Where to start with this wildly inventive and unpredictable show? Here are 13 episodes to explode your mind.
Nev Pierce
May 15, 2025
Netflix Tudum
In a world where so much entertainment is afraid to take risks, LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS is the iconoclastic brainchild of one man’s enigmatic yet expansive tastes. While a dedicated team of artists craft the (mostly) animated shorts comprising the 35 episodes of LDR, the basis for almost all of them are short stories that Tim Miller loves. Miller, the series co-creator and executive producer keeps a catalog of material on his computer, ready for the right moment to pair a story with a visionary team and unleash the results on unsuspecting audiences.
Now that we’ve arrived at Volume 4, the audience may suspect that they’re going to get something unexpected, yet the show still surprises. From hard-edged, serious sci-fi to explosively violent, unapologetically puerile action, the show contains multitudes.
Among the most ardent fans of LDR are the episode directors themselves, who have trouble picking their favorites among the first three volumes.
“I love seeing people’s LDR tier lists,” says Emily Dean, director of two episodes — the Volume 3 award winner The Very Pulse of the Machine and the fourth’s devilish cat caper For He Can Creep. She has been “very inspired” by a number of installments including Zima Blue, Bad Travelling, Pop Squad, The Drowned Giant, and Jibaro.
Three of these are on the list below, although LDR is the kind of show where your favorites may change according to the day of the week or the mood you’re in. Director and animator Diego Porral had a hand in two of the episodes below and sees the diversity of voices and styles as a major strength. “The fun thing is that whoever I talk to, in or out of the animation industry, everyone has their favorite, and I think that’s what makes LDR so special,” says Porral, helmer of this volume’s action-packed How Zeke Got Religion and lead animator on the Volume 3 classic Kill Team Kill.
Miller dreamed for decades of an animated anthology exploring stories that had stuck in his subconscious. And now he — along with fellow executive producers David Fincher and Josh Donen and supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson — relishes seeing disparate filmmakers and animation studios come together to generate these distinct shorts. “Netflix, just like the internet, allows all these strange people, that would never find each other ordinarily, to connect,” says Miller. “Sometimes for good, sometimes for evil, but certainly in the case of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS, I feel it’s a force for good.”
Below you can find 13 episodes to match your highly specific tastes, whether you’re in the mood for cats, carnage, concerts, or comfort.
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