Tim Miller
Love, Death & Robots – Ep. 1 “Il vantaggio di Sonnie”

Science fiction pills, bite-sized reviews. I was impressed by the first episode of this much-talked-about series lately. Impressed by the ferocity, the aesthetic richness, the ability to condense in 17 minutes some themes and mechanisms dear to a certain audience that Netflix now openly courts. An adrenaline rush like Evangelion in Berserk mode.

Netflix rarely produces something truly original; it's more about reworking already popular motifs, subjects that are now well-established. Here, it merits offering its blend of pop culture in a reduced, very concise format, emphasizing violence, vulgarity, gloom, darkness, nihilism. It even serves up a small moral lesson that nevertheless isn't too annoying.

At short distances, the company manages to hide its authorial gaps and can focus solely on the visual delivery of its product. There's no time for intricacies, only for the thrill of a story sharp as a blade. A sci-fi orgasm with no second thoughts.

I rewound at least a couple of scenes because the enjoyment was too immense, that unhealthy thrill only certain extreme and aestheticized violence can give you. Gigantic monsters, androids, regeneration tanks, effusions between hotties, internalized traumas, and dismembered bodies. And there are seventeen more episodes.