Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.
It is always a tough call to judge whether a show coming back from death is a good or a bad thing. As experienced in numerous ways, it has proven to be as much of a success as it has a failure. There are even rare cases where the return goes sour despite being more financially worthwhile. Family Guy may be the worst offender, having started as this great scattershot pop culture collection that packed plenty of laughs. By eventually returning to the air, it was almost a middle finger to productions and soon it was up to them to offend everything in sight. If not for quality, then for attention.
Futurama is not quite nearly the same story as Family Guy. While both started off as Fox stalwarts that were compared to their flagship the Simpsons, they each had their return thanks to Cartoon Network reruns and eventually proved how influential the DVD market could be. It is a golden age for TV fans, if just because they can try to keep their shows on the air (with maybe exception to Bunheads). But when Futurama returned in a mix of four lackluster movies and then the TV show on Comedy Central, it almost seemed triumphant.
True, it was off the air for seven years, but the hit was back, and fans lavished it up. When it was announced that season seven would be its last, it almost felt not so much a shock as an acceptable fate. With 117 episodes, it has done wonders for the sci-fi parody landscape and while maybe never as strong as in its early days, it remains one of my personal favorites. Almost every episode that had come out of the Comedy Central era had something of merit. Even if it was one joke or this bizarre sight gag, it made me believe that it was a good call bringing it back. It never outstayed its welcome.
Then came the episode "Saturday Morning Fun Pit." For many, myself included, one of the bright spots in Futurama's return has been the anthology episodes. The ones that are akin to the Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror" series, in that they take a break from a full length plot to tell shorter stories. It started with the two immortal "Anthology of Interest" episodes which pitted the series in alternative scenarios. The results were universally revered and even creator Matt Groening considers them to be some of the best of the series. It evolved in the later seasons with varying themes such as "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular," "Naturama," and probably one of the greatest episodes of the Comedy Central era: "Reincarnation."
In fact, "Reincarnation" may be the most similar to this season's triptych episode "Saturday Morning Fun Pit." Where "Reincarnation" cleverly turned Futurama into varying styles of animation from 40's Disney-esque to 8-bit, the new gimmick would be that the series would make the most out of parodying Saturday morning cartoons: a concept that was ripe for the taking, but will throw off anyone who saw "Yo Leela Leela" last season and recognized that it made an entire story around parodying Yo Gabba Gabba. Not enough to leave anyone calling shenanigans for the show, but enough to be worried.
Still, if anyone wondered if the show was going downhill, there was no need to look further than this episode, which took the triptych concept and wrapped it around President of Earth Richard Nixon (Billy West) watching cartoons while telling hippies to beat it. It wasn't necessarily an interesting wraparound, but I guess that in the final season, they really need to make Nixon look like a jerk more than normal. This time, it could even be seen as incomprehensible.
The three segments almost felt prone to suffer from the start. While animation styles have been known to be satirized in the show, this isn't the distinct show that has the best. In many ways, watching the first part in which a parody of Scooby Doo comments on how cheap the animation is and that Fry (West) in the guise of Shaggy, is oddly hungry and stoned all the time, it reminded me of the superior South Park episode "Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery," which wasn't so much a commentary on Scooby Doo as it was a corny way to do a Halloween episode. Even the "mystery" element had no punch, as it was just how George Takei wanted to piss off a neighboring venue. There was no mystery and was full of obvious observations. It sacrificed everything for plot, and even casting Bender (John DiMaggio) as Bendee Boo had some promise. In fact, the only part that really clicked was when the Harlem Globetrotters showed up. This is of course because they have been recurring guests for years now and since one of Scooby Doo's most famous episode feature the same team, it was a sublime moment that went nowhere.
The most surreal may have been the second one in which a Strawberry Shortcake parody called Purpleberry Pond attempted to parody the marketing side. While the story itself was there, the running gag was the blatant self promotion via commercials for Purpleberry Cereal. Besides that, it was gags involving the purple-loving Purpleberry people despising a newcomer who wore orange, and Professor Farnsworth (West) served almost as a stock footage villain wanting to steal the Purpleberries. Another clip that was too self-aware and maybe to an even more absurd degree. While there are laughs to be had from Zoidberg's (West) lack of commitment, it was another thud of an episode that almost seemed to exist to say "buy Purpleberry Cereal!"
Finally, the triptych ended on the worst possible note with the wraparound inserting itself into the actual segment. Nixon attempts to censor a G.I. Joe parody by taking out the violence and giving the people more polite names. The problem is that when you have a jerky character like Nixon censoring things, it is over the top and ruins most of the fairly straightforward action on screen. The humor only really came from anyone who finds Nixon saying silly things over other people funny. It is probably the most annoying thing that the show has ever done on the simple grounds that it lacks comedic logic and even on a satirical base, feels lazy.
To say the least, it has been a good run for the show. However, it is impossible to find too much redeeming about this show that naysayers weren't saying about the series since Comedy Central picked it up. It is over the top and almost too self aware at points, not really allowing a solid story to build in favor of big, elaborate gags. While there are plenty of lowbrow jokes that sometimes work because they're forced as absurdity, it is proof that anyone wishing the show to continue should second guess.
I will admit that I am a Futurama fan until the end and I consider this season to be one of the best, including an E.T. episode ("T: The Terrestrial") that can battle Bob's Burgers' "O.T.: The Outside Toilet" for ingenuity. They're finishing strong and parodying everything they can along the way. The show has managed to reach that central ground where everything manages to click regardless of how plausible it is. Maybe the episodes aren't always as tight, but they still go for the heart, and that is all that matters. These characters aren't that bizarrely twisted from the earlier seasons. Besides their technological references, they still manage to commentate on pop culture and social issues with some bite.
The issue is that when you remove those features, you have "Saturday Morning Fun Pit," which feels like a poor "Reincarnation" clone. It looks like everyone is having fun, but when it was better done in "Yo Leela Leela," the question must be asked: "What is the point?" I know that the show had to stall somewhere, and hopefully this is it. I would love from here on out to see the show recover and end on a high note. From rumors I've heard, that is quite possible.
I am impressed that the show has managed to maintain dignity well into its final days. I love that it knew when to quit before it became a pain like other animated revival Family Guy. In comparison, it luckily has maintained dignity and bite with clever parodies and character episodes that still have that core element. Maybe they don't quite work and give into fan service sometimes, but they still bring new theories to the table, and that is admirable. Simple fact: without the revival, we wouldn't have "Reincarnation" or "The Tip of the Zoidberg" or "Mobius Dick."All of these spread out over the past three years and were thankfully reminders of the show's brilliance. I will miss it and its ability to make triptychs that far outweigh an average "Treehouse of Horror" these days. But still, ending on "Saturday Morning Fun Pit" almost feels like a reminder of where the show came from and where it could have gone, had they allowed the show to remain on air and get embarrassingly stale.
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