FUTURAMA: Rebirth

[TheBrew]

I felt really nerdy for catching this, but did anyone else notice that the guy at the front of the line at the Bureaucrat building who died was waiting in line with the crew the last time they were there? It cracked me up that he spent his whole life in line and died when it was his turn.

 

[ConRefit79]

Lethal Inspection is the best episode so far. I liked many of the gags mentioned here. But I liked how Mom says "that'll teach you not to call tech support!", when her kill bots first start shooting at Bender.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

But overall, it was a strong episode, with lots of fun gags (I liked the Rubik's cubicles, and we even got a Hollywood Squares/Paul Lynde gag worked in) and a good character story at its core.

I wonder how old you have to be to get that though I suppose it could work as a generic Hollwood Squares gag if people didn't know who Paul Lynde was.

 

[Mr Light]

That reminds me I loved the moronic kill bots who shot each other whenever they thought they heard something violent

 

[David cgc]

I love how robots have Resurrection. I'm not sure if it was a direct reference to Battlestar Galactica, but it certainly appeared to be one to me.

Bender did describe it pretty closely to the way Six had, even if the concept is hardly unique.

 

[Delta1]

The main thing that gets me is, if Bender's believed himself to be immortal, why was he using a suicide booth when we first met him? (Then again, his professed reason for wanting to commit suicide was that he'd discovered the girders he bent were used to construct suicide booths, suggesting a qualm of conscience, which we now know he doesn't have.)

Depending on when the backup was made, the Bender that was resurrected would not know that he was building suicide booths. Perhaps he wasn't committing suicide so much as erasing some unwanted memories in typically dramatic fashion. As for his conscience, I thought it worked just fine until he was electrocuted in the Head Museum? Have we seen enough pre-3000 Bender to say whether or not he was a jerk?

 

[Canadave]

That reminds me I loved the moronic kill bots who shot each other whenever they thought they heard something violent

DID SOMEONE SAY HOWITZER?

 

[Christopher]

Depending on when the backup was made, the Bender that was resurrected would not know that he was building suicide booths. Perhaps he wasn't committing suicide so much as erasing some unwanted memories in typically dramatic fashion.

Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the Best Handwave of 2010 Award! That's actually a pretty good fix.

As for his conscience, I thought it worked just fine until he was electrocuted in the Head Museum?

Technically, it was his programming. He couldn't act outside his programmed behaviors until the electrocution. I suppose that could've included a conscience of sorts, but Bender was pretty much a jerk from the beginning. His very first line in the series was "Bite my shiny metal ass."

Hey, that's interesting. I was looking over the transcript for the pilot, and there's a bit where Bender tells Fry that he doesn't want anyone thinking they're robosexuals. So that element's been there since the beginning. Sort of.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Pretty nice episode for Hermes. His limbo powers saved Bender and himself a couple of times, we saw the importance of his bureaucratic skills and we learned that he is responsible for defective Bender being alive.

And we now know that Bender can sharpen a pencil.

 

[Christopher]

And we now know that Bender can sharpen a pencil.

And that his shiny metal ass bites back.

 

[Too Much Fun]

They've done this ending a few times where there's a montage that reveals something unexpected about a character while some very touching/thoughtfully chosen music plays. For example, "Leela's Homeworld", "Luck of the Fryish", and of course, "Jurassic Bark". I liked it in those first two episodes, but thought the end of "Jurassic Bark" was annoying. When it was over, I was pretty sure I'm sick of this kind of twist ending and never want to see it again (didn't watch the episodes in their original broadcast order).

That's why I was pleasantly surprised by how moving it was at the end of this episode. As in all the other cases, the music choice was perfect. I really loved that song. I keep listening to it. It's really nice on its own, but listening to it like that isn't quite as fantastic as listening to it over the montage...simply beautiful. It's good to see "Futurama" can still do sentimentality as wonderfully as comedy.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Yeah, that's one of the things that makes it classic.

And that his shiny metal ass bites back.

Heh. I hope they're reading this. That would make a great line.

 

[Myasishchev]

but thought the end of "Jurassic Bark" was annoying.

You have a heart of dolomite.

 

[Mr Light]

I hated Jurassic Bark. It was just plain depressing dammit

 

[nx1701g]

I liked this episode - but it became pretty obvious that Hermes would be #5.

Looks like the Sith invaded Earth at one point too. I wonder if the different Darth names was a joke about the contest to name Cadeus a few years ago?

 

[Christopher]

^I think it was just a joke about how the movies' Sith-Lord names tend to be some nasty-sounding word with the first syllable lopped off, like Darth (in)Vader or Darth (in)Sidious.

And yeah, Hermes being Inspector #5 was predictable from the start, but what made it great was the surprise revelation about why he approved Bender. That's a good way to handle a plot point that can't help but be predictable -- set the audience up with the very predictability of it and then throw them a twist.

 

[Mr Light]

in-vader... Vader? I honestly never saw or thought of that before. I thought it was supposed to be a Dutch word or something? I can't believe I never saw that connection before!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Lucas kinda gave away the game with Darth Sidious. Just in general, they were riffing on Lucas' penchant for absurd-sounding names. Maul, Dooku, Naboo...

The who's-the-bigger-nerd joke with Civil War re-enactors vs. Sith was my favorite part of the episode. Futurama's ability to do unexpected and cockeyed things is the best part of it. They'll always throw in something wacky - Bender's hairdo for his Civil War costume, the iguana running around the hacienda, Paul Lynde (how many of the viewers even know who he is?)...I don't even care if the stories make any sense.

 

[Trent Roman]

but thought the end of "Jurassic Bark" was annoying.

You have a heart of dolomite.

I agree with Too Much Fun, actually. "Jurassic Bark" was heavy-handed and obvious; I was too annoyed at the transparent attempt to manipulate my feelings to actually feel what they wanted me to.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Subcommander R.]

Unless I see improvement, I will be disowning this resurrection. I've seen one new episode that was good. The rest were either awful or substandard. I'm guessing from what I've seen that they didn't bring back the whole writing staff. Its all the external trappings without the substance. And that tears my heart out. Its turned into nothing but disgusting humor and societal commentary.