Love, Death and Robots season three is more concise than season one and just one episode longer than season two. However, this season is just as punchy as previous seasons with a great emphasis on rich imagery and otherworldly stories that center the viewer.
With episodes that range in length between seven and twenty-one minutes, this season lives up to its name and reputation by presenting the viewer with an impressive mix of horror and sci-fi with tinges of gore and comedic contrast. This contrast adds to the layered nature of the series through overt and covert juxtaposition that gets the viewer thinking.
Animation, Craft & Purpose
Season three is filled to the brim with emotive additions that immerse the viewer in philosophical questioning and more generally, ruminations on those ideas, concepts and objects that are bigger than us.
Beginning with “Three Robots: Exit Strategies” where an important, and albeit, somewhat comedic presentation of an Earth post apocalypse is depicted as three robots traverse the now rough landscape on a touristic jaunt of sorts. This episode puts into perspective much of the global discussions on Artificial Intelligence and how we, as humans, have the ability to make robots that exude much of the same humanity, character traits and identities that are so seemingly sacrosanct to being a human. This episode has the necessary purpose that goes beyond engaging entertainment and therefore serves to force us to criticize contemporary AI growth and naturally, a less than fruitful future which could ultimately emerge.
Moreover, the reiteration of the negative impact of consumer technology was intriguingly presented to the viewer through “Mason’s Rats.” This episode incorporates the robots and death elements where a society of highly intelligent rats take over Mason’s barn. Perhaps what makes this episode so special is the emphasis placed on consumer technology and the nature of late-stage capitalism through the need to constantly buy more and need more despite not necessarily solving more! Whilst more comedic and driven by shock-value gore, this episode accurately portrays universal experience within the aforementioned capitalism. One must acknowledge the depth of purpose and skilled craft within this episode!
“Night of the Mini Dead” is another daring episode that must be commended for strength of animation. Whilst this narrative ends more sardonically and presents the widely shared sci-fi notion of a zombie apocalypse, it serves more to present the viewer with a feast for the eyes than the mind and ears. Marvelous animation brimming with vibrant colors and carefully planned progression allows the reader to be fully absorbed by this episode. Further, the end of the world is presented as minute in the grand scheme of the universe and forces the viewer to contend with their own overt insignificance in the face of the grandness of a cosmos mighty and unknown.
Sign-up for Letters From The Psychopomp
a weekly letter from The Psychopomp about Death, and the latest from Psychopomp.com:
Favorites
“Bad Travelling” is an episode that inspires a deep sense of dread in relation to the arcane depths of the still massively unexplored ocean system of our planet through an assumed alien ocean. This nautical fantasy is centered around a crab that insists on passage aboard a ship. This creature proceeds to feast through crew constantly on the verge of mutiny. With the captain finally showing initiative to prevent further life-loss should they reach their next island destination. This episode ensures the reader is not only engaged, but genuinely captivated by the unfolding of this tense narrative.
In addition, “Jibaro” is another episode that has held my interest on multiple rewatching binges of this season. This episode is sensual, strange and rather morose. With tinges of east and south east Asian cultural and environmental inclusions, this eerie quasi-love story presents the reader with a twisted, siren dripping in aureate excess. This siren goes on to seduce and slaughter many men bar one who ends up killing her. Despite this death, the river she calls home resurrects her and ensures her revenge. Despite the wails of the siren, one lone man remains, uninterested, unimpacted. Albert Mielgo, creator of this episode alludes to this episode being a metaphor for a ‘toxic relationship’. However, this mesmerizing animation, that entrances the reader, views as even more so a metaphor for the dangers of power dynamics within relationships. Negative dynamics which are usually reserved exclusively for men. Mielgo’s presentation thus reads as more carefully constructed to challenge the status quo.
Season three is one that satiates the eyes and leaves the viewer yearning for more as we wait in eager anticipation for the fourth installment of this emotive series. With greater emphasis on love and death, this is a season for the thinker, the philosopher, and those with curious imaginations who seek to think beyond the confines of one’s individual reality.
