User Reviews

Provocative cyberpunk dystopian tale with great cgi.

This is one of the better futuristic stories, IMO.

There is a lot of silence in this episode but still you can hear all the thoughts. If you ask me this is the best episode in season 2. And those graphics are so realistic.

I have a weakness for dystopian stories about empathy and the essence of humanity. This is one of those stories. Its advantage is that it can play on emotions and is engaging. As for the performance, it's wonderful. The animation is perfect and breathtaking. One of the best episodes of the entire series.

When I think of season 1 I can remember quite a few episodes that made an impact. Whether it was a thought provoking story or exceptional animation or both season 1 was on a whole new level.

Compared to season 1, Season 2 was mostly a letdown. But because of this single episode it wasn't totally a waste of time. Hope they can get back on that level again.

But unfortunately impossible to product, because of the audiences who would be shocked to death by this gruesome, so disgusting topic for the bulk of them, more used to garbage blockbusters where they can easily eat their popcorn, as sheep in the herd. I loved this scheme of a lost cop, struggling against his conscience, eaten by remorse, seeking redemption; a fight lost in advance. Of course, it seems very close to BLADE RUNNER but on a darker, gloomier, so more disturbing way. That's precisely for this reason that I love it. What an outstanding film it would be.....Painful to know that it will never be.

This film noir inspired animated short deptics a dystopian future where children are unwanted and hunted for extermination in the lower pits of society while the upper class enjoys eternal grandeur in the heavily skies of the city. The world was beautifulily created, with crumbling skylines and incredible details. This is a wonderful addition to the LDR series.

Beautifully animated, and a great concept. It touches on very dark, dystopian themes, in true Sci fi style.

Sadly it's let down somewhat, by a short run time. This story deserves more time to be fully fleshed out. It also feels a bit like it is hanging most of its weight on the shock factor of it's subject matter.

It's a very visually impressive episode. When the characters spoke or expressed their emotions, I thought it was like a game, but it was not a level that took me out of the experience, and above all, the graphics and visuals that describe the environment and objects are great.

The subject of a society where people can live forever but cannot have children was also interesting. As in the previous episode, I felt that it was a material that could be made into a movie.

Overall, I liked it not only because it looked good, but also because it was an episode that I could reflect on after watching it.

'Pop Squad (2021)' is the 'Love, Death & Robots (2019-)' equivalent of 'Blade Runner (1982)' and its sequel. Set in a dystopian future in which the rich live forever in palaces above the clouds and the poor are prohibited from having kids in the slums below, the piece tells the tale of an enforcer who starts to feel guilty about the extremely young blood on his hands and decides to see for himself why his job continues to be 'necessary'. It's a decent effort at emulating the aforementioned movies, with similarly dark atmospherics and philosophical underpinnings, but it lacks any real poignancy because its central concept isn't really all that relatable. Still, it's well-executed. The acting is strong, the visuals are engaging and the pacing is pretty much spot on. Its few small set-pieces strike a balance between suspense and excitement and its story comes across as relatively complete (even if its wider 'world' is somewhat underexplored). It's perhaps a tad underwhelming, but it's a decent effort nevertheless. 6/10.

Took a potentially interesting topic and handled it badly. Your standard "what if immortality had negative consequences" narrative, with an added dose of "the only thing that makes life meaningful is children, and living your life childfree makes you shallow". It's possible that this could've been done well if they had more time to add some nuance and worldbuilding, but without that this episode just feels like edgy, badly done sci-fi.

Had to watch twice because as a parent it was a bit of a tough watch, but the second time I loved it, it was a great redemption story with very well executed animation.

Best episode of the season. This would make such a good sci-fi noir show.

Deep and very heavy episode that shows a future where the population in exchange for eternal youth has given up the opportunity to have children. Episode with enormous emotional implications and with a beautiful ending.

I really liked the concept and setting of this story, and the character-development of the main protagonist as he begins doubting himself and his actions, as well as the system he represents and is a part of. The story definitely resonates, although it isn't as inventive or powerful as some of the episodes of season 1. There is a lot to appreciate in terms of filmatic quality. The acting is really good in some parts, the animation is great, the set-design is simple and realistic, and the score was okay but didn't really stand out to me. At times the set design reminded me of Blade Runner, which I think was purposeful. My biggest criticism with the story was that the ending seemed kind of abrupt and didn't really feel earned, which is the case for a lot of the other episodes, as well. Other than that I thought it was good for what it was.

This one has a great Blade Runner feel to it and awesome, realistic animation. There are a lot of questions asked in the 18 minute runtime and it left me wanting to see more. Much more. 8.5/10.

Honestly if this were to have come out in like 2017 it would have been an awesome super cool episode. But today it just feels like something I've already seen before, especially with the animation style. I feel like I've seen this animation style in 100's of video games. Also the people lot itself feels basic. Like there is so many forms of media that are based on population control.

But I do feel the one unique thing about this episode is perspective. The plot of this episode keeps you engaged and is interesting to watch without being repetitive. The characters get you somewhat investdeted Even tho you only know them for like 10 mins.

Let me begin by saying it looks amazing. The graphics are great and they did a fantastic job mocaping the actor's facial features and emotions. But an episode needs to be judged by more than just it's graphics. Honestly the story has already been done before. It's called Altered Carbon, made by Netflix of all people, so why did LD&R rip it off?

The plot is also dumb. The officer is fine killing off kids to help control the immortal human population until he meets this one lady out in the country and here kid? Then he has this magical epiphany that what he's done for presumably decades or even centuries is wrong, so lets risk it all for this one random kid, who will just get killed by the next pop squad that comes out to investigate why 2 of their officers went missing/died.

And finally, the messaging. The whole thing is a massive virtual signal that children are the only thing that matter. Yes, this is clearly a pro-life episode. If you don't believe, go read the writers themselves stating the purpose of the episode. The overall point is that the protagonist sees children as not alive but simply objects that need to be removed, much like how pro-life people assume prochoice people see fetuses to be aborted.

Even ignoring that argument/debate, the episode tries to promote that the only thing living for is your children, and a life without children isn't worth living. So what then happens when your kids grow up? After those 18 years your life is now meaningless again? Should those that are sterile/barren just kill themselves since they will live an unfulfilling life according to these writes? Just dumb and a little insulting if you ask me.

As a 32 year old father with a son probably the same age as that young girl I was in tears by the end of this. I didn't know what I was expecting but this episode ended up hitting me like a ton of bricks. I'm glad I saw it but I don't think I'll ever be able to come back to it again. Now excuse me while I go hug my son for the next few hours.

As stated great animation, and the voice acting is on point from all the actors. The story itself is pretty straight forward dystopian sci-fi. With that said it is done very well. I see alot of people giving it lower ratings because it sends some sort of political message. Which sure it can but it dosen't have to. It's a sci-fi short story, animated very well. If a fictional sci-fi story sounds interesting, check it out. Not everything has to have a political connection.