Not enough love for robots

KARACHI:

Netflix recently dropped the fourth volume of acclaimed animated anthology series Love, Death & Robots,.created by David Fincher and Tim Miller. Since 2019, Fincher and Miller have crafted this sleek universe where opportunities for top-of-the-line animation and exciting, genre-bending stories are in abundance. However, after six years and four volumes, it seems that the series is running out of original ideas.

Standouts

While Volume 4 of Love, Death & Robots still delivers absolutely beautiful animation and keeps its diversity in terms of the different visual styles, it's the storytelling that suffers.

The first three volumes were hugely successful because they always had a few standout episodes. The series has always been structured to offer a few episodes, usually 10 to 15 minutes, which have the strongest story concepts backed by the most stunning animation. These episodes offer a banger beginning, middle and end to each volume, which is sprinkled with shorter, usually comic experiments.

The first volume – with its 18 episodes, the highest of any so far – offered the most gems. Episodes like Sonnie's Edge, Good Hunting, The Witness and Zima Blue blew away the audience.

Sonnie's Edge was a revenge tale set in the underground 'beastie' fighting world while Good Hunting explored the bond between a shape-shifter and the son of a spirit hunter in a rapidly industrialising world. The Witness follows a woman fleeing through the city after she witnesses a murder while Zima Blue recounts the journey of the artist Zima and his true identity in a story that leaves your jaw on the floor.

While the eight-episode second volume saw interesting ideas like genetic modification in Ice and themes of immortality and loneliness in Snow in the Desert, it was Jibaro in volume three which deserves a spot in the all-time great episodes of the series. Alberto Mielgo's masterpiece became a cultural phenomenon due to its hypnotic CGI work and brilliant characters and story, all told without words. You could see its influence as tons of fans recreated their own versions of the iconic 'dance of death' sequence with all the makeup, jewelry and costumes.

The purpose of all this is to say that there are no episodes in the latest volume which achieved this level of emotional resonance. This volume consists mainly of filler episodes that are rehashed from filler ideas of previous seasons.

Night of the Mini Dead (Vol. 3) became Close Encounters of the Mini Kind. The Other Large Thing serves as a prequel to Vol. 1's Three Robots. Micro experiments like Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners, while funny, are not strong enough to be complete episodes. They are test exercises at best and feel too short to have any substance.

Even Can't Stop, a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert with animated puppets, directed by Fincher himself, seems underwhelming.

This is something that Neill Blomkamp's Oats Studios also did back in 2021. The District 9 director experimented with his own collection of strange, fascinating world building and concepts. Love, Death & Robots Vol. 4 faces similar issues as Oats Studios did: exciting concepts which are left half-baked almost as teasers to full-length films which never come about.

In love with death and robots

This is not to say that Vol. 4 offers nothing. It offers just enough to keep it going. There are some great ideas in episodes such as Spider Rose, The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur, How Zeke Got Religion and For He Can Creep.

The first three of the aforementioned episodes come close to scratching the signature Love, Death & Robots itch. Spider Rose, set in the same universe as Swarm from Vol. 3, explores a grieving woman's pursuit of revenge with the help of a furry companion.

The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur offers a race-slash-fight between genetically modified gladiators atop custom-bred dinosaurs on a space station above Jupiter. It follows the same tropes of dystopian sci-fi where the poor die for the entertainment of the elite until it backfires. Despite the rehashed narrative and a feeling that perhaps more could have been done with the story, the world-building and characters make this episode a worthy addition to the series.

How Zeke Got Religion is absolute chaos, a loud, twisted feverish nightmare come to life. It works with a similar structure as Kill Team Kill (Vol. 3) where a team of US armed forces fight inhumane beasts they never expected. While that team was at least foul-mouthed and humorous, the new deployment of the forces forgo the humor. And considering the hellish monstrosity that awaits them mid-air, you can't blame them for not finding the situation funny.

In the same vein, we find 400 Boys where a band of survivors fight giant baby monsters called 'Boys'. But beside the hilarious image of baby-faced giants causing destruction, it doesn't give you much to take home.

Love, Death & Robots also offers a surprise this season with a live-action episode 'Golgotha' in which an aquatic alien race arrives on earth. It essentially warns us not to kill and torture aquatic life and maintain the balance of the ecosystem. But the episode itself isn't much of a standout. Despite having something important to say, it doesn't say so with impact and style.

For He Can Creep had the potential to be an all-time great episode. Set in London in 1757, Satan is here to battle a poet's cat as he wishes to take the poet's soul. The soul is in the form of a new verse and taking it would allow Satan to rule over the earth. But his cat isn't a pushover and will fight at all costs to defend its master.

An interesting twist on the deal-with-the-devil idea that has prevailed in myth, literature and film for so long, the episode still feels like it tries too hard to be fun. But there is a lot that could have been done with this 'selling the soul' trope, and the makers end up choosing a rather vanilla iteration and presentation of the idea.

Regardless, while the latest volume does offer just enough dopamine to not be bored, it is not as engaging or innovative as the early volumes. On the animation front, it still delivers top-notch visuals and sound. The issue isn't with the production, but rather the quality of stories. It feels littered with vignettes and unfinished ideas, and often weak concepts to begin with.

One does hope we get a Vol. 5 to rebound with some exceptional takes. If the makers have to follow old concepts and flesh them out, the worlds of Jibaro, Zima Blue and Good Hunting offer plenty of rich aspects and depth to go on for the next several seasons.