'Automated Customer Service (2021)' takes place in a futuristic retirement village where the inhabitants are cared for by various types of fully-automated robotics. One day, a woman's vacuum cleaner decides that she's part of the dirt and does everything it can to 'clean' her up. The first thing to say is that the character designs are, frankly, upsetting. Their disproportionately large heads, tiny little hands, uncanny expressions and almost disembodied voices add up to a distinctly anti-aesthetically pleasing experience. Thankfully, the actual short that features them isn't nearly as egregious. It's decent, half-expected sci-fi survival schlock (a theme that the show seems to like). It provides a couple of enjoyable suspense sequences, as our hero is chased by and hides from her hoover, and it's generally well executed. It doesn't amount to much, though, and there aren't any real underlying themes - aside from the obvious 'technology turning against us' motif that marks the bread and butter of most science-fiction stuff. It's a decent short overall, even if its character designs are truly terrible. 6/10.
