Love, Death, And Robots - Watch Thread

Pop Culture & Media Film & TV
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So, Netflix just dropped this collection of mature animated shorts set around… Well, love, death, and robots!

Here’s a trailer: Btw, the entire show is pretty NSFW. Be aware the trailer has flashing images as well.

I have only seen the first two so far, Sonnie’s Edge and Three Robots.

Sonnie’s Edge was… Good, but also pretty edgy and VERY problematic at times. (Strong CW warning for references to Rape, vivid depictions of violence towards women, and a lot of harsh language.) Seriously, this one is REALLY strong. I dunno if the rest are as heavy as this one, but it’s a strong one to start out on.

But it’s a neat concept. Cyberpunk story set around the idea of Pokemon battles with large, terrifying beasts. The actual fight between the alien creature and the rock monster was amazing, and the visuals are stunning, but for the reasons stated above I was kind of EH on it.

Three Robots is a lot more fun. Three robotic tourists exploring a ruined city and misinterpreting human culture. The personalities in this short really popped, and I found the humor really good.

So yeah! I plan to check out more. Mature animation is pretty rare nowadays, and there’s a TON of content to go through here. Looking forward to checking out the rest.

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So, seeing as how a lot of people on Twitter are citing how this show doesn’t warn AT ALL over some of its problematic triggers, I think I’d make a list of what content is in each short:

(A note: Harsh language is basically your shits, fucks, and what not. I’ll specify if it goes beyond that.)

"Sonnie’s Edge" - Gore, references to rape, extreme violence towards women, abrasive sexist language, nudity.
"Three Robots" - Dead bodies, harsh language.
"The Witness" - Violence towards women, excessive nudity, oversexualization of women, fetish/kink, transphobia (maybe).
"Suits" - Alien gore, harsh language.
"Sucker of Souls" - Lots of gore (2D gore), abrasive language (some gendered), male nudity.
"When The Yogurt Took Over" - Cartoon nudity.
"Beyond the Aquila Rift" - Harsh language, sexual scenes, female nudity, and a pretty disturbing scene towards the end. It isn’t gore/sexual violence related, but it is horrific.
"Good Hunting" - Nudity men & women, gore, harsh language, racist language, sexual harassment, objectification of women.
"The Dump" - Gore, harsh language, male nudity.
"Shape-Shifters" Very violent gore, harsh language, male nudity.
"Helping Hand" - Very violent gore, harsh language.
"Fish Night" - Harsh language, male nudity.
"Lucky 13" - Gore, harsh language.
"Zima Blue" - Maybe language? I honestly don’t remember any on this one. Suicide, maybe.
"Blindspot" - Harsh language, character death (Robotic).
"Ice Age" - Harsh language.
"Alternate Histories" - Cartoon nudity, Hitler, Nazism, cartoon gore.
"Secret War" - Gore, harsh language.

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Just watched Sonnie’s Edge, recognized the story from Peter F Hamilton’s short story collection A Second Chance at Eden. The adaptation is spot on, my only minor beef were the changes to the monster designs.

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Oh shit, I didn’t even realize it was a adaptation.

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It’s a great book if you like sci fi. It’s set in the same universe as this massive space opera trilogy he wrote, but you don’t need to have read it to understand anything.

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Oh man, Suits was MADE for Austin.

Country bumkins protecting their cows with mechs.

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Okay so Sonnie’s Edge has got me wanting to read that book.

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Suits felt like the season finale of an animated series I never knew I needed.

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Holy shit HOLY SHIT THESE ARE ALL SO GOOD. I AM HONESTLY FREAKING OUT HOW FANTASTIC ALL OF THESE ARE.

I am literally blown away by some of the production value and storytelling here. Beyond the Aquila Rift is such a FANTASTIC piece of short sci-fi. It’s so saaad, that this alien creature keeps finding lost castaways of the dead human species, and it keeps trying to supplement their trauma with visions of past relationships, of friendships… And that it KNOWS that humanity can’t even comprehend its existence, that this creature that is trying so hard to shelter from, because it knows the mind will just shatter looking at it. GOD, this is the shit I love.

Shape-Shifters is a lot of fun too. It’s like someone picked up one of those hunky supernatural romance books off a Kroger bargin bin and made it into a amazingly produced short. Plus lots of hanging… Uh… WEREWOLF parts.

But Helping Hand might be my absolute favorite right now. I don’t want to say anything about it, but be prepared to squirm.

The Witness had my eyes locked onto it with just how damn GOOD it looked. I loved that it subverted my expectations in the end, and I’d love if in the next season they did another with the woman hunting the man down.

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Good Hunting is also an adaptation of an excellent short story by Ken Liu, from the collection The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

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This show is bad because it’s going to result in me buying a bunch of new short story collections.

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I just finished the whole bunch.

The last one, The Secret War, is based on a short as well.

Zima Blue is really something special.

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Lucky 13

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I watched some of the shorts, at least some of the ones with less gore, and this collection seems pretty good. So far I’ve watched Three Robots, The Witness, Suits, and When the Yogurt Took Over. All of which I at least liked something of. All of it is really well animated too.

I’m curious which ones I should avoid if I don’t want to see extreme gore though.

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Zima Blue is good for that, it’s a very basic cyberpunk ‘what does it mean to be alive’ premise.

Beyond the Aquila Rift doesn’t have gore, but it gets very disturbing in one part.

Ice Age is mostly live action, and there’s only a bit of gore at the very end, but it’s involving dinos.

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Definitely avoid Sonnie’s Edge if you don’t want to see gore. It’s pretty raw in that regard.

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I came here to say just this. Glad to see someone else recognising Hamilton’s short fiction.

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Zima Blue also, it’s based on a short story of the same name by Alastair Reynolds (collected in a book of the same name too). (and Beyond The Aquila Rift is also Reynolds)

I am pretty sure almost all of them are adaptations, not original.

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Yeah, I’m realizing that.

While I love these shorts, someone on Twitter made the point that there aren’t many women involved with the direction nor the adaptation.

I hope the get more diverse voices if they do more.

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I read in a review yesterday that Tim Miller, one of the executive producers, said that this series was a “love letter to nerds” and of course the other exec producer was David Fincher, which maybe explains why there wasn’t a whole lot of women involved in these stories.

I would love to see another season of short stories adapted.

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Finished watching it, those two were the only stories I recognized. I love this style of animation compilation show (haven’t seen one since…maybe when MTV aired their Liquid Telivision series in the 90s), was a cherry on top to see these great works of short sci fi adapted.
Favorite moments, the climax of Fish Night was beautiful, Sonnie’s Edge, Secret War, Good Hunting and Zima Blue were all stand outs in either story, animation or both.
@trashtabby Ones to avoid for gore are: Secret War, Sonnie’s Edge, Shape-Shifters, Sucker of Souls and The Dump.
Helping Hand is not deliberately horror movie style gorey but it has an extremely unsettling scene, probably the hardest to watch in the series for me.

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