Farscape Season Three Review (Major Spoilers)

[mattzimmer]

Also reviews for the two-part season finale of Doctor Who, the latest episodes of Futurama and The Boondocks, The first three episodes of the new SyFy series Haven as well as the novel it's based on, The Colorado Kid. Major spoilers contained in the Farscape and Doctor Who reviews behind the cut.

Comments

[dcauyojimbo]

Futurama

Learning about Hermes and Bender's early days and their unlikely connection made for a really great show. Not a tearjerker like Fry's dog but still up there. What next, they're going to tell us Scruffy worked for Mom, too?

The bit at the end with everyone turned into savages without someone doing paperwork was an instant favorite scene of mine so far. The Sith War reenactment reminded me of that Star Trek religion episode years ago.

[mattzimmer]

It WAS a great episode. The return of the show has delivered some clunkers but unlike recent seasons of The Simpsons or Family Guy the show is still able to produce the occasional outstanding episode. This is two in a row! They're on a streak! :D

[stinkingbishop]

Hmm, this is the first not-100%-positive review of the Who finale I've read. I was a bit let down too - I enjoyed it while it was on but it just didn't stick in my mind. Main problem was that it didn't really progress things - it tied up the Rory, wedding and cracks in time plot threads but didn't tell us anything about the characters that we didn't know.

And yeah, Amy imagining the Doctor back into existence was a bit kooky. As was the fact that Rory ended up with the memories of his Auton clone. I think Moffat's going for a blending of reality and imagination which is common in children's fiction (Wizard of Oz, Where the Wild Things Are, Labyrinth) but fudged it a little.

[mattzimmer]

I liked the episode a lot but I didn't think it was as perfect as a lot of Whobies thought it was. Time travel stories always have some fudging of reality or common sense but DW is unique in that it doesn't always try to explain the problems in a way the audience understands. The Doctor understands it and that's enough. You take the rest on faith.

Here it was hard to do that because of all of the things that didn't make sense. I'm not even sure if the Doctor was sure what was going on.

I heard Moffat wanted his version of Who to be closer to a fairy tale than a sci-fi show so I think your assessment of it being like different fantasies is spot-on.

[90scartoonman]

I liked the emotional impact of Hermes saving Bender's young life and losing his job as a result(and Bender, although losing respect for Inspector 5, gaining it for Hermes), although in terms of emotional musical piece over-flashback end, it doesn't compare to "Jurassic Bark" or "Leela's Homeworld", both of which made me cry.

[mattzimmer]

I don't think it was trying to though. It's main purpose was to help us gain sympathy for Bender who is a character I normally find despicable. On that level it succeeded brilliantly.

[90scartoonman]

True, it's just with the music set to clips at the end that made me think of the other times they've done that.

[mattzimmer]

I think it's good that they are starting to use musical monstages for something other that breaking your heart. It's a really effective storytelling device and other shows have proven it can do a lot of other things too, including completely wrapping up a story relatively quickly.