FUTURAMA Season 6! - Page 2

^especially with the dialogue (paraphrased, I know I'm butchering the punch line):
"Why did their voices change?"
"That's one question we'll never get an answer to!"
"

Just saw the second episode. It's pretty bad. I'm also disappointed they didn't just ditch the Fry/Leela thing this time around. It's not funny and it forces Fry to be serious about something, which isn't a great move.

I remain optimistic, but I do have to say it's not like the show was never given a chance. With 70 episodes before it was cancelled, it had a pretty excellent run. Like Toy Story 3*, this new season didn't really need to happen.

*Not to derail.

All of you and your buyer's remorse sicken me.

Felt exactly the same when I heard about the DVD movies and bringing the show back. Same thing for the constant plans to bring back Arrested Development on another channel/network or as a movie.

You could deffiently tell the two writing styles from, each epi but I loved them. FUTURAMA is my favorite show =)

Really wanted to enjoy the hell out of it, and while there were quite a few laughs in both episodes...I dunno, something's missing (so far).

There were too many pop-culture references for my liking (CSI joke was bad, I mean, the gag was funny, no need to have Zapp say "JUST LIKE ON CSI: MIAMI"). It felt a little Family Guy-ish to me (the extended "this has gone on so long that now its funny" with Zapp's ARGHing and Leela finding out shes a robot), with the new crassness (although to be fair, that was the theme for the second episode so this might be premature) and, like I said, the jarring pop-culture references.

Maybe I need to revisit the older seasons, but it didn't really feel like the return-to-form that most people have been hailing it as.

The CSI: Miami reference took the joke further than needed. Definitely didn't like that. Though it makes sense for Brannigan to watch that show, in terms of character, I suppose.

The show has always had a certain level of obviousness in its jokes. For as much brilliance the original run of the series had, there were a lot of clunkers. And definitely some odd/obvious pop-culture references.

My problems with new Futurama feel very personal. As it stands, the previous run feels like the canon. It's a hell of a show that I shall always love. That says, all new episodes feel "off."

This is not a complaint about the episodes, but more my own problem with comparing them to what came before. Futurama, to me, suffers from what any show could suffer being cut down in its prime. The new episodes are certainly funny in their own way, but they'll never feel like Futurama to me. This is less a condemnation of the new episodes as it is a condemnation of my own inability to embrace them.

In short: eh.

This week's ep seemed like a step down from last weeks's superb double feature. But Mom slapping her boys is always fun.

The first half of this weeks episode was absolutely hysterical. Then that whole boil thing happened and it just went to shit.

Apparently the show is doing pretty well, as the premiere tied in the ratings with Burn Notice and Royal Pains, 2 of the highest rated shows on cable (I know, I know,,,those are low standards, but what can ya do).

The boil is definatly where the show went to shit. But it wasn't all that great to start off.

This episode felt more like the DVD movies. iPhone/Twitter humor? That's a bad mix of somewhat current and tired.

The only way this week's episode works is if next week they start off with everyone still Mom-zombies. Otherwise, yeah.. it was pretty bad.

Between the singing boil and the jacuzzi full of vomit, this episode felt very 'comedy central'. I actually thought this one started off strong and the eyePhone stuff was the kind of gag old Futurama would do. But they kept going and going with it, and by the time they started rolling out all the Twitter/Youtube references, I couldnt believe they were actually devoting an entire episode to it. Still, there were laughs to be had, and I'm still hopeful that the writers find their stride sooner rather than later.

A Futurama episode that's filled with lame current-day pop culture references? Surely you jest!

Granted, there was an "All Your Base" joke in one of the old episodes, which had a shelf-life of about thirty seconds. But it was a throwaway gag, as most of the references tended to be. An entire episode around iPhone/Twitter mockery is surprisingly hackneyed satire for them, and, worst sin of all, they were beaten by The Simpsons. Bad Simpsons, no less.

I liked the debut episodes just fine, this one was just a misfire.

There was an entire 1st-run episode devoted to THE INTERNETS. Futurama does this sometimes. I'm keeping my hopes up, but it's not like the original run didn't have episodes go off the rails every now and then. If this is endemic to the new writing team, then we have a problem. But if I get one clunker for every couple of good episodes, I'm a happy camper.

Its like Comedy Central wanted to remind us of this by following up the new episode with the wooden Bender episode.

I dunno. To me, Futurama usually used pop-culture references when they were a little more past date. That dorkiness is a part of the show's charm. It's probably because digs at iPhone, Twitter, and Youtube are still seen pretty frequently that it didn't feel quite right.

But you're technically correct. The best kind of correct.

Agree about the show feeling "off."

Though I really really disliked all but the first of the movies. Maybe it's just cause they are shorter, but I at least like the new show better than the films.

But I concur with the earlier sentiment that FUTURAMA had a perfect run. I was actually happy when it ended, because it wasn't given time to be run into the ground lik THE SIMPSONS. Like ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT we were given a handful of perfect seasons. The movies and this new season are unnecessary. Buuuuuuut...

I have enjoyed the episodes more than I have not enjoyed them. I thought the pre-boil part of Ep 3 was really solid. iPhone jokes are old news, but they sure did them well.

I dunno, I liked all of the movies, to be honest, especially Big Score and Yonder, which feel the most like the actual series. And this new season has been different, yes, but still pretty great.

Line of the night: "Shut up and take my money!"

Ingrates.

BTW, was that Craig Ferguson as "Susan"?

It was.

If I may paint with a hyperbolic brush, I've never agreed with the CW that had the original run as brilliant beyond belief and the movies, and likely the new run, as legacy-destroying crap. I find all Futuramas to be similarly solid, pleasant, and chuckle-worthy. Basically, a solid B all the way through.

Scott, I just realized that I probably saw most of the show's original run on DVD due to all the goddamned pre-empting FOX did when they aired the show. That would explain why most of the pop-culture references felt a good ways away when I finally saw them.

So you are even more technically correct. And even better kind of correct.

EDIT: With this recent episode, I can't tell if they're keeping Fry and Leela together or not. The 2nd episode had her giving him a kiss. And this recent episode made them more like very close friends. Make up your mind!

Same here. Also I doubt the original episodes were watched and discussed with the same kind of painstaking "does this live up to the legacy??" scrutiny that the new ones are going to have to face. I saw the first new one and thought it was above average for the show.

Personally, I tend to agree with the consistency argument (consistently *great*, mind you), and Futurama has been one of the most worthy contenders for my "most laughs on rewatches" award, which pretty much explains itself. In fact, and I may be about to commit blasphemy here, but I actually prefer Futurama over The Simpsons.

Hey! HEY! Put the knives down, people, and let me explain. I was never much into The Simpsons even as a teenager, although the "Golden Age" of the show is indeed great. I've just never been a hugely devoted fan of it. Futurama, on the other hand, just... it just hits my sweet spot with its blend of geekiness, absolutely inexplicable yet hilarious dialogue, and tremendous voice performances. Simpsons has that too, granted, but Futurama just gets a better response out of me for some reason.

Aren't you just out of your teens though? You're a young'un!

I'll join the bandwagon that says "Great first half, FUCKING TERRIBLE SECOND HALF." Although the last couple of minutes weren't bad, either. Let's hope it is a fluke. (But, yeah, the original run had some terrible episodes, too.)

True, but that's part of it. I've been around Futurama a lot more, having been allowed to watch it from an earlier age than Simpsons, and thus my devotion is more... palpable, I guess? There's also WAY less of it, which makes the show easier to go through than everyone's favorite yellow-skinned family.

Either way, I'm not knocking Simpsons at all. It's great, but something in Futurama just clicks with me more on a personal level. It's like my similar devotion to stuff like Avatar: The Last Airbender or the DCAU and its related projects.

I can relate. I enjoy the hell out of Futurama but I will always be a fan of the Simpsons. Which I've been watching since that Christmas Special back in the dusty eon known as 1989. So really, there hasn't been a time when the Simpsons weren't on.

The Simpsons arcade game to this day is still one of my favorites to plunk a quarter in (when I can find one).

Hey, I can completely understand. As great as the Golden Age of The Simpsons is/was, it's just not the same if you weren't quite at a certain age while it was on that run (which you can say about lots of things). During the best run of the show, I was taping the new episodes while recording the constantly syndicated ones as well, just so I could watch them over and over again.

In terms of consistency, Futurama's relatively short run understandably has The Simpsons' on-going run beat.

Actually, which ones would you consider terrible? It'd be interesting to hear, since the show is generally praised all the time. I can't think of any that are particularly terrible, but there are certainly ones I feel aren't that great. The one about Bender as Pharaoh is one I find kinda dull (other than the big statue going, "REMEMBER MEEEE! REMEMBER MEEEE!"). And with the exception of several great moments, I'm not that into the Santa Claus episodes either.

Thanks, nooj. Anyway, on your question about "terrible" episodes, I don't think there are any outright BAD episodes of the show, since even the weaker ones have either great moments or lines that save them, and the voice acting and animation is always top notch even when the writing isn't.

You're not crazy Chris. Or maybe you are but you're not the only one, because even though I was in my early teens when The Simpsons started out I prefer Futurama because it's equally hilarious but has more heart. I love the best episodes of The Simpsons but even the most personal ones never moved me to do much more than laugh my ass off. I think Grandpa, Apu and Nelson are the only characters I've ever felt actual emapthy with, and those are rare moments with secondary characters.

But Futurama has those three main characters who each have a very human (even though two of them aren't human) melancholy streak running beneath their funny, exaggerated exteriors and that gives the show the ability to really hit a gentleman right in the gut sometimes. Even Zoidberg, who's pure goofy, has a weird ability to be sympathetic because all he wants is for people to love him.

Fry, Leela and Bender are outsiders who've found themselves thrown into each other's lives and found somewhere to belong and formed bonds of friendship (among other bonds). And that weaves a kind of scarred but hopeful longing through the crazy over-the-top stories of Futurama which makes me not only laugh at their antics and shenanigans, but feel sad for them when shit's not working out right, and happy for them when it does.

I love when they mine Zoidberg's loneliness for comedy, especially when people mock him for being poor.

I love that Zoidberg is poor and eating out of dumpsters and the like, while presumably getting paid pretty well by Farnsworth.

Why did they have to put a boil on Leela's greatest asset?

Leela the cartoon?

Had a little misfire with the DVR, so I just caught the latest one. Meh.

So Leela has had a sentient boil on her ass all this time - all for the sake of some stupid pun? They should have put it on Scruffy.

Also, about that e-waste opening; I'm sick of Futurama being environmentally preachy - which is often.

While not terrible, anything involving Cubert as a lead or co-lead is pretty annoying. Plus, the University episode is particularly grating especially Gunther.

"That's Lobstertainment!" is generally rated as a terrible episode. As much as I love Zoidberg, I avoid that episode whenever possible.

I dunno - the long lost uncle makes me laugh. "Throw a pie for God's sake!"

That's Lobstertainment does have Zoidberg trying to talk himself up with the line "And I am a successful doctor, with many surviving patients!"

So either they're gonna come back to the EyePhone zombies later or it was just a one-off gag. These past 2 episodes have been as sloppy as the movies.

I thought this one was great, flat out.

This one was very funny - I love Kif. "You're ruffling my petticoats!"

I don't know if anyone else caught this, but on the closed captioning, when Bender opens his chest to reveal Lassie's head, Lassie had two lines (one was 'Where am I?') but in the show, it just had Lassie barking.

I thought last night's episode represents the cream of the new season's crop. And I'll readily admit that Hermes' Circusitis gag had me giggling way harder than it had any right to ("I thought it only affected children!" "Children of all ages.").

Another one that was probably not for fans of character consistency or continuity, but there were a ton of great lines, and it had a really good rhythm going. For whatever reason "Even ghost and horse!" just slayed me.