Breaking down Love, Death & Robots season 3 by love, death, and robots

Tim Miller and David Fincher’s edgy adult animated anthology Love, Death & RobotsVolume 3 is here, baby! With 18 very long shorts, Season 1 really pushes the boundaries of graphic violence and nudity. Season 2, on the other hand, is more punchy and sharper. It ditches gratuitous tiddies for poignant storytelling.

Season 3 is a continuation of season 2 with shorter, snappier individual shorts. The season 3 episode has more gore and blood than the season 2. However, there is no excessive sexual violence like season 1. This is what we love!

True to past Polygon tradition, we’ve broken down each of this season’s nine shorts by the amount of love, death, and robots they contain, as well as the general enjoyment factor.

“Three Robots: Exit Strategies”

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This is the direct sequel. Love, Death & Robots history — from the mind of acclaimed sci-fi novelist John Scalzi. Three droll robots, the titular trio, return for a tour of post-apocalyptic survival techniques before humanity was finally extinguished.

Love: These robots, once again, are friends who share strong platonic affection.

Death: The robots have found various human bodies in increasingly dangerous places. It’s pretty morbid, but also very funny. Actually, the fall of humanity is comical.

Robots:You can see it in the title.

It works? Because the joke behind the robots’ vacation is the same as it was in season 1, the jokes in this “Three Robots” sequel aren’t as funny as they were the first time. But it’s still oddly charming to see the robots tour the dilapidated remains of human civilization, making pointed jokes about how tech billionaires thought they could survive the apocalypse without any survival skills. This one has a kicker that is almost identical to the first, but it’s more funny.

“Bad Travelling”

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The giant crustacean, which is twice the size of a shark and has a great appetite, attacks a sailing boat that is hunting for them. Mutiny, betrayal, and ventriloquism with a corpse… welcome aboard the animation directing debut of David Fincher.

Love: There isn’t much love among crewmates — certainly the man who proclaims himself leader doesn’t agree with his crew’s moral decisions. However, the crustacean loves humans.

Death: Loads! You have to keep it alive! This one has a high body count, but most of the flesh-eating takes place offscreen.

Robots: There is none! The short is definitely influenced by Age of Sail technology even though it’s set on distant planets. It’s mostly wheels, rigging, and sails instead of smart AI.

It works? It adds suspense to the situation by keeping it secret onboard. Who’s an ally and who’s an enemy? Which one would prefer to unleash this creature on thousands upon thousands of civilians? And who would be willing to sacrifice their lives in order save them? It’s tense and eerie, leading to a satisfying conclusion.

Actually, it’s almost like There are many of usIf There are many of usIt took place aboard a pirate ship, on distant planets. Also involved was a crab-destroying human monster.

“The Very Pulse of the Machine”

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A disaster occurs on an exploratory mission to Io moon. An astronaut must walk to safety, carrying the body and possibly mind-warping medications to treat her injuries.

Love: There is some sense of camaraderie between the main character, Martha, and her co-pilot at the very beginning of the short, but we don’t really know what their relationship is like outside of work. And then the co-pilot dies, so we don’t ever learn more.

Death: Martha is the sole survivor of a terrible accident in the very first seconds. She drags her co-pilot’s body along with her in order to use their oxygen supply as she treks across Io trying to contact their superiors. Will she succeed? That’s up for debate.

Robots: Kinda? There’s something out there on the barren moon that could be some sort of machine. Martha could even be hallucinating.

It works? “The Very Pulse of the Machine” is gorgeous and evocative. This one is much more accessible than the rest. As Martha treks across Io’s wasteland, she begins to see the landscape shift around her, rendering itself in spectacular colors and shapes. She keeps hearing her lost co-pilot’s voice reciting poetry to her, which imbues even more mystery into Martha’s situation. It’s a story of survival, one that builds up to a deliciously ambiguous ending.

“Night of the Mini Dead”

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The apocalypse is conceived — literally — in a graveyard in this biting zombie satire, which starts with some cheeky cemetery sex and accelerates into a walking dead invasion of everywhere — from downtown LA to the Vatican. It’s the end of the world as we gnaw it.

Love: The short opens with a sex scene. You can’t really see anything, since the figures are shown in miniature, but you do hear some really loud moaning and groaning, which feels especially outsized compared to the tiny size of the characters.

Death: Check that box to see how many people are killed by zombies! But the victims do turn into zombies, so maybe it’s more like Love, Undeath & RobotsIn this instance?

Robots: Nope. It’s zombie time.

It works? It’s quirky and funny, though it is basically the plot of most zombie movies — just in a very rapidly condensed time frame with a bird’s-eye view of it all. This is a quick, fun bite that’s not too substantial.

“Kill Team Kill”

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Young, dumb and full of… blood, lots and lots of blood, a ’roid-raging, adrenaline-fueled force of US soldiers faces a foe unlike any they have faced before, the result of a CIA experiment that gets really fucking Grizzly. Director of Kung Fu Panda 2.

Love: Although there is a certain amount of love among the team members, they also show it through their insatiable laughter.

Death: It’s a lot! It is reallyGory! The Special Ops team discovers that the platoon they’re supposed to meet up with has been literally ripped to shreds, and it only gets more dire from there. It’s so over-the-top in terms of guts and gore that it wraps back around to being hilarious.

Robots: The threat they face is a cybernetic grizzly bear, but they also team up with a cute li’l robot pal.

It works? “Kill Team Kill” opens with a shot of someone taking a piss off a cliff top and leaking all over the camera. If you don’t find that funny, you probably won’t enjoy this short. However, if that sort of Adult Swim-esque crude humor is your jam, then “Kill Team Kill” is a gory good time, super macho to the point of hilarious parody.

“Swarm”

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Two posthuman scientists investigate an insectoid species that seems to be mindless. This story is about fear, sex and philosophy at the frontier. Tim Miller directs and writes the screen adaptation from Bruce Sterling’s Cyberpunk classic.

Love: Both scientists bond, and they have some fun while in the swarm. There is nothing more romantic than falling in love with warm alien fluid.

Death: Let’s just say some fates are worse than death.

Robots: It is basically an organic machine. They hope to learn more about them and bring their efficiency to the rest of humanity.

It works? It is a strong plot, and the kind of story that you will remember for a long time. (Since Miller, as this series’ producer, hand-picks sci-fi short stories for the animators, that’s entirely accurate.) The fascination of watching the alien world gradually shift from bizarre to routinely sinister is incredible.

“Mason’s Rats”

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If they shoot back at you, it is obvious that your pest-control problems are serious. As a farmer who is grumpy takes severe measures to combat an invading rat population, the Ratpocalypse arrives in Scotland. Judgment Day: Exterminator.

Love: The rats do indeed care about each other. Mason cares more about his barn being loved in peace.

Death: Rat deaths are high and brutal. The final stages of the story are marked by a mountainous number of corpses. Also, Mason’s cat gets caught up in the casualties. For Susan, press F.

Robots: Mason is offered a variety of robots for killing rats. They’re highly effective killing machines.

It works? This is one of my favorite times. Although rats are naturally capable of basic warfare, they must fight powerful exterminator robots in order to be free. Why not?

“In Vaulted Halls Entombed”

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A group of Special Forces soldiers are tasked with the difficult task of rescuing a terrorist hostage deep in Afghanistan’s mountains. They must face an evil elder god, a terrifying force of terrible power and a terrible enemy.

Love: In another instance, the team may not express their love for each other. This season, there is not a lot of love.

Death: A team of soldiers discovers the bodies of their predecessors, and then they are slowly taken out in more gruesome ways.

Robots: It’s not true. More like elder gods unleashing eldritch evils on modern people.

It works? The parallels between “In Vaulted Halls Entombed” and “Kill Team Kill” are pretty clear: Both involve soldiers reckoning with violent forces beyond their understanding, which results in some gnarly deaths. “In Vaulted Halls Entombed” takes a more serious approach, however, leaning more into horror instead of humor. Both of the shorts work, but which one you prefer really depends on whether you like your “mature, messed-up” stories crude or creepy.

“Jibaro”

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In this imaginative retelling of the classic folktale, a siren sings to men and lures them to their death. Jibaro is deaf, so her tricks fail to work and the Golden Woman falls in love with him. This is the beginning of a dangerous dance between two predators.

Love: The Golden Woman and Jibaro are drawn together by a mysterious, magnetic attraction. Infatuation is more than love.

Death: The Golden Woman manages to slay Jibaro’s entire squadron in pretty gruesome manners. What will happen to these heroes? Let’s just say their attraction is certainly toxic.

Robots: Nope! Nope! The season is lacking robots.

It works? It is the last episode of season 3. Love, Death & Robots that wasn’t based on a preexisting short story. The dialogue is also absent. Jibaro’s hearing squadron is killed off immediately, and he and the Golden Woman don’t exchange many words. It’s gorgeous visual chaos, even if some of that becomes so frenzied that it’s hard to keep track of it all.

Love, Death & Robots: Volume 3Netflix has it available now