Good? Bad?
My short two cents is I think this was very close to classic Futurama, and worlds better than last season.
I thought it stunk. Boring and uninspired. One of the worst episodes of the season.
Joe
Mostly very good to great with a few episodes that were so-so. I really can’t complain.
Highlights:
The Silence of the Clamps
Benderama
The Tip of the Zoidberg
Cold Warriors
Overclockwise
Reincarnation
That’s 6 out of 13 that I’d consider “great”, with most others being very good as well.
Just outstanding.
The finally was better than I expected. The black and white cartoon had me laughing the whole way through. The video game one was good, and the anime style was OK (I got the jokes and the references, but I didn’t see why any of them are funny).
Overall, the season was just as good as ever. I think some people look back on the original run with nostalgia-colored glasses, and so no new season will ever be as good. I thought the new season was on par with the past episodes. There were a few that could make a top-ten list of the best episodes, and there were a few that could be on the worst episode list.
I am happy with the way this show is turning out, and I look forward to ACV7 (season 7 or seasons 9 and 10, depending on how you count them). I hope to see Anthology of Interest III, an episode about Morbo’s species, and whatever else the writers can come up with.
Of the episodes listed upthread, I think I liked Cold Warriors best. It had a relatively simple premise, which I think works best with a half-hour television show. The greatly-entangled, rushed episodes don’t do it for me.
Heh. I had just watched Outbreak earlier that day and was giggling at some of the references back to that and other similar movies. My favorite bit:
Bender shifting quickly from chuckling at his immunity to human virus to moaning “Why God why?” when he found that he’d have to nurse everybody else.
It was funny because each segment of the show hinged on the exact limitation of the style it was animated in. The black-and-white part of the show brought out a new color in the rainbow, in the pixelated part the Professor revealed the secret of the universe by zooming in to a level of unprecedented magnification and detail, and the last segment had Zoidberg communicating by an intricate dance animated in a style that demonstrates action by drawing one pose and moving it around within the frame.
Brilliant.
It was and a fitting end to the season. Very cleverly done.
My major complaint with the re-vamped Futurama ( not just this season, thinking back to the “eye-phone” episode ), as I’ve mentioned before, is the overuse of cheap n’ easy topical humor. Usually one-liners, but sometimes more intrusively as with the above-mentioned iphoneish-centered episode. Now maybe I really do have rose-colored glasses on, but it seems more common than in “classic” Futurama and it bugs me.
That said, I agree there are enough strong moments and individual episodes for it to be judged an overall success.
Oops. I thought you meant the last episode.
I agree, the season as a whole was pretty good. A few stinkers, but good.
Joe
I think the good episodes were just as good as Futurama’s ever been, but the bad ones were worse than the bad ones of the original run, and there were more of them. There were more than enough good ones to make up for it, but the writing definitely isn’t as consistently great as it was.
I can’t be upset at any season that includes “If you’re not sure if it’s alive or dead, poke it with a stick and lick the stick instead!”
Sure there were some weak episodes, but overall, it was the familiar Futurama: funny, full of pop-culture references, sci-fi concepts, enough science and history fact for the intelligent viewer to enjoy. And the Fry-Leela relationship still works great, no matter how many hashes and re-hashes it goes through.
It was pretty much on par with previous seasons. The three part finale was brilliant. Only thing I missed was some of the continuity/mythology stuff they used to play around with more. And I was disappointed in the random way they addressed Fry and Leela’s relationship. Except for the three episodes that specifically revolved around their relationship, it was like they weren’t dating / had never dated.
I thought that all things considered, it was very strong. Not every episode was great, but the best episodes were as good as anything else they’ve done. And if you count this summer and last summer’s episodes as one season - I know it doesn’t feel that way, but from a technical standpoint, it was all one season - it might be the best season of the show. Of the last couple of episodes I think I liked “Overclockwise” the best.
I actually think the 26 episode production season was front-loaded with mediocre episodes. “Rebirth” was strong, but “In a Gadda Da Leela” was abysmal, and the next few episodes weren’t great, either. (In hindsight, they weren’t that bad, but… a singing boil called Susan? Really???)
The production season as a whole is much more uneven than the last 13 episodes, IMHO.
I enjoyed the new season, even if it wasn’t perfect. The “really dramatic, life-altering stuff happens; then resets to normal in the final minute” type of show was a bit overplayed and stopped being dramatic at some point. The new additions to the character histories definitely feel made up on the spot, rather than planned out all along (like Leela’s origin); the revelation that Zoidberg is over 100 years old still doesn’t feel right to me.
Eh, it was OK. I enjoyed it; it wasn’t life-altering.
Lobot:
C’mon, really? The way Zapp squirmed after each layer of lie was exposed was hilarious, or so I thought.
(But I do agree that the Susan Boyle joke was dumb.)
I think this was also the season of Zoidberg.
Between the episode he had where he battled for being the cutter he also had his orgins episode and lots of attention.
Hey Futurama staff! Put Zoidberg on the cover of the DVD! It’s his time to shine!
Yeah, I agree. This is generally my opinion of every season of Futurama. As fun as it is, I don’t get too hooked up on the details.
I think you mean JOHN. F*CKING. ZOIDBERG!
The whole episode felt really “off” to me. Especially Amy spontaneously initiating an orgy. As weak as the iPhone episode was, the first five minutes felt more like Futurama than any part of “I a Gadda Da Leela”.
Lowlights:
- V-GINY
- Leela and Zapp having sex in front of everyone at the end
- the aforementioned orgy gag
- the invisible jet/joystick gag
Terrible. Just terrible.