What do YOU think of when you hear someone say "Good news"? If your reply is anything OTHER than Futurama, then you're wrong, and you need to shut your mouth right now and be educated. Honestly.
As seen in that lovely little clip up there, "Good news, everyone!" is the HILARIOUS catchphrase of Professor Farnsworth, whose voice is so amazing that everything I'm writing right now I'm hearing him say in his voice in my head. Oh, and obviously he's one of the main dudes on Futurama.
I think the chances are pretty good that you know what the show's about if you're reading this, so let's skip that. Just read the Wikipedia page if you for some reason DON'T know. The important thing to keep in my mind about the show, however, is that it was canceled back in '03, and then two years ago it was brought back from the dead by Comedy Central (originally on FOX, blah blah) to create a new "season," aka 4 direct-to-DVD movies of highly differing quality.
The first movie was Bender's Big Score, which was the best of the four. If the first movie is the best BY FAR and completely unrivaled in quality, then you're really not doing something right, and you should probably stop making those other, cruddier movies. The second was Beast With a Billion Backs, which was okay. It was much better than the next one, Bender's Game, which was completely unfunny and was practically parodying the show's nerdiness in a much more obnoxious and obvious way. Really bad. The last one, Into the Wild Green Yonder, was pretty good, but, like the two that preceded it, was probably not that necessary, really.
Despite the majority of them being really not worth the money, the movies sold well and Comedy Central was like, "Hey, let's bring this show back for another season, guys!" The South Park kids glared at the executives who said this, sensing competition. But for once, the KIDS FROM SOUTH PARK LOST. And it was an excellent day.
So now, 11 years after the show originally started, we have season 6, which premiered on Comedy Central on Thursday (oh, it's Saturday now? dang, thought it was Friday). BUT IS IS WORTH IT? Boy/girl, I'll tell you.
The first episode, boringly titled "Rebirth" (like I should be criticizing anyone's titles), picked up right where Green Yonder left off, except for the teensy fact that everyone who was on the ship that flew into the wormhole was dead, except for the Professor and Fry. Oh, and Fry had a Fry-fro! ("Professor, my Fry-fro's all frizzy!" So randomly hilarious) The thing is, apparently they're not actually dead? It was kind of convoluted and hard to understand, but the fact of the matter is, thanks to the Professor's pool of stem cells ("Aren't those controversial?" "In your time, yes. But nowadays, shut up! Besides, these are adult stem cells, harvested from perfectly healthy adults, whom I killed for their stem cells") they were all revived, good as new. Bender has a doomsday device implanted inside of him when he nearly "dies" (robots can die?), so in order to prevent it from going off, he has to dance. It's great. Oh, and Leela's in an irreversible coma, anyway, but really, no one cares about her. Well, Fry does, now that they're "together" or whatever. Comedy ensues when Fry, devastated when told Leela's in a coma, goes to Build-a-Bot Workshop and makes a robot Leela...but then the REAL Leela wakes up! GASP!
Towards the end it got pretty insane because a cool plot twist was revealed. I won't spoil it but it has to do with Fry and robots. (It's kind of obvious now. Sort of.) "Rebirth" was a pretty cool episode that introduced us to what the tone is going to be like for this new season while also going back to its old hilarious ways. The Professor completely "won" this episode and had all the best and most easily quotable lines. He also had the Chamber of Understanding, which looks funky and I want it.
I'll give this episode 4 and a half perpetually dancing Benders out of 5.
The next episode felt more like the type that would show up in the original run of the series. Once again, stupid title: "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela." Yeah, I get the lame reference, GUYS, but it's unwieldy. CHANGE It. Just kidding, you can't. You'll have to live with that poor choice for the rest of your lives. Hee-hee!
This episode was pretty funny, although the plot was a little stupid and I didn't find the "V-GINY" thing as laugh-out-loud hilarious as the writers were making it seem. Basically, there's some Death Sphere that's bent on destroying planets, and Earth is in its path. Nixon (who sounded a little different, or was that just me?) assigns Zapp Brannigan, one of my favorite characters, to stop "V-GINY," and since he's your eternal bachelor he wanted Leela to join him so he could get some alone time with her.
| Futurama | Thursdays 10pm / 9c | |||
| V-GINY | ||||
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At the beginning of each Act, there were these dream sequences that were modeled after old radio shows (albeit with images, of course) that were basically Zapp's dreams. They were a nice touch. I liked how low-budget they looked; Leela was played by some girl who two-eyes wearing one giant eye, but you could clearly see her real eyes under the mask.
The best part of the episode is one that I unfortunately can't find a clip of, so you should watch the episode for it. It was a really long gag between Leela and Zapp where Leela uncovers all of Zapp's lies about what's actually happened (the title comes from the fact that Leela thinks they've crashed on this Eden-like planet where they find out that they're the only humans left and have to become like Adam and Eve). It goes on for nearly five minutes, but Zapp's face just kills it. It wasn't the most original joke, but the voice acting and the animation made it hilarious (also the fact that it went on and on and on).
One criticism of this episode was the ending, which was awkward and uncomfortable and kind of out of character. Won't spoil it, but those of you who saw it know what I mean, I hope. I also didn't care much for the B-plot, which had all the other characters becoming this FCC-like group that tried to stop "our planet's indecency" in an attempt to prevent V-GINY from destroying us all. Sometimes the writers forget that the show takes place in the 22nd Century, it seems. While they're obviously free to envision it however they want, there were some questionable parts in this episode.
While I liked "Rebirth" better, Episode-With-Unwieldy-Title was also pretty funny. 3 and a half Cringing Zapp Brannigans out of 5.
Here's a trailer for the new season of Futurama, Thursdays at 10PM on Comedy Central:
I missed Rebirth and most of that second episode! Like, at 9:45, I was like, "Oh, Futurama's on in fifteen minutes." And then I went to go do something, and I looked at the clock again, and it was 10:40.
ReplyDeleteSo strange.
That sucks. They'll probably show them again, so you should try to catch them if you can (OH HO HO LIKE TOM HANKS HEE HEE). Did you see that part with Zapp cringing at the end of the second episode at least?
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