In 2019, Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller launched Love, Death & Robots, an animated Netflix anthology series serving as a showcase for Miller’s own Blur Studio, along with other animators. The series has won a Primetime Emmy for each of its three seasons, which feature an eclectic mix of six- to 20-minute shorts spanning horror, science fiction, and fantasy.
Miller went on to use the same formula for Prime Video’s Secret Level, where each of the shorts is based on a different video game. But that didn’t stop him from returning to Love, Death & Robots for a new 10-episode season: the series’ longest yet, but also its weakest.
An episode of Love, Death & Robots can succeed based on a clever idea or some charming humor. John Scalzi has become a popular writer for the series, penning goofy tales of science and technology gone wrong and he delivers two episodes for volume 4 with varying results. But too much of this season is running on vibes, with episodes that feature cool visuals but not much plot. Others push the very concept too far, ditching any genre ties or even animation. The good thing about an anthology format is that if an individual episode isn’t great it’s over quick and then you can move on to the next one. Unfortunately there are chunks of volume 4 that feature dud after dud.
Love, Death & Robots is at its best when it uses a tight short story to deliver a strange and often disturbing tale. Highlights include Peter F. Hamilton’s brutal spin on Pokémon battles “Sonnie’s Edge” or Neal Asher’s horror at sea tale “Bad Traveling,” which was masterfully directed by David Fincher and featured an icy performance from Troy Baker. Fortunately there is one episode in volume 4 that still fits that mold.
Written by J.T. Petty based on a short story by John McNichol, “How Zeke Got Religion” fuses aspects of Masters of the Air and Hellboy. Like last season’s excellent episode “In Vaulted Halls Entombed,” it starts out as a war story and becomes pure horror.
In this case, the crew of the B-17 Flying Fortress Liberty Belle is antsy that they’ve been treated to chocolate and a John Wayne movie because “when brass is nice to you, you’re about to get fucked.” The best crew the Allies have is being sent on a solo mission to bomb a church in France at the behest of a mysterious new commander.
The episode shows off how they work as a team normally, navigating flack, jammed weapons and a vicious dogfight that would be the nastiest part of most missions. But the church is the site of a bloody Nazi ritual to summon a fallen archangel that pursues their plane, leading to an abrupt genre shift and a gore-soaked battle that forces the jaded Zeke to reconsider what he knows about the world.
Director Diego Porral, who served as the lead animator for last season’s hyper-violent episode “Kill Team Kill,” and Titmouse, the animation studio behind Scavengers Reign and Pantheon, do a phenomenal job making the fallen very different from the typical horned and bat-winged demon. It’s more like a biblically accurate angel, a cherubic face on a body with far too many eyes that rips soldiers apart with baby hands. When it literally spits out bullets from newly formed screaming mouths, the crew find that faith is their best weapon.
If you watch one episode of Love, Death & Robots volume 4, make it “How Zeke Got Religion.” After that, consult this ranked list of the rest of the season’s entries.
This is just a Red Hot Chili Peppers music filmed by David Fincher with marionettes standing in for the band and crowd. There’s no love, death or robots which makes it feel like a pretty pointless entry in the series.
9. “The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur”
MrBeast plays the Grand Master-like emcee of spectacle featuring triceratops, a tyrannosaur, naked gladiators, and way too much voiceover. This episode is extremely predictable and self-serious for something based on how dinosaur fights are cool.
Image: Netflix
The series returns to Bruce Sterling’s universe portrayed in the season 3 episode “Swarm” for a much less compelling tale. “Swarm” was a deeply unsettling story about human greed and the nature of sentience and this is a bland revenge story with a weird, cute alien pet. Though the way Blur Studio animates people floating in space continues to be beautiful.
Rhys Darby (What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death) brings his signature affable neurosis to playing a vicar who saw a beached dolphin seemingly return to life, attracting the attention of a group of aquatic aliens. Unfortunately there’s not much to the story and it’s a very odd choice to have a live-action short in the mix.
6. “The Other Large Thing”
The weaker of this season’s two Scalzi stories features a fluffy cat called Sanchez (Chris Parnell) who sees his chance at world domination when his negligent, lazy owners bring home a robot voiced by John Oliver. AGBO’s grotesque animation of the humans makes it feel like they really have it coming, though the story is very basic and the final joke falls flat.
Image: Netflix
Robert Valley, who directed the Emmy-winning season 2 episode “Ice,” returns to Love, Death & Robots for a beautifully animated tale starring John Boyega as the leader of one of many warring gangs in post-apocalyptic Britain. It’s such a strange rich world filled with psychics and alien giants that I wish it was developed a bit more beyond the stunning action sequences.
4. “Close Encounters of the Mini Kind”
Last season, Robert Bisi and Andy Lyon teamed up to use sped-up miniatures to tell a rapid-fire zombie apocalypse story, and they reunited in volume 4 to do the same thing for an alien invasion. It’s a very funny rush through the genre’s tropes with a pretty low opinion of humans, who create a problem and repeatedly make it worse.
3. “Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners”
John Scalzi and director Patrick Osborne teamed up for last season’s “Three Robots: Exit Strategies” and they’re back together for a series of confessionals from smart electronics fed up with the way their owners are using or neglecting them. Aaron Sims Creative provides the claymation-style animation for the anthropomorphic waffle iron, toothbrush, showerhead and more being voiced by a stacked cast of comedians including Ronny Chieng, Amy Sedaris and Kevin Hart.
2. “For He Can Creep”
The Locked Tomb author Tamsyn Muir wrote this charming episode based on Siobhan Carroll Nebula-nominated novelette of the same name. Daniel Stevens (Legion, Beauty and the Beast) plays a dapper version of Satan tormenting a poet he believes can aid his dark cause. Luckily the poet has a loyal cat who, while tempted by the Prince of Darkness’ offer of treats, unites his surprisingly powerful feline friends to fight for the poet’s soul.
1. “How Zeke Got Religion”
If you skimmed the intro, go back and read about this wonderful short.
Love, Death & Robots volume 4 is streaming now on Netflix.