Since it started running on the block in 2003, Futurama became a pivotal piece of Adult Swim’s programming for the next several years. To a diehard fan like myself, it was certainly bittersweet. Sure, it was nice to have the series still on the air, becoming a decent hit in syndication, but I never really watched it that much, since I already had the season DVD boxsets and had completely worn them out. I feel like the number of times I’ve watched the original four seasons of Futurama has to come close to my rewatches of classic-era Simpsons, if not even exceeding it. Between initially obtaining poor-quality TV rips of the show via file sharing sites as a wee pre-teen, ordering a mysterious “VCD” of the first season online as I waiting for the official DVDs to end up stateside, and poring through all 72 original episodes on DVD with and without commentary over and over again, I felt like I knew the series backward and forward. But we all had to just accept the series was over. Even when Family Guy got its 2005 revival, it just didn’t look like it was going to be in the cards for Futurama. But then, a miracle happened. In early 2007, we heard rumblings about a potential DVD movie, and then by Comic-Con, it was confirmed that four DVD movies were in the works. My mind was blown. Sure, it wasn’t a new season, but this was still incredible news. Some fans had hoped for a revival in the form of a Futurama movie, and now we were getting four of them? Incredible! In deciding which of the movies to cover, there’s really only one option. “Bender’s Big Score” came out of the gate swinging, giving the fans everything they missed about the series and then some, an epic time-bending adventure starring our favorite space pals.
Continue reading “Past-o-Rama: Bender’s Big Score” →

Back when syndication was king, the appeal of episodic television was that you can run episodes in any order, and anyone tuning in to one of them could instantly get up to speed, and for animated sitcoms or cable cartoons, there was very little, if any, direct connection of any plot threads or world-changing events from episode to episode. But in the last decade or so, we’ve seen a shift in animated shows starting to embrace continuity, partially assisted by the rise of streaming, where not only is it easier than ever to watch an entire series in the order it aired, new shows can have their whole seasons dropped all at once. Futurama was never really interested in that sort of storytelling (and even if they had been, the network would have definitely discouraged them from doing it,) but in building the world of the show, they were definitely interested in laying down track early for future reveals and plot lines. From the inception of the series, Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and the rest of the writers intended to hide clues and Easter eggs hinting at greater mysteries behind the characters and the world of the future, things that might not pay off for entire seasons. It almost feels like the evolution of the mindset of early Simpsons, rewarding the audience for paying attention with quick sight gags and the incredible joke density of the scripts that rewards you from re-watching to see what you might have missed. Written by David X. Cohen, in one of the only episodes he has a solo credit on, this episode feels like the culmination of a lot of breadcrumbs placed over the past few seasons regarding Fry’s role in the world of Futurama. Continue reading “Past-o-Rama: The Why of Fry” →

Look up any list of the best Futurama episodes ever, and amongst the top rankings are probably the really emotional ones. The series had heart from the very beginning, but it really started to plumb the depths of feelings as it went along, as the characters became greater established. Leela’s loneliness thinking she’s the last of her species, Bender’s snarky facade briefly dropping to display actual emotion, these moments only work because we’ve grown to love these guys. Season 3 contains a fair share of powerful episodes that are incredibly memorable and feel emotionally resonant: Fry’s love note in space that won Leela’s heart being destroyed before anyone gets a chance to see it, Bender meeting “God” the space entity, even moments stuffed within crazier episodes like Bender’s yearning to be remembered or Fry’s realization that fear has brought his found family together during Xmas time. But to me, the granddaddy of them all in the original FOX run of the series is “Luck of the Fryrish,” the tale of two brothers who never saw eye to eye before it was too late. Yes, “Jurassic Bark” is the more famous example, but I think “Fryrish” is more successful at really getting to me. As much as I love dogs, and the ending to “Bark” is an absolute gut punch, it really is pretty depressing, and a dour note to end an episode on, versus the final reveal in “Fryrish” coming off as more uplifting and sweet. Continue reading “Past-o-Rama: Luck of the Fryrish” →

One might expect Futurama would be a true-blue science-fiction show, with the cast getting into wild space adventures and weird, mind-bending sci-fi plots all the time. But it’s really not. Sure, we visit strange planets and one of the lead characters is a wise-cracking robot, but Futurama quickly established itself as a sort-of workplace comedy that mostly mined its future setting for comedic purposes. Unlike a show like Rick & Morty, which tackles a new genre trope each week and lets the shit fly, Futurama sits in a middle ground where it’s more character-driven, but still sets up outlandish situations to throw their cast in and see how they react. Now that all the characters have been greater fleshed out after season 1, they’re starting to become more adaptable to any crazy situation. A mass robot uprising, a sunken city, a murderous mechanical Santa Claus… part of the fun with the show now is just waiting to see how Bender or Professor Farnsworth reacts to any given scenario. “War is the H-Word” has always been one of my favorite episodes because it feels like the show really firing on all cylinders, turning a fairly simplistic comic premise of characters going through boot camp and into battle and really making it memorable, with fantastic gags and great character work, all wrapped in an exciting space age package. Continue reading “Past-o-Rama: War is the H-Word” →