'Love, Death & Robots' Season 3 Seems Secondary, But Has A Lot Of Merit

On May 20, the Netflix streaming service released a new season of the famous animated series Love, Death and Robots by Tim Miller and David Fincher. Although, to be precise, the creators call it "the third collection." Indeed, it is more logical to consider the continuation of the second half of the second season. This is understandable even by the number of episodes: the first collection included 18 episodes, and the next - 8 and 9, respectively.

In fact, it seems that there is no difference how to divide the seasons, especially since the episodes (with a single exception) are not related to each other. But if you combine the second and third parts, the continuation of "Love, death and robots" will seem more holistic and stronger: previous eight episodes many scolded for the lack of surprises and the abundance of philosophical reasoning.

Now the project has returned to the atmosphere that captivated the audience at the start. The new episodes have more variety, violence and provocative themes. Here are just a few of them that seem to be self-repetitions. But individual series are so impressive that they compensate for all the shortcomings.

Unnecessary Sequel and Animation Exercises

Surprisingly, the weakest episode of the collection is the first one. Moreover, he directly continues the famous story "Three Robots", which was loved by the audience back in 2019. An already familiar company continues its journey through the post-apocalyptic world, figuring out why humanity has died out.

It seems to be the same humor. But there is a feeling that the authors are trying to explain in detail the once funny anecdote. And everyone knows that the best way to kill a joke is to chew on its meaning. In addition, the morality that is compulsively led to is too obvious. As if someone does not know that it is better to take care of the environment, and not lock yourself in bunkers.

In addition, there are several episodes in the season that will delight you with visuals and even a funny plot, but will surely be instantly forgotten. For example, the series “Kill Team Kill” by Jennifer Yu Nelson (in the previous collection she filmed “Star Team”). It's pure action movie about a special forces team that is at war with a monster. Even the humor seems to come from the Predator and other movies of the eighties. Although it is worth noting that the director this time did not work with Tim Miller's Blur Studio, but with a different team. And the visuals fit perfectly with the content.

Or, let's say, purely comedic "Mason's Rats" about a farmer's war with evolved rodents. The plot is based on the short story of the same name by Neil Asher and allows you to simply relax between more serious stories.

But perhaps the most prominent of the visual experiments without deep subtext is the Night of the Mini-Dead episode. Imagine the plot of a classic movie about zombie, which then develops into a worldwide apocalypse. A couple makes love at night in a cemetery, they are immediately attacked by the walking dead, and soon hordes of monsters are already attacking all countries. And then huge mutants join them.

Now imagine that all this is presented as a puppet cartoon, as if someone has placed their favorite toys and construction sets on the table. And even the angle is always such that the viewer is looking at what is happening from above. Amazing and crazy combination.

The ending is also impressive, where it is both funny and accurately shown that even such a global conflict is a trifle within the framework of the universe.

But a few vivid and almost shocking episodes

To prove that the third collection turned out to be worthy of attention, it is enough to mention one detail: the famous David Fincher directed a cartoon for the first time. Here, however, there is some irony: among the short films, his episode turned out to be the longest, it is clearly felt that the framework of the anthology does not apply to the director.

However, the twenty-minute episode "Bad Ride", on the one hand, flies literally in one breath, on the other, it looks like a full-fledged film. The plot tells about the crew of the ship, which is attacked by a giant sentient crab. One of the sailors is literally thrown to be eaten by a monster, and they enter into an agreement. Fincher shot the episode in the best traditions of the fantastic thriller. Here are ambiguous heroes, and noble goals that make you go to meanness. And even visually, "Bad Ride" is a typical Fincher work, with cold color schemes and flashes of orange.

But apart from Fincher, there is something to pay attention to in the 3rd season of “Love, Death and Robots”. So, Tim Miller does not lag behind, having staged the philosophical and social “Swarm” about a person who studies another form of life and wants to use it for his own purposes. The series has literally everything for which the audience fell in love with the project: eroticism, photorealistic animation mixed with fantasy landscapes and creatures. And, of course, the creepy final twist. Although there is a feeling that Miller, unlike the aforementioned Fincher, did not have enough time. Too abruptly, he jumps to the ending.

And finally, it is worth mentioning the main return: the final episode was directed by Alberto Mielgo and pinkman.tv studio. It was this team that staged the Witness in the first season, in which the girl runs away from her pursuer.

The new work "Jibaro", where you can instantly recognize the style of the author, is radically different from the previous story. This is a fantasy about the deaf knight, who faces the siren that killed his comrades. The episode sometimes seems too nervous due to the abrupt editing of the sound: it is sometimes simply turned off to convey the feelings of the hero. But on the other hand, the meeting of two characters, which develops into an erotic and cruel dance, is simply mesmerizing.

It is not necessary to describe in more detail each episode of the new collection. Moreover, you can watch the sequel in just a couple of hours. It can simply be said that after a slower and less memorable second part, the series returns to its roots. This is again a tough and very diverse anthology, the plots of which are based on the same three themes from the title: love, death and a little bit of robots.