Publish "A critique of Love, Death & Robots Vol. 1"

1 files changed, 527 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/source/blog/2024/love-death-robots-vol1/index.md b/source/blog/2024/love-death-robots-vol1/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd66d94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/blog/2024/love-death-robots-vol1/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,527 @@
+---
+title: "A critique of Love, Death & Robots Vol. 1"
+date: 2024-01-04
+layout: "blog"
+toc: true
+---
+
+And now for something completely different!
+
+I recently watched the first volume of the Netflix series *Love, Death & Robots*.
+I really want to talk about it, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.
+
+In case you haven't heard,
+*Love, Death & Robots* is a science-fiction animated anthology series for adults,
+of which the first volume of episodes was released in 2019.
+There are spoilers here, so I recommend that you watch it for yourself first.
+There's enough good stuff to make it worth your time,
+especially considering it's a lot shorter than most series on Netflix.
+
+
+
+## Introduction
+
+I'm happy something like this exists.
+Many writers and designers have good ideas,
+but making a memorable feature-length movie or show
+requires *so many* good ideas
+(ideally with a consistent style and quality)
+that it's very difficult for smaller teams to pull off.
+A sci-fi anthology series is the perfect testbed for ideas
+that would otherwise never reach a wide audience.
+
+The downsides of anthology series are their hit-or-miss quality,
+and limited time for "TV basics" to get the viewer invested,
+e.g. in-depth characterization and complex intriguing plots.
+That said, even for the weaker episodes, I find the short format
+still makes me feel a kind of connection to the team:
+with their limited resources and abilities,
+they decided to focus on *this* instead of *that*.
+Those personal touches are often drowned out in bigger productions.
+
+This intimacy can even make some episodes feel like school projects,
+but make no mistake: *Love, Death & Robots* has a Netflix-sized budget
+and is made by experienced professionals.
+Some of the animation actually looks so good that in *Ice Age*
+(the only live-action episode)
+I needed a minute to convince myself it *wasn't* CGI.
+Crossing the [uncanny valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley)
+is no small feat!
+
+And of course, a show made by professionals
+deserves to be critiqued accordingly.
+
+
+
+## About the mature content
+
+Many episodes focus heavily on action, and include a lot of gore.
+Such mature content is typical in sci-fi stories,
+but I would've liked a bit more variety;
+some episodes are *only* action.
+
+And then there's the other kind of mature content, the sexual kind.
+This show *loves* nudity and suggestiveness,
+and uses them to the point of damaging the experience.
+It's so prevalent that it must come directly from the show's core team,
+there's no other explanation.
+Not all the nudity is sexual,
+but in those cases I still have to ask whether it's necessary.
+It reduces the signal-to-noise ratio of the affected episodes
+without adding anything valuable.
+
+I'm not raising this issue to say "yuck"; I think that kind of content has its place.
+But here it isn't just unnecessary and distracting, it's also discomforting:
+*Love, Death & Robots* has one of the most blatant cases
+of [male gaze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze) I've ever seen.
+I'm a member of the target demographic (read: straight men),
+and I wouldn't call myself a radical feminist,
+but even my testosterone-addled brain quickly said "enough already"
+way too often while watching Volume 1.
+
+You might disagree, and say I'm being too prudish or reading into it too much,
+but it's a fact that it affected my experience,
+so I'll be including it in my criticisms of certain episodes.
+
+
+
+## The episodes
+
+Let's go through all of Volume 1's episodes one by one.
+I'll say some words about each along the way, and give a score.
+Note that the scores are normalized,
+so the 1-star episodes are the worst of this volume in my opinion,
+but that doesn't mean they're bad; I couldn't do it better myself!
+Furthermore, I've tried to distribute the scores uniformly across the 18 shorts.
+
+
+
+### Group 1: comedy
+
+The following six episodes are notable
+for trying to be funny as their core objective.
+For a writer, comedy is always dangerous: if their jokes don't work,
+they're just left with a messy story that's unlikely to impress the audience.
+Every viewer has a unique taste, so the experience will generally be mixed,
+and that's indeed my opinion of these six.
+
+
+
+#### Alternate Histories
+
+Brief but very entertaining.
+The humor maybe gets a bit too absurd for my taste,
+but it certainly has its moments,
+and the jokes that don't land lead to other jokes that do.
+This episode's use of sexuality immediately brings us
+to the series' obsession with mature content,
+but honestly, in this case, it's a pretty good fit for the madness of it all...
+although I never would've expected I'd enjoy a scene
+where a 19-year-old future dictator (*that* one) dies of good sex...
+and I can't believe that I actually wrote those words, wow.
+
+The graphics are simple but functional,
+and are a good fit for the tech commercial the episode presents itself as.
+All in all, this is an excellent video,
+and exactly what I'd wish for in a (mostly) humorous anthology series like this.
+Let's see if the next one is as good, shall we?
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★☆
+
+
+
+#### Ice Age
+
+Oh dear.
+These are the quality variations I'd expect from an anthology, but still...
+The premise is so bizarre that it totally failed to capture my imagination,
+and this is the only episode that relies on live-action footage like this,
+making it feel cheap compared to the rest of Volume 1.
+The acting isn't very good either, appearing rather lifeless,
+further ruining the attempts at humor.
+
+That's not to say it's all bad; it isn't.
+The CGI parts are well done: there are some nice touches,
+like the flashes of green along the great Brussels sprout quarry,
+and how the actors' faces are frozen in time
+when we see the miniature construction workers' perspective.
+But those aren't enough to make me enjoy myself,
+so this ends up being a disappointment.
+
+**Verdict:** ★☆☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Sucker of Souls
+
+Simply failed to entertain me. It tries to be an action story,
+but it never takes itself seriously, so I can't either,
+and the raunchy jokes didn't even work on me, leaving... not much, plot-wise.
+I feel bad about being so critical:
+it was clearly made by a highly competent team,
+but I kept checking the progress bar the first time I watched it,
+which is pretty damning.
+
+Graphically, the artstyle is also one of the weakest of the season.
+Again, clearly some talented illustrators put a lot of work into it
+(as far as I can tell, the whole thing was drawn by hand),
+but compared to its "competitors" with high-quality CGI and/or inspired art direction,
+this episode comes across as pretty basic.
+
+**Verdict:** ★☆☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### The Dump
+
+Same issue as the previous two episodes: I wasn't entertained.
+Since I'm a European, maybe jokes about hillbillies don't tickle me
+as much as they would an American audience? I'm just guessing.
+Graphically, this is an upgrade over the previous two,
+but apart from that I really don't have much to say.
+The mature content is a bit over the top,
+but for a comedy it's not too bad.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Three Robots
+
+This is currently listed as the first episode on Netflix,
+which I think they did to make the most of the "gotcha" opening scene,
+but it's also a great introduction to the series.
+The graphical quality initially surprised me,
+since I was expecting something with a lower budget,
+and the tongue-in-cheek writing warms the viewer to Philip Gelatt's style.
+
+I think this episode's humor is a bit too self-aware for its own good
+(and also too self-aware about being self-aware),
+so I didn't find it particularly funny,
+but I was entertained and intrigued enough to continue watching.
+All in all, this is actually a mediocre episode,
+but I'm glad I saw it first.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★☆☆
+
+
+
+#### When the Yogurt Took Over
+
+Short and delightful.
+Of all episodes, this one feels most like a school project,
+like some students just wanted to make something simple but funny,
+and at that they definitely succeeded.
+This is the only episode whose humor fully worked on me,
+since it mostly avoids the "non sequitur trap" the others fell into...
+although *"we want Ohio"* was pretty hilarious.
+The graphics work well for the light-hearted theme;
+especially the spaceships' shape is a brilliant touch.
+A great episode.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★★
+
+
+
+### Group 2: action
+
+These six episodes clearly belong to the action genre,
+meaning they try to entertain the audience with violent spectacles
+instead of, say, thought-provoking storytelling.
+Consequently, I don't have too much interesting to say about any of them.
+They generally look great, but are unfortunately quite forgettable
+since they mostly consist of action tropes.
+
+
+
+#### Blindspot
+
+This one was surprisingly nostalgic to watch,
+because the artstyle reminded me of some of the cartoons I watched as a kid.
+Like the other episodes in this group, its plot is pretty basic,
+but it deserves credit for the final twist, which I didn't see coming,
+although it doesn't have such a big impact on the story.
+The graphics are *Blindspot*'s saving grace,
+as I now remember this as "that episode with the nice cartoon action".
+Without that, it would be fairly generic.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★☆
+
+
+
+#### Lucky 13
+
+This is the only episode where I recognized one of the actors they used as models
+(Samira Wiley from *Orange Is the New Black*),
+and that's honestly the main thing I remember about this episode.
+It's a standard action plot brought to life with realistic CGI.
+The execution is as excellent as you'd expect from this series,
+but the simple story makes the experience forgettable.
+I like how they left the ship's implied sentience unspoken,
+and the total lack of raunchiness was refreshing.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Shape-Shifters
+
+The plot is pretty empty, relying on military clichés
+rather than exploring its one interesting idea: werewolves in modern times.
+As a result, it ends up in the "boring story" bucket.
+Compared to the other episodes in a similar situation,
+*Shape-Shifters*' art direction fails to offer any redemption:
+this is Blur Studio's weakest showing in Volume 1.
+They went for a realistic style, but the drab military props are uninspiring,
+and the result ends up looking too much like a video game (in a bad way),
+as if their render settings were too low, especially in the first half.
+I'd even go so far as saying this episode should've been cut,
+since Volume 1 could use a diet anyway.
+
+**Verdict:** ★☆☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Sonnie's Edge
+
+This one is interesting to me, because it's trying to be progressive
+by establishing that Sonnie is the only female pilot and the best of them all.
+But despite that, the episode still suffers from a male gaze,
+like there's a kind of clumsiness to its feminism:
+at first, it lets Sonnie be defined by her trauma as a rape victim,
+and then places her in a lesbian scene that's clearly aimed at male viewers.
+But in the end it turns out her trauma isn't her "edge" after all!
+So... the joke is on me, I guess?! I'm left scratching my head.
+
+That confusion is a shame, because otherwise this episode would be fantastic.
+Visually, it looks awesome with its well-executed cyberpunk style,
+and I can't imagine how much work went into the main fight scene.
+The story also manages to be stronger than most other episodes',
+some of it just needed to be toned down a bit in my opinion, that's all.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★☆
+
+
+
+#### Suits
+
+In CGI, I think a stylized look is harder to pull off than realism,
+as it requires a more pronounced artistic vision.
+This episode has good art direction:
+its painted visuals are a great fit for the rural theme and are executed well.
+But sadly, the artists' talent is weighed down by a framerate
+so low that it kept distracting me, and I don't get why it's like that.
+Is it deliberate?
+I'd be surprised if it's due to technical limitations,
+because I believe the scenes consist of shaded 3D models?
+
+I don't have much to say about this episode's storytelling,
+because it's a cookie-cutter action plot with familiar tropes.
+In a format like this,
+there's no time to make the viewer care about the death of a character,
+so it doesn't have the emotional kick I think they were aiming for.
+That's not to say that the writing is bad:
+the scarecrow's thread is pretty well done in fact.
+But again, it's nothing special, so the story gets a resounding shrug from me.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★☆☆
+
+
+
+#### The Secret War
+
+This one was developed by Digic Pictures,
+who are known for making cinematic trailers for video games
+including *Elden Ring* and the *Assassin's Creed* series.
+Clearly, they're experienced at making exciting short-form action content, and it shows:
+a condensed cut of this episode could easily be a trailer for an upcoming game.
+Furthermore, the fact that I've seen their work before
+means the graphics feel familiar (in a good way).
+Even if you haven't, this is still top-notch CGI.
+
+However, the plot is roughly what you'd expect from a trailer.
+It's a collection of scenes that look cool,
+but there's not much substance behind them.
+Maybe I'm being too harsh,
+but this episode is up against many others with good CGI and decent plots,
+so unfortunately it lands quite low down in my ranking of Volume 1.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★☆☆☆
+
+
+
+### Group 3: other
+
+I struggled to categorize the remaining six episodes,
+which are a mix of thriller, drama, and more abstract themes.
+Being hard to classify is a good thing,
+because it means there's more creativity here!
+Indeed, as a result, I ended up enjoying this group the most by far.
+
+
+
+#### Beyond the Aquila Rift
+
+Truly, an episode of extremes:
+it has probably the best CGI of the whole season,
+but is held back by a plot with more holes than any other.
+Why doesn't Suzy react at first to Greta not being real?
+Actually, why does she react at all,
+since she's a figment of the simulation under Greta's control?
+Also, why is alien Greta doing this at all?
+The plot twist that it's all just a dream isn't so original either...
+And at the end, aren't Thom and Greta in the cold vacuum of space? Oops!
+
+It also suffers from being one of the worst offenders
+regarding the aforementioned male gaze.
+Sorry I keep bringing it up, but it feels like
+the creators just really wanted to include a showy sex scene
+with little thought about its role in the bigger picture.
+While it doesn't actively harm the story,
+it also doesn't add anything valuable,
+only titillating the (male) audience.
+
+All that being said, it's worth repeating just how good the CGI is:
+it took me several minutes to convince myself it wasn't real.
+They're obviously using motion capture for the animations,
+but adding so much detail the 3D models can't have been automatic, surely?
+I'm blown away, but it doesn't save the episode as a whole.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★☆☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Fish Night
+
+Didn't impress me the first time,
+but the second time I appreciated it a lot more.
+It's a compelling question, what the world might look like
+if we could see the ghosts of prehistoric creatures,
+and they've brought this idea to life brilliantly.
+Setting the episode in a desert that once was a seabed was a good choice,
+as seeing the colorful spirits floating through the air is more evocative.
+
+The simplicity of the premise leaves room
+for better characterization than most other episodes can afford,
+but the crescendo is so short that I'm left wondering what the point was.
+I still feel like the first half accentuates the second half's beauty,
+but I can't explain why, since they're barely related to each other...
+I think this is evidence of a good artist's magic touch.
+
+That's a lot of praise, right?
+Unfortunately, the full package still failed to wow me.
+It's yet another episode with great graphics but little substance.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Good Hunting
+
+This is almost my favorite episode of Volume 1,
+surpassed only by *Zima Blue*.
+Both rely heavily on narration to describe events over a large timespan,
+making the story feel a lot more "epic", which I really enjoy.
+The flow of themes feels very natural,
+smoothly moving from Chinese mythology,
+to an unlikely friendship,
+then to survival in a changing world,
+and finally to revenge.
+
+I'd also say that the nudity here is more tasteful than in other episodes,
+although the male gaze is definitely still there,
+and you can again argue that it's all unnecessary.
+The cartoon style softens the sexual content's impact,
+and generally looks great, although the characters' noses can look a bit weird.
+I find it difficult to express why I like this episode so much,
+so I'll stop myself here and hope that you watch it too one day.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★★
+
+
+
+#### Helping Hand
+
+Conservation of momentum: the movie.
+This episode is the epitome of a simple idea executed well,
+managing to be way more thrilling than many other more complex episodes.
+The dangers of space debris, our helplessness in zero-g,
+the body horror of *127 Hours*, and the inevitable puns are a great combination.
+However, it doesn't really try to do anything new
+with its realistic visual style and less-is-more story.
+That lack of true originality costs it the last star.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★☆
+
+
+
+#### The Witness
+
+Quality-wise, this episode is similar to *Beyond the Aquila Rift*,
+which suffered from a weak plot and a strong male gaze.
+*The Witness* manages to be even guiltier on both counts,
+clearly prioritizing *looking good* over *making sense*,
+and having the largest amount of nudity of any episode
+(but only of females, of course).
+
+But wow, does it look good!
+The art direction is stunning and highly original,
+breathing life into an oppressive industrial metropolis
+and a claustrophobic fetish club.
+If you pay attention, you'll see some nice touches,
+like how the camera steams up during a closeup of the dancer.
+A style so far from reality makes it all the more engrossing to watch.
+
+But nice visuals aren't enough for me.
+The plot doesn't make any sense
+(especially since I've also experienced *good* time loops
+like *Outer Wilds* and *Edge of Tomorrow*),
+and the story's tension could easily be partially resolved
+if the characters would just talk instead of staring.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★☆☆
+
+
+
+#### Zima Blue
+
+*Zima Blue* is by far my favorite episode of all of Volume 1.
+Good art is difficult to explain;
+this feels like art, and I can't really explain why.
+It feels "complete": both literally (all its parts are sufficient together)
+and in a more profound sense (all parts are necessary).
+I've surprised myself with how I'm gushing praise over a short cartoon,
+although I'm struggling to express why...
+Clearly it really struck me in a way I don't fully understand.
+
+The heavily stylized graphics are expertly executed,
+and elevate the experience with a lot of visual drama.
+But the real star here must be the voice acting: at one point,
+there's this subtle tremble in Claire's narration,
+as if she can't contain her awe while recounting Zima's epic existence,
+whereas his wisened voice is steady in contrast.
+Maybe it won't work for you, but my God, it did for me!
+Wonderful, simply wonderful.
+
+**Verdict:** ★★★★★
+
+
+
+## Conclusion
+
+*Love, Death & Robots*' first volume was a surprisingly pleasant experience.
+I love how they gave big budgets and a lot of creative freedom to smaller teams,
+which would normally be competitors of Blur Studio (the series' parent studio).
+This approach resulted in a diverse range of well-produced episodes,
+with some expected hit-or-miss moments.
+As other critics have already pointed out,
+the sexual content is the series' only consistent issue.
+Nevertheless, I highly recommend it!
+
+Writing this critique was an interesting experiment.
+It was surprisingly hard to form and express my opinions about all the episodes,
+as opposed to just talking about a few highs and lows.
+Along the way, I've learned more about what I like and don't like in movies.
+And it turns out that I may have a soft spot for anthology series,
+so I suppose I should critique Volume 2 next...
+