Less love, more robots

WARNING: The show contains adult themes. Viewer discretion is advised.

In recent years, anthology TV series have been slowly climbing back into popularity. We've seen the extreme levels of popularity Black Mirror generated, and now a reboot of the Twilight Zone is in the works.

Black Mirror is probably the best example of such a series, with each of its episodes being stand-alone while also including a somewhat shared dystopian future.

However, Black Mirror does have one major factor holding it back from mainstream popularity, and that is its run times. The shorter episodes run around 40 minutes, and the longer ones go well over the hour mark.

Not everyone has the patience, or sometimes even the time, to sit through such lengthy episodes of a show where there is no correlation between episodes.

Thankfully, Love, Death & Robots (LDR) is now finally here to fill that gap, with episodes spanning between 6 and 17 minutes only. 

Having released on March 15, 2019, the show is already receiving rave reviews and critical acclaim, with a 9/10 rating on IMDB and an 8.8/10 Metacritic user score.

LDR is, in its most bare form, a series of animated stand-alone short stories across a variety of genres. However, added on top of that are layers of intricate storytelling and beautiful animation styles.

The team behind LDR has a few renowned names from the industry with the likes of David Fincher, of Fight Club fame, and Tim Miller, the director of Deadpool. It's the experience of such individuals present in every aspect of the show that makes it such a masterpiece.

Now, that isn't to imply that every episode of LDR is perfect. There are definitely a few episodes that feel sluggish and badly done, with poor and uninteresting animation work when compared to the rest.

However, that is only a few episodes out of the total 18 included in the first season of the show. Encompassing a variety of genres such as sci-fi, horror, comedy, and drama.

You're highly likely to get hooked from the first episode. Titled Sonnie's Edge, the episode is set in a dystopian future where underground arena battles are held between monsters controlled by people. If that felt like a lot of information, guess what? There are 17 more episodes to go.

In contrast to the serious tone of episode one, episode six titled When the Yogurt Took Over is the story of a sentient yogurt that not only takes over the world but also brings about peace and harmony.

Then there's The Witness, episode three of the show, and its animation is nothing short of gorgeous. Slightly reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, the comically styled, adrenaline rush fuelled episode is a spectacle to behold.

What LDR knows how to do best, is captivate its audience. Shorter episodes ensure that people don't just stop watching when a slow episode comes around.

Netflix has invested such a large sum of money into producing shows; it's likely there'll be at least four to five amazing shows each year, and for 2019, LDR is one of them.

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