Pages tagged “futurama”

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Futurama Review: "Reincarnation" (6.26)

The second half of Futurama’s sixth season has been marked with a return to consistency. Even the weaker episodes were by no means unwatchable and had some great moments while the stronger ones held up well with the show’s original run on Fox. However, it’s been lacking in the type of lightning-in-a-bottle episodes that we saw even during the first half of the season, the type of series-defining episode you have to show to everyone you know because they’re just that good. That is to say it was lacking in one of those until now, because “Reincarnation” is not only...  read more

25 Great Costumes, Floats & Vehicles from The 2011 Dragon*Con Parade

Today, Atlanta unleashed its inner geek....  read more

Futurama Review: "Overclockwise" (6.25)

It’s a weird choice for season six of Futurama to wind down (despite having one more episode next week) with a plotline it’s largely done before. Not just done and had largely forgotten, either; “Godfellas” was one of the strongest and most singular episodes of Futurama’s original run. A meditation on faith, causality and perspective, it featured Bender as a godlike figure who rules over a tiny species that develops on his body. “Godfellas” represented a point in the show’s evolution where it was willing to push its audience and try out concepts that really go beyond anything seen in...  read more

Futurama Review: "Cold Warriors" (6.24)

Just last week I was writing about the way “The Tip of the Zoidberg” was the only episode this season (well, half-season) to feature real heart, and here we are again this week with another heartfelt episode. Longtime viewers of Futurama will know that most episodes that flash back to the 20th century tend to be at least a bit touching, due to both the nostalgic nature of focusing on the past and the Fry family dynamics. It’s somewhat inescapable, not to mention that if there isn’t some sort of fairly meaningful reason to flash back, such as emotional connections,...  read more

Futurama Review: "The Tip of the Zoidberg" (6.23)

Because Futurama has had about the most irregular airing schedule in the history of television, it can be easy to lose track of what the show “should” be doing in its sixth season. Because it’s been either starting or stopping for the better part of a decade, not to mention trying something completely different with its movies, the show hasn’t really had time to settle down and do what a mature sitcom (or show of any sort) would do by now....  read more

Futurama Review: "Fry Am the Egg Man" (6.22)

The element of Futurama that’s been missing the most since its return is its heart. Not that the show was ever filled to the brim with poignantly moving episodes; comedy has always been its core. But during its initial run the show occasionally took the time to deal with deeper human issues than just outsmarting an alien race intent on destroying the Earth. Episodes like “Jurassic Bark” aren’t something you can repeat, but smaller moments like Fry’s relationship with a Leela-esque narwhal were equally touching. Those little bits of humanity help the show remain grounded in a universe where at...  read more

Futurama Review: "Mobius Dick" (6.21)

There’s a type of Futurama episode that I’d describe as taking whatever random concept the show’s writers are currently interested in, then throwing it into the Futurama universe and seeing what happens. The show has joked a lot about just adding “space” as an adjective to various objects (my favorite still being “Space Earth”), but it’s a joke that continues paying dividends not just in individual lines but also in entire stories....  read more

Futurama Review: "All the Presidents' Heads" (6.20)

When Futurama began, it had a rule against time travel. That may be hard to believe now, considering how much time travel has occurred in the last few seasons, but it makes sense. Introducing time travel is such a pandora’s box that it threatens to overpower the rest of the show. Why wouldn’t a character always just travel back in time to fix whatever random problem just occurred, or if it’s so casually available, why doesn’t the cast pull a Back to the Future and have everyone win big on the stock market or sports betting?...  read more

Futurama Review: "Yo Leela Leela" (6.19)

Last week’s episode of Futurama was largely let down by its lack of quality science-fiction elements. Also, and more importantly, the jokes weren’t super funny. But since that’s always much more difficult to write about, let’s go back to the plot, since in a lot of ways this week’s episode, “Yo Leela Leela” was similar but with a wonderful science-fiction twist....  read more

Futurama Review: "The Silence of the Clamps" (6.18)

These past few episodes I’ve been trying to put my finger on what makes for an interesting Futurama episode and what makes for a forgettable one. Unfortunately, last night’s “The Silence of the Clamps” landed pretty firmly in the later camp, and I think there’s a number of reasons why....  read more