Live for Films gets a first look at Fincher’s Love, Death & Robots – “Hot, hard, hyper-violent sci-fi.”

Love, Death & Robots is a new science-fiction animation anthology premiering on Netflix on the 15th of March. Produced by Tim Miller (Deadpool) and David Fincher (Fight Club), every episode is a one-off with a host of wildly different visual styles and subject matter – the only common thread being that they deal with elements of love, death and robots.

I recently saw six of the eighteen episodes at a secret screening in London and was absolutely blown away. As I haven’t seen the entire series though, it’s not fair to give a star-rating – but on the basis of what was shown, I am desperate to mainline the entire thing as soon as possible.

“Sonnie’s Edge” was up first — and is also episode 1 of the series — while the rest were not shown in order and felt more like a tonal sampling from across the board. Sonnie is a battle pilot who gets patched into the mind of a big razor-sharp lizard creature to fight other monsters in underground death matches. After being asked to take a dive and refusing, Sonnie finds herself pitted against her most dangerous foe yet.

This felt like the perfect way to introduce the show. The animation is hyper-real with jaw-dropping fight sequences, pops of blacklight elements and heaps of bloody violence and bad language. Gory and graceful, the first episode is like doing straight shots of adrenaline, although the constant dropping of the c-bomb goes past shocking and toward repetitive.

Next was “When the Yoghurt Took Over” — which is actually episode 6 — and the tone and style could not possibly have changed more drastically. “When the Yoghurt Took Over” is about live yoghurt that becomes sentient and takes over the world. It is very short and sort of sweet, but dark too: like a Pixar short written by Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker.

“Alternate Histories” — episode 17 — is another quickie with a cute look, but is far edgier. Positing six different alternate timelines that could have happened if Hitler had been killed exiting his art college, Alternate Histories is crazy good fun and a good introduction to the anarchic devil-may-care but-we-don’t-if-offend-you streak that makes Love, Death & Robots so interesting and exciting.

“Beyond the Aquila Rift” — episode 7 — is similar to Sonnie’s Edge, in that it is eye-wateringly realistically rendered and more of a straight-forward story: a hyper-sleep nightmare set on a space station, where a captain awakens to find he has been in stasis for hundreds of years and now has no one but an old flame for company. This segment brings in the sex, and, while it is in retrospect odd seeing computer-generated characters getting down, it is hot, and the twists and reveals are shocking and scary.

“Three Robots” — episode 2 — is going to be a lot of peoples favourite episode. It’s free-wheeling and easy-going and hugely charming. Featuring three different extremely likeable ‘bots: a cute little red one, a goth triangle on wheels and a lanky funny one, wandering a post-apocalyptic Earth like sightseers. The robots opinions on humans and our pre-eradication past-times are very funny and very on the money, and everything is going so well until they meet a cat…

“The Witness” — listed as being the third episode — is by far the most visually stylish, and like a combination of the textures colours and line work in Into the Spider-verse with the visible sound effects in Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. A young woman sees a murder in the block opposite her and is pursued by the killer through a sprawling and enthralling future city full of energy, danger and exxxtreme erotica. The vibe is like if Hitchcock had made Run Lola Run, and you will not want this one to end. Even if it doesn’t quite manage to close its own loop – it’s a blast and it looks fucking cool.

Love, Death & Robots is hot, hard, hyper-violent sci-fi. Careening from sweet, funny and cartoony to brash, pore-perfect and very 18+ – this series promises to be the raddest wildest brain-bending dirty digital deviant binge-watch of your life.

Love, Death & Robots will be available to view on Netflix on the 15th of March.