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Post by cyclica on Feb 20, 2011 18:10:13 GMT -5
Episode 1- Space pilot 3000It's hard to compare the first episode to the later ones because it's so different. Because there's so much to set up, this episode is all plot and character development, and even though it's very slow paced compared to later eps, there's still a lot going on. Things I liked- - The whole idea of someone with a terrible life being given a second chance to start his life afresh... only to wind up doing the exact same thing! - The slow pacing, as we follow fry around as he explores the new world. That and the lack of background music really create an atmosphere, and gives you the feeling that you're watching a show with some heart/drama, and not just another animated sitcom with nothing but jokes and satire to offer. - The future being just as 'crummy' as the world today. - Nixon! I don't normally like it when animated sitcoms have celebrity guest stars / impersonators, and even futurama is guilty of overdoing the guest stars in later episodes, but I do love nixon. He appears so often that I've come to think of him as a recurring character in his own right, and not just as a satire of the real nixon. Speaking of guest stars, I must admit I did enjoy seeing leonard nimoy saying his life is one of quiet dignity, only for him to immediately start acting like a fish in a bowl eating flakes. - The opening lines (futurama ...in color!) and opening cartoons that play for a split second. Half the time they're from cartoons I've seen before at some point, so there's a nostalgia bonus. - All the little things that were setups for later on, and you don't notice were setups until you rewatch. Like nibbler's shadow on the floor when fry was frozen, which gets explained in 'the why of fry'. Or the crew getting career chips from 'contents of space wasps stomach', which is expanded upon in 'the sting'. Or the fact that during the second countdown the french people shout 'seven' in english, as a later episode told us that french was a dead language. I love it when tv shows reward your attentiveness, and futurama is probably the best show there is in that regard. My favourite line- bender saying "you're full of crap fry", getting electrocuted, then "you make a persuasive agruement fry". Though a close second is the professor not wanting to leave on the ship because "I am already in my pajamas". ;D Things I didn't like- - Everything leading up to fry being frozen, while being neccessary, just wasn't funny. - Aside from leela, everyone's voices felt off. I know that's just because it's an early episode, but I wanted to mention it anyway. - "Bite my shiny metal ass". I've never found this line to be funny, or the later variations of it either. The problem was that it was a deliberate attempt to have a catchphrase on the show. Most other catchphrases on cartoons happened by accident (D'oh!, Mmmm) or make sense in context (screw you guys I'm going home), but having bender just blurt out his catchphrase almost at random was just dumb, and it didn't work for me. - It's not really a fault of this episode, but I don't like how this ep and scenes from it are referenced / shown again and again later on. It was kind of cool seeing clips from the pilot again in 'anthology of interest', but after seeing the clips again in 'jurassic bark', 'the why of fry', 'benders big score' and maybe others, it gets a little tiring, even if I have no problem with each of the individual episodes. - Old new york. I've never really got on board with the concept of building another city literally on top of the old one, especially as there doesn't seem to be anything holding the new one up. And how does old new york fit in when there's also a sewer society? The whole sewer backstory for leela was thought up right from the beginning, so you can't blame the fact that the sewers haven't appeared yet. Worst line- leela- "officer 1BDI requesting backup". It was so cheesy, and besides, since when was she a police officer? It makes no sense! Nitpicking- - Why does it turn new years day at the same time everywhere around the world? - It's a pretty obvious goof that leela only wears a ring during the scene where bender steals it, not before or after. More random things I noticed- - In the presidents section of the head museum, grover cleveland appears twice, because he served 2 non-consecutive terms. - Leela wears a jacket and trousers that go together throughout the ep, and takes her jacket off at the end... and I guess she lost it because she has a different jacket in later eps, even though she has the same trousers / boots in every ep. Heh I'm such a nerd for noticing that. But that's what comes from watching every episode of the show so many times, especially when you're encouraged to pay attention to every little thing. - The suicide booth were 'america's favourite since 2008'. Well in real life they really were invented... in 2008! And it was just a coincidence, the guy who invented them had never seen the show (he lived in germany). Wow I didn't mean to make such a long review, it just turned out I had a lot to say, probably because there was so much going on.  |
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Post by partcynic on Feb 21, 2011 10:44:52 GMT -5
1x01 Space Pilot 3000
Prior to watching this, I hadn't seen any Futurama for several years (unless you count bits and pieces of the movies), and I was wondering how I'd now respond to the show. Happily, it was really enjoyable to be able to sit down and reacquaint myself with the series, and the pilot remains pretty robust, even if it suffers from the typical 'first episode' problem of having to prioritise character and universe set-up over an interesting plot.
My Likes:
- I like the idea that a change of scenery (or in this case, scenery and time) isn't necessarily the solution to your problems - it works for humour (life sucks in the future just as much as it ever did), as well as for character development (you have to solve your own problems) and as commentary on reality.
- The theme of choosing your own path is nicely expressed, and the "1984"-esque elements in the first half of the episode managed to make the new world seem appropriately intimidating.
- The sequence with Fry adjusting to the year 2999 is good fun - from the initial feeling of being overwhelmed (effectively conveyed by the camera shots) to the joyride he takes on the transportation system, and then the fear of being 'forcibly assigned' and having his second chance taken from him.
- The episode does a really nice job of establishing the basic personalities of the characters, and gives Fry and Leela multi-dimensional presentations. Fry works well as the kind-hearted slacker (being a bit lazy and mischievous, but not willing to do harm to Leela by leaving her frozen), and Leela herself shows good emotional range, with the strongest part of the episode being when she told Fry that she also knew what it felt like to be alone.
- Beside the key players, some of the recurring folks get decent introductions. The police duo and Nixon are instantly discernable, and help give the impression of New New York being a living, active world.
- That head museum is basically an easy excuse for celebrity cameos, but it was fun to visit briefly, and Leonard Nimoy's part was actually funny.
- The humour is pleasant and consistent throughout. The only thing that made me laugh was Bender's lightbulb-induced change of heart, but the rest of it was perfectly enjoyable.
- There's lots of nice set-up going on. I love that you can see Leela here and have it make total sense that she's actually a mutant, and I have to tip my metaphorical hat to things like the Nibbler shadow - now that's some good long-term story planning.
My Dislikes:
- You can tell that the voice actors have yet to find their characters - Katey sounds fine with Leela, but Joe and Billy have yet to settle comfortably with Bender and Fry.
- Why is everyone on Earth celebrating New Year at the same time? What happened to time zones?
- Aliens destroy the entirety of New York (and then the slowly rebuilt society that follows), yet not the cryogenics building? And neither of these attacks compromise the power supply (etc) that keep people frozen?
- I can get New New York being built on the ruins of the old one - but that should be literal. Having the entire old city preserved under the new one is too much, and you're left to wonder how it's supported.
- Some of Bender's humour is too try-hard. He can be a great character with the right material (like that lightbulb bit), but at other times he feels like a jerkass of the Homer Simpson variety (by which I mean seasons 9-12 Homer). In fact, each of the main characters feels like an expy of a Simpson (Homer, Marge, Bart and Abe), but that's a minor issue that will be gone within a few episodes.
***
That's pretty much it from me for this episode - it's not one of Futurama's best (but then again, it couldn't really hope to compete with eps that weren't burdened with having to lay the series' foundations), but it's certainly above average for the show, and as a pilot, it would definitely have encouraged me to come back the following week.
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Post by cyclica on Feb 21, 2011 17:14:58 GMT -5
^ I agree with everything you said, and it's interesting you and I have made a lot of the same points.
Did you want to keep reviewing them once a week (for the next 69 weeks), or perhaps increase the number to two a week? Perhaps as a 'double feature'?
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Post by partcynic on Feb 22, 2011 9:58:13 GMT -5
^ I think two a week could work. Shall we aim to do eps 2 and 3 this weekend? We can always provide notification if one of us is going to be busy/unable to watch.
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Post by cyclica on Feb 22, 2011 19:01:00 GMT -5
Ok, I'll look forward to your 2 reviews this weekend.
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Post by partcynic on Feb 26, 2011 7:15:52 GMT -5
First review of the weekend!
1x02 The Series Has Landed
Just as its pilot did with opening episodes, the second edition of Futurama has many of the hallmarks of a second serving, with the introduction of new characters and minor expansion of the existing dynamic between Fry and Leela taking precedence over anything particularly impressive. That said, this episode does its job well, and while I don't think it's quite as strong as its predecessor, it's still an enjoyable watch.
My Likes:
- Professor Farnsworth's new advert is good fun, with one excellent line (paraphrase: "Your package isn't expendable. Our crew is"). I also enjoyed his decision process in deciding who'd be the new captain, as well as the reprisal of the "but I'm in my pyjamas" line (though I'm glad it was left there instead of becoming a running gag).
- The remainder of the Planet Express crew are nicely introduced. Hermes and Zoidberg have humorous scenes that establish their basic personalities and positions within the character dynamic, and Amy's solid too.
- I love that the future moon is host to a cheesy, tacky amusement park - it's just what you'd expect it to be if some conglomerate got its way ("address all complaints to the Monsanto corporation!" - I wonder if that's referring to the real-life one and its terrible ethical track record?) It works nicely as knowing satire, and that appeals to my cynical side.
- As in "Space Pilot 3000", the strongest moment was the emotional one between Fry and Leela. It was touching for Fry to explain exactly what the moon symbolised to him (which added to his depth), and Leela being equally awestruck after allowing herself to see things from his perspective was just as good.
Mixed Bag:
- The material with the southern hick guy was okay (you've got to love the Crushinator, and Bender saying you have to romance a woman that fine), but most of its humour was a predictable transplant of 20th century stereotypes into a futurised setting. Sometimes, that can work, but there needs to be an element of originality or subversion, and all we got here was a country bumpkin... in SPACE.
- The voice acting for the female characters is fine, but the guys continue to struggle. Billy West's Fry is improving, but the Professor and Zoidberg are off, and Joe DiMaggio's Bender still sounds lazy and underdeveloped.
- Bender himself is decent, but he's very much a third wheel here. None of his lines were particularly funny, and his appearances gave me the unwelcome feeling that I was being pulled away from the main plot.
My Dislikes:
- I don't know if I would call her actions out of character (at this point, we don't know enough to make any statement about that either way), but some of Leela's material bugged me. While I get her perspective here (not understanding Fry's position; wanting to do her job well and prove herself a worthy captain/leader; being angry when Fry's actions put their lives at risk), I still don't see why she was so initially abrasive with Fry and his desire to see more of the moon. After all, it's not like his wanting to explore was preventing them from doing their job, and they didn't seem to have anything else to get back to. It felt an arbitrary way of having her play the straight (wo)man to Fry's fool, and although that's a time-honoured way of generating comedy, having a main character be so stiff and unlikable for seventeen of your twenty-minute episode really isn't a good idea at such an early juncture.
- The news that the moon landings had apparently been forgotten about (Leela's dialogue on the 'educational ride') was ridiculous - it's hardly like they were a trivial non-event. The whole segment made Leela seem belligerent and stupid, as well as unpleasantly dismissive of Fry.
- The ending was a big deus ex machina. I did like how Amy's time on the crane game translated into being able to effectively operate the ship's winch, but her happening to fly over and find everyone just in time to save them from the thresher was too much. Plus, if a novice pilot like Amy is able to circle the moon and spy the original landing site, there's no way it could have been lost in the first place (were there no skilled pilots looking for it before?)
***
So, overall a respectable episode, and one I liked despite a fuller body of criticism. I'm definitely looking forward to tackling the next few now.
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Post by cyclica on Feb 26, 2011 15:31:29 GMT -5
The series has landed This is still part of the 'setup era' of early s1, which makes this ep difficult to compare to later eps. There's not as much of a 'series setup' as there was in the last ep (or will be in the next one), but we do get the introduction of many main and several recurring characters, and we get to see fry's perspective of seeing another world for the first time, even if it is just the moon. Having it be such a familiar setting yet still different was a good way to ease us into the show and establish the 'crew visits another planet and gets into trouble' formula. We also get to see the company 'take shape' as leela becomes the new captain. Things I liked-- Fry's point of view on visiting the moon. A lot of praise goes to later episodes for being 'emotional' (ie tearjerkers), for example jurassic bark and luck of the fryrish, but this episode deserves just as much recognition in that regard. Seeing fry's reactions to everything, his eagerness to go to the moon, his disappointment at how tacky it's become, his desire to have the moon be this romantic unreachable thing, and to have leela see it through his eyes, was all very touching. And what I love is that all this occurs all the way through the episode, it's not just one tearful moment at the end (not that I disliked those episodes). - The commentary on society that we would take the moon and turn it into disneyworld. It's sad, but then I can also see leela's point of view that there's no other reason to visit a big, dull rock. - The introductions of the new main characters. Zoidberg was pretty funny, even if his lack of knowledge was beyond stupid (believing fry to be a lady?), and hermes was good too, though his voice was off. I'm glad we got a focus on amy, as leela at this point was just a nag, and the show needed a female character who wasn't just another marge/lisa simpson. I also liked the introduction to sal, the lazy blue collar worker, and I prefer him in small doses like this, instead of the character he becomes later, putting 's' at the end of every word because it's his catchphrase, and running into the gang far too often. - Speaking of liking things in small doses, I loved bender's becoming a folk singerwith magnets, and lamenting that 'a robot would have to be crazy to want to be a folk singer', a sudden emotional moment from out of nowhere. I liked this as a single line (and the singing at the end), and we didn't need to have a whole episode made out of it later on. - Futurama's running gag of having no idea of what happened in the past, in this case mistaking a tv show character for an astronaut, and having whalers on the moon. It makes sense that a thousand years from now we wouldn't know everything about what happened in the 20th century. ...Except for the fact that they have so many people from that era still around as heads in jars. But I guess no one thought to ask them what happened back then. - Lots of good lines, such as fry wanting to throw the package in the sewer, only for bender to say "nah, too much work, lets burn it and say we threw it in the sewer". I also loved bender's running joke about wanting blackjack and hookers, having the whalers on the radio, and amy's claim that she knows how to make love, implying she makes love in the same mechanical way bender just described. Though to be honest, nothing really stood out as hilarious. The folk singer line was probably my favourite. There's no 'things I didn't like' section as there's nothing that really stood out as bad, but I do have a few nitpicks- -Leela rescued fry from sinking in dust by shooting them into the sky with the oxygen tank... then they landed? Shouldn't they have kept going upwards? - Is it just me, or was the professor especially short in this episode? In the scene where he's introducing fry to zoidberg, he looks about as tall as fry's shoulder. Worst line- "so fry, is the moon anything like you thought it would be?", "meh, close enough". Things I noticed-- The smelloscope in this ep is just an ordinary telescope. If the professor had an ordinary telescope all along, why keep using the smelloscope later on?
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Post by partcynic on Mar 1, 2011 14:29:43 GMT -5
^ Apologies for not being on in the last couple of days - I've been rushed off my feet with work. I'll post my next review, and then get round to responding to yours.
***
1x03 I, Roommate
What "The Series Has Landed" was to Fry and Leela, "I Roommate" is to Bender and Fry - a pleasant, well-written story that expands and examines a friendship while adding some depth to its characters (and in the case of Bender, depth that was sorely needed). However, unlike "The Series Has Landed", no-one needs to be forced into the role of nag to get the story to work, and each of the show's main trio begin to demonstrate the characterisations that will carry them through the rest of the series.
Likes:
- It's a bit of a surprise to see we've now jumped forward a couple of weeks in the show's timeline, but the characters haven't suffered for it. The current dynamic is working nicely - Fry's relationships with Bender and Leela are already solid, and you can easily contrast them against the mere acquaintanceships he has with the other employees.
- I'm glad the show remembered to deal with Fry's living arrangements, and it did so in an engaging way. I could understand what made the Professor and co willing to boot Fry out, and the ensuing apartment hunt was amusing (poor New Jersey). The sudden appearance of the perfect residence could have been too much, but it wasn't strictly unbelievable (except for perhaps paying the bills - they say that the place is rent-controlled, but how much cash do Fry and Bender actually make?)
- The relationship between Fry and Bender was the core of this episode, and it worked excellently. Bender transformed from an unfunny, catchphrase-spouting ass to a sympathetic protagonist without losing any of his sharper edges, and it was good that while Fry was initially oblivious, he later came to realise that it wasn't right for Bender to sacrifice his 'antenna' to make him happy.
- Leela's at risk of turning into a Marge-like character who offers advice and gripes at the more obviously comedic folks, but she worked well here. I smiled at Fry's quip that she'd been meddling with he and Bender for a solid week, and unlike in the last episode, her concern felt justified and was consistent with her basic character.
- I'll admit it - I love "All My Circuits". It's an effective send-up of American soap cliches, and it's so ridiculous as to be very funny. I also liked the signed photo of Calculon that Bender had stolen, which worked both as a one-off sight gag and the first sign of his obsession.
- This episode is the best-paced so far. There's an excellent balance between plot, humour and development, and "Futurama" is one of the few Western animated series that's capable of juggling these things effectively.
Dislikes:
- The line between 'funny' and 'ridiculous' could perhaps do with clearer delineation. Fry sleeping on the Planet Express meeting desk, making a mess and using the emergency shower were all believable and in-character, but using a jet engine to dry his hair firmly put him in the 'too stupid to exist' category.
- When the crew dump Fry and Bender on the street, Hermes' line about billing them for the couch was clearly dubbed in later - if you look closely, you'll see that his mouth is shut throughout.
- A few of the jokes were a bit lazy. Amy slipping on the banana peel twice was unnecessary, and the 'antenna = penis' stuff was overdone too. I also found Hermes spitting out Zoidberg's food more gross than amusing, especially since we've yet to see anything that would justify his extreme reaction.
- As in the last episode, the ending was a cop-out. The reveal that Bender's place was actually just the gateway/closet to a proper apartment was a quick and easy way of solving the story's problem, and it doesn't make much sense. If Bender knew that there was all that space available, why wouldn't he have informed Fry from the beginning (or at least shown it to him during 'the tour'), and why wasn't the button he pressed to open the door present in any of the prior scenes? And more generally, why would an apartment be built with a miniscule opening room leading into a wider one?
***
Overall, this is probably the strongest of the opening three eps, and its basic template is something that most episodes would do well to observe. I'm going to refrain from giving numbered scores for a while yet, but I'd likely put this one in the 'high above-average' category - it does almost everything right, but doesn't quite have the kick of some of the later episodes. Still, this is good stuff, and further evidences how "Futurama"'s continuous progression is one of its strongest facets.
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Post by cyclica on Mar 1, 2011 19:01:46 GMT -5
I'll put up my review of episode 3 as soon as I can. I also enjoyed his decision process in deciding who'd be the new captain, as well as the reprisal of the "but I'm in my pyjamas" line (though I'm glad it was left there instead of becoming a running gag). I would have liked to have heard it maybe once more. - I don't know if I would call her actions out of character (at this point, we don't know enough to make any statement about that either way), but some of Leela's material bugged me. While I get her perspective here (not understanding Fry's position; wanting to do her job well and prove herself a worthy captain/leader; being angry when Fry's actions put their lives at risk), I still don't see why she was so initially abrasive with Fry and his desire to see more of the moon. After all, it's not like his wanting to explore was preventing them from doing their job, and they didn't seem to have anything else to get back to. It felt an arbitrary way of having her play the straight (wo)man to Fry's fool, and although that's a time-honoured way of generating comedy, having a main character be so stiff and unlikable for seventeen of your twenty-minute episode really isn't a good idea at such an early juncture. I basically agree with this, though bear in mind at this point leela and fry aren't really friends. She pretty much still thinks of him as just a guy from the 'stupid ages'. - The ending was a big deus ex machina. I did like how Amy's time on the crane game translated into being able to effectively operate the ship's winch, but her happening to fly over and find everyone just in time to save them from the thresher was too much. Plus, if a novice pilot like Amy is able to circle the moon and spy the original landing site, there's no way it could have been lost in the first place (were there no skilled pilots looking for it before?) I got the impression that the lunar lander was pretty close to the amusement park. Fry and leela travelled for only ten minutes in the slow moving buggy, plus an extra few minutes when escaping the farmer. I can buy that amy would have had no problem finding the lunar lander when flying over the area. Though I agree that it makes no sense that it would be lost to begin with. |
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Post by partcynic on Mar 4, 2011 15:58:39 GMT -5
^ I'm in agreement with your review for most of this episode, so I won't write out a long reply. In fact, I think the only bit where I differ was regarding characters forgetting/not knowing major events from the 20th century. I can certainly buy that applying to some things, but I can't see them not knowing about the moon landings. I think that since the US is still a powerful state in the show's time, there's no way it wouldn't haven taken (and be continuing to take) political credit by reminding 'Earthicans' which country put humans on the moon. If anything, I'm surprised that nothing there was named after Armstrong/Aldrin etc.
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Post by cyclica on Mar 5, 2011 15:19:14 GMT -5
I, roommateThe third set-up episode, and like the pilot it can only really be fully enjoyed as part of a marathon and not on it's own. Things I liked-- Owls! For some reason I love the running gag of owls being pests like rats in the future. - There are 40000 channels in the future, and only 150 have anything good on. I doubt we'd have to wait a thousand years for this to actually be true.  - All my circuits. I love the sopa opera parody, and it continues to be funny in later episodes. I especially like calculon’s overacting, the fact that he repeats his terrible secret at the end, and we miss it both times, and of course 'human friend', who's such a dull token charatcer that even fry, a human, is bored of him. I also loved the role reversal at the end, with fry as calculon and bender as human friend, even if bender was totally out of character just for the joke to work. - Lots of little things, like turning a chair into a beanbag chair, bender repeatedly not knowing what fry means when he says 'bathroom', and the reveal at the end when it turns out bender was just living in a doorway the whole time, and fry can move into the 'closet'. The idea of a robot living in a tiny cubicle was intersting, but for the most part this episode's strength is it's jokes. My favourite line-Bender- "I hate the people who love me and they hate me". Close second, from fry- "Cutting leela's head off won't solve anything!" There's nothing I really disliked, though the antenna = penis joke became tired by the end, and the montage of houses to look at was a little obvious. That underwater home being attacked by a squid joke was ripped right out of the simpsons. Nitpicking-- They never explain why fry can't just live on the ship, in his 'quarters'. It's possible they hadn't yet planned out that fry would have his own room on the ship, but then again leela has her own room in the very next episode, and besides just sleeping on the bridge would have been better than sleeping in a box, which is what he was planning to do. - Now that fry has spend half an episode with his red jacket off, it's very noticeable that there’s two main characters wearing plain white t-shirts as part of their normal attire, and I have to wonder if that was a good idea. Aesthetically, it looked bland. - I've never understood bender's line, "there's my little space eater". - When fry and bender are thrown onto the street, hermes says "we'll bill you for the couch", without moving his lips! What a ventriloquist! Things I noticed-- There was no 'subtitle' in the opening credits, it just said 'futurama'. - Very little zoidberg. It's strange, looking back on the early episodes, to see how little he appeared early on, given the much bigger role he'd play later.
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Post by partcynic on Mar 6, 2011 16:25:08 GMT -5
Interesting to see you write that. I think this episode works better on its own than either of the two preceding ones.
Ha - most definitely agreed.
Yes - that was my favourite part of the episode.
Given Fry's current lack of sense/respect for the ship (using its engines to dry his hair), I can see why they wouldn't want him there on his own, at least at this point. Maybe once he'd learnt a little, matured somewhat (and had Leela's supervision), it stopped being an issue.
Wasn't that follow-on from the comment Bender made about he and Fry being able to 'efficiently' fill a specific amount of space in his apartment?
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Post by partcynic on Mar 6, 2011 16:28:58 GMT -5
1x04 Love's Labour's Lost In SpaceAs is the S1 pattern, "Love's Labour's Lost In Space" is an enjoyable (but not top-notch) episode that downplays plot for good, old-fashioned character insight and development. Here, Leela gets one of her more sympathetic early portrayals, and manages to be just as engaging as Fry and Bender. However, it's the introduction of Zapp Brannigan that makes this episode - he's consistently great, and works brilliantly as a parody of "Star Trek"-style space captains even if you're not familiar with Kirk and co. Likes:- Leela's dating woes were established in a believable way, and I liked that Fry et al pointed out some of her hypocrisy in being dismissive regarding others' looks. The loneliness motif fits with her backstory, and we got to see a brief glimpse of her sympathetic side (when she tried to console Zapp, even if sex wasn't the best way to go about things). It was also good that she saw him for what he really was and tried to hold on to her dignity, and it was interesting that although she found companionship (of sorts) with Nibbler, it wasn't used as a clumsy shield for her real issues. - The small parts for the supporting Planet Express crew flesh out their characters a little (Zoidberg's medical cluelessness and disgusting tendencies; Amy's ditzy shallowness and adherence to 'cool'), and the sequence at the nightclub was pretty fun (apart from the repetitive, stereotypical gay joke with Bender). - As already stated, the introduction of Zapp is easily the highlight of the episode. He's a constantly engaging and humorous sleazebag, with great moment after great moment (the velour obsession; the incredibly short robes; "Zapp Branigan's Big Book of War"; the killbot strategy; the "love-nasium" - the list goes on). He's a funny and unique character that succeeds as an original entity and a parody/deconstruction of the captain archetype, and he was used well for both comedy and exploring Leela's character. - It's nice to see Kif for the first time, and even though he spent most of the episode groaning, he was pretty amusing. I can't begin to imagine how much of a chore being subordinate to someone like Zapp would be like, so he certainly had my sympathy. - Fry and Bender continue to work well together, and have some good material (Bender's bit about poking a guy's eye out and handing Leela the fork). I also appreciate that the show has managed to avoid doing any blatant 'fish out of water' stuff with Fry - it works best following the premise of 'a sitcom set in the future'. Dislikes:- The plot was fine, but simple and linear. That's not to say I'd have changed it, but I am looking forward to eps where the stories are more complex. - Once again, the characters were pulled out of a tricky situation by a fortunate coincidence (in this case, that Nibbler excretes the very thing they need to power the ship's engine). This isn't a huge issue, but when these kinds of things are happening in episode after episode, it can get annoying. Other Notes:- Maybe I've just forgotten, but is it ever stated that Nibbler's appearing before Leela was planned in some way? His not being named on the list of animals to be rescued adds credence to the idea that he wasn't originally there, as does the observation that if there had he and other Nibblonians been there, they'd have easily eaten everything else very quickly. And if Nibbler was 'planted' to meet Leela, was something else to source of Dark Matter in the planet's core?
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Post by cyclica on Mar 7, 2011 18:17:17 GMT -5
- Leela's at risk of turning into a Marge-like character who offers advice and gripes at the more obviously comedic folks, but she worked well here. I smiled at Fry's quip that she'd been meddling with he and Bender for a solid week, and unlike in the last episode, her concern felt justified and was consistent with her basic character. I liked that they're at least pointing out that she's a meddling nag, but I'd still rather she was written to be less annoying. Fortunately she becomes more of a well rounded person later on. - This episode is the best-paced so far. There's an excellent balance between plot, humour and development, and "Futurama" is one of the few Western animated series that's capable of juggling these things effectively. Do you have any recommendations for any other animated shows with these qualities, western or otherwise? - The line between 'funny' and 'ridiculous' could perhaps do with clearer delineation. Fry sleeping on the Planet Express meeting desk, making a mess and using the emergency shower were all believable and in-character, but using a jet engine to dry his hair firmly put him in the 'too stupid to exist' category. You could chalk that up to him lacking a delta brainwave. I liked the idea of fry being that stupid. I beleive in one of the commentaries someone called fry something like 'the stupidest man who ever lived'. It helps set him apart from all the other characters who are merely kinda dumb. - A few of the jokes were a bit lazy. Amy slipping on the banana peel twice was unnecessary, and the 'antenna = penis' stuff was overdone too. I also found Hermes spitting out Zoidberg's food more gross than amusing, especially since we've yet to see anything that would justify his extreme reaction. Totally agree, and was that meant to be parts of himself zoidberg was serving? How many claws does he have? I'd like to think zoidberg was just serving lobster, and hermes was put off by zoidberg's implied cannibalism, that he would eat his own kind (well a lobster-alien and a lobster are close enough). And more generally, why would an apartment be built with a miniscule opening room leading into a wider one? And how did they get the beds in? Through the window? Well it's possibly I suppose. It works as a self-contained story that doesn't need much set-up, but at the same time it's not the kind of story you could watch if dipping into the episodes in a random order. That line always made me picture fry 'eating space', as in taking a bite out of space.  |
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Post by partcynic on Mar 13, 2011 14:52:21 GMT -5
I think I'd have to rewatch some stuff to make any real suggestions. The other main Western ones I can think of would be the first few seasons of "The Simpsons" and "Daria".
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Have you managed to watch "Love's Labour's Lost In Space" yet? I've done up to "A Fishful of Dollars" now, though I still need to write my review for "Fear of a Bot Planet".
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