TV Reviews: Futurama S06E04

This review won't be very long, but it should be longer than the last one, as I have a little bit more to say about it. I'll be honest, I did not like this episode. The issue brought up is exactly the same as back in season three, episode fifteen, "I Dated a Robot."

The major difference is that while there the message was subtle, the message in this episode is not only pretty much the same thing, the story takes the back seat to it. The episode starts off with Kif breaking up with Amy, because she flirts with bad boys too much. Amy ends up with Bender, there's a whole ruckus caused by their relationship, over an issue that had already been brought up three seasons ago, they fight to legalize "robosexual Marriage," and the episode ends with Amy and Bender breaking up because Bender didn't want to be monogamous. Amy gets back with Kif at the end, thus reestablishing the status quo that I praised Futurama for not really relying on.

Overall it was a poorly written episode, with a few jokes, but a terrible story that serves as nothing but a vehicle for the bandwagon political views that Futurama seems to have adopted. I'm not going to complain about them taking a stance for gay marriage, they're perfectly within their rights to do so. The problem is that this episode was written like a Family Guy episode, where it's all about the shock value, and the story is tertiary.

Fiction can be used to convey a message, but when the message is the important thing, the fiction suffers. The plot is terrible, but what makes it worse is that the characters are twisted to meet the demands of the plot, rather than the plot flowing around the actions of the characters. Heck, the entire Bender/Amy relationship, the entire purpose of this episode, feels horribly awkward because of how out of character it is, especially when Bender actually acts like he really loves her. Of course this all comes to naught as Bender dumps her in true Bender fashion. But that only makes the whole thing feel cheaper. If you're going to undo an entire episode like that, then you might as well not write the episode at all.

The entire thing reeks of hamfisted execution, and badly written social commentary. I can only hope that the episodes don't get any worse than this, and that the creative team remembers what made Futurama superior to it's contemporaries. So far the characters have been ignored, and their overall personal development hasn't seen much light beyond the first episode. I can only hope that the next episode is an improvement, but who knows. I'll be sorely disappointed if the one animated comedy airing on TV that I actually enjoy follows the same path as The Simpsons and Family Guy.

TV Reviews: Futurama S06E03

The fun thing about this episode was that it picked up the pace on the humor from the last two episodes. It also continues working with Futurama's strength, namely likable characters. When Fry posts the embarrassing video of Leela with his eye-phone (which in itself isn't just a throwaway parody of the iPhone, the phone itself is actually installed in the eye) he does so, but is fully aware that what he's done is wrong and feels remorse for it. And yet, he still posted the video. This to me makes the character all that much more human. He's still a looser, and pretty selfish, but in a very human way. As opposed to the almost sociopathic Peter Griffin whose antics only make me hate the character more and more. I don't know why Family Guy thinks that's comedy, but having a raging jackass as your protagonist really, really does not work. It's novel for a little while, but after several seasons you can't help but wonder why people still put up with him.

Futurama, while a little tamer with its jokes, actually creates characters that are sympathetic in several ways, and make the show that much more entertaining. Sure they're all pretty much idiots in one way or another, sure Bender is a selfish jagoff, but when compared to the entire cast of Family Guy he's a very humane character. Despite being a robot.

I know I'm not saying much about what happened in this episode, but I just felt like I had to mention what makes this show worth following. Once again, it's the characters. While selfish, and ridiculously dense at times, the cast of Futurama comes complete with understandable emotions and motivations that don't always center around themselves. This is a little short I know, but I figure that besides this I really didn't have much to say about this episode, other than that it was incredibly entertaining and I had a great time watching it. This new season of Futurama is turning out to be worth the time I spend watching it.

TV Reviews: Futurama Season Six Episodes 1 + 2

I'm a pretty big Futurama fan. I became incredibly bored with Family Guy - the first two seasons are good, irreverent, but incredibly funny - but after that it got worse and worse, until we reach the current seasons where really I can tell the production team have stopped caring. There is no narrative to speak of and the characters are even bigger flaming jerktards than they were to start out. At least early on there were some redeemable qualities, but I can honestly say that the cast of that show is the biggest collection of some of the worst characters ever. And maybe that's what it thrives on. But where it drops the ball is emotional connection. It's all laughs no heart, or soul depending on the episode (read: all of them).

The Simpsons, a contemporary to Family Guy, did right what Family Guy does wrong. Or at least they used to. They had good laughs, ultimately lovable characters, and some pretty clever stories. Unfortunately in the course of their long run the stories have since become as shallow as those of Family Guy.

Futurama on the other hand picks up the ball where its other two contemporaries dropped it. Not only is it outrageously funny, but it actually had characters and a story that I care about. The overarching story is one common to syndicated TV shows, where the connecting threads are the relationships between the characters. Because I actually care about the characters, no matter how outrageously stupid they can be, I am invested in their stories.

Which is why I was furious when I heard the series was canceled with season five. I enjoyed the movies, with the exception of the second one which seemed incredibly contradictory to the first movie. Since the strength of the series are the character arcs and relationships the fact that Beast with a Thousand Backs ignores what the first movie established annoyed me to no end. Then there was the simple fact that the whole story was stupid. Granted, the Fry subplot was a fun twist.

When I heard that the series was finally going to be renewed I was overjoyed and couldn't wait for new episodes. I was a little wary of course, since the main plot of the series has always been the relationship between Fry and Leela and their slow shift towards friends and possibly more. The fourth movie gave that storyline closure, which to me was satisfying. My biggest fear was that the same thing would happen that happens in all TV series that rely on the main relationship for a continuous story. That they'd jump the shark and abolish the relationship in order to tap back into the sexual tension/relationship drama.


Of course my hope for the series was that this would not happen, but that instead we'd see a forward development of the main Fry/Leela relationship. I know that it seems like I'm putting too much emphasis on the relationship aspect of the show, when the main purpose is comedy. But that relationship forms the basis of the narrative thread. As such I have quite a bit invested in that storyline.

Well the first episode starts, oddly enough, with everyone dead. They get better of course, except for Leela, who remains in a coma despite having been resuscitated. In grief Fry builds a robot with purple wire for hair, and one eye. Conrad downloads her personality into the robot, who thinks she's Leela, though that plot thread only lasts until Nibbler bites off her arm.

I wont spoil too much, but let's just say that the rest of the plot is ridiculous plot twist after ridiculous plot twist that ends awesomely. Huh, apparently that's an actual word. The strange thing is that I swear the production team expected people to be worried about the whole romantic closure form the movie thing, and played around with it, making it look like it wouldn't work out for some reason or another several times. Well played Mr. Groening and Staff.

Overall? A satisfying new episode that promises more. Now on to episode two of the hour long premier.

How strange, they continue the "Will the shark be jumped?" line of thought with this episode where Leela and Zap crash land on a planet after trying to destroy a deathsphere that is heading to Earth. I'm wondering if this will continue for the rest of the series, as a different way of creating tension rather than breaking the main characters up and starting from scratch?

After a series of hilarious plot twists I have to say, this episode made me laugh more, even if the ending was a bit strange. Then again, I am watching Futurama.

Well, can't wait for the next episode.

TV Reviews: Bones - The Witch in the Wardrobe

Season 5: Episode 20

Recent episodes of this season have been throwing me for a bit of a loop. Sometimes the shocking reveals are inane and really little more than attempts to stretch out the status quo. Such as in the case of episode 16, where we finally get to see Brennan and Booth's first case together. Unfortunately the episode's writing is sub-par, with several noticeable continuity errors. For example, according to the episode Brennan got Angela a job at the Jeffersonian only shortly after having met her, just a few months before the first case, and about a year before the beginning of the series. I could be wrong, but from past episodes I could have sworn that they'd been friends for much longer than that, as their bond cannot be explained by just a year or so of knowing each other, especially considering their sometimes conflicting personalities. That kind of bond takes years to build.

There's also cases where Cam apparently worked for the FBI before appearing in season 2. I could have sworn they said she was a cop first, not an FBI agent. I figure the only reason she was in the episode was so that her actress had something to do while they were filming this.

The most shocking part was that apparently Booth and Brennan kissed shortly after their first meeting, which of course explains why no effects of this were ever witnessed over the course of the season.

Then of course, there's the end of the episode, where Booth reveals how he feels, and Brennan says she can't be in a relationship for some stupid reason.

Too Sciency for Relationships

Of course we all know the real reason, the writers had made the tension too obvious, and it was all coming to a head. The show obviously couldn't continue with them dating, because that robbed it of all the sexual tension. So, they had to restore the status quo.

I would say that this was jumping the shark, but the following episodes retain everything that makes Bones great. As painful as episode 16 was (especially from a writing perspective), I think this is a case where jumping the shark worked.

And then, sometimes, they have twists that don't quite come out of nowhere, but come much faster than I expected. An example of this is episode 20 where, spoiler, Hodgins and Angela elope at the end of the episode, after spending some quality time together in jail.

I knew they were going to get back together, but I didn't expect it to happen this fast. I could see that they were rebuilding their damaged relationship over the course of the episode, with buildup from previous episodes. And then they eloped.

This twist works for me, just because of how it works for the characters. Both are pretty spontaneous, especially Angela, and while Hodgins may not be as spontaneous as her, I can see how his continued love for her would make him jump on the chance as soon as it provided itself. I thought it was kind of touching how he's been carrying her wedding ring with him ever since their first wedding.

All in all, with the good and the bad, Bones remains the only live action American show that I actually watch.