Short stories have a somewhat awkward place in the world of science-fiction. While there are many great ones, big authors are generally famous for their lengthier works, even as some started by publishing short stories and others can deliver gripping narratives in both short and long forms. In many cases, short stories serve to flesh out the world building of grand space sagas, as a string of satellites embellishes an already splendid planet.
Ironically the situation is largely reversed on screen, at least in my opinion. Short stories have served as inspiration for excellent movies, from Minority Report to The Adjustment Bureau, Predestination, Edge of Tomorrow, and Arrival, while renowned science fiction novels have struggled to receive on-screen adaptations to do them justice. The prime example is obviously Dune, where despite wide acclaim I found the recent movie lacking, unable to capture the complexity and subtlety of the written original.
With Love, Death & Robots (❤✖🤖), Netflix tried to go a different route and adapt several stories in animated format. The results were… mixed at best. I won’t comment much on the animation styles and quality, as many reviewers have done, as I don’t have much expertise in the area, nor do I think the visual aspect of the narratives is the most essential. Much more important to the overall impact are the science-fictional concepts, however summarily described, and the characters, their reactions and emotions, and how they develop in the short span depicted in the story.
In prime Netflix fashion, seasons 2 and 3 have dropped both in quantity and in quality; season one has more episodes than the other two taken together, and more quality stories. The titular thematic is also more closely followed in the first season, while in the others the themes veer towards fantasy and horror (not to mention the occasional vampire, werewolf, or zombie excursion, which I feel have little in common with science-fiction topics); I could barely pick out one or two stories that I would rate higher than three stars.
I won’t review every story individually, as I don’t have detailed recollections on many of them from three years ago when the first season was aired. Fortunately, Wikipedia has a list of episodes, which helped refresh my memory enough to rate them. Here are the episodes grouped based on my rating:
🤩
Sonnie’s Edge (season 1); Snow in the Desert (season 2); Swarm (season 3).
I was so impressed with Swarm that I tracked down the author and the collection where he published this story and immediately started reading it.
😁
The Witness, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Good Hunting, Lucky 13, Zima Blue (season 1); Pop Squad (season 2); In Vaulted Halls Entombed (season 3).
In this 4-star section you may recognize two titles by Alastair Reynolds, one of the authors I consider equally talented at writing short stories and huge, complex, galaxy-spanning sagas. Curiously enough, I rated Beyond the Aquila Rift higher and Zima Blue lower when I read them, reflecting how the medium can influence the impact of the story for people. In the case of Beyond the Aquila Rift I think I haven’t enjoyed it quite the same on screen because I already knew the (positively mind-blowing) twist at the end.
😐
Suits, Sucker of Souls, Shape-Shifters, Blindspot, Ice Age, The Secret War (season 1); Ice, Life Hutch (season 2); The Very Pulse of the Machine, Mason’s Rats (season 3).
🥴
Three Robots, When the Yogurt Took Over, Helping Hand, Fish Night, Alternate Histories (season 1); Automated Customer Service, All Through the House (season 2); Three Robots: Exit Strategies, Bad Travelling, Kill Team Kill, Jibaro (season 3).
The final story of the three season so far, Jibaro, is a perfect illustration of prioritizing visual impact over substance. There are no sci-fi elements in it (unless you assume the action takes place on a distant planet rather than the more likely fantastical setting), the main characters are one-dimensional (a deaf knight intent on stealing the treasures of distant lands, and a lake nymph, endlessly screeching her siren song to lure trespassers to their death), and the story offers no surprises or meaningful developments for the two (the siren is mesmerized by the uncanny resistance of the knight to her singing, they make love, he proceeds to rob her of gold and jewelry, then somehow regains hearing and… dies just like the others as he finally hears her calling). The gimmick is the complete lack of dialogue, fitting as one of the characters is deaf and the other can only shriek, but is that enough for a compelling story? I fear not.
🤮
The Dump (season 1); The Tall Grass, The Drowned Giant (season 2); Night of the Mini Dead (season 3).
The list of episodes from Wikipedia proved useful in another way: it includes the author of each adapted short story, so I could draw some impressions about their writing as well. Throughout the three seasons, most authors are unique, with a couple exceptions. I enjoyed the single story from Peter F. Hamilton and the two from Alastair Reynolds – no surprises there. Neal Asher had three stories adapted; I rated them unevenly, from 5 for Snow in the Desert to 2 for Bad Travelling, which is mainly a horror tale with possibly science-fictional elements, but overall, I think it would be worthy to check out some of his writing. I’ve never heard of Joe Lansdale, which got three stories adapted as well, but they were among the lowest rated in my opinion, so I plan to avoid his works. Same goes for John Scalzi, represented with a record five stories, but receiving an average rating of 2 from me; every one of them was bland and unimaginative, filled with cheap quips and tired narratives.
Despite many sub-par episodes, I am gland that Netflix invested the resources into this project, and hopefully they will continue to produce further seasons. SF literature is filled to the brim with quality short stories, though I’m not so sure Netflix is capable of selecting those as opposed to whoever the trendy author of the moment is (looking at you, John Scalzi). A truly ambitious project would be to adapt a monumental space opera into animation, such as Reynolds’ Revelation Space series, a feat almost impossible to imagine in live action. But alas, I’m convinced present Netflix doesn’t have the boldness to start such a project, or the determination to complete it.
Post a Comment