5 ms·
While I think this season's not as good as seasons previous, I also think you're being too harsh--and I think the quality of writing is getting better. The Lat
by gecko 16y ago
While I think this season's not as good as seasons previous, I also think you're being too harsh--and I think the quality of writing is getting better.
The Late Philip J. Fry (the time machine one), as you admitted, was hilarious. They worked in references to piles of classic science fiction movies; the show covered time travel, theories of the nature of time and the universe, paradoxes, and predestination; and the writing was tight and funny. So we seem to agree that one was solid.
A Clockwork Origin, two episodes later, pulled together the panspermia hypothesis, the debate between intelligent design and evolution, the singularity, and clear send-ups to Second Variety and Planet of the Apes.
Proposition Infinity was more a political than a science fiction episode (and we had those in the earlier seasons, too--the garbage sphere, the women's planet, etc.), but I thought did a hilarious send-up of Proposition 8, religious responses to homosexuality, San Francisco gay pride parades, and so on.
And while I agree that episodes from this season are in general more vulgar than average from previous Futurama seasons, I also think you're viewing those seasons through rose-colored glasses. The sex in this episode was no more explicit than Fry and Leela in Tales of Interest, Professor Farnsworth's seduction of Mom in Mother's Day, or half a dozen other episodes, and while I thought the third episode of the season (Attack of the Killer App) was disgusting, I don't honestly think it was more disgusting than Fry and the Slurm Factory, where it's revealed that Slurm is slug poop.
Futurama's always mixed highbrow with lowbrow. I agree they've gotten raunchier, and I think it hurts the humor. But I think writing the whole season off as a loss is extremely unfair.
- tptacek 16y agoFry and the Slurm Factory was a brilliant episode; it mashed up Studs McKenzie with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was gross, but in a structurally comical way. Attack of the Killer App was just unfunny, in the same sense as Bill Maher is unfunny compared to Jon Stewart; it's a humor based on superficial recognition of current events, not keen observation.
- tiles 16y agoI feel as though some of the episodes are bizarrely topical, like references to the app store, The Da Vinci Code... all things which would have been topical even a few years ago, when the show was cancelled. My theory is they are lingering, filler ideas they had to get out of the way in order to air brilliant pieces of work like A Clockwork Origin and The Late Philip J. Fry.
- sliverstorm 16y agoNot necessarily filler. Just put in the queue and never removed?
- DannoHung 16y agoThe first couple of episodes in most series are a little weak. I mean, Futurama's already back in pretty good form, especially after the low point that was most of the movies.
- bootload 16y ago"... Futurama's always mixed highbrow with lowbrow. ..." and language is the best bit. Got a Russian mate to translate for me a great Bender quote: "... Поцелуйте (Kiss) мой (my) блестящий (shiny) металлический (metal) зад (ass). ..." ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nothingpersonal/4484582814/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nothingpersonal/4484582814/
- qwzybug 16y agoA Clockwork Origin, two episodes later, pulled together the panspermia hypothesis, the debate between intelligent design and evolution, the singularity, and clear send-ups to Second Variety and Planet of the Apes. Plus, Bender learned how to knit!