The premier adult animated anthology show, Love, Death + Robots, returns to streaming giants Netflix for Volume Three, bringing with it a further nine episodes of spectacularly crafted, genre-hopping delights. Brimming with even more talent than what comprised the previous two volumes, the third outing under the Love, Death + Robots tag is comfortably the best to date.
Debuting in 2019 with a monster eighteen-episode Volume One, the Love, Death + Robots series has undergone quite a prolonged toothing period across its current output. With the first two volumes failing to strike any sort of consistency in tone, they found themselves falling prey to a common catch inherent to the anthology format. Volume Three however is an entirely different beast to its predecessors; significantly more refined and now Titan-like in scale. Exceptional talent across all departments and a more substantive collection of standalone tales.
Besides the third time being the charm, the main factor behind Volume Three’s success is its settling on genre. Synopses of the general show will tell that it explores “[various] genres including science-fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy” – the latest season strips away the excess fat to zone in on tales from the winning combination of science-fiction and horror. It is also worth acknowledging the change in the number of episodes, nine seems to be the perfect amount. Not as daunting a task as the first season, and a little more to enjoy than the eight-episode offering of Volume Two, it would appear that a winning formula has been found in the Netflix show.
Its hybrids of the science fiction and horror genres produce some stunning and thoroughly entertaining works that are among the best of that show’s recent works. Whether the product is existential and political a la Three Robots: Exit Strategies or purely fictional such as Emily Dean’s The Very Pulse of the Machine, the third outing clearly demonstrates a fundamental understanding of the sci-fi-horror genre, its themes and uniqueness hitting with greater emphasis now that the Volume format has a clear tone in place.
The added prestige is something that also brings with it quality. Love, Death + Robots shouldn’t lose its experimental nature going forward. The novelty of its stories is a major part of its charm, but the talent involved in Volume Three is awe-inspiring. Oscar nominee Jennifer Yuh Nelson returns to direct her second episode in the anthology. Tim Miller’s presence is emboldened. Elsewhere behind the camera, David Fincher makes his animation debut with the episode Bad Travelling. Stars such as Mackenzie Davis, Joe Manganiello and Dan Stevens lend their voices to characters while prolific cyberpunk writer Bruce Sterling opens his work up for adaptation in Swarm. Volume Three is evidently a collaborative effort from seasoned professionals which makes for a consuming watch.
But the visual style and creative elements at the core of Love, Death + Robots, that too is improved upon by the third outing. With a compressed number of episodes, there’s less of a jarring switch between the varying approaches to animation, but in terms of the purely tangible, Volume Three is the cutting-edge of CGI filmmaking. Unbound by the limits of live-action filmmaking the diverse array of styles is always a draw to each new volume and the third outing is realised in some truly incredible manners.
The closing episode, Jibaro, exists almost entirely in the uncanny valley – its gold-clad siren and patrol of knights are almost human-like. In contrast to that, there’s the cartoon-inspired Kill Team Kill and the aforementioned The Very Pulse of the Machine – one could wax lyrical about the visual realisation of the show for an unreasonable amount of time but Love, Death + Robots must be credited for what it is to the world of computer-generated imagery: a platform. Giving a voice to those incredibly talented individuals who are often overlooked by the mainstream, the anthology proudly flexes what the medium is capable of – something that’s as refreshing as it is necessary.
Easily digestible and a satisfactory consumption to boot, Volume Three of Love, Death + Robots is a considerable improvement on the series’ previous outings while also being a prestigious standalone effort of stunning sci-fi horror tales.
