Love, Death & Robots

Love, Death & Robots
File:Love, Death + Robots logo.png
Genre	Anthology
Created by	Tim Miller
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	18 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Joshua Donen David Fincher Jennifer Miller Tim Miller
Running time	6–17 minutes
Production company	Blur Studio
Original release
Network	Netflix
Release	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15) – present (present)

Love, Death & Robots (stylized as 🖤❌🤖 LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS) is an American adult animated science fiction anthology web television series on Netflix. The 18-episode first season was released on March 15, 2019. The series is produced by Joshua Donen, David Fincher, Jennifer Miller, and Tim Miller. Each episode was animated by different crews from a range of countries. The series is a re-imagining of Fincher and Miller's long in-development reboot of the 1981 animated science fiction film Heavy Metal.

The cast includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Gary Cole, Chris Parnell, Omid Abtahi, John DiMaggio, Christine Adams, Josh Brener, Jill Talley, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Nolan North, Elaine Tan, Aaron Himelstein, Samira Wiley, Stefan Kapičić, and Topher Grace, with Grace and Winstead appearing in live-action roles, rather than animated.

In June 2019, Netflix renewed the series for a second season.

Premise

The animated series consists of 18 stand-alone episodes, all under 20 minutes long, and all produced by different casts and crews, though some episodes may share certain crew members. The series title refers to each episode's thematic connection to the three aforementioned subjects, though not every episode contains all three elements.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Adapted script by	Based on a story by	Animation producer(s)	Original release date	Duration
1	"Sonnie's Edge"	Dave Wilson	Philip Gelatt	Peter F. Hamilton	Blur Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	17 minutes
In dystopian London, a young woman named Sonnie with teammates Wes and Ivrina participate in underground "Beastie" fights: Remotely controlled bio-engineered gladiator beast battles. Ringmaster Dicko attempts to bribe Sonnie to throw the match, but she declines. Her team explains that Sonnie was sexually assaulted in the past, and her desire for revenge becomes her "edge". Sonnie enters the arena, piloting her beast, Khanivore, to fight the opponent, Turboraptor. After a brutal match, Khanivore wins. Dicko's mistress visits Sonnie to seduce her, before severely injuring Sonnie. Dicko appears, stating he isn't happy with Sonnie's rejection. Laughing, Sonnie reveals that her body is only a bioware processor spliced to a spine, revealing that her consciousness was always inside Khanivore, and that the fear of death in combat is her real edge. She kills the mistress, then grabs Dicko as the screen goes dark. Starring: Helen Sadler, Hayley McLaughlin, Time Winters, Omid Abtahi, Christine Adams, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Braden Lynch
2	"Three Robots"	Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres	Philip Gelatt	John Scalzi	Blow Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	12 minutes
Long after the fall of humanity, three robots (K-VRC, XBOT 4000, and a triangular bot) wander through a post-apocalyptic city, trying to understand how humans lived based on their limited knowledge of them and the things they left behind. They learn the concept of human sports, consumption, and eventually pets when they encounter a live cat, which proceeds to follow them. The three robots learn about their origins and later arrive at what appears to be a nuclear missile base, where the triangular bot explains that humans died out from environmental disasters caused by their own actions. K-VRC states that at one point, humans genetically engineered their cats, which the cat approves, showing its speech ability and suggesting that cats contributed to mankind's extinction. The cat demands petting while other cats in the base corner the three robots. Starring: Josh Brener, Gary Anthony Williams, Chris Parnell
3	"The Witness"	Alberto Mielgo	Written by: Alberto Mielgo	N/A	Pinkman.TV	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	12 minutes
A woman witnesses a murder in the apartment across from her hotel in Hong Kong. The murderer realizes he has been seen, but notices the similarity between his victim and the witness so he proceeds to chase her. The woman hails a cab and contacts the authorities and a man named Vladimir about the murder, leaving the details vague in her confused state. She then visits a strip club where she works as a dancer under the alias Zawora. The man enters the club, guided by the host. When the witness sees the man in the audience during her dance, the man and woman engage in a cat-and-mouse game across the city streets. The woman, who stole Vladimir's gun, hides in an apartment but the man finds and corners her. They proceed to fight over the gun, with the woman ending up shooting the man dead. She then realizes a man in the hotel across the street witnessed the murder and she notices his similarity with her victim. Starring: Emily O'Brien, Ben Sullivan
4	"Suits"	Franck Balson	Philip Gelatt	Steven Lewis	Blur Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	17 minutes
A small community of farmers pilot mech suits to defend their land from an invading swarm of insectoid aliens dubbed "DeeBees". When the defense field fails, DeeBees pour in faster than they can repel, so as the community hunkers in a shelter, all arms are called in and one neighbor, Jake, sacrifices himself to kill a large portion of the swarm. As this happens, the biggest one comes through, the Big Mama. With a well aimed shot from a turret gun, Big Mama is destroyed by the wife of one of the farmers. Come dawn, the barriers are back to normal and the town return to a sense of safety. After the battle the camera view moves to show the whole planet has a population of DeeBees living on it, and the farmers have set up small colonies on the planet as the real invading force. Starring: Neil Kaplan, G. K. Bowes, Scott Whyte, Courtenay Taylor, Tudi Roche
5	"Sucker of Souls"	Owen Sullivan	Philip Gelatt	Kirsten Cross	Studio La Cachette	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	13 minutes
Flynn, a hired mercenary, and Dr. Wehunt, an archaeologist, escape through an underground tunnel, fleeing an unknown assailant. Moments before, both of them accompanied by an intern, Simon, discover a cave with writings in it. A demon suddenly reveals itself by killing Simon, which causes it to mutate into a larger, more bestial form. After it transforms, Flynn escapes with Dr. Wehunt and informs his two employees Micky and Gary. On their way, they are confronted by the demon, revealed to be Dracula. Dracula attempts to kill Flynn, although it stops after seeing a cat. Dr. Wehunt explains that Dracula fears and hates cats, which Flynn uses to scare it away. The two reunite with Micky and Gary in a chamber, although they are trapped from the main exit. Realizing that Dracula has followed them, Dr. Wehunt searches another exit through a secret tunnel while the mercenaries set up explosives. Entering the chamber, Dracula is bombarded with bullets. The team escapes, while Dracula enters and is killed in an explosion. Dr. Wehunt states that tunnel leads them to prison cells, which turn out to be filled with similar demons. Starring: Michael Benyaer, Fred Tatasciore, Laura Waddell, Jonathan Cahill, Scott Whyte
6	"When the Yogurt Took Over"	Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres	Janis Robertson	John Scalzi	Blow Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	6 minutes
A group of scientists mutate yogurt by fermenting bacteria. Although initial tests fail, a researcher takes the mutated bacteria home for her homemade yogurt, unaware that it has become sentient. The yogurt asks to meet US leaders, to whom it claims to have solutions for the country's problems. As payment, the yogurt requests control over the State of Ohio. The leaders initially laugh at the offer, but accept after the yogurt threatens to go to China. It proceeds to receive a century-long lease on Ohio, promising respect for the humans and constitutional rights within its borders. Soon, the yogurt evolves and comes up with an instruction to eradicate national debt. It gives this to the US president, but warns him that any deviation will be catastrophic. He accepts, though deviates, and the global economy soon collapses except for Ohio. In desperation, the government gives the yogurt supreme executive power, despite some rejecting the idea. A decade later, humans live prosperous lives under the yogurt's reign; to the surprise of humans, the yogurt decides to initiate space launches, and leaves the humans behind on Earth. Starring: Maurice LaMarche, Alexia Dox
7	"Beyond the Aquila Rift"	Léon Bérelle, Dominique Boidin, Rémi Kozyra, Maxime Luère	Philip Gelatt	Alastair Reynolds	Unit Image	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	17 minutes
Blue Goose's crew members Thom, Suzy, and Ray, are returning home from a successful mission, but an error in the routing plot causes unexpected events to happen. Thom is greeted by Greta, an old flame, and is told he is hundreds of thousands of light years from Earth, nearly beyond the Aquila Rift, and centuries have passed. Still in disbelief, Thom forcefully demands the truth from a tearfully reluctant Greta, who tells him that he is not ready to see the truth. Greta defends her position as she truly does care for him, and revealing the truth would hurt him. But as his demand grows, she relents and awakens him: an emaciated Thom is in a floating hive web structure occupied by an alien species. As Thom loses his mind to such an encounter, "Greta" returns him to the dream world, minus his recent memories, to greet him and begin all over again. Starring: Henry Douthwaite, Madeleine Knight, Rebecca Banatvala, Delroy Brown, Grahame Fox
8	"Good Hunting"	Oliver Thomas	Philip Gelatt	Ken Liu	Red Dog Culture House	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	17 minutes
In early 20th century China, Liang accompanies his father hunting a shape-shifting Huli jing named Tsiao-Jung, but stumbles when entranced by her. His father traps her in a half-form, following Tsaio-Jung to the den where Liang meets her daughter, Yan. As Yan tries to explain how humans & Huli Jing can love without magic, her mother arrives urging she get away. Liang's father kills Tsiao-Jung in front of them, but when asking Liang if there are signs of pups, Liang lies and says there were none. His father accepts this and takes the severed head of Tsiao-Jung to collect the bounty; Yan escapes into the night. Years later, Liang's father dies just before the colonized modernizing of China, while Liang and Yan are friends. Moving to Hong-Kong, Liang works as a train engineer, and one night sees Yan, now permanently human after magic left the world. After a time, Liang develops robotic engineering, and Yan comes to him for help: the Governor of Hong Kong drugged her, and turned her into a cyborg sex toy, but she killed him for this atrocity. Per her plea, Liang builds her a flexible metal alloy body to morph into a robotic Huli jing. Parting as friends, Yan hunts any Englishman abusing her homeland. Starring: Elaine Tan, Matthew Yang King, Gwendoline Yeo, Maddox Henry, Sumalee Montano, JB Blanc
9	"The Dump"	Javier Recio Gracia	Philip Gelatt	Joe Lansdale	Able & Baker	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	10 minutes
A city inspector tries to convince Ugly Dave Dvorchek to move out of his house which is located in a dump. However, Dave and his pet Otto are not intent on doing so. Dave recounts a story of meeting Otto, who is a muck creature which fused with whatever material it consumed. But instead of killing it, Dave made it his pet and commands it to eat the inspector, killing him. Happy to be staying in his home, Dave plays with Otto. Starring: Nolan North, André Sogliuzzo, Gary Cole
10	"Shape-Shifters"	Gabriele Pennacchioli	Philip Gelatt	Marko Kloos	Blur Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	16 minutes
In a world where werewolves are common knowledge, but discriminated against, two close werewolf friends who serve in the US Marines, Lt. Decker and Sgt. Sobieski, are taken by surprise when escorting a convoy. Decker's senses locate the assailants. When returning to base they are antagonized by some of their comrades. While Sobieski is assigned to a Watchtower, it is attacked and Decker races ahead of the backup convoy to help the troops therein. Upon arrival, Decker finds all the men slaughtered by likely another Werewolf, which also killed Sobieski. Commander Reyner orders Decker to find this Werewolf and determine if they are Taliban. The next night, Decker leaves base camp, finding an old man who morphs into beast form, and another Werewolf attacks Decker. After being injured, Decker faints to lure in the younger Werewolf to kill him. Decker then fights the old man wolf, killing him by crushing his skull. Come dawn, Decker has mostly regenerated, and after ending his service in disgust due to being discriminated and antagonized by fellow soldiers, reclaims Sobieski's body to bury him in the desert with his dog tags. Starring: Graham Hamilton, Adam Bartley, Jim Pirri, James Horan, Ike Amadi
11	"Helping Hand"	Jon Yeo	Philip Gelatt	Claudine Griggs	Axis Studios	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	10 minutes
Overworked and underpaid by the ‘E-Z Orbital Maintenance Company’, working class hero Alexandria Stephens attends to a faulty satellite in Earth orbit. While in mid-operation her old model EVA suit is randomly hit by a stray screw from orbital debris, damaging her oxygen tanks, disabling the mobility unit and casting her hopelessly adrift in open space. A rescue team can reach her in 58 minutes, but her compromised oxygen supply will only last 14 minutes. She seals the upper left arm of her suit using her watch strap, then removes the left glove, exposing her left arm to the vacuum of space. Throwing the glove pushes her back toward the satellite, which narrowly remains infuriatingly out of reach. Ultimately drifting back past her beaten up maintenance vehicle ‘The Anthem’, she decides to break off her now frozen left forearm, throwing the arm in a last ditch attempt to make it back to her ship. Back onboard she performs emergency self triage then radios Bill, her ground controller, who asks with relief if she ‘still needs a hand?’. Starring: Elly Condron, Chris Parson
12	"Fish Night"	Damian Nenow	Philip Gelatt	Joe Lansdale	Platige Image Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	10 minutes
Two salesmen get stuck in the desert after their Plymouth breaks down due to a broken radiator. Spending what remained of their day around the car, the older man informs the younger man that the desert was once a sea floor, and they soon discover that the desert is not what it seems at night. They wake up to find the ghosts of prehistoric marine life floating around the car. In awe of the sight, Young man starts taking off his clothes to swim through the air, while Old man urges him to return. As Young man loses himself to becoming a luminescent being, a primordial Shark appears and despite Old man's calls of danger, Young man is ignorant until he is consumed by the ghost shark. Old man, in shock, stands alone in the desert under a full moon. Starring: Kirk Thornton, Yuri Lowenthal
13	"Lucky 13"	Jerome Chen	Philip Gelatt	Marko Kloos	Sony Pictures Imageworks	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	14 minutes
After two crews on the Dropship Lucky 13 are lost, other Marines become superstitious and give the unlucky ship to rookie Lt. "Cutter" Colby. Dropping troops at a LZ, the troops are flanked by enemy fire and Cutter orders the Marines back into Ship 13. As one officer races to make it, Cutter waits until the last second to launch flares, saving all troops. Following this success, Cutter flies 19 more missions without casualty. Under her charge, the ship is renowned as "Lucky 13". Cutter, loyal to her craft, passes up upgrading to newer models. But on one mission, 13 is grounded by a Subsurface gun; the ship fails, but all her occupants are still alive. The troops evacuate as Cutter occupies enemy combatants; when overwhelmed, Cutter sets 13 to self-destruct to kill however many enemy troops she can. After reaching the trench, Cutter watches as the ship does not detonate until after enemy troops take cover, where 13 takes them all down with her. Cutter is later awarded numerous awards and a cutting edge new ship, but she longs for one more mission on Lucky 13. Starring: Samira Wiley, Daisuke Tsuji, Nestor Serrano, Stanton Lee, Noshir Dalal, Jeffrey Pierce, David Paladino, Jeff Schine, Melissa Sturm
14	"Zima Blue"	Robert Valley	Philip Gelatt	Alastair Reynolds	Passion Animation Studios	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	10 minutes
Journalist Claire Markham is invited to interview reclusive artist Zima Blue, who wishes to tell his story before unveiling his final work. Zima, who began in portraiture, moved on to abstract murals with the main focus on abstract shapes in a single shade of blue. He continued making larger murals until they were incorporated into celestial bodies, asteroids, and even nebulas. When they meet, Zima reveals to Claire that even though he is a cybernetically enhanced man, in truth he is an advanced android originally built by a young woman many years ago to clean ceramic pool tiles (known as Zima Blue tiles), with the tiles being the first thing he saw. He was upgraded and modified as a test-bed for hardware and software to his current state, passed from owner to owner after his original owner died. Deeply dissatisfied with his state and expressing a deep yearning for meaning through his art, he unveils his final piece: he immerses himself in the re-constructed pool that he originated from, strips away all of his modifications and reverts to his original state as a simple cleaning machine where he finally reaches meaning and happiness stating that he is "home". Starring: Kevin Michael Richardson, Emma Thornett
15	"Blindspot"	Vitaliy Shushko	N/A	Original story by: Vitaliy Shushko	Elena Volk	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	8 minutes
A cyborg crew- Hawk, Kali, Sui and Rookie- attempt to rob a convoy for a heavily guarded microchip as it is in motion to a tunnel. As they plant explosives on the back car, Sui drops one of his when swerving to avoid a desert rat, alerting the guards. Kali opens cover fire, as Hawk moves in to deal with the turrets. Once in the tunnel, they have a limited window to get the microchip, but as Hawk readies, he is blindsided by a massive defense bot which destroys him. Using distraction, Sui knocks it off the convoy, but it shifts into vehicle mode and intercepting Kali before she can rally with Rookie and Sui. As Sui and Rookie work to destroy the CPU of the heavy bot, Sui sacrifices himself to destroy it and the convoy. Rookie survives and takes the targeted microchip, lamenting on the loss of his team. He is greeted by Bob, the team's coordinator, congratulating him and telling him that he copied all of their brains before the mission; the crew greet Rookie in hologram form, commenting on a job well done. Starring: Aaron Himelstein, Carlos Alazraqui, Jill Talley, Brian Bloom, Chris Cox
16	"Ice Age"	Tim Miller	Philip Gelatt	Michael Swanwick	Digic Pictures / Blur Studio / Atomic Fiction	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	10 minutes
Gail and Rob move into the apartment finding an antique refrigerator. Opening it to get ice, they find a preserved Mammoth the size of a sand grain, and returning to the freezer they find a fast-moving time-dilated civilization developing. After ten minutes, the civilization goes from Medieval era to Industrial Revolution then modern day, but some minutes later they see the civilization use tactical nuclear warfare, with Rob's face is sightly burnt by the nuclear explosions as a result. Finding the fridge civilization escalating warfare they close the freezer and order pizza. After an hour and afraid they didn't make it, open the fridge and find the civilization has rebuilt and move further into its future with technology evolving at an unprecedented level. They ultimately evolve into a race of energy beings, returning to singularity and vanishing from the freezer. Believing the mini-people are gone, Rob unplugs the refrigerator, to clean it come morning. As they have breakfast, they find the freezer now has a prehistorical world, with primitive sapiens and dinosaurs. Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, John DiMaggio, Roger Craig Smith
17	"Alternate Histories"	Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres	Philip Gelatt	John Scalzi	Sun Creature Studio	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	7 minutes
Multiversity, an alternative history research simulation app, shows a user six different timelines involving the death of Adolf Hitler. Potential consequences of each death include different outcomes from WWI and WWII; various individuals reaching The Moon first; time travel paradoxes; and post-apocalyptic scenarios. Exiting the demo, the user selects a possible alternate timeline where "Lincoln shoots first" instead of Booth. Starring: Rebecca Riedy, Dieter Jansen, Scott Whyte, Chris Cox
18	"The Secret War"	István Zorkóczy	Philip Gelatt	David W. Amendola	Digic Pictures	March 15, 2019 (2019-03-15)	16 minutes
A platoon of Red Army soldiers hunt demons in the Siberian forests. Sgt. Sergei Pavlovich and his Lieutenant raise concerns the men are too dispersed, but the Major dismisses their worries. As the Germans lay siege to Stalingrad, the Red Army Platoon continue without support into the forest. Following a bloody victory, Scout Okchen finds the corpse of a fallen Secret Police agent, Boris Grishin. At camp reviewing Grishin's notebook, Sergei finds intel on "Operation: Hades" which was to research myths across Russia. In 1919, after the White Army retreated, Grishin summoned monsters to fight in the Red Army, but apparently failed to control them and died. Sergei wishes to use this information to rid the demons, but others fear it would expose the government's past errors. As they locate a barrow, Okchen and Pogodin ready munitions to destroy the monsters' nest and cave, but the two die from the collapse before they can escape. The horde is larger than expected, and Sergei orders a stand. He deploys explosives and turrets, but orders the fastest horse for his son to relay a message to the Major to bombard their current location to kill the horde. Starring: Stefan Kapičić, Bruce Thomas, Jeff Berg, Antonio Alvarez, Victor Brandt

Release

Netflix released the first trailer for the series on February 14, 2019.

In March 2019, Netflix revealed that it was experimenting with a new approach by including a different order of episodes to different users. In response to an accusation that the episode order was based on the streaming company's perception of a user's sexual orientation, Netflix responded that there were four unique episode orders, released to users at random.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 78% based on 36 reviews, and an average rating of 6.72/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "This animated anthology has enough creative Death to satisfy cyberpunk aficionados who Love their Robots to have some Heavy Metal influence, but the series' lofty ambitions are often undercut by a preoccupation with gore and titillation."

Abby Robinson of Digital Spy called the series problematic in its portrayal of women as primarily sexual objects and victims of trauma, labeling it as "firmly rooted in the past". Writing in The Daily Beast, Nick Schager described the series as "Black Mirror for the ADD-addled video game crowd" and praised the show for its "diverse affair rife with violence, humor, and a healthy dose of sensuality". In a more negative review, Ben Travers of IndieWire described the episodes as "too often hyper-masculine and half-baked" and gave the series a C grade, though the review was based on only 6 of the 18 episodes. Writing for Wired, Peter Rubin praised the show and its boundary-pushing nature, saying that "sometimes, you just want to see Adolf Hitler suffocated by a giant mound of gelatin". Rubin further voiced frustration with the seemingly "endless parade of stoic supermen and the women who deceive or escape them", noting that at times it seems as though Fincher and Miller have aimed the show at a "particularly retrograde subset of genre fans".

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2019	Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Short Form Animated Program	"The Witness"	Pending
		Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation	"The Secret War"	Pending

External links

• Love, Death & Robots on Netflix
• Love, Death & Robots at IMDb