Spider Rose

Three episodes in, and I already feel like dropping Love, Death & Robots. It is no longer the show it once was. The depth, the atmosphere, the philosophical undertones that made earlier seasons so compelling are all missing. What we have now is a shallow parade of flashy visuals and overly emotional characters, with none of the layered storytelling or attention to detail that defined the earlier episodes.

Red Rose stands out, but only slightly. A post-apocalyptic galaxy, a lone cyborg yearning for lost humanity, and a mysterious presence that seems important only to amount to nothing more than a background footnote. The episode tries to evoke an emotional shift with its ending, but it feels forced, like it is begging the viewer to care rather than earning that reaction.

Overall, the show seems more focused on spectacle than substance. What was once bold and thought-provoking now feels hollow and overproduced.

Netflix's "Love, Death and Robots" returns for a fourth season. Overall, I've enjoyed the first three runs and have written individual reviews for each episode. I think I'll continue that approach with this set too.

Lydia (Emily O'Brien) lives in an asteroid ring, trying to trade with passing ships. Lydia is planning revenge against Jade (Feodor Chin) but has so far only been able to kill his clones, and not Jade himself. She is temporarily left with the pet of one of her trading partners, a creature that absorbs the DNA of those that it eats. She bonds with the creature, nicknamed Nosey, but Jade has discovered her location and is planning an attack.

We're back with Blur Studios here, and their level of near photo realism animation is back too. To be fair, this is not quite at the highest level of graphics we've seen, but a strong contender. Unfortunately, many of these visually splendid efforts are pedestrian with their stories and I'm afraid that "Spider Rose" felt like another one of those to me.

There was a gory battle scene, which was intense, but nothing else particularly memorable about the episode.

There are some interesting themes in this one, and it evokes similarities with what must have been done by the same studio, the sci-fi episode in the previous season, the one about hive-mind extra-terrestrials. I must admit I _loved_ that one -- the one in season 3, it actually had a novel story, certainly one that's worth pursuing which it tried to do.

Anyway, this may just be done by the same studio, it bears some visual style similarities for me to think so.

But unlike the other one, this one doesn't really explore a particularly interesting theme. It's visually striking, but the show already set the standard for 3-D animation, and I, for one, expect no less.

The theme that I liked -- which the episode didn't manage (or bother) to fully explore -- is loneliness, despair, desire for revenge and last but not least, _pets_! :) It ended too soon for me to have a lasting impression, which I think is its chief shortcomings, perhaps even the only shortcoming -- there is an interesting theme there somewhere, vaguely painted and lazily left unexplored.

Twice the story and half the animation quality (even at the same run length) would have improved this one by a margin, I'd say. Alas.

A bio-mechanical femme in a vast orbiting web-like space station controls a strange alien artifact, barters with extraterrestrials, seeks revenge for a dead mate, and acquires a strange pet. All of which is interesting but given the 15 minute running time, the disparate storylines just don't gel - too bad as they generally start off interestingly. The designs of Rose (the cybertrix) and the aliens are imaginative as is the rendering of Rose's vast mechano-environment. With a bit more focus, this could have been one of the top L,D+R episodes but even as is, it has so far been my favourite from the anthology's unfortunately weak fourth season.

This one was maybe the closest to what Love, Death and Robots used to be, and yet, you will not find me re-watch it. It has elements that we have explored before, but this time, it is told in a less shocking or exciting fashion. Nothing unique about our character, we've seen this done multiple times, just about watchable. I'd say it was ok-ish overall, but just below average. Unfortunately, it will not get better than this when it comes to storytelling or vibe...which is annoying and disappointing for something that used to make people go "whoah, now what is something creative". I also found something about our character's face being a bit too much in terms of animation, but that is just a small thing, might be just me.