Love, Death & Robots – Season 3

 

Image Credit: Netflix

Friday marked the release of Netflix’s sci-fi/horror series Love, Death & Robots Season 3 and like the two seasons before it, the show offers some entertaining short stories told through a host of talented directors and animation studios. The nine episodes this season range from 7 to 21 minutes long and they feature returning writers John Scalzi, Neal Asher, and Michael Stanwick along with series co-creator Tim Miller and award-winning sci-fi writer Bruce Sterling.

There’s enough variety in the stories and styles that everyone is bound to have their personal favorites and I encourage you to give them all a try. Below are my brief descriptions of each episode in my order of preference.

 

In Vaulted Halls Entombed

A military team sent to rescue a captive from terrorists runs afoul of something much more sinister deep in the caves of Afghanistan. This violent, creepy tale ends in a Lovecraftian twist that makes it my favorite of Season 3.

Bad Travelling

I didn’t find the main character to be particularly likeable and the ending felt a little too convenient, but watching a crew battle a tank-sized crustacean who has taken over the ship and developed a taste for human flesh was still a lot of gory fun.

Jibaro

This episode doesn’t include a word of dialogue, but the animation might be the most visually arresting of the series. An invading knight is initially spared from death by a seductive river siren because he is deaf, but her fascination and his greed get the better of him in the end.

Swarm

Another minute or two of exposition to fill in some of plot would have made this episode way more successful. As it is, the story feels a bit disjointed, but it still features excellent world-building as a space-faring human attempts to enslave a uniquely adaptive alien species.

Mason’s Rats

I tend to like the serious episodes more than the silly ones, but this gore-fest about a farmer who goes to extraordinarily violent lengths to rid his barn of intelligent rodents is a fun ride and it features the voice talent of one of my favorite comedians, Craig Ferguson.

The Very Pulse of the Machine

Imagine an astronaut exploring a peyote fever-dream and you’d have the general idea of this episode. While short on action, the artwork is beautiful and it has the sort of ambiguous ending that allows your mind to ponder the story long after it’s over.

Three Robots: Exit Strategies

This humorous continuation of an episode in Season 1 doesn’t offer much in the way of new ideas, but it’s still amusing to imagine what future robot archeologists might think of our strange and self-destructive culture long after we’re gone from Earth.

Kill Team Kill

There’s plenty of violence and vulgarity in this episode, but not much characterization or story. A group of mercenaries runs across a cybernetic monster that’s nearly indestructible and apparently a result of their own government’s experimentation.

Night of the Mini Dead

Given my love for zombies, you’d think I’d rank this one higher, but it just didn’t do much for me. I appreciate the novelty of telling the tale of a zombie apocalypse via miniatures, but other than the fact they’re tiny, this episode doesn’t offer anything you haven’t seen before.