Spider Rose

This one was maybe the closest to what Love, Death and Robots used to be, and yet, you will not find me re-watch it. It has elements that we have explored before, but this time, it is told in a less shocking or exciting fashion. Nothing unique about our character, we've seen this done multiple times, just about watchable. I'd say it was ok-ish overall, but just below average. Unfortunately, it will not get better than this when it comes to storytelling or vibe...which is annoying and disappointing for something that used to make people go "whoah, now what is something creative". I also found something about our character's face being a bit too much in terms of animation, but that is just a small thing, might be just me.

A bio-mechanical femme in a vast orbiting web-like space station controls a strange alien artifact, barters with extraterrestrials, seeks revenge for a dead mate, and acquires a strange pet. All of which is interesting but given the 15 minute running time, the disparate storylines just don't gel - too bad as they generally start off interestingly. The designs of Rose (the cybertrix) and the aliens are imaginative as is the rendering of Rose's vast mechano-environment. With a bit more focus, this could have been one of the top L,D+R episodes but even as is, it has so far been my favourite from the anthology's unfortunately weak fourth season.

My problem with Spider Rose

The only Season 4 episode I liked was Spider Rose (it is actually a dramatic improvement on the source story). But there is one problem I can't ignore.

Here is the description of *Colonel Doctor* Jade Prime from Bruce Sterling's story:

"A Shaper's face appeared, one of the Oriental-based gene lines, smooth raven hair held back with jeweled pins, slim black eyebrows arched over dark eyes with the epicanthic fold, pale lips slightly curved in a charismatic smile. A smooth, clean actor's face with the glittering ageless eyes of a fanatic."

Shapers are the genetically perfected Übermensch counterparts to Spider Rose's cyborg Mechanist set. The two scientists in Swarm were Shapers. They are physically perfect (which is why Swarm wanted to breed a human caste of symbiotes with them), and their minds bred for high IQ to the point where some became hyperintelligent enough to be seriously unstable.

They were not jagged toothed scarfaced monstrosities like the Jade Prime of the episode.

My problem is this: the animators had such Hollywoodesque contempt for the IQ of their audience, that is, us, that they had to uglify Jade Prime so we would know him for a villain. Because he's ugly.

It irritates me out of all proportion, but there it is.

This story feels like a retread of a previous seasons.

The one with a human going in to space to investigate a hive mind entity and then decides they would make a better queen and ruler of the hive and then finds out the old hive / queen isn't happy about that idea.

The agenda of the aliens is kind of unclear did they send the cute pet on purpose to harvest the spider rose / human / augmented dna ? Or where they merely trying to maintain their ' arrangement' ?

The timing of the villain attack is also somewhat circumspect and coincidental.

Animation and voice acting off the charts with amazing sound stage to sell it.

The first two episodes of this season were disappointing. I was pleasantly surprised that "Spider Rose" gives us a small glimpse of the show's former glory.

Now, the episode isn't a masterpiece, not by any means. In fact, in my ranking of Love, Death & Robots episodes, it would probably fall around the middle. This is the show at its core: a visual feast for the eyes coupled with an interesting sci-fi concept. As far as the story for this one goes, I didn't necessarily love it, but it was more than passable. "Spider Rose" manages to capture the grief of a woman who has lost what she loves, but the runtime is too short for me to truly get attached or emotionally resonate with her. Nonetheless, it does an effective job of establishing context. The villain is fine. Nothing extraordinary, but he fulfills his purpose. My one question would be why he sends the real copy of himself to attack Rose when he could've just sent more copies and safely hid himself.

Animation is great as always, pacing was decent, the ending was predictable, but it fit the vibe of the episode. Solid episode all around, one of the standouts of Season 4.