Netflix has launched - today! - a new animated anthology series called Love, Death and Robots. It has 18 episodes, ranging from 6 to 20 minutes in length in a variety of styles. Two are original, the rest are based on existing SF short fiction, including three stories by John Scalzi, two by Alastair Reynolds, one by Mark Kloos, one by Joe Lansdale and one by Peter F. Hamilton (Sonnie's Edge from the Second Chance at Eden collection, set in the Night's Dawn universe).
I've seen the first three and very impressed so far. The animation is excellent, the scripts are pretty good and the stories quite effective. Hoping the rest keep up the good work.
Full story roster:
Sonnie's Edge by Peter F. Hamilton
Beyond the Aquila Rift by Alastair Reynolds
Three Robots by John Scalzi
Fish Night by Joe Lansdale
Secret War by David W. Amendola
Ice Age by Michael Swanwick
The Witness by Alberto Mieglo*
Suits by Steven Lewis
Sucker of Souls by Kirsten Cross
When the Yogurt Took Over by John Scalzi
Good Hunting by Ken Liu
The Dump by Joe Landsale
Shape Shifters by Marko Kloos
Helping Hand by Claudine Griggs
Lucky 13 by Marko Kloos
Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds
Blindspot by Vitaliy Shushko*
Alternate Histories by John Scalzi
* original teleplays not based on existing short stories
Yeah I am loving the show so far.
This reminds me very much of Heavy Metal. Even the overabundance of female nudity. I feel like I should be watching it at 2am while me parents are asleep lol.
There is a reasonable amount of male nudity as well. And yes, the project started as David Fincher's remake of HEAVY METAL, but studios balked at it, so he recast it as an anthology series and took it to Netflix.
Apparently a second season is in the planning stages.
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Freehold will watch.
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This reminds me very much of Heavy Metal. Even the overabundance of female nudity. I feel like I should be watching it at 2am while me parents are asleep lol.
Freehold will watch twice.
I watched the first three (Sonnie's Edge, 3 Robots, and The Witness) and didn't really care for it much to progress further. 3 Robots was fun, and Sonnie's Edge was interesting, but The Witness fell pretty short, and I didn't stick around for a 4th episode.
The stories are wildly different in tone, length and execution,s o I think that was a mistake. Of the other stories, Suits, Beyond the Aquila Rift and Lucky 13 were also excellent.
I'd say that The Witness has the most striking visual style, but also the thinnest story and is the weakest episode overall. It's also, rather notably, one of two stories that wasn't written by an actual SF author based on an pre-existing story.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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At the recommendation of a number of internet folks I checked out the "Love Death + Robots" anthology series of shorts on Netflix, and generally speaking I was quite pleased. It is definitely in the vein of Heavy Metal (or old comics like Weird War Tales, for those old enough to remember them), and most of the shorts are a very hard R in terms of content (violence, language, abundant male and female nudity), so definitely not family friendly.
Some shorts were better than others, but they ran the gamut from whimsical to light action adventure to gritty noir to straight-up horror. Some have happy endings, some very much do not.
I'm not sure if it was my favorite one, but the one that instantly inspired me to want to write something like it for an RPG was "Fish Night." It was a simple genius concept that made me think "how come no one has ever done this story before"? That's pretty great praise - the kind of story that seems like it always should have existed.
The eps are short, some as little as 7 minutes, none longer than 18. The animation styles are pretty varied, though most lean towards CGI. I'd say all of them have something interesting or cool to recommend them, though cutting a pretty wide swath of tone, style and content means your mileage will definitely vary on which ones you like or don't.
Probably my favorites overall, in no particular order:
Three Robots
Suits
Good Hunting
Lucky 13
Fish Night
Saw the first two. First one was a bit heavy, but that doesn't mean it wasnt good, just not what I would choose for my first. Second was almost TOO lighthearted in comparison- jarring going from incredibly dark to almost farcical humor. I would have switched them around, but that's just me. Will keep watching.
Okay folks...you convinced me to check it out.
Got to say I enjoyed recognizing some of the stories, which I was kind of surprised at, since of late I haven't been able to get in a lot of reading and when I do it tends more towards the horror end of the spectrum.
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I watched the first three (Sonnie's Edge, 3 Robots, and The Witness) and didn't really care for it much to progress further. 3 Robots was fun, and Sonnie's Edge was interesting, but The Witness fell pretty short, and I didn't stick around for a 4th episode.
I am through Good Hunting, so about half way through, and The Witness by far is the weakest.
Saw the first two
Not much help. Netflix has 5 different orders for the episodes and randomised them for the viewers, so the order you saw will be different to others.
The first three I got started Sonnie's Edge - Beyond the Aquila Rift - Three Robots - Secret War, which apparently is the rarest of the five orders.
And yes, The Witness is by far the weakest episode. It was created as a technical proof of concept, with apparently some cutting-edge CG techniques involved, and the story clearly wasn't written with the same kind of attention.
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Great new show, I binged it all the way through over a few days I must say;
While not all of the shorts were awesome, all of them were at very least entertaining. About half of them great, a few were TRULY, gut-wrenchingingly well done, and a handful literally had me cringing empathically, the EVA one in particular had my wife and I looking away from the screen because it was so graphic and realistic.
Overall rating, 4/5 - Keeping an eye out for the 2nd anthology.
BTW if the Junkyard Monster isn't statted up for SF Alien Archive 3 then that is a shame because it's PERFECT for the setting and level of camp that SF hits.
I watched the three robots one first, per Freehold's suggestion, it was pretty good, could've done without the cat bit at the end but it was still very good.
Haven't watched any of the others yet.
I started the first two and felt like three robots was kind of unoriginal? I can't pinpoint as to what but teabagging jokes and talking cats and gosh those humans are weird jokes feel old.
I did like Sonnie's though.
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FINALLY!!!!
Volume 2 dropped today. Only 8 episodes, and I've watched them all. I think each of the entries was pretty solid, in their own way.
My personal favorites were:
Automated Customer Service (funny as s$$!)
The Tall Grass
All Through the House
Life Hutch
And now I have to wait until next year for Volume 3.
Having watched volume 1, I'm looking forward to seeing how Volume 2 stacks up.
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Volume 3 dropped today. About two hours to watch all 9 episodes. All in all, a really solid season. All the animation was cool to kick ass. The stories were solid. My favorites were:
Bad Traveling - Thanopod was kick ass!
Night of the Mini Dead - zombiepocalypse!
Mason’s Rats - just funny as hell.
In Vaulted Halls Entombed - very Lovecraftian. We need more of that.