Futurama: Volume 6

Futurama is a fairly consistent show, and there have been very few duds in its more-than-a-hundred episodes; you can count on most of its half-hour segments to entertain you with a light barrage of puns, references, humorous wordplay, and well-timed one-liners. Still, every now and again, Futurama hits you with a really memorable fantastic episode that stands head and shoulders above most others, as most long-running episodic TV shows tend to do. Most of my favorite Futurama episodes can be divided into three categories: emotionally powerful stories, genre parodies with fantastic use of science fiction tropes and concepts, and then simply those very funny episodes that keep the laughs coming from end to end. Fans of the show would probably agree with me that the episode about Fry's old dog fits nicely into the first category, for example, and the classic Emmy-winning episode where Fry goes back in time to Roswell and becomes his own grandfather is a great fit for the second. (Mileage may vary on the third type, as comedy is often far more subjectively enjoyed than the emotional material or the genre homage.) There's overlap between these three broad types for sure, and the very greatest episodes make use of them all, but in general they stand as three benchmarks with which to typify the series highlights. I bring all of this up because only once I rationalized this all in my own mind was I able to figure out why I didn't completely love this series of thirteen episodes that aired last summer. I actually think that the thirteen episodes from 2010 that comprise Volume 5 made for the greatest run in the show's long but spaced out history. So why am I left wondering if these last thirteen episodes were one of the weakest stretches? They certainly had their moments, and none registered as "duds" in my book; still, there was an overall lack of what I considered to be truly great episodes in this past season. None of the episodes were bad enough for me to even consider ceasing to watch Futurama, but none will go down in, say, my top fifteen or so of all time. (That's not a list I've actually figured out, by the way, and if I ever do, I'll post about it on some other blog.) I suppose that could be credited to statistical sampling; if a hundred episodes exist, then only one in every six or seven will make a "Top 15" list, and if none were to be found in this season, that only means the season came in at two under the expected value. Still, I've now seen every episode at least twice, and none of them ever left me saying, "that was moving" or "that was really clever" or even "that was hilarious." This wasn't for a lack of trying, either; one episode used Fry flashbacks, just like the aforementioned dog episode, and ended with Fry's father telling him (a thousand-plus years ago) that he loved him. Eh. It just didn't work as well as most of the show's previous attempts to pull heartstrings. In another vein, there was a good Moby-Dick parody that took place in four-dimensional space, but its third act was too bizarre and sloppy to stick the landing for what could have been a classic. Plenty of other episodes were Bender-centric, a pattern I'm beginning to worry about; yes, Bender is a great character, but sometimes it feels as though the writers use him and his carefree selfishness as an anchor for story-telling when his real strength is timely one-liners. Bender is best left as a secondary character, as the best episodes tend to focus on Fry and Leela, yet an increasing number of episodes seem to ask the foul-mouthed robot to carry the brunt of the plot. This only works so well for a limited number of episodes, and I think we've reached that saturation point. Also, there was a serious lack of Zapp Brannigan this season. What gives? Now, if pressed, I'd probably say that my favorite episode of this season was its final one, a three-segment piece with each short story told in different animation styles: old-fashioned black-and-white, 8-bit video game, and anime. It was pretty solid from start to finish, but it was also an episode I'm hesitant to call an "all time great" because of its internal division. All three parts were great, but their sum was nothing more, you know? I suppose I'm just rambling now, so I'll try to end this on a positive note. In spite of the grievances I've aired here, I have to insist that I really did enjoy each and every episode and that I'm very glad Futurama has ben re-un-cancelled for at least two more years of content. I look forward to these twenty-six new episodes and I hope those include enough great episodes to make any "Top 15" list I made today horribly outdated by the fall of 2013.