It was actually unspoken verbal abuse.
I just now found out that Jrrr from “T: The Terrestrial” was the Poppler who saved Leela’s life in “The Problem with Popplers.”
Really really liked the Saturday morning cartoon parody episode.
The details were spot on. The GI Joe credits, almost all of the Scooby Doo stuff, the commercial bumpers on the Smurfs parody. It wasn’t their funniest episode but a lot of love went into it.
No one died in G.I. Joe, if a plane blew up, a parachute always was shown. No one ever got hit by those lasers they fired, all battles devolved into hand-to-hand combat. Basically exactly like the A-Team from the same time period when NO ONE EVER GOT HURT.
Also, apparently, the Purpleberry cartoon was closer to Strawberry Shortcake than the Smurfs, but it was something of a mash-up. So I’m told.
The GI ZAPP segment also had a direct relation to the G.I. Joe movie in the mid-80’s (not the recent ones,) where one of the main characters, Duke, was supposed to die in the original script. But after the bomb that was the Transformers movie, and the reaction to Optimus dying, they threw in some badly dubbed and “off screen” lines that he was merely “in a coma,” and that at the end of the movie, he “was out of the coma.”
There were also several anime cartoons that were badly dubbed along the same lines to make them less violent.
“Rise from the dead in the name of Satan.”
That was straight-up Strawberry Shortcake. Except for the villain’s voice, which was straight from the Smurfs.
I liked this week’s episode a lot. They worked very hard to get through Calculon’s intolerable pomposity and deepen the character and tell a full story with him, and I think they accomplished it. The episodes where they try to give Zapp a little depth always fall flat for me because he is so actively unpleasant and you know it’s going to be futile, but here they gave you a reason to want the character to succeed and hold out the possibility that he could change, which he sort of did and sort of didn’t.
And I wanted to revise my opinion about “The Inhuman Torch” a little bit. I was bothered by the living flame thing because it seemed casually unscientific in a way the show usually isn’t and because I couldn’t figure out the rules for how he was supposed to be starting the fires: he could get in and out of Bender’s body at will, but then sometimes he couldn’t, or maybe he could if there was something flammable around? That felt kind of lazy. But on the other hand the way they used that sort of shaky premise to explore Fry and Bender’s relationship and give Bender a chance to do something really heroic was very good.
So what did everybody think of “Assie, Come Home?” I didn’t think too much of the main story - this felt like the second episode in a month that ended with the “surprise” of Bender doing the right thing - but I liked the crusty lighthouse keeper a lot, and I enjoyed Leela casually glossing over the fact that her gun-breaking scheme killed about 15 people.
“Justice does not work that way!”
It was streaky, but there were some great background visuals - Luke’s Landspeeder trashed and on blocks on the gang planet, Rosie the Jetson’s maid and Power Rangers Alpha 5 were in the robot chop shop, and on the back of the sex shop door was a poster of Ziodberg selling Human Horn, with the slogan “Don’t ask for it by name.”
I admit I laughed at the Miami cruise ship, and at the other things that were in crates in the wreckage. Also always welcome to see Hedonismbot again.
I wasn’t expecting much from the title but I found it really funny. One of he better ones this season.
I loved the gang color references to the old Star Trek racial episode. And I loved the irony of the bent guns. I thought it was kind of silly that the shininess of Bender’s ass could not be easily duplicated, but I guess that was a necessary conceit. Having his parts spread out was a clever story mechanic for revisiting things.
I saw Rosie but I didn’t notice the landspeeder. That’s very clever.
I really liked the robot chop shop. Some of the robots I recognized include:
It looked like C-3PO on the table.
The Iron Giant’s head was hanging on the left.
The stupid robot dog that I hated from the original Battlestar Galactica which is one good reason I never watched that show… (deep breath)… was hanging from the ceiling near the middle.
The second scene included two robots which had a distinct resemblance to Good Robots Bill & Ted.
There were many more that I don’t remember offhand. I suspect that EVERY robot shown in that scene(s) was somebody famous.
I didn’t see him on first view but I’m pretty sure Marvin the Paranoid Android must be there somewhere; darn, now I have to watch it again! Hope they use the BBC version.
I liked this episode a lot, much more than most of the recent few seasons. It had the perfect Futurama blend of humor and a real story with just a touch of (shiny metal robot ass) sentimentality.
Finish this out on a high note, Matt! Please!
Anybody want to admit to crying at the final scene of Game of Tones? I felt the episode was kind of a mess getting to that point though. Nice to have Frank Welker, Nibbler, back for what may have been a series wrap for him. (“I always forget he can talk.”) Just three more left. Now that make me a little misty…
Yeah, it was no Luck of the Fryrish, but the ending was sweet. Interesting that they finally had a Seth MacFarlane cameo.
I had a little dust in my eye there at the end.
No, of course not. That feeling of having a million things I want to say to somebody and knowing I’ll never have the chance doesn’t tear me up at all. Hey, look over there- it’s a diversion!
It really was a great episode, and I thought they picked some great ground to cover in finally addressing Fry’s feelings about leaving his family behind. From the very first episode I loved that his reaction to the future was “wahoo!” even if he was stuck as a delivery boy, but it made sense for them to show a more intimate look at his relationship with his parents before the series ended.
And I thought last night’s episode (“Murder on the Planet Express”) was pretty great too. It was obvious from the beginning that nobody was really going to die, but the premise was a good one they pushed it as far as they could.
So Fry and Bender flat out murdered someone. Did not see that coming. Bender, sure, but not Fry.
My DVR cut out right before the ending - can someone tell me if I missed anything important? Last thing I saw was the reporter saying “In a rare move, police have announced that if it’s a double murder, they’ll offer immunity to” and the recording ended.
Well, it was a very understandable misunderstanding.
They said the authorities are offering a $1 million reward, and that if there just happen to be two murderers, they’ll give full immunity and a $2 million reward to the one who turns the other in. It was a quick Prisoner’s dilemma setup, and the episode ends with Fry and Bender eyeing each other and glancing at the phone in front of them.