This weekend has returned one of the most interesting and daring projects that have come out of Netflix with the third season of ‘Love, Death + Robots’. An anthology of science fiction animated shorts David Fincher and Tim Miller has left us with nine new stories to continue exploring the confines of the genre.
The third season consists of some “repeaters” from previous installments and also several new additions… and we also have the first sequel within the anthology with the return of the three leading robots from ‘Three Robots: Escape Strategies’.
This is followed by ‘Bad Trip’, which marks the first short directed by Fincher for the series, and they complete the season with ‘The Pulse of the Machine’, ‘Night of the Mini-Dead’, ‘Deadly Team’, ‘The Swarm’, ‘Mason’s rats’, ‘Buried in vaulted rooms’ and ‘Jíbaro’.
Visual spectacle above all
As with all anthologies and we have already seen in previous seasons of ‘Love, Death + Robots‘, this third season is somewhat irregular but also leaves us with a feeling that the series has gained in quality. It is noted that the creators have been polishing the details more and more as they learn from their mistakes and from the fronts where the anthology was most criticized at its premiere, such as the unnecessary hypersexualization of the first season.
The third season leaves us with very brave and innovative proposalsalthough logically some shine more than others, but what is clear is that ‘Love, Death + Robots’ is an impressive visual spectacle above all else. Even the stories that can be weaker on some fronts simply make up for the quality of the animation and its artistic finish.
Fincher’s contribution with Blur Studios leaves us one of the most shocking stories of the anthology, and despite moving away a bit from the hardest science fiction genre, it presents us with a plot full of tension where a crew runs into a terrible sea monster.
It should also be highlighted ‘jibaro’by Alberto Mielgo, which is the perfect finishing touch for the season and almost leaves more to its predecessors. The return of Mialgo is a shocking short film with overwhelming quality that really casts doubt on whether we are seeing animation or real actors, with a polished and careful finish that takes advantage of all the wonders of the medium.
What we have to blame for this third season of ‘Love, Death + Robots’ is that still missing more variety of animation styles to be dealing with an animated anthology. Of the nine shorts, only one of them (‘Deadly Team’) is made in 2D animation, although at least more stylized CGI alternatives have also been opted for, such as ‘The Pulse of the Machine’ and ‘The Rats of Mason’.
Even so, the third installment of the anthology has found a good balance between styles and themes, exploring different fronts that are presented to us in a concept as broad as science fiction. The creators have also learned to better manage the tone of the series with a better balance between stories full of action and explicit violence and others more relaxed with comedic tones that border on the slice of life, leaving us with a very enjoyable season that surpasses its predecessors.