Streaming websites can get quite mundane. They follow same pattern during its entire trajectory, making you go auto-pilot on what you wish to consume next. Then there’s Netflix. 

With a plethora of amazing shows that make long-weekends bearable, they followed the same footsteps too, that is until Bandersnatch. 

Though the story was a bit of a snoozefest, they went beyond the conventional and crafted a show that had us unwittingly hooked.

Following the same strain of unconventionality, Netflix has experimented with the lore of Love Death + Robots and created an LSD-laced gourmet popcorn entertainment gem.

The 18-episode-long package is a love-letter to sci-fi nerds who’d want to savour every bit of the abstract universe, combined with eye-popping visuals.

What more would you expect from a project that was helmed by Deadpool‘s Tim Miller, the man who created a superhero movie that transgressed all boundaries and was very much unapologetic about it?

And yes, David Fincher, the director of The Social Network too.

All the 18 shorts were crafted with perfection by Miller’s Blur Studio and were mainly written by Philip Gelatt. It juxtaposes to fever-dreamy visuals with an obsessive love for fantastic fiction, sci-fi action, comics lore, and everything that encapsulates the cosmic energies of the nerd culture. Some of the stories are for the geeks, and some for the freaks.

But behind its visual and thematic spectacle are radical ideas that have been constantly overlooked in both movies and society which create the perfect foundation for future feature-length films.

There are four set pieces that rank among the best the show has to offer. 

The first definitely has to be The Witness in which a woman is chased by a murderer and storms through a city which looks like a futuristic blend between the West and the East.

The sheer energy and visual style which is similar to that of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, explodes right in our faces as the woman gives us a tour of the dangerous and seductive nature of this future and goads us into figuring out what the killer wants.

Equally impressive is the 15-minute long lore of Beyond the Aquilla Rift which cobbles up the theme of Event Horizon and slowly creeps up on the audience to reveal its true purpose in a virtuoso display of timing and horrific end reveal.

This space travel thriller draws in heavy inspiration from Mass Effect, mixes in a romantic sub-plot, and spurts out a mind-boggling end which is open to various interpretations.

The third is Alternate Histories which launches a number of ‘what ifs’ situations, whilst imagining an alternate reality.

What if Hitler was killed by Jews? What if Hitler was run over by a horse-drawn carriage? 

Then there’s Three Robots which is covered in a veil of existentialism and the absurdity of the human way of things.

Replete with a commentary on the unchecked advancement of scientific experiments and purposelessness of cats from the perspective of three robots, it presents the ultimate cliché of a post-apocalyptic world and then pulls the rug from under our feet in a hilarious reveal.

And this is only a fistful of what Love, Death + Robots has in its treasure-filled bag. Keep in mind that this dopamine-releasing spectacle needs to be consumed one at a time, savouring every frame and every dialogue that’ll launch you on an immersive journey.

The show needs a lot of credit for being the sole shepherd paving a new road of storytelling. 

Love, Death + Robots is an exciting glimpse into what cinema could look like if studios look beyond the cliched box of ideas. In years to come, it’ll be remembered as an influential piece that ushered in a new age of cinema.