minutes of pointless T&A with distinct rapey vibes. No thanks.

Suits) New? Revolutionary? Classy Cinema? Nope... but damn is it a lot of fun. There's a reason mecha shooting bugs is so popular, it's fun. Obviously you can't expect too much character depth in a 17 minute short but I felt like they actually did pretty good on that front. By the end of 17 minutes you have a good idea of the personalities and relationships between the three neighbors and an ugly scarecrow. Enjoyed this one and so did the kids.

Sucker of Souls) I have very mixed feelings about this episode. It was fairly well done, I enjoyed the humor and interactions. After what had been presented thus far both the art style and story were a jarring change. Not terrible by any means, it just felt out of place.

When the Yogurt Took Over) The second dud for me. It pretty much just felt pointless. No action, no amazing art stylings, not much in the way of humor and a 'story' that can pretty much be summed up as "People are bad, mmmmkkkk?" Very meh.

Beyond the Aquila Rift) Beautiful appearance, story driven without much in the way of action. Did a decent job. It was strange and didn't explain itself, I kind of liked that. Heavy on the fanservice.

Good Hunting) I'm not sure what I think about this one. It's got some action, a neat story, great visuals, not excessive fanservice... but it just fell flat for me. There isn't something specific I can point to and say why, there was nothing wrong with it but it didn't really do anything to pull me in either.

The Dump) Silly, kind of funny I guess. Didn't do much for me but it wasn't horrible.

Shape-Shifters) Great looking piece, it gives us some characters that are identifiable and touches on social issues that are relevant without pounding it in your face too much. It gives a good framework for some hot (were-)wolf on wolf on wolf action. The nudity made sense from a story perspective and didn't feel forced to me.

Helping Hand) Not a complete dud, but fairly boring. No real reason to invest in the character or care what's going on.

Fish Night) A dud for me. The characters aren't interesting, the setting isn't interesting, the premise is vaguely novel I suppose but not enough to drive 10 minutes.

Lucky 13) Another very fun piece. It looks nice, it's got some fun action, the characters are... there. Just a fun watch without too much to think about.

Zima Blue) This one does a full 180 from the last episode. Story driven, looks nice and explores some cool ground that is relevant to developments we are making as a species now. It was solid enough to stand on its own with no action to speak of.

Blindspot) Now we flip another 180 back to action. The art style is a departure from the norms of most episodes so far. The episode felt a little flat to me. It wasn't horrible but the action wasn't good enough to carry the episode and none of the characters were interesting enough to care about.

Ice Age) A Live Action... thing. Random, uninteresting and pointless.

Alternate Histories) Worst episode in the series IMO. Terrible animation, completely lazy, pointless. Give us 6 different alternate sets of events where the totality of the differences is "So and So entered the war at a different date, so and so surrendered, NEXT!" Next indeed, hard pass on this.

The Secret War) A strong finish to the series for me. It's a nice looking piece and gives us a scifi twist on real histories. It's got some great action scenes, makes sense and has characters who seem like people.

As a point of clarification in my look at nudity/fanservice. I have children but do not shield them too heavily from mild violence and nudity because... it's out there, teaching them and making them comfortable with it is better than just shielding them from it IMO. For me this can be a defining thing, if a kid walks by and asks why there's a naked person on screen and I can give them a legit reason (He's a werewolf and the transformation would destroy his clothes/equipment) then it's not fanservice and I have no issue with it. If the only reason someone is naked is to be naked without having a reason or adding anything to the story, it's a strike against the show for me (A small one, but certainly still there).

[Eldan]

People who liked Aquila Rift and Zima Blue really should check out more of Alastair Reynold's work. He's a pretty dang good big ideas space opera guy in general. Especially those who want a bit more background and a longer story on Aquila Rift, the short story goes into more detail.