Love, Death, And Robots Season 1: 5 Ups And 2 Downs

Who would've thought that one of Netflix's best series yet would be an unrelentingly-gory, foul-mouthed animated show centered around everything from underground monster-fighting to Yogurt conquering the world? Executively-produced by David Fincher and created by Tim Miller, what started out as a developing reboot of the Heavy Metal movie from 1981 became Love, Death, and Robots. LDR is an anthology animated series that focuses on (in one way or another) technology and/or violent, bloody death.

Love, Death, and Robots is a thoroughly unique and interesting series to watch. Although shows like Black Mirror are certainly experimental when it comes to its varying tones and visual style, LDR steps it up by using drastically different art styles and concepts to give you something refreshingly unexpected every time. Impressively, they don't even need a lot of time to pull it off either. No episode breaks the twenty-minute mark and while certain ideas feel like they could've gone on for triple the time, enough is offered to make you want more.

Each episode is its own experiment in utilizing at least one of the three parts of the title, and simply put, you'll have no idea what's coming. However, before the praise continues, let's cover where the show falters slightly.

This is an intense show in every sense. The visuals and audio attack all of your senses and the sex and violence are unrestricted, to say the least. Because of this freedom, it does get a bit too unnecessarily over-violent. For a show centralized around violence, the gore and more explicit elements aren't surprising. They can feel overemphasized though, and during particular sequences, could make some viewers a bit queasy.

Whether it's 2D or full CG animation, the gruesome detail mixed with the ear-attacking sound effects leads to numerous brutal moments that end up being pretty off-putting. Certainly effective moments, but so often they feel like they get a bit carried away with it and it ultimately feels unnecessary. Not an episode goes by before you're seeing a limb get torn apart or someone getting shot up. It's not limited to just the action-oriented sections either, as nudity finds itself in just about every short and a lot of times, it's there just to be there.

Some restraint would've enhanced the experience here. While the action is done very well throughout, there was a slight obsession over it at times that led to a feeling of over-indulgence from the creative teams. If they were willing to hold back with certain moments, they could've been more effective.