I myself wasn’t watching the new episodes while they aired on live t.v. with commercials. I’m just no good at scheduling myself to be on the couch at any mandated time . . . and besides, it was getting to be something to look forward to at Christmas to buy the DVD set of the previous summer’s season and watch all the episodes fresh for the first time. An enjoyable experience for me, but it didn’t really incentivize Comedy Central. The linked article details the steady decline in viewership.
Well, we’ve got one more “half season” to look forward to.
I know a lot of folks here liked them just fine but the movie/episodes and new episodes didn’t grab me the same way the original run did. Family Guy was the same way: liked the original run, never got back into the return stint.
I don’t think the new episodes have hit the highs of the old episodes (space bees, Fry’s dog), but they have on average actually been quite a bit better than the old ones. I’ll be sad to see the show go.
I agree… more consistent, but not as variable either. No “Luck of the Fryrish”, but little in the way of “The Route of All Evil” either.
I’ll be sad to see it go, but since it’s been on in fits and spurts since what… 2003, and even when it was on Fox, it wasn’t aired very consistently, it’s not really like losing a show that’s been on continuously for 5 seasons straight.
The problem I had with the most recent seasons was that they seemed to have more pop culture references that felt instantly dated (e.g. Susan Boyle, iPod commercials).
They should have stuck with classic references (e.g. “Sanford and Son”, Nagel posters).
I don’t know why it is, but the negatives from the most recent episodes are quick to jump to mind at first thought- and I include myself in this. “Attack of the Killer App”, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela”, “Neutopia”, “That Darn Katz!”- these are the first episodes to spring to mind when I think of recent Futurama.
Taking time to consider more thoughtfully, I recognize a lot of grade A and grade A+ episodes. Why aren’t those the first to spring to mind? I don’t know, but there are plenty of them.
Grade A or A+ from summer 2010/2011 (Production Season 6):[ul]
[li]“The Duh-Vinci Code”[/li][li]“Lethal Inspection”[/li][li]“The Late Philip J. Fry” A+[/li][li]“The Prisoner of Benda” A+[/li][li]“Möbius Dick” A+[/li][li]“Law and Oracle”[/li][li]“All the Presidents’ Heads”[/li][li]“Cold Warriors”[/li][li]“Overclockwise” A+[/li][li]“Reincarnation”[/li][/ul]
That’s a solid 10 (about 40% of the 26 episodes), and the majority of the other episodes are strong B’s. Even the “bad” episodes are mostly C’s as it is, no real stinkers. The Susan Boyle boil in “Attack of the Killer App” is really the only thing that really disappoints me to any considerable degree.
Summer 2012, first half of Production Season 7, I haven’t done much repeat viewing yet. Just glancing over the episode titles, the ones that stand out to me are:
[ul]
[li]“The Thief of Baghead”[/li][li]“Fun on a Bun” A+[/li][li]“Free Will Hunting”[/li][li]“Near-Death Wish”[/li][/ul]
I’ll have to rewatch that half-season, though. A couple months ago I started watching all episodes in order starting with Season 1. I’ve just now gotten through the four movies. Prior to beginning this viewing spree, I had only seen each summer 2012 episode once or twice so my memories of those episodes are diluted from all the other recent viewing.
Still, there’s clearly a lot of excellent Futurama to come out in the past few years. Again, I myself admit to having the lesser episodes spring to mind first- and I don’t know why that is.
Something tells me that next season is going to be the last for American Dad, which will open up a spot on Fox’s Sunday schedule (Murder Police is already filling the spot for what is presumed to be the end of The Cleveland Show, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they keep airing new TCS episodes through December (especially as there are only really six Sundays on which they could be aired between the start of the season and the end of December) and then start Murder Police in January); maybe Cohen can have something ready by then.
Then again, considering the difference between what Fox will let them get away with and what Comedy Central or Adult Swim will let them get away with, I wouldn’t be surprised if anything new isn’t targeted for Fox.
I’m not too disappointed. I love Futurama and always will, but…it had its time to shine. The new episodes have felt a little dated, a little forced, and a wee bit square.
When Futurama was first cancelled, there was nothing close to its quality level to turn to. Now, there’s other shows pushing the boundaries for cutting edge humor and animated storytelling. I don’t need Futurama to pump its particular well dry.
This sums it up perfectly. The first four (or Five, depending how you count them) seasons were outstanding. The movies were bad to average. The latter seasons had some high-points but overall just didn’t click the way the original ones did.
I figure it was the move away from a more ‘family friendly’ time slot/channel which allowed more ‘adult’ humor but also meant that they didn’t have to be as clever in writing a lot of the jokes.
