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” →

I can’t remember when I first started watching The Simpsons . The first season I know I watched most of when it originally aired was season 11, which started in the fall of 1999. But I know I had to have seen and enjoyed watching reruns for at least a few years before that, because, as a ten-year-old, I was absolutely fucking stoked for the premiere of Futurama in March of 1999. I’m sure it must have been even more exciting for those in their teens and twenties, a brand-new show from the creator of one of the greatest and most influential comedies of all time. It felt pretty big from the standpoint of animation, as we had just left the doldrums of vacuous toy commercial cartoons of the 80s into the creator-driven shows of the 90s, and now we’d gone long enough that a famed creator of one show could go off and make a new one. The only other big example I can think of is Mike Judge going from Beavis and Butt-head to King of the Hill two years prior, but it’s a bit apples and oranges to this case since the format and style of the two shows is incredibly different, as well as Judge jumping from MTV to FOX. Futurama premiered after a decade of The Simpsons on the same network, with the same distinct Matt Groening art style, so it was a mystery on how similar this new show would be compared to its predecessor. “Space Pilot 3000” has a lot of heavy lifting to do, since not only do we need to introduce the new cast, but also the future setting, and tell an actual story on top of that, all in just twenty-two minutes. As a pilot, it’s honestly still one of the most effective and successful first episodes I’ve ever seen in terms of what it sets out to do. Continue reading “Past-o-Rama: Space Pilot 3000 / The Series Has Landed” →

A few years after I originally concluded Me Blog Write Good in 2013, I started a “sequel” blog that I intended to be a more general review space, where I could just talk about whatever movie or show I was watching and cared enough to write down my thoughts about. It was also to be the home of my follow-up to my Simpsons series, covering every episode of Futurama, a show that meant just as much to me growing up as The Simpsons, if not a little more so in some ways, since I’d been watching it from the very beginning. I reviewed the first two episodes, and then shut down the blog forever. I had started it mere months before starting a new career that took up a lot of my time, so I decided to pull the plug on it. A bit later, when I had a little more time on my hands, I decided to resurrect Me Blog Write Good instead, to cover all the remaining Simpsons episodes I hadn’t talked about up until the present, and have continued my endless journey ever since. I don’t really consider myself a writer, and my impulses to actually write have been very sporadic and fickle. I broadened my scope for this blog in covering Kevin Smith movies last fall, thinking I could cover more non-Simpsons content in the future, but my interest in doing so has pretty much completely diminished. But with Futurama returning yet again for a new run of episodes on Hulu, I feel somewhat compelled to cover it. It’s a show that’s still very near and dear to me, and having survived over so many years and given life in so many new outlets, I feel like there’ll definitely be a lot to say about this new Hulu incarnation. So when Futurama returns this summer (maybe? The series was rumored to drop in July, and I was hoping there would be a trailer or some kind of official announcement by now, but alas, there has not been one), I will be covering those new episodes in similar fashion to my Simpsons reviews. But what about the existing 140 episodes? Well, since I definitely don’t want to cover every single one, I decided to just do a mini-series going over nine highlighted episodes over Futurama‘s run, from the pilot to its (former) series finale. I’ll discuss the episodes specifically, but also talk more broadly about the show itself and how it grew and changed over time. The first review will most likely be up next Thursday following the Simpsons season finale review, and one or two more per week will follow after that (spaced out more depending on when the new Futurama season actually premieres). Get ready for a summer filled with actual updates, meatbags, because Futurama‘s back, baby! Again! Again again again!

EDIT: LOL of course the morning this post went up, it’s confirmed Futurama will return on July 24th, so full steam ahead, I guess!