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Post by partcynic on Nov 6, 2011 14:07:08 GMT -5
Agreed. After the quality of the first two episodes, this one felt underplotted and shallow by comparison, despite not featuring anything that was blatantly bad.
I can't believe I forgot to mention that in my review. It was definitely a great sequence.
Agreed again. I also liked Johnson and Jackson - they worked really well as a satire of the American/British 'two different choices, who are actually very similar' political model.
Great point. It was jarring that it was brought up only to be completely forgotten about. The series usually does better in avoiding that kind of writing.
Good observation again. Maybe selling his body involved him having to deactivate his remote control over it (or something).
It's about 95% (deliberately) overblown parody (of both Nixon and general Republican politics), and 5% realism. The total disaster with Watergate, the attempt at covering it up, and his resigning the presidency in the face of certain impeachment pretty much sealed his fate as joke bait.
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Post by cyclica on Nov 7, 2011 19:19:34 GMT -5
Be prepared for more disappointment when you actually watch that episode.  The first S2 ep I'm not too fussed about, "A Head in the Polls" is a competent offering with a passable plot and some decent comedy. However, unlike its two predecessors, it's overly simplistic and shallow, relying on repeating a bunch of highly similar, highly predictable Richard Nixon jokes. Beyond that, the humour is also a bit alienating for a non-American viewer (and/or anyone born after the Nixon administration) Agreed. - As I said in the intro, the Nixon stuff was variable in quality. We got a few decent jokes out of it (and you've got to love the Giant Robot ripping his way into the White House), but way too much of it was weak, middle-era-"Simpsons" style 'lampooning' that said nothing new and repeated the same jokes over and over. I do like that Nixon's presidency remained during the rest of the season/show, but it would have been better if getting him there had been less laboured. Hmm. I'm curious as to what you mean by 'middle-era simpsons' style. - It was brief enough not to be a real problem, but the Claudia Schiffer bit was just another pointless celebrity cameo. I had forgotten all about her! She left so little impact. I can understand with the gang going into the head museum there would be temptation to put in a celebrity cameo, but this was clearly a case of having a celebrity just for the sake of having a celebrity. - The 'Bender lives the high life' stuff was fine, but feels like padding when you consider that it's of minimal relevance to the plot. It wasn't especially funny either. - If Bender has a self-destruct button installed on his person, why would he have needed to visit a suicide booth when he wanted to kill himself in "Space Pilot 3000"? His self-destruct was activated in the star trek spoof episode later, and all it did was blow up his head. I guess he needs a suicide booth to destroy himself completely. Overall, I'd say that "A Head in the Polls" is just an average episode - it has nothing worth hating, but not much to love either, and its basic plot/gags pale a bit when compared to the greater depth and sophistication that was apparent in the season's first two episodes. Still, it's worth it for some of the smarter commentary in the early part of the show, and it was nice to plug the presidential gap that seemed to have been hanging around since "When Aliens Attack". Yup. Thats probably what happened. |
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Post by partcynic on Nov 11, 2011 18:52:59 GMT -5
2x04 "Xmas Story"
So far, S2 has seen the show going from strength to strength, and "Xmas Story" continues its hot streak by combining a pleasantly zany plot and great humour with some successful emotional scenes; deserving credit for doing so despite its creation probably being due to network demand for a Christmas episode. Almost every figure in the show's ensemble gets a good moment here, and it has the same 'full' feeling as "A Night to Remember" in terms of satisfying character interaction.
Likes:
- I always enjoy seeing the wider Planet Express group interacting with each other, and everyone had a funny line (or three). The opening trip to the ski lodge introduced the festive aspect naturally and gave us plenty of amusing stuff, so that every moment was enjoyable. The holiday preparations at the office and the closing singalong were also great fun, and helped the cast feel like a believable, close-knit family.
- I thought it was noteworthy that the first act had Zoidberg at the 'sharpest' we'd seen him. Raising a metaphorical eyebrow at Hermes on the bobsled was one the few times he's been less than totally compliant with the others, and I liked it for that. It was also neat that he's apparently the only person who's nice enough to get Santa's approval.
- Bender was in good form throughout. He's far funnier when the writers play up his self-centred cluelessness and lack of shame (as in faking homelessness to get free alcohol) than when he's portrayed as deliberately malicious (compare and contrast with "I Second That Emotion"). I also find it interesting that when he has behaved in that manner in the last couple of eps, he gets prompt karmic retribution (spouting the sub-Homer Simpson catchphrase only to go flying off the cliff seconds later; mugging the old woman and incurring Santa's wrath).
- I wasn't convinced by Fry's 'I miss the 20th Century' stuff in "A Fishful of Dollars", but it worked nicely here. However he felt about his family when he first came to the future, I can certainly see how the time of year might have made him view things with nostalgia. It was also a good show of emotional maturity when he put his feelings to one side upon realising that Leela was worse off.
- The emotional moments with Leela alone (looking at her photo album) and with Fry were done well. I'll have to see how I feel about the 'will they, won't they' plot as the series progresses, but at the moment, it's infrequent and thus good.
- Robot Santa was agreeably over-the-top, providing comedy and being the obvious anchor to the seasonal aspects of the story. What's great is that rather than being a one-off, this tale acually becomes a proper part of the series' universe, making the ep feel like a viable "Futurama" edition instead of the Christmas throwaway many shows would have churned out.
Mixed Bag:
- We can now add Conan O'Brien to our ever-growing list of pointless celebrity cameos. If famous people are going to pop up, they need to have a proper role in the plot (like Lucy Liu, or even Pamela Anderson in S1), and not pointless, tokenistic scenes. Still, I at least liked seeing Bender disrupt his routine.
- I'm a bit unsure about Zoidberg and the pogo stick. I liked that he saved the day, but it's contrived that the random present Santa gave him ended up being vital for saving everyone. However, since the same result could have occurred without the stick (maybe by grabbing that jet-pack Amy was using earlier), I'll let it go.
Dislikes:
- Fry being caught by Leela when he fell from the tower was poor plotting. It was too much that she was at exactly the right place at exactly the right time when the only lead she had was that Fry had gone out to buy her a present. Of course, the physics were also classic TV - in reality, even if she'd caught him, the force would have pulled her out of the window and they'd both have died.
- The parrot blocking Santa's missile was too coincidental (especially coming after the miraculous tower grab), and its body wouldn't have been enough to stop the explosion harming Fry and Leela.
- The present-giving sequence with Hermes, Amy and Zoidberg was stupid. First of all, why would the wealthy Amy need to sell her hair to afford to buy a present? Ignoring that, I can't see her ever willingly compromising her attractiveness by having all her hair cut off - and especially not for Hermes (who's just a colleague, not a close friend or partner). It was also silly that Hermes bought combs for Zoidberg (who has no hair - was that supposed to be a sign of his dislike for him, so that he gave him a present he'd have no use for?) In addition, when did they get those combs? They have their hair a little earlier in the episode, so unless they went out after Fry and ignored their own warnings about Santa, it's not feasible. With all of those slips and errors, it's worse that the scene wasn't even funny.
- Why was Tinny Tim complaining about being hungry in the final scene? He doesn't need to eat, and had gotten his share of alcohol during the mugging sessions. Also, if the parrot had supposedly been blown to bits by the missile ("your present might need some assembly"), how did Bender retrieve a intact bird?
***
Overall, I'd say "Xmas Story" is another strong episode, and probably towards the higher levels when considering what's come so far. I probably won't consider assigning numerical values until at least the end of S2 (or maybe even S3, where a couple of eps I dislike are lurking, and I can have a better sense of what would be 0s and 10s for "Futurama"), but at the moment I'd take a guess at this probably being in the region of a 7 or 8.
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Post by cyclica on Nov 12, 2011 16:30:20 GMT -5
Xmas story
Overall, this one was ok. The good slightly outweighs the bad for me.
Things I liked-
- The ski scenes at the start were fun, if a bit random. I liked hermes and zoidberg falling down the bobsleigh chute, and fry jumping in after them.
- Leela wanting to 'axe' fry about 'xmas'. It's a nice reference to the fact that languages change over time... if only they could have remembered to say 'axe' in later eps.
- There's some nice emptional moments in this ep. I liked fry wanting to celebrate Christmas the way he was used to, those 'still adjusting to life in the future' stories always work for me. And we get a sign of fry and leela becoming closer (You're lonely and I'm lonely. But, together, we're lonely together), which felt much more natural than some of the more forced shipper moments in later eps, where fry is doing things to try to 'win' her (not that they are all bad).
- I loved everything involving that parrot, from fry calling it his mental equal, to the 'safety last' sequence, to it 'needing some assembly', and finally having to have it for dinner.
Favourite line-
Hermes: And last, but not least, the sweet flower of the office: Me. Hermes Conrad.
Close second-
Fry: Look, the food isn't what's important.
Tinny Tim: I'm so hungry.
Things I disliked-
- A big part of the episode revolves around fry accidently being insensitive of leela's feelings, and then feeling bad and buying her a present to make it up to her. Here's the problem though- he wasn't all that bad. All he said was "how about a little sympathy here" just as she walked in, in an already emotional state, which he couldn't have known about. I'm not buying that he'd be wracked with guilt over that one line. And besides, he did deserve some sympathy, maybe even as much as leela does, it was his first holiday without any of his old friends and family. It was kinda cruel and hypocritical that the crew were telling him off for being insensitive, while they were being insensitive to how *he* feels. And it's not like any of them did anything nice for leela. Not even a card!
Nitpicking-
- The cameo from Conan O'Brien is another classic example of forcing a celebrity cameo where they don't belong. If he's such a lame comedian, what is he still doing performing in the year 3000?
- It felt a bit off to me that all the male characters became injured on the ski slopes and all the women were left unharmed. I might not have noticed though if they hadn't have done that pan across them, emphasizing the men's injuries.
- Those jolly-seeking missiles fry almost buys seem like a really bad idea. Out of this xmas context, there's something dark and disturbing about a weapon that only targets people who are happy.
- Bender robbing the old lady was a bit excessive. Especially since it was totally at random, not part of his 'get free alcohol at the shelter storyline'.
- I don't know where to begin with the 'zoidberg buys hermes and amys hair' sequence. The writers must have known how little sense it made, and said to themselves 'we don't care, we're putting it in anyway just for the joke'. I suppose the joke was funny enough to be worth it, though it was still a jarringly bad scene.
- That song at the end was just lame. Also, whenever leela sings, it always sounds like the voice actress is doing her best to sing properly, rather than doing a comedy voice like everyone else is, and it makes her stand out.
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Post by partcynic on Nov 12, 2011 17:32:04 GMT -5
This is where I start showing my age. This would include the period under David Mirkin (S5-6), where the 'satire' tended to mean obvious riffs on strawman caricatures rather than anything clever. A good contrast of this is the political theme in S2's "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" versus S6's "Sideshow Bob Roberts" - the first is an excellent observation on the democratic political system with excellent skewering and fair characterisation (Mr Burns is selfish and spiteful, but not irredeemably evil), while the latter shows republicans meeting in a creepy castle with Dracula as one of their members. There's quite a contrast in intelligence there. If only Tinny Tim was capable of feeling hunger.  I agree that the others shouldn't have chastised Fry when they weren't doing anything for Leela themselves, but Fry was still being thoughtless there. While he didn't know that Leela was upset at that moment, he does know that she grew up in an orphanage and is the only known one of her species in the universe, so following logic, Christmas would not be a happy time for her. Beyond that, I never actually thought Fry's subsequent actions were driven by guilt about what he'd said. He felt momentarily bad, but everything after was about him wanting to do something genuinely nice for Leela to cheer her up. It was a really nice show of his burgeoning emotional maturity, and an indication that he does have genuine feelings for her. Agreed on both counts. To be fair, there are only two women on the crew. It would have been really strange (if not OOC) if Leela had gotten hurt, and Amy didn't even venture onto the slopes. I thought that too, though having him almost get blown to bits for his actions shortly after made it a bit easier to swallow. Yes! The only scene in the ep I actively disliked. |
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Post by cyclica on Nov 14, 2011 18:59:18 GMT -5
- The emotional moments with Leela alone (looking at her photo album) and with Fry were done well. I'll have to see how I feel about the 'will they, won't they' plot as the series progresses, but at the moment, it's infrequent and thus good. Agreed. I'm really loving these little emotional moments like in this ep and in the moon episode. - Bender was in good form throughout. He's far funnier when the writers play up his self-centred cluelessness and lack of shame (as in faking homelessness to get free alcohol) than when he's portrayed as deliberately malicious (compare and contrast with "I Second That Emotion"). I also find it interesting that when he has behaved in that manner in the last couple of eps, he gets prompt karmic retribution (spouting the sub-Homer Simpson catchphrase only to go flying off the cliff seconds later; mugging the old woman and incurring Santa's wrath). Interesting, I feel the opposite. Personally I much prefer how hes portrayed in ISTE, his uncaring behaviour comes across an an exploration/parody of being an 'emotionless' robot vs being an emotional human. Whereas in xmas story it looks like he's just doing whatever the writers feel would be expected. He likes to steal things, so here's a scene of him stealing things. I generally don't like it whenever a character gets their comeuppance. It comes across as the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it too, to have a character that is edgy, but not too edgy, like they want to be absolutely clear that the show doesn't condone this behaviour. You'd have someone behaving badly and 'get away with it' by having them punished immediately afterwards. The best example being 'amazon women in the mood', which is just non-stop sexist jokes which they get away with by having the women hit the men after each joke is made. Here, the writers can put in a mindless scene of bender cruelly robbing an old lady, and get away with it by having robot santa give him his comeuppance.  - Fry being caught by Leela when he fell from the tower was poor plotting. It was too much that she was at exactly the right place at exactly the right time when the only lead she had was that Fry had gone out to buy her a present. Not to mention the window that just appeared from nowhere, allowing her to grab him. - The present-giving sequence with Hermes, Amy and Zoidberg was stupid. First of all, why would the wealthy Amy need to sell her hair to afford to buy a present? Ignoring that, I can't see her ever willingly compromising her attractiveness by having all her hair cut off - and especially not for Hermes (who's just a colleague, not a close friend or partner). It was also silly that Hermes bought combs for Zoidberg (who has no hair - was that supposed to be a sign of his dislike for him, so that he gave him a present he'd have no use for?) In addition, when did they get those combs? They have their hair a little earlier in the episode, so unless they went out after Fry and ignored their own warnings about Santa, it's not feasible. With all of those slips and errors, it's worse that the scene wasn't even funny. Heh, it never occured to me that hermes would be deliberately buying zoidberg a useless present out of hatred. It's strange how he bought zoidberg a comb, but was *shocked* when zoidberg revealed he had hair. I probably won't consider assigning numerical values until at least the end of S2 (or maybe even S3, where a couple of eps I dislike are lurking, and I can have a better sense of what would be 0s and 10s for "Futurama"), but at the moment I'd take a guess at this probably being in the region of a 7 or 8. Interesting! Is this your favourite episode so far? Perhaps I should have asked this years ago in regards to the buffy reviews but anyway- what kind of scale do you use? Is it the kind where your favourite episode gets a 10 and your least favourite gets a 0, and all other eps fall inbetween... or is it the kind of scale with a 10 being a hypothetical perfect episode and a 0 being absolutely terrible, and a show might not necessarily have any episodes of either score? I ask because I use the latter kind of scale, and I can't see any episode of futurama ever getting a 0 on a scale like that. This is where I start showing my age. This would include the period under David Mirkin (S5-6), where the 'satire' tended to mean obvious riffs on strawman caricatures rather than anything clever. A good contrast of this is the political theme in S2's "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" versus S6's "Sideshow Bob Roberts" - the first is an excellent observation on the democratic political system with excellent skewering and fair characterisation (Mr Burns is selfish and spiteful, but not irredeemably evil), while the latter shows republicans meeting in a creepy castle with Dracula as one of their members. There's quite a contrast in intelligence there. Season 6 is still infinitely more enjoyable that season 12's approach of just having homer hurt and injured over and over again for laughs. To be fair, there are only two women on the crew. It would have been really strange (if not OOC) if Leela had gotten hurt, and Amy didn't even venture onto the slopes. They could have put in a scene of leela and/or amy getting into a slapstick violence situation if they wanted. The creators had said in interviews that they were fed up of female characters on the simpsons never being the butt of the jokes and wanted to rectify that on futurama, and have women who get a little slapstick violence now and then, just like the men do. I hate having it rubbed in my face that they're not delivering on their promise. |
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Post by partcynic on Nov 16, 2011 18:44:16 GMT -5
I definitely see where you're coming from here, and understand why it would bother you. I agree that this style is overdone in "Amazon Women in the Mood", but I'm not sure how else the writers could get around it. They put themselves in a corner by having Bender be an obvious 'merchandise for kids and teens' character, so the only way they can deal with his behaviour without incurring the wrath of the parents/network is by having it blow up in his face. I think the main problem is how inconsistent they are with it, meaning that he can be punished for trivial things while no-one bats an eyelid at some really awful stuff (one of the big problems I have with an upcoming ep).
So far, I'd say "A Flight to Remember" is my favourite. It has the best combination of plot, humour, interaction and character development yet. "Xmas Story" might be number two or three.
I use the former one - the best of the show gets a 10, and its worst a 0, regardless of how I might rate them when considering other programmes. So with "Buffy", "Passion" and "Hush" get 10s as my favourite/the best arc ep and standalone respectively, while "Wrecked" and "Empty Places" get 0s even though I'd rather watch them than any edition of a number of other shows. It's just that they're the poorest offerings from "Buffy", and something has to go at the bottom. I personally think that people shouldn't say they rate on a 0-10 scale if they never assign 0s or 10s. I always find it funny when critics review something and say it's completely awful... then give it 6/10. It means they rate from 6-10, not 0, and that makes the perceived difference in quality between their ratings much harder to discern.
Definitely. S6 is dumb(er than s2), but still has lots of good jokes. S12 is both dumb and unfunny.
Interesting - I didn't know about that. I guess the only thing that comes close is Amy's clumsiness, but they tend to forget about that for long periods of time.
**
By the way, thanks for the tip you gave me about Sky One showing the new episodes. I managed to record the middle third of the season, and have been working through them. I'll admit that so far, I've not been that impressed (the characterisation of Leela is terrible 90% of the time, the humour is decent but generally cheaper, and they keep running obvious jokes into the ground), but I thought that "The Prisoner of Benda" was creative and interesting.
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Post by cyclica on Nov 17, 2011 18:51:14 GMT -5
I use the former one - the best of the show gets a 10, and its worst a 0, regardless of how I might rate them when considering other programmes. So with "Buffy", "Passion" and "Hush" get 10s as my favourite/the best arc ep and standalone respectively, while "Wrecked" and "Empty Places" get 0s even though I'd rather watch them than any edition of a number of other shows. It's just that they're the poorest offerings from "Buffy", and something has to go at the bottom. ^ That system works fine with a show that has ended like buffy, but I forsee problems with an ongoing series like futurama. You could encounter a new episode better than one you gave a 10 to, or worse than a zero, and you'd have to give a score of 11 or -1, or have to re-adjust your previous ratings. I think you had the right idea when you said you might wait until season 3 before getting into the ratings, especially if you haven't watched the show in a while. I personally think that people shouldn't say they rate on a 0-10 scale if they never assign 0s or 10s. I always find it funny when critics review something and say it's completely awful... then give it 6/10. It means they rate from 6-10, not 0, and that makes the perceived difference in quality between their ratings much harder to discern. ^ I can be guilty of that sometimes.  I feel compelled to mention everything I don't like in an ep, in the interests of being thorough (and I just feel like nitpicking sometimes), but I might still enjoy the episode and give a high score. I admit I can be stingy with the 10s and 0s too. My system isn't perfect, but I can't bring myself to rate a full 10 to an episode if I find fault with it, and there's always at least one little fault. And likewise I don't want to give the lowest possible score if there's some small redeeming factor, which is usually the case. Besides, I hate it when reviewers give tons of tens and zeros. Sometimes it's like, I love this episode, therefore it gets a ten. And I knew one reviewer who would give zeros to a whole string of episodes in a row because he hated that season's arc, even saying 'this weeks episode is much better than last weeks, but it's still terrible, so it's still getting a zero'. It's annoying, and it forces me to imagine a scale 'within' the zero rating. In any event, I'm glad I know what kind of system you use. I myself probably won't be giving any ratings to futurama episodes, the reason being it's a show that I love, and I'd most likely be giving a 6-9 score for almost every episode. And if I went by your system, I'd end up giving twos and threes to episodes that I enjoy, if only because they're not as good as the others, and I'd rather not do that. Interesting - I didn't know about that. I guess the only thing that comes close is Amy's clumsiness, but they tend to forget about that for long periods of time. ^ And it was rarely funny when they remembered it. By the way, thanks for the tip you gave me about Sky One showing the new episodes. I managed to record the middle third of the season, and have been working through them. I'll admit that so far, I've not been that impressed (the characterisation of Leela is terrible 90% of the time, the humour is decent but generally cheaper, and they keep running obvious jokes into the ground), but I thought that "The Prisoner of Benda" was creative and interesting. ^ Hmm. I found s5 to be as much of a mixed bag as seasons 3 and 4. I'm looking forward to discussing the newer eps with you, especially in regards to leela. FYI, I've now seen every episode of futurama up to the first half of s6, and most of the second half (and I'm stopping there, I'd like to save the remaining few for another time). Now my marathon is over I'll be reviewing the episodes from memory, while skimming through transcripts to make sure I don't forget anything. |
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Post by partcynic on Nov 23, 2011 15:12:12 GMT -5
2x05 "Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love"
Knowing that this was going to be a Zoidberg-centred episode, I was a bit uncertain about how I'd react to it, mainly because the one show that always comes to mind for him is "That's Lobstertainment", which I'm not so keen on. However, this edition was an excellent way of showing how Zoidberg can command attention when he's not being the butt of jokes, providing a little character progression while illuminating his background and showing his versatility in being comedic and even a little emotional.
Likes:
- Following the season's template, this is a well-plotted, well-paced story that has lots of worthwhile jokes and some nice pieces of character progression.
- Between his candour at the start of "Xmas Story" and this episode, we got to see more of Zoidberg than we had at any prior point, and the character proved capable of handling it. The events at the gym were a decent way of introducing the main plot, and I enjoyed seeing his home planet and getting acquainted with other members of his species. The emotional (of sorts) development with his learning a few more complex feelings also worked (I can't recall if it has any significant impact in future, but it's still a nice progression). If memory serves, I think that this may also be the most three-dimensional portrayal we've had of him (in S1-4), and the ep certainly deserves credit for that.
- Fry giving Zoidberg advice could have been very 'dudebro' in its execution, but it mostly avoided that and stayed funny. I smiled at Zoidberg learning about love and its "lies upon lies", as well as what Fry's teachings said about his own immaturity regarding relationships. It was also neat that Edna fell for Fry upon learning that he was feeding Zoidberg his lines, adding some good conflict for the final act and creating a real Catch-22 for Fry (poor guy).
- As I've implied before, I like Bender more as a topping than a main course, and he did his job nicely here. Planning on cooking Zoidberg to deal with his madness and then taking bets against Fry during the fight were pretty funny, as was his attempt at dazzling him with light.
Dislikes:
- Zoidberg's race all speak English and use (what appears the be) the dollar? I'm sure that Earth globalisation has probably become 'galaxisation', but it would be cool to have an alien race who aren't just odd-looking humanoids that the characters have no difficulty interacting with.
- I could have done without the blatant cartooniness of Zoidberg snipping off Fry's arm. With no blood, no pain and no harm done despite a lack of prompt medical attention, it was too much even for "Futurama". And wouldn't Leela have been a bit concerned about Fry losing a limb and having no immediate treatment? Even with the medical technology of the year 3000, people will still bleed to death from sudden cleaving and appendages will rot without cooling and prompt surgery.
***
This has been a shorter review from normal (due to my bad time management - I wrote about a third of it after watching the ep, then forgot about it, wrote the next three reviews in full, and finally remembered that I had something left to finish), but I'll cover the lack of in-depth stuff to say that I enjoyed "Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love" quite a bit. It didn't work as effectively for me as "Xmas Story", but it's a cohesive tale that does what it set out to do very well, effectively fleshing out a supporting character in the process.
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Post by cyclica on Nov 24, 2011 18:45:18 GMT -5
Why must I be a crustacean in love?Things I liked-- There's lots of funny scenes at the gym early on. I love it when the show presents these 'future versions' of modern places. - I enjoyed getting to see zoidberg on his homeworld and the insights into his people. I especially enjoyed the 'recent tradition' of claw-plah, which coincidentally just happens to resemble the combat in star trek between kirk and spock, and also just happens to have the same theme music.  - The highlight of the episode is the blind-leading-the-blind story of fry teaching zoidberg about dating. It's pretty pathetic that zoidberg would need a human's help in wooing a decopodian woman. And I find it an interesting idea that in a world without love, even a loser like fry can become irresistable by spouting terrible pickup lines, because they're better than none at all. Fav line-Fry: My fellow fish monsters, far be it for me to question your stupid civilisation or its dumb customs. Close second- Fry: Start with a compliment. Tell her she looks thin. Zoidberg: You seem malnourished. Are you suffering from internal parasites? Edna: Why, yes. Thanks for noticing. Nitpicks-- Is every building on zoidberg's planet made out of sand? Is it even possible to have an all sand planet? And if the city is by the ocean, what happend when there's a wave? The city wouldn't have a chance. - It's a little bizarre that zoidberg doesn't even know what love is. Even if his people are *that* alien, you'd think he'd have picked it up after living on earth for years. - Fry's problem is that edna wants to have him, and zoidberg wants to kill him under the assumption fry's stealing edna away from him. So why doesn't fry just leave? He could go back to the spaceship and wait there, or he, leela and bender can just go home and return for zoidberg later on. - Decaopdians can only have sex once, and they die? I suppose that's why there's no concept of love, if two people allowed themselves to fall in love the temptation for sex might be too great and the population would die out quickly. But the decapodians never show any fear or apprehension that they are about to die as they enter the water. It's all a bit too unbeleivable, especially since the people we saw were all watching a pre-arranged fight, which they abruptly left halfway through so they could have sex and die. And how can women get pregnant if they die straight after sex? - You'd think edna would have waited until the end of the fight and picked zoidberg or fry to mate with instead of randomly mating with the king. It's not like the frenzy was the only time they can have sex, it comes across more as a custom than as a biological drive, like an animal only having sex when in heat. And what made the king suddenly want to give up his life of celebacy? - I never realised before that having your arm cut off was completely painless!
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Post by cyclica on Nov 24, 2011 19:01:57 GMT -5
^ I agreed with everything you said in your review, I felt pretty much the same way about it you did. Knowing that this was going to be a Zoidberg-centred episode, I was a bit uncertain about how I'd react to it, mainly because the one show that always comes to mind for him is "That's Lobstertainment", which I'm not so keen on. Me neither. In fact I think that episode is regarded as the worst episode of the show's history. If memory serves, I think that this may also be the most three-dimensional portrayal we've had of him (in S1-4), and the ep certainly deserves credit for that. I think you're right there. ...but it would be cool to have an alien race who aren't just odd-looking humanoids that the characters have no difficulty interacting with. You could say the same about pretty much all sci-fi shows. |
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Post by partcynic on Nov 26, 2011 13:57:09 GMT -5
It's not a huge problem for me to re-rate (which is what I do when I encounter an ep that's either so good or so bad that it forces a scale change). Even with "Buffy", I was still changing some scores years after having given the original ("School Hard" and "Normal Again"). If I do give "Futurama" ratings, I'll probably hold off for a while yet, or perhaps just break eps up into groups of excellent, good, average, okay and poor without using numbers. That's fair enough. The benefit of my system is that it avoids those problems - you don't have to perfect for a 10, or irredeemable for a 0. Yep - it's a variation on the issue I have with people only assigning 6-10s. It's also why I don't just rate according to my pure liking of an ep. I could love an edition of a show that's really funny or successfully emotional and still only give it a 6 if there are other eps that are equally humorous/emotional but also have creative plots, great pacing, character development/consistency, universe development etc. It reminds me of my pet peeve of people dismissing "Buffy" S4 because they don't like the Initiative, while ignoring that the Initiative is a pretty small part of the season. Bear in mind that I enjoy (overall) pretty much every ep that gets a 2 or higher (2s just have some major problems that have me shaking my head while I'm watching). It's only the 1s and 0s I'm saying are actively bad - and even they can have some decent moments scattered about. What counts as S5 for "Futurama"? Is it the four movies or the new individual episodes? If it's the films, I agree that they were pretty mixed. *** Same here. So assume that if I haven't commented on specific points, my response is 'I agree'. The Decapodians would probably have little use for love. That kind of long-term pair bond is important for humans due to concealed ovulation, the dangers of pregnancy and the long time taken for humans to reach physical maturity (compared to other animals), but if your reproductive method is mate-then-die, you just want the individual with the best genetics, and don't need to have any deeper relationship with them. I doubt dying would bother them that much if mate-then-die is an accepted part of their life-cycle. Since each pair could produce a large number of viable offspring, the population should stay stable, too. Their only real worry would be predation on the emerging young, but since they seem to be on top of the planetary chain, it's probably not an issue. Come to think of it, I'd say the main issue here is that everyone chooses to mate/die at the same time. If they know that (potentially hostile) life exists on other worlds, you'd think they'd arrange things so that only a quarter or a third of the population would mate at that time, leaving the others to defend the planet while the young emerge - and once they had, the remaining members of the original group could then mate themselves. If they got chatting during Claw-plach and realised that they were the most fertile female and male, it makes sense that they'd pair off - they both get a huge number of offspring, and Edna gets genes from a top-status male for her kids (maybe giving them an advantage over others). I don't blame the King either - even if he'd sworn to be celibate up until that point, what was he going to do when everyone else was dead, leaving him waiting around for the new generation to reach adulthood? His royal role had little purpose if there's no-one about to enforce it on. They aren't mammals, so they don't get pregnant. The female would lay her eggs and the male would then fertilise them, just like Umbriel explains to Fry in "The Deep South". |
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Post by cyclica on Nov 27, 2011 16:32:26 GMT -5
What counts as S5 for "Futurama"?Is it the four movies or the new individual episodes? If it's the films, I agree that they were pretty mixed. I was referring to the new season (rebirth - reincarnation). One thing I hate about futurama is how ridiculously and needlessly complicated their season-numbering system is. The latest season could be referred to as season 5 (there have been 4 proper seasons in the previous run), season 6 (if you count the movies as a season, or if you count broadcast season 5), season 7 (if you count the movies AND 5 broadcast seasons), season 6/7 (if you count the broadcast s5, and the latest season itself as 2 distinct seasons, since it aired over 2 years), or even season 7/8 (counting 5 broadcast seasons, the movies, and the latest season also a 2). I personally regard the original run as 4 seasons, the movies as seperate, and rebirth - reincarnation as season 5. The Decapodians would probably have little use for love. That kind of long-term pair bond is important for humans due to concealed ovulation, the dangers of pregnancy and the long time taken for humans to reach physical maturity (compared to other animals), but if your reproductive method is mate-then-die, you just want the individual with the best genetics, and don't need to have any deeper relationship with them. That makes sense. From edna's comments about wanting a superior 'male specemin', I think that could be what the writers intended too. I doubt dying would bother them that much if mate-then-die is an accepted part of their life-cycle. Since each pair could produce a large number of viable offspring, the population should stay stable, too. Their only real worry would be predation on the emerging young, but since they seem to be on top of the planetary chain, it's probably not an issue. Hmm. That would work if decapodians were mindless animals, but as sentient people I still find it hard to beleive they wouldn't voice some concern over their iminent death, perhaps lamenting that they died too young, or have unfinished work to do, or being afraid they'll never see their friends again, or something. If they know that (potentially hostile) life exists on other worlds, you'd think they'd arrange things so that only a quarter or a third of the population would mate at that time, leaving the others to defend the planet while the young emerge - and once they had, the remaining members of the original group could then mate themselves. ... I don't blame the King either - even if he'd sworn to be celibate up until that point, what was he going to do when everyone else was dead, leaving him waiting around for the new generation to reach adulthood? His royal role had little purpose if there's no-one about to enforce it on. I never assumed that the frenzy affected the whole planet, in fact from what we saw it didn't even looked like it affected a whole city's worth of people. I saw it as a non-mandatory custom, and as you said, there must be a significant adult population remaining alive to look after the young. Not only that, but just to keep the industries going too, and to retain culture and society, or else each new generaion would be totally different from the one before it. As far as I can see it, this is the only system that could work; a society run exclusively by decapodian children seems doomed to failure, if not from predators/alien invaders then from a lack of education and cultural identity. ... Which makes the king's actions all the more puzzling. There HAS to be more people (adults) left alive after the frenzy is over, he still has a job to do, and choosing to die spontaneously (without so much as choosing a successor, on-screen anyway) seems like a crazy, random thing to do. They aren't mammals, so they don't get pregnant. The female would lay her eggs and the male would then fertilise them, just like Umbriel explains to Fry in "The Deep South". Eep! Yeah, I forgot lobsters aren't mammals. Still, the 'fountain of aging' episode has shown us zoidberg's younger selves as all manner of sea creatures, and he does have a ink pouch... I doubt he was intended to be a 100% talking lobster, he's more an amalgam of various sea creatures. So the biological laws of our planet might not even apply to his, and hopefully I can be forgiven for assuming decapodians can become pregnant too. |
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Post by cyclica on Dec 3, 2011 9:17:57 GMT -5
The lesser of two evilsThings I liked-- There's a lot of humour in this episode. From leela mistaking a phone booth for a bathroom and the professor holding a meeting in his bedroom / in the bath to bender's constantly hiding his chin area for no given reason, it may be the funniest episode yet (with the possible exceptions of any zapp/kiff episodes). - Pastorama was ok. We've already explored the idea of the futures' ignorance of the past in the moon episode, but it was still fun to see more. - Flexo! I love how his personality is similar to benders, but still slightly different enough to be distinct. Having another 'new addition to the crew' episode so soon after 'brannigan begin again' could easily have failed, but flexo really worked for me, and I'm glad he was brought back in later episodes. - The main storyline of fry assuming flexo was evil was fascinating. As the crew points out, flexo is no better or worse than bender, and treats fry just as badly, and yet fry always sees bender as good and flexo as evil. Could it be that bender has 'grown on' fry, and fry doesn't notice the bad things bender does, does fry just fear the unfamiliar, or has he been watching too much star trek and assumed, as bender said, everyone with a beard is evil (like mirror universe spock)? Then again, flexo did spray fry with chlorine, so he does have a real reason to dislike him. - There's also the idea that fry is judging flexo unfairly solely because of his appearance, since flexo and bender are identicle in every other way, which as bender points out is prejudice. I liked that the idea was raised, but they didn't do enough with it, and it paints fry in a bad light. So consider this a 'mixed bag' point. Favourite line-Fry: Caught you! I saw you looking at the atom. Flexo: So? I look at lots of atoms. Nitpicks-- Bender- "We're both expressible as the sum of two cubes!" Why would bender care? - Bob barker. Did the writers think they could pull in more viewers by having a game show host do a guest voice? - It was unfair that innocent flexo was arrested at the end, and it wasn't even for a joke. It was more like 'tying up a loose end', though they could easily have just had him quit or leave. Random- Fry says if he ever wanted to go back to the year 2000 he'll just freeze himself again (because time is cyclical), and bender seems to have a dislike of hi-tech machinery... future episode forshadowings? Did the writers of 'the late philip j fry' and 'obsoletely fabulous' just watch this ep and get the ideas from here?
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Post by partcynic on Dec 3, 2011 14:39:41 GMT -5
2x06 "The Lesser of Two Evils"
Like "Why Must I Be Crustacean in Love", I wasn't expecting to particularly like this episode, but unlike what happened with that ep, my initial impressions here carried over once I'd seen the full show. Of course, this is a S2 offering, so the writing is solid enough to prevent anything from being a total failure - instead, the flaws here are more about long-standing character issues, which are inversely bothersome to the amount of slack you're willing to cut Bender. This is where the 'is bad behaviour acceptable if it's supposed to be funny?' question becomes important, and while I mostly enjoyed the character when I originally watched the series (though I got sick of him by S4), but now he irritates me as frequently as he amuses.
Likes:
- Almost everything in the first act was good. "Cop Department" was fun and led nicely into 'Past-o-Rama', and I thought seeing Fry in the role of teacher was a nice change of pace (though not necessarily anything new). The mugging, Leela misinterpreting his comments about the phone booth, and the true meaning of the sign were amusing, and I also liked the massive anachronisms with the advert (similar to that educational moon ride in "The Series Has Landed").
- The bedroom sequence with the Professor showing everyone the atom was funny, as was the cut to him in the bathtub when Leela requested that they take the meeting elsewhere.
- I enjoyed everything with the beauty pageant. I liked the continual sparring between Amy and Leela, as well as the humour with the various entrants (another Amazon appearance!) and Leela momentarily 'winning'.
- As always, Zapp was excellent, and while his material was minor, it was perfectly in-character. Given this ep's focus, I think it's also worthwhile to bring up the similarities between he and Bender - and more importantly, the differences. If anything, I'd say that Zapp is the character of Bender done properly - he's a self-centred tool, but the show openly acknowledges that he's a loser and treats him appropriately, while Bender is just as bad (in some cases, worse), yet is supposed to be looked up to (let's face it, he's the 'edgy' character designed to spout catchphrases for merchandising). I appreciate that in "Futurama", humour is always going to take precedence over development or believablity, but I think it says a lot that I always find Zapp funny, while Bender tends to miss as much as he hits.
Mixed Bag:
- The concept of two Benders (sort of) was decent. I don't think it was done as smartly as it could have been, but it led to a smidgen of commentary and development.
- The sequence with Bender and the scarf/jumper/map was silly and contrived, though parts of it were funny in an over-the-top way.
- It was very interesting to see Fry's conflict upon realising that he liked 'the evil Bender', but not 'the good one'. It created some decent ambiguity, and could have actually gone somewhere deeper. It takes away a hefty chunk of the positive that the idea was instantly dropped and no further thought given to how Bender treats his 'friends' (and what that says about him as a being), but it was neat to think that for a moment, something more insightful might happen.
Dislikes:
- If Flexo and Bender are just from the same production line (bending robots), shouldn't there be quite a few more lookalikes walking around? How many of them have been made?
- If the Professor was concerned about the atom's security, why would he be okay with Flexo (a stranger) helping out, even if he thought Fry recommended him? If he was too cheap to hire proper security, couldn't he have just insisted that Hermes, Amy and Zoidberg boost the crew's number by accompanying the others on the delivery? why would he think that adding a single individual to the crew would be sufficient protection? And even if he was fine with everything, wouldn't someone as money-minded as Hermes (or even the level-headed Leela) be very wary about taking Flexo on?
- Why would Flexo's response to seeing Bender steal the atom be to run and tell Bob Barker? What would it achieve? Wouldn't basic sense dictate that he go to Leela (the captain) with the news and get the ship locked down before Bender could escape?
- The episode felt incomplete and was marred by poor storytelling. The total lack of consequences for Bender stealing the atom (the cost of which could have destroyed Planet Express and left everyone but Amy in poverty) is the most egregrious example of the immunity he gets given, which would never be extended to any other character. The episode stopping after the joke about Fry and the radiator felt very abrupt, and was a cheap way of ignoring the impact (and treachery) of Bender's actions. In fact, hindsight makes it look even stupider that Leela was willing to have a go at he and Fry for messing about with a hose, but didn't bat an eyelid at a betrayal that could have had permanent, irreversible negative effects for everyone. Given what he did, why on earth should he keep his job?
- While I feel that "Futurama" manages to stand up as a unique entity shorn of its creators' ties to "The Simpsons", there's no denying that on occasion, a bit of low-quality "Simpsons" humour sneaks into the scripts. In this episode, it was the deliberately nasty ending for Flexo, who gets framed for a crime he didn't commit for no reason besides presumed comedy. Suffice to say, the joke failed for me - it was just pointless cruelty.
***
I think this review is worded a bit more harshly than some of my previous critical ones, so I'll reiterate that I don't hate "The Lesser of Two Evils", but instead found that its questionable, weakly-plotted story and significant moments of eyebrow-raising characterisation let down a strong first act and number of entertaining comedic sequences. The Bender/Flexo stuff here was the first time in this rewatch I'd been left with a bad taste in my mouth after watching, though it's at least nice that Flexo will get a bit of retribution the next time we see him.
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