Futurama: Volume 6 Review (Spoilers)
Upcoming reviews on this journal include The California Raisins Collection, Shaun The Sheep: Season 2, Cars 2, The Lion King, Green Lantern, Smallville: Season 4, Smallville: Season 5, Smallville: Season 6, The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume Two: The War Years, and The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Volume Three: The Years Of Change.
Futurama: Volume 6
Futurama Volume 6 is a bit of a disappointment. While it isn't exactly bad by any means, it definitely isn't as good as Volume 5. There aren't as many outright excellent episodes. I think part of the problem is the way the series treats Fry and Leela's relationship. They are supposedly together, and then they aren't. It's just a mess and it seems as if the creators want to have it both ways without explaining themselves. The episode Overclockwise fixed a lot of these mistakes but I don't trust the show not to just pull the same stuff when it comes back.
The episodes are also a little bit too Bender heavy. I've made my disdain for the character known in earlier reviews but I've never been as crazy about him as the writers think I should be. To be fair, the Bender episodes here are actually better than most previous ones but I much prefer episodes centered around Fry.
The best thing the Volume/Season does is give Dr. Zoidberg, perhaps the most put-upon cartoon character next to Meg Griffin, a few Crowning Moments Of Awesome and finally treats the character with a measure of dignity. It was a long time coming and I'm glad the series finally stopped making him a TOTAL punching bag.
Best episodes are the great Zoidberg spotlight (The Tip Of The Zoidberg), the Bender episode that was REALLY about Fry and Leela (Overclockwise), and the neat Anthology of Interest type finale with different styles of animation (Reincarnation). Worst episodes are the boring Mobius Dick, the lame Ghost In The Machines, and the so-so Fry Am The Egg Man. Season Overall: ***1/2.
The Silence Of The Clamps: I liked this better upon seeing it again. I HATED this over the air because I was afraid Fox was trying to turn Futurama into Family Guy and would market the next DVD set as "Uncensored!". But the bleeps stayed where they belonged and they explained on the commentary that whenever they do the rare bleep they save the master tape where nobody can hear it. The episode was pretty funny too and this FINALLY gave Dr. Zoidberg his very first Crowning Moment Of Awesome. ***1/2.
Mobius Dick: Dull. The flashbacks were fun though and I loved the bits of Zoidberg growing and losing hair and the implication at the end that he was gonna get lucky. **1/2.
Law And Oracle: I like the tack the episode took of HOW Fry tricked the Oracle at the end. I think PERHAPS the Oracle should have KNOWN that the vision of Bender sharing something would be untrue to anyone who knew him, but I think that was pretty much the only scenario that could have tipped Fry off and led to the Oracle being outwitted. A good episode. ****.
Bendererama: I think the little Benders were kind of cute and this episode had quite a few laughs. I wasn't too crazy about the ugly giant though. That seemed like an incredibly cruel sideplot and his demise was supremely unfair. ***.
The Tip Of The Zoidberg: Of COURSE there had to be a reason why the Professor keeps Zoidberg around, despite the fact that he's a lousy doctor on humans AND the fact that a delivery company doesn't even NEED a doctor. The flashbacks were cool and I like the implied history between Zoidberg and Mom. And yes, Farnsworth DOES like Zoidberg even if no-one else doesn't. And The Murderlator? Best. Death trap. EVER. That's how I want to die now. *****.
Ghost In The Machines: The good: Dan Castellaneta as the Robot Devil. The bad: everything else. It's not terrible but it's another one of those Bender episodes that makes me wind up loathing him throughout. Fry having sex with someone else infuriated me too. **.
Neutopia: Kind of stupid and VERY gross although the REALLY gross jokes were worth some cheap laughs. Too much fanservice at the beginning though. And the only character who looked good a different gender was Fry. ***.
Yo Leela Leela: I was sort of hating Leela throughout until they made the brilliant double-twist of not only there being a super happy ending for all involved, but having that REALLY be upsetting to her. I loved the little aliens and the best gag was the crew in costumes telling kids what was and wasn't okay to lick. I wish I had gotten that message younger. ***1/2.
Fry Am The Egg Man: This REALLY cheesed me off on the Fry and Leela front and the rest of the episode wasn't much better. *1/2.
All The President's Head: Decent. I like that we sort of got a non-explanation explanation of how the heads in the jars stay alive. And I loved the Lars callback. By the way, the Futurama cast can do flawless Scottish accents. So why are all of their British ones so terrible? ***.
Cold Warriors: If Zoidberg should have been fired ages ago, Bender most certainly should have been fired before he was. Dude is a complete menace even if inadvertently. I loved the flashbacks with Fry and his Dad and appreciated that they ended the episode with a genuine heartwarming moment between the two. Bender wasn't there back then to destroy everything. ***1/2.
Overclockwise: I don't like where the series took Fry and Leela this season but at least this episode addressed it. And it did so in a very cool manner. I liked the plot of Bender evolving into a super-being and the falling ceiling fan running gag (especially when he tricked Zoidberg into walking under one at the end). A pretty great episode. ****1/2.
Reincarnation: Kind of funky and cool. I don't think the black and white cartoon was entirely successful. The animation was both not smooth enough and too polished which is weird. It needed some film grain. The videogame and anime segments fared better ESPECIALLY the videogame one which used a WHOLE bunch of classic arcade styles. And the episode was big enough to be introduced by the God Computer. ****.
Deleted Scenes:
Most of the deleted scenes were in animatic form this year. Overall: ***1/2.
Ion Storm: Sort of funny. ***.
Robo-Scurvy: Sillyness. ***.
Cat O' No Tails: Eh. **.
O-Bocop: An Irish Robocop. An animatic. ****.
Cynthia Cutler: So-so Leela joke. **1/2.
Disappearing Booze: This was awesome and showed how the Benders consumed all of the world's alchohol. ****1/2.
Water Into Wine: Another animatic, this one showing the Benders turning the world's water supply into booze. The jokes about all of the world's famous seas and lakes changing their names to booze related puns was awesome and the joke of the Benders consuming the Planet Express ship and then everyone's clothes was funny too. *****.
Spitting Dimes: Great animatic Mom scene. ****.
Orient Express: "Up yours, Agatha Christie!" ****.
House Hunting: The Wongs are probably my least favorite recurring Futurama characters. This scene doesn't help. **1/2.
We Made Love: Funny, but nasty. ***1/2.
My Relationship With The Boob: Funny but had I seen this in the episode it would have made me mad. ***1/2.
One Last Question: All right. **1/2.
Original Ending: To "Yo Leela Leela". Absolutely terrible. Matt Groening was totally right to nix it. *.
Not Enough Meat: SO funny. Can't believe they cut the 24 hour vomitorium and the reason why that worried Leela. *****.
Fry's Pimples: Wait, so is Bender great, or not? ***.
Ice Shanty: Jawas! ***.
President On Line One: Zapp Brannigan scene. ***.
High Fives: Alternate take from Overclockwise. ***1/2.
That's Him, Officers!: Extra Mom scene. ***1/2.
Hacking: VERY tasteless. A wise cut. ***.
Time Stands Still: Another Hermes pot joke. ***1/2.
While My HoloPhonor Gently Weeps: Aww. They were gonna have Fry play his holophonor! It looks like he's gotten pretty good at it too. ****1/2.
Hypno-Frogger: Should have been in the episode. Seriously. I was wondering where the Frogger parody was and with a character like Hypno-Toad already existing on the show it was a no-brainer. *****.
Professor Farnsworth's "Science Of A Scene": Cool documentary narrated by Professor Farnsworth about a scene from Overclockwise. ****.
Reincarnation Explained! With Director Peter Avanzino: My favorite segment was the arcade one. I liked this featurette. ****.
Futurama F.A.Q. (Frequently Axed Questions): Hilarious. Matt Groening appears to have put on quite a bit of weight but I'm not one to talk. Best question was the one about Carl Reiner and Morey Amsterdam. Runner-up goes to whether or not the audience will ever see Bender firing orphans from his chest like the "Care Bear Stare". *****.
Blu-Ray Menus: Scenes from all of the episodes in those future traveling tubes. There is different music and scenes on each disc. Both: ****1/2.
Disc 1 Blu-Ray Menu: With scenes from the first seven episodes. ****1/2.
Disc 2 Blu-Ray Menu: With scenes from the last six episodes. ****1/2.
Futurama: Volume 6
Futurama Volume 6 is a bit of a disappointment. While it isn't exactly bad by any means, it definitely isn't as good as Volume 5. There aren't as many outright excellent episodes. I think part of the problem is the way the series treats Fry and Leela's relationship. They are supposedly together, and then they aren't. It's just a mess and it seems as if the creators want to have it both ways without explaining themselves. The episode Overclockwise fixed a lot of these mistakes but I don't trust the show not to just pull the same stuff when it comes back.
The episodes are also a little bit too Bender heavy. I've made my disdain for the character known in earlier reviews but I've never been as crazy about him as the writers think I should be. To be fair, the Bender episodes here are actually better than most previous ones but I much prefer episodes centered around Fry.
The best thing the Volume/Season does is give Dr. Zoidberg, perhaps the most put-upon cartoon character next to Meg Griffin, a few Crowning Moments Of Awesome and finally treats the character with a measure of dignity. It was a long time coming and I'm glad the series finally stopped making him a TOTAL punching bag.
Best episodes are the great Zoidberg spotlight (The Tip Of The Zoidberg), the Bender episode that was REALLY about Fry and Leela (Overclockwise), and the neat Anthology of Interest type finale with different styles of animation (Reincarnation). Worst episodes are the boring Mobius Dick, the lame Ghost In The Machines, and the so-so Fry Am The Egg Man. Season Overall: ***1/2.
The Silence Of The Clamps: I liked this better upon seeing it again. I HATED this over the air because I was afraid Fox was trying to turn Futurama into Family Guy and would market the next DVD set as "Uncensored!". But the bleeps stayed where they belonged and they explained on the commentary that whenever they do the rare bleep they save the master tape where nobody can hear it. The episode was pretty funny too and this FINALLY gave Dr. Zoidberg his very first Crowning Moment Of Awesome. ***1/2.
Mobius Dick: Dull. The flashbacks were fun though and I loved the bits of Zoidberg growing and losing hair and the implication at the end that he was gonna get lucky. **1/2.
Law And Oracle: I like the tack the episode took of HOW Fry tricked the Oracle at the end. I think PERHAPS the Oracle should have KNOWN that the vision of Bender sharing something would be untrue to anyone who knew him, but I think that was pretty much the only scenario that could have tipped Fry off and led to the Oracle being outwitted. A good episode. ****.
Bendererama: I think the little Benders were kind of cute and this episode had quite a few laughs. I wasn't too crazy about the ugly giant though. That seemed like an incredibly cruel sideplot and his demise was supremely unfair. ***.
The Tip Of The Zoidberg: Of COURSE there had to be a reason why the Professor keeps Zoidberg around, despite the fact that he's a lousy doctor on humans AND the fact that a delivery company doesn't even NEED a doctor. The flashbacks were cool and I like the implied history between Zoidberg and Mom. And yes, Farnsworth DOES like Zoidberg even if no-one else doesn't. And The Murderlator? Best. Death trap. EVER. That's how I want to die now. *****.
Ghost In The Machines: The good: Dan Castellaneta as the Robot Devil. The bad: everything else. It's not terrible but it's another one of those Bender episodes that makes me wind up loathing him throughout. Fry having sex with someone else infuriated me too. **.
Neutopia: Kind of stupid and VERY gross although the REALLY gross jokes were worth some cheap laughs. Too much fanservice at the beginning though. And the only character who looked good a different gender was Fry. ***.
Yo Leela Leela: I was sort of hating Leela throughout until they made the brilliant double-twist of not only there being a super happy ending for all involved, but having that REALLY be upsetting to her. I loved the little aliens and the best gag was the crew in costumes telling kids what was and wasn't okay to lick. I wish I had gotten that message younger. ***1/2.
Fry Am The Egg Man: This REALLY cheesed me off on the Fry and Leela front and the rest of the episode wasn't much better. *1/2.
All The President's Head: Decent. I like that we sort of got a non-explanation explanation of how the heads in the jars stay alive. And I loved the Lars callback. By the way, the Futurama cast can do flawless Scottish accents. So why are all of their British ones so terrible? ***.
Cold Warriors: If Zoidberg should have been fired ages ago, Bender most certainly should have been fired before he was. Dude is a complete menace even if inadvertently. I loved the flashbacks with Fry and his Dad and appreciated that they ended the episode with a genuine heartwarming moment between the two. Bender wasn't there back then to destroy everything. ***1/2.
Overclockwise: I don't like where the series took Fry and Leela this season but at least this episode addressed it. And it did so in a very cool manner. I liked the plot of Bender evolving into a super-being and the falling ceiling fan running gag (especially when he tricked Zoidberg into walking under one at the end). A pretty great episode. ****1/2.
Reincarnation: Kind of funky and cool. I don't think the black and white cartoon was entirely successful. The animation was both not smooth enough and too polished which is weird. It needed some film grain. The videogame and anime segments fared better ESPECIALLY the videogame one which used a WHOLE bunch of classic arcade styles. And the episode was big enough to be introduced by the God Computer. ****.
Deleted Scenes:
Most of the deleted scenes were in animatic form this year. Overall: ***1/2.
Ion Storm: Sort of funny. ***.
Robo-Scurvy: Sillyness. ***.
Cat O' No Tails: Eh. **.
O-Bocop: An Irish Robocop. An animatic. ****.
Cynthia Cutler: So-so Leela joke. **1/2.
Disappearing Booze: This was awesome and showed how the Benders consumed all of the world's alchohol. ****1/2.
Water Into Wine: Another animatic, this one showing the Benders turning the world's water supply into booze. The jokes about all of the world's famous seas and lakes changing their names to booze related puns was awesome and the joke of the Benders consuming the Planet Express ship and then everyone's clothes was funny too. *****.
Spitting Dimes: Great animatic Mom scene. ****.
Orient Express: "Up yours, Agatha Christie!" ****.
House Hunting: The Wongs are probably my least favorite recurring Futurama characters. This scene doesn't help. **1/2.
We Made Love: Funny, but nasty. ***1/2.
My Relationship With The Boob: Funny but had I seen this in the episode it would have made me mad. ***1/2.
One Last Question: All right. **1/2.
Original Ending: To "Yo Leela Leela". Absolutely terrible. Matt Groening was totally right to nix it. *.
Not Enough Meat: SO funny. Can't believe they cut the 24 hour vomitorium and the reason why that worried Leela. *****.
Fry's Pimples: Wait, so is Bender great, or not? ***.
Ice Shanty: Jawas! ***.
President On Line One: Zapp Brannigan scene. ***.
High Fives: Alternate take from Overclockwise. ***1/2.
That's Him, Officers!: Extra Mom scene. ***1/2.
Hacking: VERY tasteless. A wise cut. ***.
Time Stands Still: Another Hermes pot joke. ***1/2.
While My HoloPhonor Gently Weeps: Aww. They were gonna have Fry play his holophonor! It looks like he's gotten pretty good at it too. ****1/2.
Hypno-Frogger: Should have been in the episode. Seriously. I was wondering where the Frogger parody was and with a character like Hypno-Toad already existing on the show it was a no-brainer. *****.
Professor Farnsworth's "Science Of A Scene": Cool documentary narrated by Professor Farnsworth about a scene from Overclockwise. ****.
Reincarnation Explained! With Director Peter Avanzino: My favorite segment was the arcade one. I liked this featurette. ****.
Futurama F.A.Q. (Frequently Axed Questions): Hilarious. Matt Groening appears to have put on quite a bit of weight but I'm not one to talk. Best question was the one about Carl Reiner and Morey Amsterdam. Runner-up goes to whether or not the audience will ever see Bender firing orphans from his chest like the "Care Bear Stare". *****.
Blu-Ray Menus: Scenes from all of the episodes in those future traveling tubes. There is different music and scenes on each disc. Both: ****1/2.
Disc 1 Blu-Ray Menu: With scenes from the first seven episodes. ****1/2.
Disc 2 Blu-Ray Menu: With scenes from the last six episodes. ****1/2.