If you haven’t checked out Love Death + Robots on Netflix yet, I highly recommend you do it before the third season comes out on May 20.
What is the show about? LDR snuck onto Netflix in March 2019, and I stumbled across it by accident. I was instantly hooked. The premise is similar to that of Black Mirror – each episode carries a different story by a different director – but unlike Black Mirror, the episodes are short (some less than ten minutes and only a few over twenty), and all are animated. Given the directors are different, the animation style varies from hyper-realistic (think video-game cutscenes) to anime to cartoons.
All the episodes are somehow related to “love,” “death,” and/or “robots” to lesser or greater degrees. Some episodes are hard-hitting and impactful, while others are hilarious. Some are sexy, and others are tragic. You never know what the episode will be about, but you will definitely be entertained.
And because the theme is wholly science-fiction based, there are a couple of post-apocalyptic episodes (and others that have post-apocalyptic elements). Those set firmly in the genre are Seasons 1’s Episode 2 “Three Robots” and Episode 4 “Suits” (the latter is my favourite episode).
The trailer (below) appears to be a mish-mash of footage from previous episodes along with new, so it doesn’t tell us much – though it seems the tone, beautiful graphics, and the theme will be similar. And it does look like we’ll be getting another bit with the “Three Robots,” so there’s at least one post-apocalyptic episode!
Check out the trailer here!
Now, I do have a critique. While I love the show, I really do hope there are more episodes in season 3 directed by women. Of the 26 episodes so far, only one has been directed by a woman, and they gave her the episode focusing on child-bearing (which is a bit reductive). There is also an over-abundance of hyper-sexualized women’s bodies in the series, which feels incredibly dated for 2022, and one episode (“The Witness”) was blatantly objectifying. I’m not saying we can’t have nudity, but women’s bodies are used as “sexy props” quite often in the series, and it’s eye-rollingly annoying.
Still, that’s not to say the episodes aren’t fun and stunning to look at, but it would be nice to have an “adult” show that didn’t feel the need to pander to this depiction of women’s bodies.
Love Death + Robots Season 3 comes out on Netflix on May 20, 2022.
