Though a polarizing, mixed bag of quality due to the risqué depths it pushes, there’s ultimately lots to love about David Fincher and Tim Miller’s macabrely sexy sci-fi anthology series Love, Death + Robots. When the show is at its best, it packs everything from photo-realistic technical marvels to gorgeous character narratives full of captivating storytelling and lore. With Netflix dropping the series’ second volume soon, here are the top five can’t miss picks to catch up on from the show’s first eighteen episodes.
Zima Blue
The meditative story and tone of “Zima Blue” set it apart from the conceits of its explicit and over-the-top siblings, ironically making it the irrefutable best of Love, Death + Robots’ first volume. Based on a story by Alastair Reynolds, the short follows a journalist, Claire, as she is invited to meet renowned artist Zima before he presents his final piece to the galaxy. On her journey to Zima’s home, Claire recounts the eccentric muralist’s life story, starting from his roots in portraiture to the celestial abstract works the public dubs his “blue phase.”
From the grandeur of the cosmos to the cleaning of a pool’s tiles, “Zima Blue” gorgeously captures an artist’s quest for purpose and truth with stylized animation that thrives off its relative simplicity. The lovely pair of soulful monologues from Emma Thornett and Kevin Michael Richardson further highlight the immediately engrossing writing down to its subversive final twist, which thoughtfully reflects on the duality of the relationship between artist and audience.
Good Hunting
“Good Hunting” does in 20 minutes what many films wish they could do in two hours. The short opens in early 1900s China as a boy, Liang, and his father hunt a seductive nine-tailed fox spirit to protect their village. After Liang spares the spirit’s daughter, Yan, under his father’s nose, the story flashes forward to an industrialized Hong Kong, where technology from the British Empire’s colonization has drained the countryside of magic. While Liang and Yan have developed a friendship in their adulthood, the two now live very different lives adapted to the steampunk slums they inhabit.
The clash between fantasy and rustic science fiction in “Good Hunting” delivers great character and narrative drama while never becoming overbearing in the short’s perspective-driven commentary on colonialism, particularly that of Asian territories. Additionally, unlike many other shorts in the collection, the graphic violence and nudity throughout serve an actual purpose in emoting the discomforting horrors its characters are put through.
When the Yogurt Took Over
“When the Yogurt Took Over” works so well because it’s both silly and insidious. Rendered in a clean yet detailed cartoon aesthetic, the short opens with a barrage of shameless dairy-driven puns as a narrator recounts how a sentient batch of yogurt changed the course of the human race forever. It’s the simplest and briskest of Love, Death + Robots' bunch, clocking in at a mere six minutes. As goofy as its premise and animation are, “When the Yogurt Took Over” creates a surprisingly unsettling thematic undercurrent, detailing the folly of man’s pride and his dependence on powers greater than him.
Fish Night
“Fish Night” centers on two door-to-door salesmen, one young and one old, who get stuck in the middle of nowhere after their car breaks down on the way home. As day turns into night, their annoyance shifts to wonder when ghostly fish rise from the desert floor in a mesmeric dance of shapes and colors.
There’s an inexplicably mysterious air to this short that will undoubtedly annoy some and enchant others. The reflective dialogue between the two men (the younger one being voiced by Spider-Man PS4’s own Yuri Lowenthal) cryptically seems to point to a bigger meaning about humanity’s scope within the passage of time, but different viewers’ mileage will vary based on how far they’ll want to read into the writing. Regardless, the cel-shaded style, reminiscent of the interpolated rotoscoping used in A Scanner Darkly, and a score full of awe pulsing throughout make "Fish Night" a worthwhile treat for the senses.
Ice Age
The only short directed by Tim Miller and the only one in live-action in Season 1, “Ice Age” finds Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Topher Grace as a couple moving into an apartment with an outdated refrigerator. When they open it, they discover a tiny civilization inside, one that rapidly evolves from its Neolithic period to its Industrial Revolution and beyond.
It may not have the same level of depth or nuance as other entries in Love, Death + Robots, but “Ice Age” entirely coasts by on the witty banter between the charming duo. Winstead and Grace nail the deadpan observational comedy and paired with the satisfying fast-motion animation used to depict the fridge society, this entertaining short is just an all-around good time.