Good news everybody! Welcome to The Beat’s weekly coverage of the new season of Futurama. Our own Avery Kaplan reviewed the first six episodes. These reviews will cover each episode in depth week to week. So let’s get ready to see what this season delivers on a weekly basis.
There was a certain point where episodes of Futurama’s spiritual predecessor The Simpsons became shades of its heyday. Episodes written by folks maybe too comfortable writing The Simpsons. Between last season, which admittedly had some good to great episodes, and this season premiere, Futurama now seems at this point. It’s not that Futurama is unwatchable, but the show’s best days may be behind it.
Off to Mexico (the X makes it sound cool)
The season 12 premiere goes back to a well tread path for the show; parodying current events in the far future world of the show. In this case, the characters get wrapped up in the scam that is NFTs. Bender realizes that he can make money off them, makes money off “the concept of Bender”, and then is horrified finds out he no longer owns the concept of him. Naturally, he travels to Mexico to get back in touch with his roots.
The Bender plot of this episode is the weakest, though guest voice Danny Trejo as Bender’s cousin Doblando does his best. If anyone would voice Bender’s non union Mexican equivalent, it would be Trejo. While “Lethal Inspection” is one of the best episodes of the show, the idea of Bender’s Mexican heritage was always funnier as a verbal gag than a visual one. Seeing Bender’s family admittedly is fun (he has an Abuelita!) but the gags that mix and match ancient Latin American cultures, less so.
The story commenting on NFTs is more successful. The kids, Cubert, Dwight, and Amy and Kif’s brood, repeatedly explain to the adults the nature of NFTs. The more they explain the funnier it becomes, especially since the sound equally bored and annoyed repeating themselves. Adults will never learn. The Planet Express crew attempt a heist to get the concept of Bender back. The heist of course goes horribly wrong in a way that only happens on Futurama.
A show in the future stuck in the past
Still an episode commenting on NFTs seems dated especially when the market went bust almost two years ago. It’s not that the NFT jokes aren’t funny. However, last season’s “How the West Was 1010001” turned a plot about cryptocurrency into an inspired western themed episode. A final line explicitly pointing out what the episode already explained doesn’t help.
Which gets back to Futurama as a show comfortable with its own legacy. The episode is fine but there’s a sense that the show’s creators are going through the motions. Gags about giant, ancient robot emperors seems recycled instead of something different. The commentary on NFTs, while funny, comes across as a lazy. Saying NFTs are dumb is fine but the show has skewered modern culture in funnier, more biting ways at its best.
Final Verdict
Still a lesser Futurama episode is better than most sci-fi series best episodes. Only on this show can one find gags involving Incan counting systems and annoyed fish. The jokes on this show remain funny. It’s just that for a show frequently considered superior at this point to sister show The Simpsons, Futurama looks like it’s sliding into that series sense of comfortability as it ages.
New episodes of Futurama drop Mondays on Hulu.
Follow along with The Beat’s coverage of this season here.
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