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Love, Death & Robots Season 3 Review

The third season of Love, Death & Robots premiered on Netflix in 2022. It is easily the best season of this animated anthology show so far.

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“Shoot him in the dick!“

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Three Robots: Exit Strategies is among the weakest episodes of this bunch. Yes, the animation and world building are superb as they always are on this dazzling series, but the episode is too nihilistic in its depiction of humanity and its humor overly dark and simply not funny. Bad Travelling, on the other hand, is one of the greatest episodes of this season for sure. It’s such an unexpectedly thrilling, original story about a captain who fights a villainous crustacean on their ship. This man is presented as a murderous villain at first, but eventually it is revealed that he has been humanity’s salvation all along in that superb twist ending. It’s a dark story that isn’t edgy for the sake of being edgy while never being too nihilistic as well.

The Very Pulse of the Machine did not appeal to me personally. I respect it artistically as the animation is gorgeous and the score beautiful, but the overly esoteric and ambiguous nature to its plot and themes was problematic. But Night of the Mini Dead just might be my favorite episode within this batch. Yes, it’s silliness for the sake of silliness, but watching these mini zombies wreck havoc on everybody was hilarious. The funniest were their high-pitched voices and some gloriously ridiculous lines of dialogue.

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Kill Team Kill is surely the worst episode of the season. I really dislike these American military stories where the soldiers go around killing everything in sight. There is no point to all of this carnage and what we are left with is just a bunch of stupid mayhem. But Swarm itself is quite sophisticated. It’s a smart take on colonization and how humanity exploits other creatures. The alien insects here turn out to be much cleverer than previously thought while the hive is a stupendously designed setting. It’s a terrific SF story that was a bit too short, but still very satisfactory.

Mason’s Rats is another phenomenal comedy outing in the vein of the zombie story. This one ended on such a heartwarming note where the man and the rats made peace. It’s a wonderful pro-animal rights narrative that is both sweet and quite funny. These two episodes beg the question why the creators do not pursue comedy as a genre more as they are so great at it.

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In Vaulted Halls Entombed is an alien episode that ended on an ambiguous note that opens discussion in a great way. This is how you do a military episode. It’s still overly violent as most of the episodes here are, but the imagery is fantastic, the alien creature is so memorable and the otherworldly, creepy nature to the plot was its biggest strength. As for Jibaro, it ended the season on a very unique note. This episode is a morality tale against greed and capitalism, but one that is also artistically inclined in its beautiful dance, music and visuals. It’s the most authentic episode here.