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Post by cyclica on Sept 14, 2011 15:59:48 GMT -5
^ I like that we agreed on so much. - I don't think the effects of Bender's religious conversion were shown as interestingly as they could have been. ...the 'religious people are bland and creepy' thread was predictable, and the characters' reactions and desperation to have the old Bender back rang hollow. Agreed. Bender has been far worse (or at least more annoying) on other occasions without the crew becoming quite so desperate for him to change. - At the end of the day, this is a typical 'character development that doesn't develop anything' story. Bender gets addicted, converts to a religion and goes to hell, but none of these experiences impact him in any meaningful way, as the reset button gets hit at the end and we're back to more wacky hijinx. I'm really looking forward to seeing some of the juicier development eps from later seasons again, and I think it's pretty telling that while Fry and Leela both gained many layers, Bender never really did, ultimately becoming a bit of a millstone around the show's neck. Hmm. I don't think you should expect too much character development from a cartoon, or a robot for that matter. Having said that... I found the newer episode 'lethal inspection', a bender/hermes adventure, to be just as moving as say 'luck of the fryrish', and if you're looking for an ep showing bender with a little depth, I think you'd love that episode. In fact it's my favourite ep from the show's revived run. - If the Robot Devil and/or his followers/henchmen were able to grab Bender to drag him to hell the first time, why wouldn't they have tried to bring him back on any subsequent occasion? It's not like his being rescued changed his breaking their religious rules. Or did they just not want to have to deal with another potential rescue mission? Good point. The next time we see the robot devil (I think it was in an xmas episode) he was in prison, it's possible he was arrested soon after the events of this ep. As for my overall assessment, it's that "Hell is Other Robots" is good clean fun. Although it's more of a marathon-viewings-only edition for me, that doesn't change the fact that it sets a modest goal and fully achieves it, sitting in good company with many of the other S1 eps. Agreed. It's an ok episode, not great but nothing really wrong with it.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 17, 2011 11:47:22 GMT -5
A flight to remember
This is one of my favourites from season one, though for some reason I'm finding it hard to find much to say. Perhaps my reviewing has gotten a little rusty, or maybe it's that there's nothing I feel strongly about, for or against. Everything worked for me, but compared to one of my all-time favourite eps, like say 'godfellas', there wasn't much here that stood out.
Things I liked-
- It's great to see the entire crew having lots to do, and to keep cutting between their different stories, all taking place on the ship. I might have liked a little more for the professor and zoidberg to do though, but that would involve cutting something else out, and there's nothing I'd want to cut.
- Everyone's stories were enjoyable. I especially loved how the zapp/leela/fry and amy/parents/fry stories came together when they were all around the table. And of course, zapp and kiff were at their best in all their scenes.
- We get the first reference to the ongoing fry/leela relationship since they bonded over being job deserters in the pilot. And at this early stage, the will they/won't they tease hasn't become annoying yet.
-There's also the first reference to the amy/kif relationship, and first mention of hermes as a limboer. So much being set up!
Favourite line- Zapp, to fry- "As a gentleman, I must warn you. If you so much as glance at another woman, I'll be all over Leela like a fly on a pile of very seductive manure."
Nitpicking-
- Why is amy in the 'poor deck'? Also, zoidberg is given a marble tank in (presumably) opulent quarters, but in his case they hadn't written him to be poor yet (not until season 2). But amy's been established as rich since her first appearance. Surely she should have better quarters?
- It's a little awkward that bender wants to steal from the countess, while simultaneously wanting to date her. Maybe that's just what bender's like, but it still felt jarring when he suddenly wanted to take her bracelet, then suddenly decided against it.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 18, 2011 5:29:15 GMT -5
1x10 "A Flight to Remember"
If you were to flick through brief synopses of the S1 episodes without having seen them, I'd bet that most people would single out "A Flight to Remember" as the edition most likely to have aged poorly, with its then-obligatory riffs on "Titanic" immediately dating it to the late Nineties. However, it turns out that this assessment is far from the truth, and "A Flight to Remember" is actually one of the best episodes of the year, working on its own as a fun adventure while offering tantalising drops of development for multiple characters and arcs. Of all the eps so far, this one easily feels the fullest (and most satisfying), and is perhaps the first indicator of the highs the show would hit later.
Likes:
- One or two of the gags are admittedly a bit lazy (did anyone really need another mockery of the "I'm king of the world!" scene?), but the "Titanic" spoof works wonderfully. I love the ridiculous, over-the-top camera cuts when the gang first hears about their vacation, and the thread with Bender and the Countess as Jack and Rose worked very well. There was some genuine romance there, yet it was nicely undercut by classic "Futurama" cynicism (Bender's true grief being that the bracelet is fake).
- For perhaps the first time, the show's full cast is employed, and to wonderful effect. It was great that every character played a role in the story, and we got tons of interesting new info in the process (the suggestion that Leela has an interest in Fry and a little development of their relationship; the appearance of Amy's parents and the beginning of Amy/Kif; the continued fine-tuning of Bender as he manages to be amoral yet sympathetic; and the introduction of Labarbara and exposition regarding Hermes' Olympic background). Even better, all of this happened without compromising the plot or pacing, and it's awesome that even Zoidberg got a moment to shine.
- Knowing the Wongs' later responses to Kif, it's quite interesting that they were the ones to introduce him to Amy (granted, they were under the mistaken impression that he was a captain).
- As in "Love's Labour's Lost in Space", Zapp was a total scene stealer, and he (and Kif) were the stars of every scene they were in. Their dialogue was consistently excellent, and almost every line was laugh-out-loud funny.
Dislikes:
- If Fry was alive in 1998/1999, wouldn't Titanic have possibly rung a bell for him? Assuming parity between the show's history and that of the real world, even if he had no idea about the actual ship, he'd have been about while the movie was inescapable (especially in a major film city like New York). That said, this is hardly a big issue, and I imagine that it would have been too self-aware for him to remember the film.
- It's hard to believe that there were no major consequences for Zapp's actions. If his accidental fumble with the laser (and subsequent destruction of the Doop spaceship) was enough to get him discharged from the force, wouldn't deliberately piloting a tourist ship into a fleet of comets, needlessly endangering civilian lives, abandoning his post and dumping the responsibility on someone else be grounds for dismissal?
- Why would wealthy Amy be staying on the Fiesta deck, while the poor Zoidberg gets a marble tank in first class? I guess you can handwave them as Amy deliberately downtrending to avoid emphasising her fortune (after all, she was pretty uncomfortable with the mention of her family's wealth in "The Series Has Landed"), while perhaps the Professor paid for Zoidberg's accommodation (based on their long-standing friendship). Still, it remains a bit odd.
***
While the size of the sections may make it look like my likes and dislikes are evenly balanced, the 'negatives' here are so minute that they're practically irrelevant, and the good stuff is wonderful. As such, "A Flight to Remember" easily sets the early precedent for high-level "Futurama", and is probably S1's best entry by a decent margin.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 19, 2011 7:57:11 GMT -5
Me too! I always find it harder to review favourites than eps I like less - I guess complaining comes more naturally for me than praising. I agree completely - this is one of the most balanced and best paced episodes of the season (and probably of the show). Everything that happened was interesting, funny and relevant, and that's a bit of a rarity. Agreed again - I had exactly the same thoughts.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 20, 2011 14:26:59 GMT -5
Mars University
It's an ok episode, but forgettable.
Things I liked-
- Gunter was hit and miss for me, but I did like the overall story of him not being happy as a genius, and only finding peace when reduced to medium intelligence.
- It's amusing to see fry so pathetic that he's competing with a monkey, and still coming in second, even when it comes to dating.
- I loved the scene where leela whispers a plan in that typical tv 'the characters can hear but the audience will have to find out later' way, only to have to repeat what she said out loud.
- The ending, learning what happened to all the characters, was kinda fun.
- I liked all the references to college movie cliches... though at times it felt like they were indulging in the cliches rather than parodying them. Still, it was entertaining either way.
Favourite line-
After gunter's parents are let out, Farnsworth- "What's that they're flinging at us?" Guenter- "Oh, dear Lord! All over the dean!"
Nitpicking-
- The professor is a teacher? When does he find the time? I suppose fry was the only student he's ever had, but still. What if he was called away to teach a class, how could he continue running his company? ...for that matter, are we to assume hermes and zoidberg were the only ones who attended work? The episode must have taken place over a significant amount of time, and everyone else was at the university.
- On a related note, just what was leela doing there? Just hanging out?
- I don't really get the robot nerds. They supposedly need bender to teach them how to have a good time, yet the dean already considers them troublemakers. I realise fatbot was eating things he shouldn't, and bender undoubtedly caused trouble when he first attended the uni, but the dean's attitude implies that all the robots cause trouble all the time, and it makes no sense given how meekly they're depicted.
- Those sorority girls have some old, old computers.
- Fry didn't know what a tv was called when asked? I'd buy that he's that stupid, but I would have thought tv would be an area in which fry would, if anything, know *more* than the average person. It's like if homer didn't know what beer was.
Random things-
- This is the only episode aside from the pilot to have no dr zoidberg.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 20, 2011 14:34:23 GMT -5
I get the impression zapp is so well-loved, he can get away with anything, unless it's right under someone in power's nose, like blowing up doop. It's more fun too.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 21, 2011 8:59:46 GMT -5
1x11 "Mars University"
From one of the better episodes of the season to one of its less impressive offerings, "Mars University" is a significant step down from the potent humour/development combo we saw in "A Flight to Remember". What's interesting to note is that while both episodes have derivative origins, "Flight" builds something new upon its spoof-based plot, while "Mars University" offers us nothing but a string of predictable college sitcom scenarios (and attendant gags). Nothing here is bad, but there's also little to engage with, and it feels like something the writers could have penned at any point, with minimal effort.
I had a hard time dividing this into 'likes' and 'dislikes' for my review, since it's practically the definition of 'mixed bag'. As such, all of my points come under that header.
***
- The A plot with Gunter was mediocre. The character was unsympathetic to start with (treating Fry disrespectfully for no reason), and his eventual crisis didn't provoke any emotional response in me (in fact, my favourite parts involved his humiliation - the parent incident at the fundraiser and the 'hat on butt' moment near the story's climax). As a study of intelligence vs happiness, it was okay, but this kind of "Flowers for Algernon" rip has been done more powerfully before (even during The Simpsons' ropiest era, it did that better with "HOMR"). Overall, we were left with a large amount of time spent on a forgettable, unlikeable character, which doesn't make for a compelling episode.
- I found Gunter flirting with the college women (and their reciprocation) creepy. I'd like to think that the taboo on human/non-human animal is still holding strong in the 31st century.
- The Bender B-plot wasn't much better than the main one. I didn't hate anything, but the 'Bender helps a group of nerdy outcasts become deliquent outcasts instead' idea was too derivative, and the conflict with the Dean was one-note and repetitive. Sure, it's nice that the ep's writer had seen "National Lampoon's Animal House", but it would have been preferable for to story to do something besides nod to that film.
- Fry was fairly funny, and the concept of him being stupider than a monkey produced a couple of decent jokes. That said, in parts he was written to be unbelievably clueless (he doesn't know what television is despite spending the majority of his life in front of one?), and some gags failed outright (asking if it was okay to breathe Martian air - if he was holding his breath, how was he talking in the first place?)
- Why were Amy's parents asking about the cost of having their daughter fast-tracked into a sorority? Didn't Amy already say in "The Series Has Landed" that she's in 'Kappa Kappa Wong'? I have to say that in general, I was a bit confused by how Amy's background was presented. She seemed like a freshman here, when I always got the impression that she'd be towards the end of an undergrad degree, if not on a postgrad course.
- I think that Professor Farnsworth could be interesting in a formal teaching position, but the news that he was lecturing at the university was a bit abrupt. It also only makes sense time-wise if you choose to believe that he handles few sessions annually, and during a single semester.
***
Anyway, this is kind of an uninspired review, but I figure that's appropriate for an uninspired episode. My final judgement would be that "Mars University" is simply okay - a bog-standard episode that's hardly the show at its worst, but is ultimately too far from the good stuff to be of any real consequence.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 22, 2011 15:22:53 GMT -5
- The A plot with Gunter was mediocre. The character was unsympathetic to start with (treating Fry disrespectfully for no reason), and his eventual crisis didn't provoke any emotional response in me (in fact, my favourite parts involved his humiliation - the parent incident at the fundraiser and the 'hat on butt' moment near the story's climax). As a study of intelligence vs happiness, it was okay, but this kind of "Flowers for Algernon" rip has been done more powerfully before (even during The Simpsons' ropiest era, it did that better with "HOMR"). Overall, we were left with a large amount of time spent on a forgettable, unlikeable character, which doesn't make for a compelling episode. I agree with everything in your review, but this especially. Gutner was annoying half the time, and it was hard for me to be on his side... kind of like he was an early version of cubert. - I found Gunter flirting with the college women (and their reciprocation) creepy. I'd like to think that the taboo on human/non-human animal is still holding strong in the 31st century. I can only wonder what kind of woman would actually want to go on a date with a monkey? I have to say that in general, I was a bit confused by how Amy's background was presented. She seemed like a freshman here, when I always got the impression that she'd be towards the end of an undergrad degree, if not on a postgrad course. And just how old is she meant to be anyway? ..... I didn't take notes with this review, and there were a couple of things I forgot to mention, hopefully it's not too late- - I liked the professor laughing at fry's idea that there were jungles on earth. Funny, and also sad. - So gunter is an animal that can talk, and this is explained by saying it was his hat. But later on, probably more than half the aliens we see are all just talking animals (including zoidberg). Looking back, it seems odd how much focus there is on the idea of a talking monkey, since in this universe he doesn't stand out much.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 23, 2011 13:47:30 GMT -5
This episode in a nutshell.
Yes. I thought that the basic story idea was fine, but the execution - particularly the characterisation of Gunter - sank it for me.
Agreed. I like it when the show does those little subversions of standard TV tropes.
Agreed again. It's especially apparent coming after "A Flight to Remember", which could have been equally predictable, yet had all of that wonderful character insight/progression in addition to the obvious "Titanic" stuff.
I'm with you on every point here. I like the concept (nice to see the 'Professor' part of Farnsworth's background come into play), but the explanation didn't make much sense.
I think it was set-up (flimsily) in the teaser. Wasn't Gunter in a package (well, crate) the crew had to deliver to Mars? I'm guessing that with the Professor occupying himself with teaching, the business wasn't running, and Leela could just hang around.
Yep. If they were just hopeless nerds, you'd have to wonder why they were in so much trouble to start with.
Absolutely.
Another good point - I hadn't considered that issue.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 25, 2011 11:26:10 GMT -5
I meant what was she doing all day when fry, amy and the professor were all in class.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 25, 2011 11:27:18 GMT -5
When aliens attack
I consider this one of the better episodes from season 1, and even though the invasion story is simple and has been repeated with more variation later on (globetrotters, benders big score etc), this ep still holds up today to repeat viewings.
Things I liked
- I liked the mention of the supervillain who took all of earths monuments, it's good to know there were things going on inbetween years 2000 and 3000.
- Zapp and kiff are still at their best. And it was interesting seeing zapp sort-of doing the right thing by handing over the president to the omicronians.
- I've never watched ally mcbeal or any shows like that, but I still enjoyed the parody. And having the whole crew get together to make a tv show of their own at the end was fun to watch.
- I loved the omicronians, especially when they are trying and failing to look intimidating (is this microphone on?), and the fact that they would destroy the earth for something so petty as a tv show.
- I loved how casually the professor mentions the second coming of Jesus, as though it were no big deal.
- There were lots of funny and memorable lines in this ep.
Fry: We're all gonna die, aren't we? Farnsworth: Oh, I should think so. Although last time aliens invaded all they did was force the most intelligent of us to pair off and mate continuously. Oh, yes!
Lrrr: Surely you know McNeal. She is an unmarried human female struggling to succeed in a human male's world. Zapp: Maybe that's just her excuse for being incompetent.
Zapp: If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!
Bender: Camera one (eye sticks out), camera two (other eye sticks out), camera three (hmm...)
My favourite though has to be fry's line near the end, which I always think of whenever I'd write a story- It took an hour to write. I thought it would take an hour to read!
Nitpicking
None of these nitpicks affect my enjoyment of the episode, though it's still fun to list them-
- Why was amy so upset about nibbler removing her bikini on the beach? Later on we see her sunbathing topless, and no one's embarrassed during the trip to the nude beach planet in 'benders big score'.
- The omicronains destroyed the while house on monument beach, and yet there still is a white house, where it’s supposed to be. Are there two of them?
- Maybe this should be addressed in a later ep, but who was left in charge after president mcneals death and nixon's election?
- Why does the hubble telescope look exactly like an omicronian ship?
- The whole space battle portion of the ep was pointless, and didn't amount to anything. When zapp was addressing the troops it looked like there were only about fifty people there. There were more people watching the robot fighting competition later on then there were people willing to fight when the earth is in danger. And why did leela randomly decide to leave halfway through the battle? She knew from the start what she was getting into. - The episode revolves around the fact that there are no surviving videos of a certain tv show. I have a hard time buying that no copies would exist, ok we don't know for sure what happened during the second coming, but surely it would be online by that point. And there was no shortage of star trek videos in 'where no fan has gone before'. And besides, the people of 1999 could have just filmed it again, if it's a case of there was only one copy of the video to begin with. And fry isn't held responsible/arrested for taking down an entire television network? - I liked the message at the end, that tv shows always hit the reset button, with the implication that, with the city half destroyed, they didn't do that this time. But! Next episode! Reset button! It kind of undermines their point.
- I don't like the idea that the ordinary folks down at planet express were the ones to save the world. I understand fry was the only one who could recreate a show that only he had seen, but surely he could have received more professional help considering what was at stake? Would it have killed them to at least ask some people off the street to sit in the background instead of cardboard cutouts, if it's to save the world? It's very fortunate that the omicronians never noticed how jenny mcneal and the rest now looked completely different (though this at least is covered in a later ep, with them mistaking leela with an orang utan).
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Post by partcynic on Sept 27, 2011 11:04:26 GMT -5
1x12 "When Aliens Attack"
A typical S1 adventure episode, "When Aliens Attack" is a respectable offering that reminds me of "A Big Piece of Garbage" in a number of ways. In both shows, we see how past actions - no matter how innocuous - can come back to harm us in the future; a huge threat being posed to world safety; and the reveal that one of the Planet Express crew is key to solving the problem. However, the two eps end up diverging in quality, with "Garbage" coming out on top for me. Like "Mars University", "When Aliens Attack" is far from a poor episode, but it's uninspired, copying largely from a prior plot and playing things in too over-the-top a manner to really work.
Likes:
- It's a recycled concept (and worse, a recycled concept from only a few episodes ago), but I do like the butterfly effect of Fry's individual actions in 1999 having major ramifications for life in 3000.
- I always enjoy seeing the crew hang out away from work, and the scenes at the beach were good fun. There was lots of humorous material there, and I liked the supervillain excuse for the multiple landmarks on the beach (plus the revised Mt Rushmore).
- The "Ally McBeal" parody was spot-on and pretty funny. Looking back, it does date the episode a fair bit (who cares about that show now? It's not like it was ever going to be a pop-culture touchstone), but that doesn't have to be a problem.
- The dialogue was good throughout. Even as I was feeling uninterested and mildly annoyed by the plot, I kept smiling from the jokes.
Mixed Bag:
- The aliens were fine as silly caricatures, but they just weren't believable enough to make the plot compelling, or provide a real threat. That their response to having a TV show interrupted was to all-out attack another planet and make vague demands instead of specifying what they actually wanted was stupid, as was their being fooled by the Planet Express version of the show (not noticing the blatant stumbles or obvious reading from scripts), and not wondering why it ran for only a few minutes (instead of being an hour with ads). The frustrating thing is, they worked very well when they were trying to be intimidating but stumbling (like in the microphone bit), and I have little issues with their subsequent appearances, when the buffoonery was toned down somewhat.
Dislikes:
- It's a bit much that the aliens happened to be reliant on the transmission from the one Fox affiliate that Fry knocked out (after all, I don't believe he took the whole station down, just the satellite equipment for one particular area). Were they unable to pick up any other broadcast?
- Are we seriously meant to believe that "Single Female Lawyer" was never re-broadcast at any subsequent point (a repeat to make up for the missed episode in the New York area; a general repeat; or paid syndication), never issued for purchase in any other medium, and not available on the Internet in any way, shape or form? The 'second coming of Jesus', though very funny, is hardly sufficient explanation for this.
- Parts of the episode felt gratuitous. As much I enjoy seeing Zapp and Kif, their material here offered nothing new, and didn't have the wit of prior scenes. Much of the 'war' segment failed, from the repetition of the Bender 'patriotism chip' jokes; the silly bit with the Hubble telescope; Fry's overdone skill with the laser and Leela's deciding to desert the force (not saying it wasn't the best choice, but it still struck me as 'off').
- There should have been some proper consequences to having the president of Earth(?) suddenly killed. As a jokey throwaway bit, it was fine, but this kind of event needs to be handled carefully to maintain universe believability.
- Why was the future of the entire world left in the hands of the Planet Express crew? If everyone's lives were at stake, wouldn't professional actors/crew have stepped in to help them out, or even handle everything themselves?
***
This review probably comes across as harsher than my actual opinion on this episode, but that's mainly becuase I found myself constantly thinking of new dislikes while the like segment remained pretty static. I enjoyed seeing "When Aliens Attack" again and enjoyed the introduction of the Omicronians, but I think it could have done quite a bit better with its concept than it did.
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Post by partcynic on Sept 29, 2011 15:42:15 GMT -5
I have the opposite view here. I like this ep enough, but knowing that many other offerings have done its story better knocks down its replay value for me.
Agreed.
I always like Zapp and Kif, but I thought they were notably weaker than in their last two appearances. Too many of Zapp's lines sounded like rewrites of jokes from better episodes.
I agree wholeheartedly on all of these points. The only real difference between our responses here is that while these things don't bother you enough to penalise the episode, they do for me. But I have to say, I am liking how in sync we've been for much of the season.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 29, 2011 15:57:24 GMT -5
- The dialogue was good throughout. Even as I was feeling uninterested and mildly annoyed by the plot, I kept smiling from the jokes. I agree that the dialogue was the highlight, I found more laughs in this episode than maybe any other in season 1. - The aliens were fine as silly caricatures, but they just weren't believable enough to make the plot compelling, or provide a real threat. That their response to having a TV show interrupted was to all-out attack another planet and make vague demands instead of specifying what they actually wanted was stupid, as was their being fooled by the Planet Express version of the show (not noticing the blatant stumbles or obvious reading from scripts), and not wondering why it ran for only a few minutes (instead of being an hour with ads). Yeah I found those things a little annoying too, how they didn't make clear what they wanted and didn't notice the 'show' was only a few minutes long. But I suppose these things were necessary for the story, and I didn't have a big problem with them. - Are we seriously meant to believe that "Single Female Lawyer" was never re-broadcast at any subsequent point (a repeat to make up for the missed episode in the New York area; a general repeat; or paid syndication), never issued for purchase in any other medium, and not available on the Internet in any way, shape or form? The 'second coming of Jesus', though very funny, is hardly sufficient explanation for this. Yeah. There are some tv shows that only seem to have aired once and can't be found again, not even online, but that doesn't really work if this is meant to be a popular ally mcbeal style show. - Parts of the episode felt gratuitous. As much I enjoy seeing Zapp and Kif, their material here offered nothing new, and didn't have the wit of prior scenes. I'd have to disagree with you there, I thought this was zapp and kiff at their best. As for offering nothing new, well we did get to see them in battle, and zapp showing the new recruits the ropes, it's not like their scenes are recycled from old eps. I think you're expecting a bit too much. - There should have been some proper consequences to having the president of Earth(?) suddenly killed. As a jokey throwaway bit, it was fine, but this kind of event needs to be handled carefully to maintain universe believability. Yep. - Why was the future of the entire world left in the hands of the Planet Express crew? If everyone's lives were at stake, wouldn't professional actors/crew have stepped in to help them out, or even handle everything themselves? Yup.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 29, 2011 16:21:18 GMT -5
But I have to say, I am liking how in sync we've been for much of the season. Me too. Just out of curiosity, what would you say are some of your favourite and least favourite episodes of the show as a whole?
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