The most interesting thing about last weekend was that the second season of "Love, Death & Robots" (hereinafter referred to as "Love Dead" S2) came out with much anticipation, and then quickly drowned. Among the lamentations and griefs of various versions of "This is it?"
Is "Love Dead" S2 any good? Compared with the first season of "Love Dead", which was born and shocked the audience, it is indeed a lot worse, but if you think about it for a while, you will understand that this result is not surprising... "Good works" are always available. rather than desirable. (with S1 drama review: "Love, Death and Robots": We Fly Over Infinity with Animation )
Below, I will briefly describe or explain the 8 episodes of S2 in detail according to my own likes and dislikes, and at the end, I will talk a little more about the "inevitability" of going down the altar in the second season .
[Friendly reminder: The following contains spoilers. 】
Automated Customer Service
In Sunset City, an all-round intelligent old-age care system, a dispute over an "obsessive-compulsive" behavior eventually led to a battle royale in which the artificial intelligence and the old man and the old lady fought back against each other.
The first episode was the worst episode I remembered, including the usual complaints in life and the typical fear of AI getting out of control. This episode is full of outdated works that have been talked about badly and the audience is tired of in recent decades, from beginning to end , As for any speculation or depth that leaves an aftertaste, there is absolutely nothing.
Ice
As the only natural teenager in a hundred light years, Sedgwick seemed out of place - as if to prove something, he and his stronger brother Fletcher joined the genetically modified locals to "see alien frost" In the name of "whale", he experienced a life and death run.
The art style of this episode is the same as last season's "Qima Blue", with simple but curved lines, close-up shots that emphasize long-range (objective) and light close-up (subjective), just in terms of picture and atmosphere, the effect is very good Not bad .
As for the story, the performance of "Ice" is slightly inferior. I also specially read the short story of the original book. In addition to showing the darkness and coldness of the alien colony, this story is more about tolerance and alienation. brotherhood.
The animation stopped abruptly after Sedgwick discovered that his younger brother was pretending to be lame, and when the background and the ending were both lacking at the same time, there was too much blank space , which caused many viewers to feel that they were a little pointless after watching it, which is not a small regret.
Pop Squad
In the future society where human beings have mastered the technology of "immortality", the prohibition of childbirth has become the law and the mainstream consensus. The hands of law enforcement policeman Brisbane are covered with the blood of children born illegally. Makes Brice can't help but think about what life was like in the past...
"Assault Squad" is my favorite episode of the second season. Although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs: the classic utopian world setting and the spiritual core of dystopia, smooth and delicate 3D graphics, concise and complete movie narrative, The resulting thinking and understanding are also rich and varied enough.
This story is also the most discussed, because its "family planning" narrative carrier is inextricably linked to the hot spots and pain points of the current era.
The episode's ostensible question is "Do immortal humans still need to have children?" This brings up the questions "Why have children?" and "What's the point of living?"
I have seen that most people interpret "Assault Squad" based on the perspectives of free choice, human nature, and class solidification, either emotionally or rationally. Of course, they are all correct... But I have a more simple and crude methodology. Understand this story: the law of prohibition of reproduction is a means for "new human beings" to prevent the restoration of "old human beings", and the hesitation of illegal "breeders" and the male protagonist Bliss is the pain when the new and old human beings alternate.
It is precisely because physical death cannot be avoided that the birth of life has meaning . If human beings truly achieve immortality, it means that human beings have betrayed (or rewritten) their own genes, which can be regarded as another biological phenomenon. A whole new species .
Then, it is not surprising that they are trying to assimilate, chase, block and even kill the old human beings who are still going through birth, aging, sickness and death, relying on the breeding of children to inherit genes.
In my opinion, "Assault Squad" is still just a purely theoretical sci-fi story, and it has no strong practical significance except for some metaphors that will not be outdated (the birth rate in reality will indeed rise and fall, but Humans will not really cut off the continuation of their own civilization), because those new human beings in it have not solved the problem of "psychological aging", and they have not really experienced the test of immortality.
In such a world where the increment is missing and the stock is divided cleanly, the phenomenon that the poor at the bottom would rather give up immortality to have children is not something that can be clearly explained by "selfishness" or "right", it is engraved in the DNA Biological habits, fertility itself also has the value of hedging against psychological aging.
Because of the rich and colorful material and spiritual life, the upper class can indeed delay the arrival of this sense of fatigue and decline, but they will face it one day - just like the female singer Alice, let her be diligent and sing the same song. In 100 years, she will get tired of it sooner or later.
Eternal life is not a blessing but a curse. I believe that there will be more and more "breeders" in the story, and the heavenly dignitaries will be no exception...
Of course, the actual size of "Assault Squad" cannot support such a full story , but it is not easy to trigger so many discussions.
Snow in the Desert
The lone walker Snow has the ability to quickly grow and repair himself, so he has become an interstellar wanted criminal pursued by everyone. After escaping the arrest of bounty hunters in succession, Snow and a mysterious woman from the earth came together.
The graphics, actions, basic settings, wasteland aesthetics, and other hardware aspects of this episode are really top-notch, and it is a pleasure to just look at it with your eyes.
But going back to the core of the story, "Snow in the Desert" seems thin. Just being careful, cowardly, and indifferently living, except for the painless thoughts of his deceased wife, there is nothing surprising about this monstrous human being.
Even if the mysterious woman is really not a bionic person but a transformed person, the point of this story is that two people who don't have to worry about death can stay together for a long time. Xiang Yan and Li Qi are enough .
The Tall Grass
A western train breaks down on the same grass again, and the male protagonist is attracted by the light in the grass when he gets out of the car to smoke, and then gets lost in the grass for a time, almost losing his life.
The style of this episode is quite distinctive, with a sense of oil painting, low frame rate, quite a bit of retro stop-motion animation, and the atmosphere is well established . It can complete a suspense and thriller drama in a short period of time. The basic skills are not bad.
As for the connotation and metaphor of "Tall Grass", there are different opinions. Some say that people are lost by the temptation of desire, some say that human development is cyclical stagnation and chaos, some say sacrifice and blood and tears in the process of industrialization, and some say it is just a simple Just a ghost story...
How to understand literary and artistic creation is personal freedom, it can be justified - to me, there is not much room for over-interpretation in this episode. As for those monsters in the grass, whether or not they are associated with the Indians who died when the United States moved westward Man, it doesn't seem right.
All Through the House
On Christmas Eve, Leah and William noticed movement outside the room, and then they met "Santa Claus" as they wished, and took Christmas gifts from each other's mouth...just don't want to fall asleep tonight.
This episode has the shortest duration and the simplest story. It can even be said that it is just a children's cult/bad fun fairy tale. Everything is just to challenge (provocate) the common sense of the audience.
Nonetheless, this short horror tidbit manages to play two minor twists, one is "Santa, the horrible-looking monster who swallowed things, gave a gift", and the other is "what if we weren't good boys?" doubt.
There is no point in continuing to think about this question.
Life Hutch
Human soldiers fighting in space were forced to land on an alien planet due to damage to their spacecraft. There was a pre-established "life house" (rescue supply warehouse) on it. As a result, the soldier almost died at the hands of the rescue robot.
The faults in this episode are almost the same as the first episode of "Automated Customer Service". It is nothing more than a new skin (of course, the picture of this new skin is really good), or the old-fashioned old tune that artificial intelligence is unreliable , even if the anti-kill "machine" Changing the male lead of "Cat" to Michael B. Jordan wouldn't change anything.
The Drowned Giant
The body of a naked giant was washed up on the beach of a seaside town. After a short period of amazement and onlookers, people quickly "accepted" its existence and made it a part of life. With the narration of scientists, The giant corpse also gradually disappeared over time.
Judging from the current word of mouth, this episode is the best rated episode of "Love Dead" S2, which is largely due to its own unconventional narrative story. Narrative prose or poetry would be more appropriate.
The beauty of "The Drowned Giant" is that, apart from the bizarre phenomenon of the objective existence of giants, there are no strange things in the story. There is no difference between the physical and the mortal.
The corpse of the giant recorded an ordinary destruction and deconstruction with its extraordinary existence, and supplemented it with a sad, admiring and nostalgic narration. This story has a rather classical sense of poetry and beauty .
Artistic exploration, the fewer rules the better
Each has a detailed and brief analysis of the 8 episodes to talk about further feelings.
From the perspective of a single animation, "Love Dead" S2 is not bad, but its current embarrassing situation is that "Love Dead" S1 is so successful that all its problems, big and small, are magnified.
First of all, the small number of episodes in S2 is a big flaw . From 18 episodes in the first season to 8 episodes, the audience's viewing time has been greatly reduced, and at the same time, there is more room for thinking - if the quantity is sufficient, even if the quality is sufficient Generally not high, the audience will at least have a longer psychological buffer period, and the negative comments will be more gentle.
Secondly, S2 lacks single episodes of excellent quality . Compared with the best two episodes of "Assault Squad" and "Drowning Giant", putting them in S1 means hovering at the mid-level level - in fact, there are also poor levels in the first season. A single episode, but several "fist products" such as "The Witness", "Good Hunting", "Zima Blue" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift" stand up , the overall evaluation is naturally good.
It's like a new song album, it's difficult to make every song sound good and sung well, but as long as there are so many title songs that are good enough, the results will not be bad.
Finally, and the most crucial point, "Love Dead" S2 wore the spell of S1 from the very beginning. It never had a standard free creation, and it quietly became a reference object.
The success of the first season of "Love Dead" lies not only in the perfect combination of the Netflix model with David Fincher, Tim Miller and others, but also in that the creators are unconstrained, only in love (emotion & Human nature), death (life & change), robots (technology & fantasy), these incomparably broad themes splash the ink of imagination, and the achievements are naturally limitless.
When the material of the second season changed from "infinite possibilities" to "the pearls of the first season", it was inevitable that someone would fall behind.
Let's hope Season 3 learns its lesson.
[You are also welcome to pay attention to my official account "You Love Comment Area". 】
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