Spider Rose

My problem with Spider Rose

The only Season 4 episode I liked was Spider Rose (it is actually a dramatic improvement on the source story). But there is one problem I can't ignore.

Here is the description of *Colonel Doctor* Jade Prime from Bruce Sterling's story:

"A Shaper's face appeared, one of the Oriental-based gene lines, smooth raven hair held back with jeweled pins, slim black eyebrows arched over dark eyes with the epicanthic fold, pale lips slightly curved in a charismatic smile. A smooth, clean actor's face with the glittering ageless eyes of a fanatic."

Shapers are the genetically perfected Übermensch counterparts to Spider Rose's cyborg Mechanist set. The two scientists in Swarm were Shapers. They are physically perfect (which is why Swarm wanted to breed a human caste of symbiotes with them), and their minds bred for high IQ to the point where some became hyperintelligent enough to be seriously unstable.

They were not jagged toothed scarfaced monstrosities like the Jade Prime of the episode.

My problem is this: the animators had such Hollywoodesque contempt for the IQ of their audience, that is, us, that they had to uglify Jade Prime so we would know him for a villain. Because he's ugly.

It irritates me out of all proportion, but there it is.

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.

The first two episodes of this season were disappointing. I was pleasantly surprised that "Spider Rose" gives us a small glimpse of the show's former glory.

Now, the episode isn't a masterpiece, not by any means. In fact, in my ranking of Love, Death & Robots episodes, it would probably fall around the middle. This is the show at its core: a visual feast for the eyes coupled with an interesting sci-fi concept. As far as the story for this one goes, I didn't necessarily love it, but it was more than passable. "Spider Rose" manages to capture the grief of a woman who has lost what she loves, but the runtime is too short for me to truly get attached or emotionally resonate with her. Nonetheless, it does an effective job of establishing context. The villain is fine. Nothing extraordinary, but he fulfills his purpose. My one question would be why he sends the real copy of himself to attack Rose when he could've just sent more copies and safely hid himself.

Animation is great as always, pacing was decent, the ending was predictable, but it fit the vibe of the episode. Solid episode all around, one of the standouts of Season 4.

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.

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.