At its best, Netflix’s Love, Death, and Robots creates the same feeling as picking up a collection of sci-fi short stories. You don’t always know what to expect, and not everything is brilliant, but you’re guaranteed to experience something interesting. That was especially true of volume 3 of the animated anthology, which offered nine shorts, all of which were excellent. The latest volume doesn’t quite hit the same heights, nor does it have a singular standout episode like “The Very Pulse of the Machine,” but it’s still a strong offering.
What volume 4 does do well — and it’s something that’s a strength of LDR as a whole — is offer a wide variety of tones and styles. There are still the dark, violent, and hyperreal episodes that are so closely associated with LDR, like “Spider Rose,” a follow-up to last season’s “Swarm,” which tells a cyberpunk story about a woman consumed with revenge who ends up finding it with the help of a very strange creature. There’s also “The Screaming of the Tyrannosaur,” in which trained warriors fight to the death in front of rich dignitaries and royalty, all while racing on dinosaurs. In a strangely inspired bit of casting, the death races are hosted by MrBeast.
But the show also continues to push beyond classic, darker science fiction. There’s a lot of comedy here, for instance. One episode is a confessional for smart devices like connected toothbrushes and toilets, which complain about how horrible it is to serve humans. Another follows a cat intent on world domination, who finds the perfect accomplice when its owners bring home a robotic assistant. And if you enjoyed last season’s “Night of the Mini Dead,” there’s a sequel that similarly turns an alien invasion into a cutesy diorama of death and destruction.
And while the show still skews heavily toward CG animation, there are a pair of great 2D episodes, as well. “How Zeke Got Religion” is pure Heavy Metal and is a story about a group of WWII soldiers who end up fighting a demonic monstrosity summoned by the Nazis. It’s filled with copious amounts of blood and gore and a truly terrifying monster that’s all hands, mouths, and screams. That’s joined by “400 Boys,” a wild and kinetic post-apocalyptic action story about a world filled with warring gangs that join together to fight a group of towering, naked babies that are simply called “boys.”
Volume 4 takes a few fun risks, as well. “Golgotha” is the show’s first fully live-action short, a simple story about a priest, an alien invasion, and a resurrected dolphin who might be the messiah. Like the best of LDR, the episode is satisfying on its own, but it also leaves you wanting to see and learn much more about its world. Not all the episodes are quite so successful. “For He Can Creep” is a fine-if-forgettable tale of a cat fighting Satan, while “Can’t Stop” is an impressive-looking music video that turns the Red Hot Chili Peppers into marionettes but feels pretty out of place amid the rest of the season (and LDR as a whole).
But even the worst episodes of volume 4 are still interesting, and that’s the promise of Love, Death, and Robots, really. Streaming services have helped usher in a new wave of sci-fi anthologies, which have ranged from prophetic and impactful to completely unnecessary. LDR might be the most consistent modern example of the form. It’s funny, violent, and surprising — and almost never boring.
Volume 4 of Love, Death, and Robots is now streaming on Netflix.
