Futurama (Hulu)

I feel like revisiting the final episode was unnecessary, because it wasn't actually a cliffhanger. But the writers are smarter than me. They used that as an excuse to fast forward the series to 3023 without having to age the characters. I never would have thought of that. It's great that the last episode randomly led to it.

"PC crowd" is a great joke. Unlike MANY of the nerd jokes, I liked it because I understood it.

I have mixed feelings about John DiMaggio being placed first in the ending credits. Him NOT walking away really irked me, and I felt that that specific bluff would make it harder for actors actually demanding fair pay in the future. And surprise, there's an actor's strike currently. DiMaggio being rewarded for going back on his word and his solidarity with the other actors is not okay.

And you know I know the show is written by writers, but the slam at writers feels a bit too raw and sensitive right now too. I think the problem regarding its critiques of streaming is it's missing the forest for the trees. This is definitely a problem for The Simpsons, but it hitting Futurama makes it feel a little dated. Which considering the premise, it never should.

I was actually hoping when the show came back it would be a 20 episode serialized epic. But apparently the writers think smaller than I do. I'm a little disappointed, but since the episode itself was disappointment, at least we get a new topic do-over every week.

You might complain that after all the trouble they went through killing Calculon off (twice!) that his return is beyond anticlimactic. Which would be a valid concern if both deaths weren't already that. Calculon's resurrection is underwhelming because Calculon's entire arc has always been underwhelming.

The Slurm ad tells me fake future commercials are something the show always wanted to do, but were denied by first Fox, and then Comedy Central, probably because they believed the viewers are so dumb they'd get confused. Just, for the record Fox, Futurama aims for a different demographic than your News Channel. While we're going there.

The tag with Nixon was neither here nor there. It felt like the episode didn't really know the proper way to end itself.

You know what? I'm glad the show's back. It's always held my interest, and it's rarely been terrible. People complaining it shouldn't come back because it was no longer amazing, are like the writers, and missing the forest for the trees. "The Luck Of The Fryish" and "Jurassic Bark" were phenomenal, but a TV show doesn't have to deliver episodes THAT phenomenal to have a right to exist. Futurama as coasting on Comedy Central was still a HELL of a lot better than most other animated fare. Hell, it was the best cartoon on Comedy Central itself during its entire run. I'll forgive it currently underwhelming me a bit. It's still totally watchable.

It was a decent first episode back, but I do confess to being disappointed the Hulu stuff is episodic. The streaming format would have REALLY lent itself to a 10 hour movie. I'm sad the writers didn't think big enough to give it to us. 3 1/2 stars.

Katey Sagal actually was billed first in the credits, which means I'm betting the main cast is getting rotated first there. John DiMaggio apparently did not get promoted for no reason. The show is simply acknowledging the importance of everybody.

Mr. Wong has a new voice actor because Asians now always play Asian characters. I am so grateful Lauren Tom is where she is, and didn't have to get recast. For the record, this episode is probably Tom's best performance as Amy ever. She brought the dramatic goods.

The one thing I didn't like was the winnowing being played for laughs. Zoidberg actually eating some of them was grotesque, and I kind of hate the character now. Funny how murdering the children of another main character will do that.

But I thought the rest was very sweet and nice. 4 stars.

For some reason a Bitcoin parody already feels dated. But even if it weren't, it's one of those things that WILL make the episode feel dated (AND lame) in a couple of years.

Also, it's comedy malpractice there are ZERO Westworld jokes. You want to do a sci-fi Western with robot abuse, THAT'S the spoof, not Bitcoin.

Dwight is leery of murder because colleges look at that. Also he's great at limbo because he's been run over.

The season premiere did a great job creating a canon excuse why the characters haven't aged since the show came back after ten years. What the show has never been able to satisfactorily explain is how Dwight (and Cubert) haven't aged AT ALL since 3000. That requires a MUCH bigger suspension of disbelief.

Fry and Leela still havin' sex. Good. I love Leela calling the Borax Kid's proposition both highly offensive and slightly flattering. Because yes, it was both.

That felt like a weak outing. Can't lie. And its lack of Westworld references is both shocking and seems to be mocking me. 2 1/2 stars.

The climax to the episode was underwhelming and rushed. But the same could be said for the Dune movie.

Return of Hermes' "My Manwich!" bit. You don't realize how much you missed it until it's been gone for so long.

The last scene was sweet.

The rotating "First Cast Member Listed" deal went back to DiMaggio, so it's clear he, Katey Sagal, and Billy West are taking turns. It would have been amazingly hard to navigate if they had to rotate the "first cast listing" to the entire damn cast all season long! Best they stick with the main three.

Frank Welker has gained gravitas over the years. I love that this show uses it.

I liked it, but as a whole I find the relaunch underwhelming. This was a decent week though. 3 1/2 stars.

I saw the ending coming a mile away, but it was the right ending, so no harm, no foul.

I love that Fry and Leela have moved in together. I want to see their wedding next.

Is is weird that Prime benefits are free shipping and TV shows for some reason. It's a streaming service I subscribe to I would never subscribe to without the shipping benefits.

Tress MacNeille has a VERY annoying voice, and I've always found her various performances on different shows tough to take. But she gave the operating system a touch of nuance, and her Mom had a little bit of extra grit too (even if she was less profane than usual). It's been awhile since we've seen Mom shift back and forth between the two personalities and MacNeille did both equally well.

I thought that was a VERY strong week. 4 stars.

By the way, I saw Farnsworth being the one who turned Santa evil coming a mile away. It's weird the show thought I'd be surprised.

Mark Hamill back for the Hanukkah Zombie. Yay!

Honestly, whether Futurama comes back or not, this should probably be the last Xmas episode ever. Just say Santa is dead after all. It's not a premise that needs revisiting without Kwanzabot. 3 1/2 stars.

It pushed the right buttons. Some of the jokes are obvious, and I like some of them for their obviousness (Omicron variant. For God's sake, it's like Covid created itself for Futurama jokes).

Kevin Michael Richardson was the right choice to take over the role of Barbados Slim. I'm always half-liked the character and was also half-wary of the fact that he was voiced by a white guy. I can strictly like him now. Which is good.

It's supposed to be a cynical and soul-crushingly depressing joke that Covid is finally defeated in 3023. I'm calling shenanigans instead. If that were actually true it would have come up before this. Yes, I know the previous run was created before the pandemic. But that's the precise reason the joke doesn't work.

I love that every single person wears the masks incorrectly. That bugged the crap out of me during the height of the pandemic.

Solid week. 4 1/2 stars.

The reason the episode doesn't work is the moral cannot stand. Are they making fun of people who take Zapp's abuse seriously? Apparently not. So does Zapp learn a lesson at the end? Not one that will stick. Is the frame of "getting canceled" simply feeding into imaginary rightwing grievances? Damn straight. Which makes it impossible to see what the episode is possibly hoping to accomplish.

I'll tell you what I like. The fact that even without Zapp, DOOP's proposed peace treaty is totally underhanded. Zapp is a shot against the bow at Captain Kirk. THAT specific thing seems to be a direct shot against the disturbing level of colonialism displayed by the entire Federation on Star Trek. The episode sucks and has little point. That specific shot at the world Gene Roddenberry created and declared humanity's perfect age? That has freaking teeth.

The episode still sucks though. 1 1/2 stars.

For now? I can't think of a worse one off the top of my head. People have been ambivalent about the Hulu relaunch, but I have been supportive. No longer. I think it was a mistake, and the episode was bad and damaging enough that it is now on the show to win me back. The benefit of the doubt the rest of the season enjoyed is now gone. 0.

And I can't overstate how good it is. It raised a lot of interesting points about the characters' existence, as well as their reality, as long as things like power outages (and Fox cancelations) hang over their heads. And yes, the simulation being threatened by being shut down repeatedly is a perfect metaphor for the cancelations.

It's Benders all the way down. I was a little bit impressed that Bender woke up with the solution with no explanation. That struck me as one of those plot points the series used to seed in the earlier episodes that they would pay off in a later one. It suggests to me that THAT Bender will later on be revealed to have been from a Universe even FURTHER up and theirs actually IS a simulation. The show literally stopped doing seeded foreshadowing from the Comedy Central episodes on. Is this the first example of them going back to longterm planning?

The opening cartoon being a game of Pong is brilliant.

Leela had the best insight over the characters wanting to learn the truth. She wants to know if they AREN'T living in a simulation. But she doesn't want to know if they ARE. That's brilliant and deep in a way the series hasn't been in years. The Direct To Video movies had a bit of that (at least Bender's Big Score did) but really huge, wonderful sci-fi ideas dealing with truthful human psychology are another thing the series stepped away from from Comedy Central onwards.

Fry and Leela affirming their love is a way for the episode to take the stand that fictional love can just be as powerful and real as real-world love. It all comes from the hearts and minds of the writers, doesn't it? A.I. hasn't taken THAT away from us just yet. Also an ironically cool allegory for the importance of the Writer's Guild and what they are fighting to be recognized for.

I have not enjoyed an episode of Futurama this much in years. I think the highest compliment I can give it is it's not just an example of great metafiction. It uses that as a sly jumping-off point for great SCIENCE FICTION. And the show deserves all the praise in the world for it.

Last week totally lost me. This week entirely won me back. What a rollercoaster. *****.