Love, Death, and Robots Response

    My favorite short that we watched was the episode Pop Squad. Even though it was really sad, it was unique from the others because of its themes. The majority of the episodes all dealt with technology, but Pop Squad dealt with something deeper: death. The episode has many elements in it that resembled the movie, Metropolis. This includes the division of class, where the people who are wealthy live at the top and the poor reside below. This episode is about immortality and the price of living forever. We meet a police officer who is tasked with killing children. We soon find out that kids are being killed in order for the rich and wealthy above to live forever. However, when the police officer kills the children initially, he becomes haunted by the task he just did. 

Along the way, he meets a woman who has a child. She tells the police officer that she has been alive for over 200 years and she wants her child to have experiences. She also said she sees things through her eyes and how much innocence she has. Ultimately, the police officer doesn’t kill her child and has a face-off with a fellow officer. In the end, he is shot at and killed. 

After watching this episode, I found myself thinking about the theme of fate in the episode. I think that ultimately it’s all about how we always try to run away from the things we fear the most, but it always tries to find us. The purpose of killing children in their whole is to make room for the people who want to live forever. However, I feel as though want they fear the most will probably come. I also think it talks about social norms given to our society. Mothers in the episode are rejected and seen as criminals because they have children. It makes the audience question what is considered social norms and how society reacts to the people who choose to reject them. 

This episode resonates with me because I come from a town where if you don’t follow the social norms or political opinion, you get judged. I went to a religious school, where you would have your job in danger if you didn’t follow what was considered normal. For example, if you were pregnant and not married. Ultimately, we judge people who don’t follow what we considered normal. In the end, the episode asks the question: what are social norms, and what is considered normal?