Futurama Season 7 Discussion Thread

[TemporalFlux]

"Bots and the Bees" was garbage. "Farewell to Arms" was brilliant.

There. It has been said.

[Temis the Vorta]

I liked both the new episodes! I was worried it would be really hit or miss like last season, but so far, so good.

What are the odds that Fry & Leela's arms will come back to haunt everyone, after being merged with V'Ger in the depths of space?

So everyone is complaining about the implausibility that we've never known that robots can reproduce, yet Earth and Mars coming so close together with no gravitational perturbations at all, that gets a pass?

I don't mind if the plotlines are implausible and insane. When have they ever not been? I just don't want them to suck out loud, and that was happening too often last season (and even worse before that, when they were doing "movies.")

[Ar-Pharazon]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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I liked both the new episodes! I was worried it would be really hit or miss like last season, but so far, so good.

What are the odds that Fry & Leela's arms will come back to haunt everyone, after being merged with V'Ger in the depths of space?

So everyone is complaining about the implausibility that we've never known that robots can reproduce, yet Earth and Mars coming so close together with no gravitational perturbations at all, that gets a pass?

Or their robot versions will find the arms and come back as Borg

[Bob Morton]

Christopher wrote:

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The longer this show goes on, the more it plays fast and loose with past continuity.

They even ignored in-episode continuity, when the Professor cut open Ben's head to install the bending card, rather than just open the hatch they showed earlier. Dammit!

I haven't watched the second episode yet but the first one had some pretty funny one-liners and scenes. The above example not included.

[Nightowl1701]

Christopher wrote:

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^Well, yeah, but that should've also been true in Cubert and Dwight's appearances in the movies and the previous season, but they were still stuck in perpetual preadolescence even though it was explicitly 8-9 years after we first saw them.

That's something that bothered me about Futurama. In cartoon sitcoms like this (Simpsons, Family Guy, Flintstones, Jetsons), the passage of time (or lack thereof) is excusable since no calendar year is given. But this show explicitly started in late 2999, and the show has counted in "real time" ever since (the season opener says it's now 3012).

So 13 years since Philip J Fry woke up in the future, yet our cast hasn't aged (or are trying very hard to look/act like they haven't aged). Would it be so bad if Cubert and Dwight were grown up, Farnsworth was a talking head in a jar (or on a robot body), Amy's slutty party-girl lifestyle was starting to fight a losing battle with maturity (isn't she supposed to be married to Kip?) or Zapp found himself promoted to Admiral and trying to find ways to escape his desk job and get back on his ship? Incorporating time into this show could open up some intriguing story possibilities.

[SG-17]

The episodes didn't really hold my attention. I felt that last season was a bit lack-luster too. I fear that Futurama is falling prey to the Family Guy uncancellation syndrome.

[Christopher]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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So everyone is complaining about the implausibility that we've never known that robots can reproduce, yet Earth and Mars coming so close together with no gravitational perturbations at all, that gets a pass?

A work of fantasy doesn't have to be consistent with the laws of the real world, but it should be consistent with its own internal logic and rules. Most importantly, it should be true to its characters, and as I said, I can't believe a megalomaniac like Mom, who's been explicitly shown using her robots' programmed filial devotion to her as a tool for world conquest, would permit her robots to have any mother figures except her. That's just out of character. But playing fast and loose with the laws of physics is entirely consistent with the previous Futurama universe.

Nightowl1701 wrote:

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That's something that bothered me about Futurama. In cartoon sitcoms like this (Simpsons, Family Guy, Flintstones, Jetsons), the passage of time (or lack thereof) is excusable since no calendar year is given. But this show explicitly started in late 2999, and the show has counted in "real time" ever since (the season opener says it's now 3012).

So 13 years since Philip J Fry woke up in the future, yet our cast hasn't aged (or are trying very hard to look/act like they haven't aged). Would it be so bad if Cubert and Dwight were grown up, Farnsworth was a talking head in a jar (or on a robot body), Amy's slutty party-girl lifestyle was starting to fight a losing battle with maturity (isn't she supposed to be married to Kip?) or Zapp found himself promoted to Admiral and trying to find ways to escape his desk job and get back on his ship? Incorporating time into this show could open up some intriguing story possibilities.

I agree. What was cool about the original series is that it allowed real growth and change for its characters, at least occasionally and incrementally. It felt like it wouldn't be caught in a perpetual present like The Simpsons, and that made it distinctive and appealing to me, since I was starting to find The Simpsons increasingly stale even then.

But now they're pretty much doing as The Simpsons did and as Marvel Comics has generally done -- always keeping pace with the current year (plus 1000), but not aging the characters.

[Praetor_Shinzon]

Just repeat to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax..."

[RJDiogenes]

^^ No, I think it's good to have standards.

Unfortunately, I didn't know Futurama was back. I hope it's on On Demand, but it wasn't last year, so I don't have high hopes....

[Unicron]

When will we see more Scruffy/Washbucket action?

[ITL]

Unicron wrote:

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When will we see more Scruffy/Washbucket action?

ScruffBucket is the only ship for me. Theirs is a forbidden love.

[Disruptor]

7-3: Decision 3012

Liked:
-"Enviro-myte!"

-One Hour Hot Dog

-The ending that followed time travel rules.

Disliked:
-Lazy writing. Unclever, unfunny references to 2008 and the Nixon era. Wow. Seems writer Patric Verrone is more miss that hit (and I liked That's Lobstertainment).

-This one sounds weird, but the lead characters have become to important to their universe/world at least to the point of redundant adventures. Leela, Fry and Bender involved in the presidential election...again (no mention that Nixon once had Bender's body). Sure future Bender conquers Earth, why not, Zoidberg did it once...well, his people did.

All this saving the world/dooming the world/resaving the world. Can't we just go on some wacky delivery adventures?

-The ending...which was right, but also a reset button. Status quo maintained. Nixon still in charge. Meh.

[Christopher]

Not bad, but a bit too close a parallel to recent events. It probably won't hold up well in years to come. Also, I'm disappointed by the ending -- it would've been nice to have some real change in the premise. I thought that where they were going was that the new guy would turn out to be just more of the same once he actually got into office. After all, there is no real "right" version of time-travel fiction (he could've just created an alternate timeline and lived on in it), just whatever suits the story you want to tell. (According to real physics, time travel is most likely impossible, and if it's not, then it would be self-consistent with no alteration possible.)

The thing that bugged me the most was the way the episode embraced the lazy, ignorant stereotype of Africa = jungle and animals. Africa is the most diverse continent on Earth in geography, climate, culture, and ethnicity. It has plenty of major, modern cities, so there's no reason 31st-century Africa couldn't have looked as high-tech and urbanized as most other locations they visit. At the very least, Kenya's ecosystem is savannah and steppe, not jungle.

I did like the continuity nod to Bender's Big Score -- that they figured out time travel by finding a record of the code Bender used in that film.

[RJDiogenes]

Crap. Forgot again. I'll have to search the schedule for re-runs.

[Temis the Vorta]

The first half was clunky political parody on topics that have been hashed over way too much already, but then it got into the actual sci fi content and improved a lot.

And I think RJDiogenes needs to invest in a trusty DVR. Set and forget!