Love, Death & Robots Volume 3 is grim, gory, and a much-needed shot in the arm for Netflix's award-winning anthology series.
Not gonna lie, I had low hopes for the third season after the previous one left much to be desired. But this latest season from the creative minds of David Fincher and Tim Miller is just as bizarre and fun as you'd expect. Here are my thoughts on the episodes of Volume 3 so you know whether or not it's worth watching!
THE MEH
With just nine episodes, Love, Death & Robots Season 3 needed some heavy hitters out the gate. Unfortunately, Fincher, Miller, and co. seems to love dipping too much into a particular well. How many times do we need to see a crack team of mercenaries/soldiers biting off more than they can chew? "Kill Team Kill" and "In Vaulted Halls Entombed" give us some visceral visuals, but being scary or funny can't hide the been there, done that feel.
Speaking of viscera, "Mason's Rats" isn't for the queasy. Watching piles of disemboweled and decapitated rats wears thin, even if there's a pretty nice lesson in peace and acceptance under all those intestines. And "Swarm" tried its best to give justice to its source material, but with a runtime of just 17 minutes the most it could do is a headache-inducing infodump that feels more like a college lecture than entertainment.
THE PRETTY GOOD
A lot of gems in the rough in this third season. "Three Robots: Exit Strategies" is rife with on-the-nose social commentary on humanity in the 21st century. Whether you love or hate it depends on what you think of tech billionaires and why they would rather use their money to send people to Mars than to solve the problems of Earth.
"Night of the Mini Dead" is a hilarious send-up of zombie apocalypse movies in an amazing "miniature photography" style. As the shortest story in the volume at 7 tight minutes, it will leave you wanting more.
"The Very Pulse of the Machine" is a beautifully rendered 2D animated treatise on metaphysics starring a wounded astronaut trying desperately to survive while suffering a morphine trip in one of Jupiter's moons. While amazing to look at, it felt too cerebral at times. But I'd rather they push the envelope this way than have another special ops team bite off more than they can chew.
THE AMAZING
Now we've come to the best episodes of Love, Death & Robots Volume 3. Out of the 9 episodes, only two stood out as some of the best the anthology series has to offer.
"Bad Travelling" is gothic horror at its finest. The feelings of paranoia and dread amp up with each minute, especially since the characters are living with the fact that there's a man-eating sea monster inside their ship. It helps that the episode is wonderfully rendered to accentuate the grim and grimy atmosphere, like a cutscene from a video game that you really wished exists.
But the crown really has to go to "Jibaro", the last episode of the season and quite possibly the best episode Love, Death & Robots has produced so far. The story of a mysterious siren meeting a deaf conquistador she can't lure to his death is given this frenetic and sometimes disturbing energy by Oscar winner Alberto Mielgo's direction. Quick flashes, shaky cam shots, and sharp noises disorient you at every turn, just like how a siren's call would. Together with its gorgeous photorealistic imagery (still wondering if the water scenes are real or not), "Jibaro" will leave you breathless till the very last second.
Even its flaws can't stop Love, Death & Robots Volume 3 from reaching new heights. It's still gorgeous to look at and still an eclectic, exciting mix of stories that will satisfy your eyes and your curiosity. Check them out on Netflix today.
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