Futurama - New Season Coming in 2010

First commercial break and this is already my favorite Futurama episode ever, as I refuse to be an Apple drone (don't own an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad) and refuse to use the waste of time known as Twitter.

...whereas I really couldn't care less about silly tech feuds. As far as the episode goes- it was good, though I was somewhat disappointed that they seem to have "reset" Fry and Leela's relationship.

Buhwhat? Reset?? I should have known to come in here an hour before the episode airs in my area

Heh. Susan the Boil. <Amy>I get it!</Amy>

ruhk wrote:

...whereas I really couldn't care less about silly tech feuds. As far as the episode goes- it was good, though I was somewhat disappointed that they seem to have "reset" Fry and Leela's relationship.

Didn't look to me like they'd "reset" it. She called him a good friend, yes, but I sometimes tell my husband he's my best friend, too. You can be a good friend and also something more.

Denial: Not just a river in Egypt.

I feel stupider for having watched this episode.

Parts of it were weird-ish, but over all awesome.

If I ever got another goat (heh) I'd name him Chunks.

Yes, they're bringing comedy back on the air...Very region specific comedy.

It was pretty good... a really good episode wrapped up in a lot of dated pop culture references. I liked how the ending worked out, although I'm curious about how much they are downplaying the Leela/Fry relationship. I mean... I like it, but subtlety was not something I was really expecting on that storyline.

Jolly Bill wrote:

I mean... I like it, but subtlety was not something I was really expecting on that storyline.

Well, they can't have EVERY episode include a declaration of their undying love for each other. Then it would just get stale, and the writers would have to break them up. Which they must never, ever do. Ever.

I gotta agree with Rat Boy on this one-- stinkier than Mr. Chunks' swimming pool.

Thinly (so thin you can see through it) veiled social satire coupled with a year old pop culture reference. Wow, people who buy iPhones are "zombies"? Ba-ZING. Made the Android fanboys happy, at least.

I dunno, the longer they wander around with the desktop projected in front of their faces, the harder I chuckle. It helps that most Appleheads I know are insufferable. I say this as an iPod owner.

SommerMatt wrote:

Thinly (so thin you can see through it) veiled social satire coupled with a year old pop culture reference.

That's what really bugged me. Those references are already stale and in a few years will be as dated as the George H.W. Bush episode of The Simpsons.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

I dunno, the longer they wander around with the desktop projected in front of their faces, the harder I chuckle. It helps that most Appleheads I know are insufferable. I say this as an iPod owner.

There was a germ of an idea there-- social networking is definitely ripe for satire. Fry and Bender's race to become the most "followed" was pretty amusing. Also liked when the group was sitting around the table, all looking at the screens and basically sending things to each other (good line-- "Um, I unfollowed you yesterday...").

The rest of it though-- meh. "Susan Boil" was terrible. Apple fans are "sheep" has been done to death. Mom's big plan didn't even make a lick of sense:

Spoiler:

She already HAD the entire city lining up to buy the "eyePhone," so why on earth would her big plan be to get "between one and two million" zombies to buy the new "eyePhone"? Highly illogical :)

Ah well. Bring on the new one for next week!

I thought it was hilarious.

Thin_J wrote:

I thought it was hilarious.

Me too. I snorted tea up my nose when I saw the Mom logo. And Susan Boil made me giggle like a fifth-grader.

Some people are easy to please, apparently That's OK... it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round!

Thin_J wrote:

I thought it was hilarious.

+1
My 2 ¢, It's a cartoon.

Comedy Central's up to their old shenanigans.

SommerMatt wrote:

Some people are easy to please, apparently That's OK... it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round!

Says the man who still likes Family Guy .... :p

I liked it, except for Susan the Boil (ugh). I was cracking up at all the rapid-fire Twitter/Webisode/Social Networking jokes when they first got their phones. "Hey check out this webisode of Hypnotoad!"

Now that was a good episode. Funny, too, which is the important part.

Rat Boy wrote:

Now that was a good episode. Funny, too, which is the important part.

Nice. I have to wait till tomorrow to download it through iTunes, but I can't wait.

Rat Boy wrote:

Now that was a good episode. Funny, too, which is the important part.

Meh.

Easily my favorite of the new series so far. The joke with The Professor checking his pulse and screaming was classic. Also, I now want a clock that shouts the hourly time in a harsh monotone.

Rat Boy wrote:

Now that was a good episode. Funny, too, which is the important part.

Agreed! At least the first half...my views on the topic aside, about halfway through I thought they got a little distracted from their usual sly humor by the enthusiastic hammering on the political message. But, diff'rent strokes and all.

Mytch wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Now that was a good episode. Funny, too, which is the important part.

Agreed! At least the first half...my views on the topic aside, about halfway through I thought they got a little distracted from their usual sly humor by the enthusiastic hammering on the political message. But, diff'rent strokes and all.

A bit, but they wrapped it up well at the end. I was high-fiving my g/f through most of that episode.

Spoiler:

..Monogamous!?"

This new season is terrible. I was optimistic with the first episode. It was funny, though it felt like the writers were rusty. The second episode started decently, but when they got stranded it just plummeted. The third episode started funny, but by time Leela had a singing butt boil I was convinced the writers had lost sight of what made the series so great.

Simultaneously, I've discovered that the original series is on Netflix Instant and have been going through it again.

While the show is a comedy, there is at least a bit of a serious tone between the characters. Fry being on the moon in "The Series Has Landed", for one. The entire episode was hilarious, but they still took a moment where the interaction between the characters held importance. Later we have the introduction of Mom in the episode where Fry becomes a billionaire and buys the last anchovies in existence. While the conclusion of the episode is "wow these characters are dumb and oblivious", it's, well, resolved. The new episode built up Mom's evil plan only for nothing to be done of it. I guess the humor was supposed to be that she wasn't stopped and everyone else was just oblivious? But it didn't belong in Futurama. The characters are now treated as punching bags for jokes, whereas before it MATTERED that Bender chopped off his antenna, or "little Bender". It mattered that Fry was abandoning his friends in favor of getting buried in old 20th Century tech.

This slight level of serious care is what allowed for episodes like Luck of the Fryish to exist. The Simpsons hit the same pitfall, especially when trying to emulate Family Guy. I believe my stopping point for The Simpsons was the episode where Marge's sister was a lesbian getting married, only it turned out she was marrying a man after all. It was first trying to be politically savvy and biting, then tried to make a serious point about LOVE being what matters, not sexual orientation, but then turned BACK and made another joke on it. Such actions are a complete Female Doggo slap to earlier moments in the series like "Lisa It's Your Birthday, Happy Birthday Lisa".

In its current form, Futurama is basically an imitation of Family Guy or that idiotic piece of trash Drawn Together. Gross and full of sexual jokes for the frat boy while removing all the excellent emotional stuff that actually made the characters interesting. I mean, Christ, even Zoidberg's rivalry with Fry for a mate was taken more seriously, and Zoidberg is a comic relief stuffed in a comedy!

I'm going back to watching the original series on Netflix. After Family Guy and Futurama, I take back everything I've ever said about taking Firefly out of cancellation. Let it lay to f*cking rest.

Spoiler:

..Monogamous!?"

Yep, we laughed at that one, too!

ccesarano wrote:

The new episode built up Mom's evil plan only for nothing to be done of it. I guess the humor was supposed to be that she wasn't stopped and everyone else was just oblivious?

The joke was that Mom went through all these machinations to create an army of between 1 and 2 million zombies who would buy anything she released... even though she already HAD an army of slavering fanboys who would buy anything she released. That is, SHE was the oblivious one, not everybody else.

The entire plotline was a comment on how corporations go through all these questionable marketing hoops to make us buy their stuff, when we probably would've just bought it anyway. I thought it was funny.

I haven't seen this week's episode yet, but I liked last week's "eyePhone" thing. The singing boil sucked, but the rest of the show was funny. I may end up agreeing with Cceserano if the new season continues on like it has, though. I'm willing to give it a much longer shot since it's still making me laugh and, who knows, maybe episode 8 or 12 will be the one that surprises everyone and finally feels like the Futurama everyone loves.

A few things, though.

ccesarano wrote:

The Simpsons hit the same pitfall, especially when trying to emulate Family Guy.

I think you've got that backwards. Family Guy's format has always been the same format as season 4 Simpsons, minus anything good. The Simpsons is now just off being weird as hell (yet still funny at least half of the time) while Family Guy is still being the same old garbage. I think the issue is more that The Simpsons doesn't know what to do with itself.

ccesarano wrote:

I believe my stopping point for The Simpsons was the episode where Marge's sister was a lesbian getting married, only it turned out she was marrying a man after all. It was first trying to be politically savvy and biting, then tried to make a serious point about LOVE being what matters, not sexual orientation, but then turned BACK and made another joke on it. Such actions are a complete Female Doggo slap to earlier moments in the series like "Lisa It's Your Birthday, Happy Birthday Lisa".

I love the lesbian episode. I didn't think it was trying to make a point about love being what matters and not sexual orientation. And I sure didn't think Selma's (Patty's?) declaration of, "I like girls!" at the end was meant as a joke. The point seemed to be that sexual orientation isn't something that someone just chooses. You can't just turn lesbianism off with a fancy speech and good intentions. Or am I forgetting something about the ending of the episode? Or are you talking about the whole Marge thing? Eh, whatever. It's a comedy, why can't it end with a joke?

I'm all for shows that are funny just for the sake of funny, so as long as Futurama stays funny, I'll keep watching, but if the genuine emotional element of the show continues to go missing, it'll probably get relegated to something I keep around to watch when I'm really bored and there's nothing else to watch, like The Simpsons. I really don't want this to happen, because there are so many good stories left to tell in the Futurama universe.