Love , Death & Robots Review

Wow it's been along time since I did a full series review but my god what a series to return with this is a series that i've been so looking forward to seeing and it doesn't disappoint. This is a series that I can very easily see alot of animation fans talking about heck i'm shocked that alot of them haven't already started talking about this show it's that good and it's one of the few Netflix shows that I want to get a second season so here is my review of Love , Death & Robots.

Now I would normally tell you what the plot of the show is and give you my thoughts on it but like Batman: Gotham Knight this is an anthology show. Each of the shorts has a different story with nothing that connects them so you can really watch any episode and get an idea of themes of each short. I will admit that the pacing for each episode can feel off since sometimes it goes by way to fast but sometimes it goes by far to slowly.

Now this is a first for any of my reviews because I can't list any of the actors that appear in this show and the reason why is because there's not a set cast list available anywhere. Also not helping as to why I can't list any of the actors is because they change the cast list literally every single episode so it would be impossible for me to say who's in the show and who isn't so I apologise for not mentioning who's in the show.

Just because I can't name who's in the show doesn't mean that I can't talk about the acting that's in it. That for me is a very mixed bag since in one episode you'll get pretty acting but then in the very next episode the acting might suck so it's really hard for me to fully judge the acting since it's such a mixed bag and in all honesty that's fine with me because that's the same for alot of TV shows be they on Netflix or not.

The animation for this show was handled around by fifteen different companies with perhaps the most note worthy name being that of Sony Pictures Imageworks. As well as alot of different companies working on each short the animation also came in from all over the world so while you will see companies that are based in America working on this show you'll also see companies from for example the UK and Spain.

I have to say that the overall quality of the animation is shockingly good i'm not even kidding and these guys aren't working with a feature film budget either there working with a small budget and most likely a small crew. So if there able to pull of this level of animation with little to no budget and a small crew then imagine what they could do with the budget of a feature film and the fact that there using animation companies from all over the world is great because it gives them a chance to shine and that can only be a good thing for the animation industry.

Now i'm not going to lie and say all of them are animated because there not but they all include animation of some kind and that helps the show stand out even more in my opinion. Netflix to me is one of those companies which is creator driven and by that I mean they allow the people who are making stuff for them to really do what ever the hell they want and that makes them the perfect place for this kind of show because it's something that so of the wall that it's actually on another wall.

I cannot give this show enough praise yes there is the odd one or two bad episode but that's something that your going to get with any show anyway. I honestly feel that the only note that producers David Fincher and Tim Miller gave the people creating the shorts is that there short has to have something to do with either love , death or robots or possibly all three because that's the thing that really connects all of the shorts it's those themes.

I have to say that if you have little kids and you think that this might be a show that they'll enjoy don't show it to them. This is very mature show and when I say very mature I freaking mean it there's blood , gore , sex and nudity and that's just in the first episode and trust me it gets alot more strange and alot more adult from there so this will have to be one animated show that they'll have to go without seeing.

Now i've seen sites like IMDB throw around that some of the shorts could be considered horror in my opinion the whole thing should be considered horror. Not because of the fact that there's alot of blood and gore in alot of the episodes but because of it's ideas and themes which to me make the series far more scary then blood and gore ever could even tho one of the common ideas thrown around is that mankind is doomed to kill itself it's still a scary idea.

I have to say not all of the episodes in this show fall under horror in fact all of the eighteen shorts made fall under a wide range of sub-genres ranging from horror to fantasy to comedy so there's really something for everyone here. The best episodes tho for me personally are the ones that have a great twist ending that you don't see coming for example episodes one and three have a freaking great pairs twists which have to be seen to be believed.

I can't believe i've gotten this far into the review and not really gave you that much information about the episodes themselves. There are eighteen episodes in total and each episode will last no longer then twenty minuets but they really range in length with some episodes lasting seventeen minuets and others lasting around seven minuets. So you you could honestly watch the whole series and in a few hours and still have time to write a blog post about the show.

Overall go and watch this show right now like stop whatever it is your doing and go and watch it because trust me you will not regret it. It's not a perfect show as i've explained but in my opinion it's damn freaking close so it gets a 9.5 out of 10 from me.

  

How I'd Adapt Saga For TV

Now then boys and girls we live in a world where anything that's a comic book is getting some sort of adaptation mostly it's comic books getting turned into movies. So I thought for this post i'd not only look at something that would be difficult to adapt but i'd choose a different medium and so I thought that i'd tell you how i'd adapt the great comic book series Saga not for film but for TV because let's face it this series would work best as a TV show.

For those of you who don't know what the plot of the comic book is well it's about a couple who in the first issue give birth to a baby girl and the mother and father are of different races who were once at war and they have to find ways to survive. I'll admit i've not read the whole thing so that summery is mostly based of the first six issues and so there's a very high chance that the plot might change in further issues.

For me this plot is perfect as it is so you really don't need to change that much of it really the only thing i'd do to the plot is make more like the James Bond films and by that i mean make more unpredictable so then even if your a fan of the comic book you'll have no idea of what's going to happen next. In terms of the plot like I said there's really nothing wrong with it as it is but I would add in more scenes with the Robot Prince and his girlfriend and even show some of the war that they mention.

In my eyes i'd make this as a TV show (hence the title) just because if something has the word saga in the title then you just know it would get butchered as all heck if it was turned into a movie. I even have an idea of how many seasons it should be in my opinion this should be at least ten seasons long with maybe ten to twenty two episodes per season. it goes without saying that each episode should be near enough an hour long just because that time length would work best for the plot of the overall show.

When things are being adapted for TV not many people give alot of thought of which network should air it. I'm not most people because i've given this alot of thought and I think that the best place for this to go is Netflix because the Saga comics hook you in so you have to read the next issue right away. That fits perfectly with Netflix releasing the whole series in one go since you can just load up the next episode.

Also going with Netflix would mean that you could get away with the more adult stuff seen in the comics that you perhaps wouldn't be able to get away with if you were on a more well known network. You could very well make the argument that the show would be at it's best on HBO but but then you'd have to wait a week for the next episode which if the show is good can be a very hard thing to do.

I'll full on admit I havn't thought of the full cast list infact the only actor that i've thought of before writing this was Hannah John-Kamen for the role of Alana. I honestly thought of her because when I pictured this show being in live action the person who came to mind for that role was her she might not be the best pick but to me that's who I see when I picture a live action version of this epic tale.

Now given that one of the main characters starts of as a baby then you would run into the issue of having to recast the role every few years. Which I can see as a big reason for this show not being made because it would be expensive to that every few years but given how good the story is and if you have the right people working on it you could be looking at the live action equivalent of the Batman Animated Series.

In terms of who should be the showrunner for this adaptation it should be someone who understands the world and it's characters and who's better at that then it's creator Brian K. Vaughan. Yeah I honestly think that the creator of the comic book should be the show runner because he would understand it's characters and the story much better then anyone else in hollywood but given that he's got a few films to work on as well as working on Runaways this would only be a pipe dream.

I'm not going to lie this show would need a huge budget in order to pull it of and when I say huge I mean one season would need around 50 to a 100 million dollars. Which again is something that would put alot of people of wanting to produce it but given that you'd be making more money from merchandise it would be a risk worth taking.

Now i'll admit I have no idea who should do the music for the show or even what the theme for the show should be. I do however think that the theme should be something that sounds weird because let's be real this is a weird show and so the theme should reflect on that as for what artists should be featured i'd personally prefer none to be featured the whole thing should be treated like a movie score where the artists only appear on the soundtrack album but if I had to choose i'd go with Hey Violet who are this punk rock band and I think that there music would fit in well with some of the action scenes.

If this show is a hit which it very well could be since the comics then you could very easily so sequels and spin offs. You could do several sequels all set after the events of the series heck you could even do a show set at the same time as this series but instead of doing it as a drama it could be a comedy. Or if you wanted to go the Game Of Thrones / Star Wars route then you could make a prequel to the show which could be interesting.

Overall this is how i'd adapt Saga for the small screen of course tho chances of this happening aren't that good since Brian himself said that the point of doing it as a comic is to get away with things that he couldn't do as a TV show or movie but we can only hope that one day this would happen.