Love, Death & Robots: The 10 highest-rated episodes on IMDb

Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots premiered in 2019. Its unique and contemporary narratives from all around the world won over its viewers. Created by Tim Miller, the adult anthology series is partly inspired by the animated sci-fi film Heavy Metal.

With a collection of numerous short films, Love, Death & Robots has released four seasons. All the episodes are said to have a standalone story, except for Three Robots, and are created through the involvement of different casts and crews. Furthermore, the stories also incorporate one or more of the themes mentioned in the title. While bringing cool sci-fi concepts narrated in a short period, the show is among the fan favorites.

Let’s look at the 10 highest-ranking episodes of Love, Death & Robots, according to IMDb.

Love, Death & Robots: The 10 highest-rated episodes on IMDb

10) Snow in the Desert (Season 2, Episode 4)

Snow in Snow in the Desert | Image via Netflix Studios

Episode 4 of Love, Death & Robots season 2 is rated 7.8 on IMDb and revolves around the story of Snow. Based on Neal Asher’s short story, in the episode, Snow finds himself amid bounty hunters who want a specific part of his body due to genetic regenerative hormones and immortality.

Hirald, who works for an AI called Earth Central, wants to test Snow and know more about Snow’s genes and immortality, but without killing him. In the 18-minute short film, the narrative is able to build a plot that is unique and emotional at the same time, making it one of the viewers’ favorite episodes.

9) Three Robots (Season 1, Episode 2)

Three Robots in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

Three Robots is the only episode in Love, Death & Robots with a sequel named Three Robots: Exit Strategies, and a prequel, The Other Large Thing. In the episode, three robots take a sightseeing tour to learn more about extinct humans.

The curious robots begin their journey from finding out about sports by playing basketball, to visiting a diner and understanding how they ate, and later visiting an empty apartment where they find a cat. They also visit a computer store where they get to know about their own origin. And lastly, their stop was a nuclear missile base which was built to annihilate humans, but they share that humans died because of their own fault by destroying their environment and planet. The episode used two of the three themes mentioned in the title, namely, death and robots, in the short film, and has an IMDb rating of 7.9.

8) Good Hunting (Season 1, Episode 8)

Scene from Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

Incorporating all three themes from Love, Death & Robots, Good Hunting has an 8.0 rating on IMDb. It follows the story of Liang and Yan, who meet for the first time when Liang’s father, Renshu, a spirit hunter, hunts and kills a Huli Jing named Tsiao-Jung. However, Liang manages to save Jung's pup, Yan, by lying to his father.

Years later, as China goes through its modernization phase, Liang moves to Hong Kong and becomes a train engineer. Later, due to his skills with machines, he became a robotic engineer. He meets Yan several times, and she tells him that the magic that helped transform her into a fox is lost now, and she is stuck as a human.

She is tortured by a governor, who changes her organs and makes her a robotic s*x toy, which angers Yan, and she kills him. She asks Liang to help her hunt men like the governor, and he agrees. With his knowledge about robotics, he transforms her into a mechanical Huli Jing, who now hunts men like the governor who torture women.

7) Jibaro (Season 3, Episode 9)

The siren in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

Jibaro is also one of the best short films of Love, Death & Robots, with an 8.1 rating on IMDb. It follows the story of a siren who grows curious about a man who didn’t die due to her screaming and dancing. While the other soldiers died, only one soldier, who was deaf and couldn’t hear, was left alive.

Growing curious about the man not dying, the siren gets smitten by him. However, the soldier betrays her affection toward him by knocking her unconscious and pushing her into the waterfall, and stealing all the jewels from her body. But before he could run away with all the gold, he washed his face in the stream, which was still connected to the siren who used to dance in the lake, which fixed his ears. Now that he could hear everything, the siren exacted her revenge on the soldier for betraying her.

6) Pop Squad (Season 2, Episode 3)

Det. Briggs in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

Based on Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi’s award-winning sci-fi short story, Pop Squad has a rating of 8.1 on IMDb. It revolves around a dystopian world dealing with overpopulation and hunting down children who were born illegally.

The short film follows Detective Briggs, who hunts down mothers who have illegally given birth. It is also revealed that the world has now discovered an elixir called rijoo, which makes them live longer, as they don’t die of natural causes. The episode highlights the moral ambiguity of human beings, who sometimes are ready to follow rules without giving enough thought to it, just like the Rijoo population and Det. Briggs doesn’t hesitate to kill children, as they are not seen as human but as mere objects by the new society.

5) The Secret War (Season 1, Episode 18)

The Secret War has a rating of 8.1 on IMDb and is regarded as one of the best episodes of Love, Death & Robots. It revolves around the story of Soviet armies finding monsters deep in the forest of Siberia. Lt. Zakharov, his friend, Sergei, and their teams try to find out how all the villagers of a small village in the forest were killed.

While investigating, Sergei and Zakharov find a diary that reveals information about Major Grishin, an occultist who assisted the Soviets in summoning monsters, which they ultimately could not control, resulting in their deaths during the process. Sergei wanted to leave the area, but Zakharov was convinced that returning would also lead to their deaths to cover up what they discovered in the forest. Consequently, they stand their ground and defend themselves against the monsters.

4) Sonnie's Edge (Season 1, Episode 1)

Sonnie in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

The premiere episode of Love, Death & Robots is among the top 5 short films of the animated show, with a rating of 8.2 on IMDb. It follows Sonnie, an undefeated fighter, participating in another deadly match in the arena.

However, the blood, gore, and action are not the only highlights of the story. It is revealed that Sonnie has a secret that helps her win the fights. To know the secret, Dicko and Jennifer lose their life at the end. It is a perfect first episode to introduce what the series might revolve around in the later short films.

3) Zima Blue (Season 1, Episode 14)

Zima Blue in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

With a rating of 8.3 on IMDb, Zima Blue ranks third among the best episodes of Love, Death & Robots and is described as one of the most beautiful short films and a piece of art. The film follows a reporter named Claire, who meets the renowned artist, Zima Blue, a tall Cyborg. He wanted to narrate his story to her, which she was unable to believe was about him.

He reveals that he was just a simple pool scrubbing android who gradually evolved into what he is now. And the last masterpiece is nothing other than the pool that he used to scrub. At the end, he swims in the pool, shedding his evolved mechanism and becoming the simple android he used to be. Zima Blue finds the ultimate truth about where he began his journey, ending it right in that place.

2) Beyond the Aquila Rift (Season 1, Episode 7)

Thom in Love, Death & Robots | Image via Netflix Studios

Beyond the Aquila Rift is the second-best episode of the animated series and has a rating of 8.5 on IMDb. This short film follows Thom and his freight ship crew members, who, during their journey through a surge gate in space, reach a point where they meet Thom’s old friend, Greta. She tells them that they are in a repair facility due to a routing error. However, we later find out that it's not Thom’s ship but numerous other ships that have been destroyed by an alien hive mind.

1) Bad Travelling (Season 3, Episode 2)

Bad Travelling, with an 8.7 rating, is the highest-rated short film of the Love, Death & Robots animated series. The longest short film of the series follows Torrin and his crew hunting for jable sharks in alien oceans.

The crew encounters a Thanapod, a crab-like creature, who asks Torrin to take him to Phaiden Island, as it is a populous place where he can satisfy his hunger. However, it also demands that some crew members reach the Island. But the crew actually planned on sacrificing Torrin to save themselves and are unsuccessful as Torrin kills them all and ignites the ship, destroying everything, so that no other innocent people die anymore.