FUTURAMA: Rebirth

[TemporalFlux]

When they flew to the third world, I thought a fun episode was in the making; then it became an iPhone commercial.

The plot was just too obvious; I expect something a little more clever from Futurama. If they wanted to do this kind of thing, the episode should have focused on the broader class of "smart phones"; they could have even brought the KGB into it.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I enjoyed the episode and parodying iPhone (and Apple in general), Facebook, and Twitter, but I think what hurt the episode the most (more than the somewhat unnecessary gross out humor) was the fact Mom didn't interact with anyone in the cast. She was merely the puppetmaster in the background and ultimately no conflict was driven from the whole situation (or resolved).

 

[T J]

Eh, so there was no direct conflict or resolution of the zombies. No biggie. Sometimes they are just civilian bystanders. Who's to say Nixon and Zap weren't there to stop the whole thing 2 minutes later (so I guess that would mean they stopped zombies from buying the eye phone 2 thus making MOM .002 percent less wealthy... It worked.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I actually kind of like that aspect, but I meant conflict between Mom and the crew. In most of her previous appearances (if not all), Mom comes into direct conflict with the crew and that conflict is resolved by the end of the episode (or movie). I think the lack of this interaction hurt the episode.

 

[Mr Light]

So are they not going to resolve this story? Cause this felt like a Part One. And that's an excellent point about the characters never encountering the villain. I hate that, Wrath of Khan none withstanding.

 

[Christopher]

The resolution was that the ultimate point of Mom's master plan was just to get people to buy the next version of the eyePhone. So the punch line is that there is no resolution, that we just perpetually remain in the thrall of consumer culture. There's really nothing more to say than that, no more story to tell, unless it were the story of a socialist revolution, which isn't somewhere I think Futurama would choose to go.

Though that doesn't really make any sense, since Mom had no trouble getting everyone to buy the first eyePhone without needing to make them zombies first. The whole thing's just a sloppy, awkward parody of consumerism.

 

[shivkala]

It doesn't help the the DVR cut off the last few seconds for me. Funny, it gave me hope that there would be a worthwhile resolution! Sad to hear that I probably did see it all, minus the credits.

 

[kkozoriz1]

It sure looked to me like there were a lot more people heading to the store to buy 2.0 that there were for 1.0.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

It sure looked to me like there were a lot more people heading to the store to buy 2.0 that there were for 1.0.

How would there be, since to become a zombie they'd need to have 1.0 installed AND be Fry and Bender subscriber.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

It doesn't help the the DVR cut off the last few seconds for me. Funny, it gave me hope that there would be a worthwhile resolution! Sad to hear that I probably did see it all, minus the credits.

Same thing here. First time anything has been cut off.

What I did see was OK. Like a lot of others, I thought it what they were lampooning was a little "last week" (month, year, whatever).

 

[shivkala]

^
The odd thing is that the recording started in the middle of the opening credits, which says to me that Comedy Central somehow had it so that the episode started slightly before time, but still end after the 1/2 hour point. Odd.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Maybe they tried to cram in some extra commercials like TV Land did/does.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Happens a lot with Futurama, Not sure what the deal is. Sometimes, if a second episode follows, I get the ending of the previous one.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Years ago, I got into the habit of starting my recordings two minutes early and ending them two minutes late, because I would frequently lost the last minute or so. With Lost, I would go ten minutes overtime, because they would sometimes add a few extra minutes.

 

[David cgc]

Happens a lot with Futurama, Not sure what the deal is. Sometimes, if a second episode follows, I get the ending of the previous one.

CC frequently has the end credits of an episode of Futurama playing split-screen over the beginning of the next one. Well, they do that with several shows. That might contribute to them not starting and stopping precisely on schedule.

 

[paudemge]

CC frequently screws up my DVR. I don't have the problem with other networks, at least not regularly like CC.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Good news everyone! Futurama is a hit on Comedy Central!

 

[RJDiogenes]

Excellent. Hopefully they will be ordering new episodes soon then.

 

[nx1701g]

Good news everyone! Futurama is a hit on Comedy Central!

Excellent.

 

[bigdaddy]

Excellent. Hopefully they will be ordering new episodes soon then.

There really isn't a rush, I would wait for a few more episode ratings because the first two episodes were 2.8 million and the third episode was 2.19, so they hopefully it levels off.