Love, Death + Robots is a blast (Picture: Alex Hickson/Netflix)

Rarely can a show launch today with the potential to change the landscape of television, but once again Netflix has proven they are the trail-blazers to do just that in David Fincher’s Love, Death & Robots.

After Charlie Brooker flipped everything we knew on its head with Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch, the obvious question was: what would the streaming giant pull out of the bag next?

Well, here it is, 18 disturbing animated shorts thrown into a genre-bending cocktail; some straight out of a trippy Pixar movie, while others are clearly inspired by the deepest darkest depths of Manga – each one hitting every note, even if they’re playing to a very different tune.



Of the six instalments Metro.co.uk were fortunate to watch this week, Sonnie’s Edge kicked the series off with a bloodbath to rival Game of Thrones. Two competing fighters control two enormous beasts in a high-stake, high-money battle to the death, where if the graphic images of torn off heads won’t leave leave you cowering, the sound of crushing skulls will.


From that to When The Yogurt Took Over, the most family-friendly sketch here – at a stretch – sees a bowl of breakfast gradually take over human kind in what initially looks like the opening short film to a Despicable Me movie, but is actually incredibly bleak.

And then Three Robots is adorable: three machines baffled by the basic amusement of humans, who have been extinct for thousands of years – WTF is a basketball? A jukebox? IS THAT ALL THERE WAS?

What if Adolf Hitler was killed by a stampede of horses or an army of anti-nazis from the future? Here are the questions we never asked for but will be eternally grateful to have the answer to in Alternate Histories. Basically, it’s Kenny from South Park meets Groundhog Day, and when you throw Hitler into the mix, it’s, understandably, a substantially satisfying cocktail.

Sadly though, all three films score brownie points for being the only films here not to objectify women – what an accolade – which otherwise seems to be a running theme. The Witness is an immediate thriller from the get-go, when a young girl accidentally catches a murder and is subsequently chased by the killer, but wearing nothing but an open robe when she loses her clothes working in a brothel.

It’s worth noting there’s an abundance of vaginas and full frontal female nudity throughout Love, Death & Robots, but not a single penis – or female director – so make of that what you will.

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In an otherwise monumental series, that’s the only gripe – but one which is too obvious to ignore. During, Aquila Rift, the lead hero wakes up alongside his crew to find their space craft has drifted light years off course, the word he knew is long gone and they’re basically ghosts destined to be endlessly drifting through space.



Although, also on board is a former love interest and with the world a forgotten memory, inevitably there’s only one past time to keep themselves occupied. It’s drowning in evidence of the male gaze, which is unfortunate.

But Love, Death & Robots is a blast, albeit a problematic one. Each episode manages to achieve astounding levels of tension, drama and poignancy in 15 minutes. It’s also stunning, there are genuine moments when the animation is as believable as any live action feature but through worlds impossible to achieve in film.

With Bandersnatch so fresh in our minds, it would be a disservice not to pay kudos to Netflix for topping themselves again. With two of the most prolific series launching with just three months of each other, how could anyone else keep up?

Love, Death & Robots is available to stream on Netflix today.

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