Miss Pantheon? Watch This Love, Death & Robots Episode Also Based on Ken Liu's Story

In 2022, Pantheon became one of the most outstanding sci-fi series of recent years, earning 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and at the same time one of the most overlooked. The show was based on short stories by Ken Liu.

Good Hunting Was Based on Ken Liu's Story of The Same Name

Liu works brilliantly with characters and knows how to create memorable visuals. His works are just begging to be adapted for the screen – and the restrained, sometimes dry language of his prose, comparable to a good screenplay, only helps.

Even before Pantheon, Ken Liu was noticed by the creators of Love, Death & Robots – it was his short story on which the episode Good Hunting was based.

What Is Good Hunting About?

The story centers on the fate of a young Chinese man named Liang, who comes from a family of evil spirit hunters and spares the cub of a Huli-jing, a werefox, that his father killed in front of him.

As a result of the conversation, Liang learns much from the Huli-jing, named Yan, and stops perceiving her as a hostile creature. The outside world changes as the British, who brought steam technology with them, are in full swing in China, and the paths of Yan and Liang gradually diverge.

Liang becomes a talented designer of steam engines, and it is only many years later that fate reunites him with Yan, who wants to take revenge on her tormentors.

Ken Liu's Short Story Is a Must-Read Even if You Saw Good Hunting

The text itself is quite cinematic, but the team with the director Oliver Thomas made this story a real feast for the eyes.

It turned out to be a great example of how mixing familiar ingredients – oriental exoticism and steampunk – can produce something original and very unusual.

Some call Ken Liu the progenitor of silkpunk, so the original story is worth reading not only for those who love the unusual mix of magic and technology, but even for those who have already seen the episode of Love, Death & Robots.

Good Hunting Could Be an Impressive Movie or Series in Its Own Right

Good Hunting is perhaps one of the few episodes of Love, Death & Robots that could have been a compelling feature-length project – helped by the unusual world of silkpunk and the dynamic pace of the narrative, which had to be accelerated due to the limited time.

And yet, even though the episode is only 15 minutes long, it is filled with topics that will always be relevant: the disappearance of ancient customs due to industrialization, men's consumerist attitudes towards women, and the latter's revenge.

What Did Viewers & Critics Think of Good Hunting?

Many fans agree that this story deserves a feature-length movie or series. Redditor xno_name_girlx wrote:

“I would watch an entire TV show based on this episode. Hands down easily one of my favorite episodes in the show.”

• On IMDb, the episode has a score of 8.0/10, which makes Good Hunting one of the highest-rated stories of Season 1.