Official Futurama Season 6 Thread

[TheVoxyn]

Halfway the third episode now, I like it so far.

[skydivingninja]

Good episode.  Loved the apple parody/satire.

[RobD]

Good episode. I more comfortable in the knowledge that they're going to do as good as ever

[orcus116]

Good episode.  Loved the apple parody/satire.

Really? Because I found it too obvious and that kinda turns it from satire to referential. I mean the thing was called an eyePhone instead of an iPhone. Wow I wonder how long that took to think up. There were some funny character bits but overall the writing seemed kinda juvenile.

[blackngold29]

Good episode.  Loved the apple parody/satire.

Really? Because I found it too obvious and that kinda turns it from satire to referential. I mean the thing was called an eyePhone instead of an iPhone. Wow I wonder how long that took to think up. There were some funny character bits but overall the writing seemed kinda juvenile.

But that was a fitting name because it actually went in their eye. With so many similarities it was obvious they were making fun of Apple anyway, so why not make it similar?

Also, "Susan the Boil" was a genius name.

[orcus116]

Neither of those are clever because they couldn't have taken more than a few seconds to think up. See satire works best when its vague and eludes to its intended target instead of pretty much telling you what its skewering. Like I see a lot of new Family Guy clips where they want to make fun of something but the writers are so unoriginal that instead of poking fun at something they just put the characters in the exact same situation and recreate entire scenes and lines from movies or shows or whatever. That's not funny that's just referencing something and being a lazy writer.

[TL]

So the third episode;
One of the worst episodes they've ever done. I hate Apple and Twitter, I should have loved this episode.
There wasn't any subtelty to be found. The episode started pretty well, but quickly moved into mediocre territory, and crashed and burned when they got to 'Susan Boil'. Seriously, the 'Susan Boil' thing was quite possibly the stupidest bit they've ever done.
There were a few good jokes here and there, but definitely not enough to save it.

[j]

I thought it was pretty funny.  Sure, not perfect, but at least as good as the previous two.

-J

[blackngold29]

Maybe I thought the boil thing was funny because it went over my head, but my sister laughed and had to explain it.

[ReaPsTA]

I liked it. Some good character moments and funny moments. The Apple Satire was a bit on the nose, but the larger ideas of what the internet does to humanity were pretty interesting.

[ariich]

When has Futurama ever been subtle in its humour?

[ariich]

Saw episode 3 today, loved it. Subtle as a brick, but Futurama have always done stuff like that (the garbage episode from series 1 springs to mind). A lot of really funny stuff though.

[robwebster]

So the third episode;
One of the worst episodes they've ever done. I hate Apple and Twitter, I should have loved this episode.
There wasn't any subtelty to be found. The episode started pretty well, but quickly moved into mediocre territory, and crashed and burned when they got to 'Susan Boil'. Seriously, the 'Susan Boil' thing was quite possibly the stupidest bit they've ever done.
There were a few good jokes here and there, but definitely not enough to save it.

I agree with this, a bit.

God. I hate to be that bastard on the internet who goes around moaning. But one of my favourite things about Futurama is that it's funny but it also treats its characters with respect, rather than just using them as something to frame silly jokes with. You feel like there's a story arching across it, rather than an array of jibes.

Leela having a singing boil on her arse made no sense, had never been alluded to before, will (hopefully) never be alluded to again, and just came out of nowhere as an excuse to make a gag about a singer who's already basically been forgotten. They were just playing the Rule of Funny, rather than abiding by any continuity. And in fairness it was a funny episode! Loved the goat. But they're usually a bit more respectful to their characters.

Futurama's USP is that it's a bit character-based. This was gag-based.

Tell you what? Best term for it. Big Lipped Alligator Moment.

I seriously stood back and went "whoa, what the fuck?" And expected the whole episode to be explained as a dream sequence.

I suppose it just wasn't clever enough for Futurama. In my books. Maybe I'm holding it to a bizarre standard. But they've parodied Charlie & the Chocolate Factory fairly directly and I didn't have a problem with it. Heck, one of the best episodes. This one just felt... kind of dirty. Like they were more interested in just shoehorning in some shit about iPhones or god knows what.

So yeah. Found it funny, but did not like it as an episode of Futurama. Really hope this is the low point for the series and it's all back on track after this, 'cause I really dug the first two episodes.

[skydivingninja]

Leela having a singing boil on her arse made no sense, had never been alluded to before, will (hopefully) never be alluded to again, and just came out of nowhere as an excuse to make a gag about a singer who's already basically been forgotten. They were just playing the Rule of Funny, rather than abiding by any continuity. And in fairness it was a funny episode! Loved the goat. But they're usually a bit more respectful to their characters.

Yeah, I wasn't fond of this bit of the episode, since Futurama is based more on continuity than anything, but overall it was pretty good.

Though I am confused on whether Leela/Fry are an item or not in this season.  They kiss and stuff in the first two episodes, but in the third one Leela just calls him "a good friend."  I'm confused.

[robwebster]

Leela having a singing boil on her arse made no sense, had never been alluded to before, will (hopefully) never be alluded to again, and just came out of nowhere as an excuse to make a gag about a singer who's already basically been forgotten. They were just playing the Rule of Funny, rather than abiding by any continuity. And in fairness it was a funny episode! Loved the goat. But they're usually a bit more respectful to their characters.

Yeah, I wasn't fond of this bit of the episode, since Futurama is based more on continuity than anything, but overall it was pretty good.

Aye. Family Guy, say, is essentially just an array of dumb laughs, with no continuity but it's heaps of fun. But the same scene on Futurama, and I just went "Really? Leela's always had an outdated cultural reference on her buttocks?"

If they never refer to it again, I'll just write the episode out of continuity in my head. If they do refer to it again, they'll need to do some pretty fucking good 'splaining.

Though I am confused on whether Leela/Fry are an item or not in this season.  They kiss and stuff in the first two episodes, but in the third one Leela just calls him "a good friend."  I'm confused.

No idea! I'm wondering if the writing process has changed somewhat. Or if they're being broadcast out of production order.

[skydivingninja]

Well, there are a bunch of new writers, aren't there?

[orcus116]

Absolutely. There is no way the same writers stuck around after all those years. That's why the writing in Family Guy is noticeably different from Seasons 1 and 2, Season 3, and then the rest of the seasons.

[ariich]

Not sure about the 2nd and 3rd ep, but the first was definitely original writers.

I'm also fairly bemused by how offended you guys are by the continuity. For a start, Futurama has continuity errors and inconsistencies all over the place. Plus, Leela refers to the fact that most of the time Susan Boil is subdued by being popped, plus she makes no references to how long it has been there. I agree that it was by far the weakest joke/reference in the episode, but attacking it for continuity reasons seems a bit bizarre.

[orcus116]

I'm with rob, why even bring it up if only to make a dumb joke? The "oh I pop it every few months" thing reeks of an explanation that took them 3 seconds to think up.

[j]

I agree that it was by far the weakest joke/reference in the episode

Me too.  It was very forced and Family Guy-esque.

-J

[robwebster]

Not sure about the 2nd and 3rd ep, but the first was definitely original writers.

I'm also fairly bemused by how offended you guys are by the continuity. For a start, Futurama has continuity errors and inconsistencies all over the place. Plus, Leela refers to the fact that most of the time Susan Boil is subdued by being popped, plus she makes no references to how long it has been there. I agree that it was by far the weakest joke/reference in the episode, but attacking it for continuity reasons seems a bit bizarre.

I'd say that it at least makes pretences of having an overarching story. For me, I thought it was dumb, forced, and completely out of sync with Futurama's general character. The episode was already a bit "on the nose" compared to usual, but that was the point where I went "right, my disbelief is properly suspended."

But hey! Some people liked it, others didn't. It's pretty hard to get me to go all Comic Book Guy - I'm fairly optimistic as a general rule, and love to focus on what's good about things instead of things I really didn't like - but this week I just went "What."

[ogrejedi]

Before last week the worst episode of Futurama was "Bender Shouldn't Be Allowed On TV," but the newest episode managed to be worse by an order of magnitude. I hope Futurama doesn't go the way of Family Guy and lose all of the things that originally made it good.

[robwebster]

See, I still really like Family Guy. It's basically just a slew of cheap, horrifically unethical laughs, strung together fairly loosely by a weak plot, with characters who cross the event horizon every five minutes. Maybe it's 'cause I didn't follow it from the start, but I see that basically every time I see a Family Guy episode, and it completely appeals to my inner pre-teen and makes me laugh like a dick for 20 minutes. Actually, I find the earlier ones slightly less funny, if anything.

But Futurama... it's my favourite 'cause it's cleverer than all that. Hopefully that last episode was a blip. They've earned a lot of goodwill, it's the cleverest animated comedy on the box, and it's actually got a fair bit of heart, too. I'll be waiting with baited breath, but I reckon it'll be the exception rather than the rule. Fingers crossed. Heck, the boil crapshoot of a plot point was the exception even in the context of that episode, which was a bit too "new-simpsons" on the nose but still really funny. Enjoyed the previous two, too.

My guess is that it's just finding its feet again. I figure stuff's been shaken up a little bit what with the move to Comedy Central and the lack of regular normal-length episodes in x number of years, so they're probably a bit rusty. And probably trying to experiment a little, too.

[ReaPsTA]

Saw the most recent episode.

Actually felt very South Park in the way it handled the political satire. I wouldn't say they have quite the same touch, but they still did pretty well. Bender's speech at the debate was awesome.

Also a funny episode. "If Robosexual marriage becomes legal, imagine the horrible things that will happen to our children. Then imagine we said those things, since we couldn't think of any. As a mother, those things worry me."

I do like the DVD movies, but now that they're back to half-hours the tone and rhythm of the show is much closer to what I liked about it.

[ariich]

I do like the DVD movies, but now that they're back to half-hours the tone and rhythm of the show is much closer to what I liked about it.

Completely agree with that. The second ep was slightly weaker, but that's ok, I don't expect every episode to be great, but it's nice to see that they're obviously a bit more comfortable at the 22 minute episodes than trying to drag a story out for longer.

[robwebster]

Just caught the latest one. Both hilarious and squicky. Ace.

[TheVoxyn]

I enjoyed the latest ep.

[skydivingninja]

Not the best episode, but still very good. 

[ReaPsTA]

By the way, because people were talking about the writers:

Episode 1 - Teleplay by: David X. Cohen, Story by: David X. Cohen & Matt Groening
Episode 2 - Teleplay by: Carolyn Premish, Story by: Carolyn Premish & Matt Groening
Episode 3 - Patric M. Verrone
Episode 4 - Michael Rowe

Except for episode two, all the episodes so far have been handled by original writers.

[skydivingninja]

Yay!

[ariich]

Except for episode two, all the episodes so far have been handled by original writers.

Yeah I noticed that a couple of days ago on Wikipedia. Episode 2 was weaker than the others, but for a first episode it wasn't bad, had some pretty funny stuff in it.

[ReaPsTA]

Except for episode two, all the episodes so far have been handled by original writers.

Yeah I noticed that a couple of days ago on Wikipedia. Episode 2 was weaker than the others, but for a first episode it wasn't bad, had some pretty funny stuff in it.

The story just flat-out sucked. The only reason Brannigan's reveal was remotely shocking was because you couldn't believe the writers would go for something so obvious. And then Leela being forced to bone him felt like Groening saying "Aha! See! Fry and Leela shouldn't be together!" Subdue it a bit, I get it. But remember how episode three then did something really interesting with the characters that would have been more interesting without episode two!? Ugh.

[blackngold29]

Hermes: After the lights go out it's nobody's business what happens between two consenting adults.


Zoidberg: Or One!

[Genowyn]

My only problem with this episode was that it was inconsistent with a previous episode. Every person on the Planet Express crew was opposed to Fry have a robosexual relationship with the Lucy Liu robot, and Bender explicitly said he was disgusted by it. So why are they all okay with it now?

[blackngold29]

My only problem with this episode was that it was inconsistent with a previous episode. Every person on the Planet Express crew was opposed to Fry have a robosexual relationship with the Lucy Liu robot, and Bender explicitly said he was disgusted by it. So why are they all okay with it now?

Would it make a difference that he was in love with Lucy Liu and not really the robot itself? I don't know.