My Favorite Season: #4 - "Futurama"

Every Tuesday, I will be attempting something unique. I will look through the pantheon on TV and determine what my favorite season of any show is. The goal is to explore the heights of these shows and better understand why they are beloved, at least by me. This is an experiment that I hope will last for awhile, though I am sure around the 30th entry, things will look a lot different and I will be grasping at straws. Anyways, join me for as long as this last and feel free to share some of your favorites with me as I go through this wonderful medium.

The Show

Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-2013)

To combat the highly success work on The Simpsons, creator Matt Groening with assistance from David X. Cohen created a series based around a intergalactic delivery company that featured a dumb guy. While it could have been a gimmick to simply appease the impending fear of Y2K, the series took on a life of its own and in many camps even excels that of The Simpsons' overall quality. The series featured a stable of memorable characters, catch phrases, and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Despite being cancelled, the series returned due to the rise of DVD sales and success in the rerun markets. While some claim that the latter seasons aren't as great, there's still the penchant charm, pop culture references, and clever science-skewering humor that makes Futurama more than a desperate second move by Groening. It has all of the heart of The Simpsons, but has a more unlimited supply of zaniness.

MY FAVORITE SEASON

Season 3 (2001-2002)

EPISODES

1. Amazon Women in the Mood
2. Parasites Lost
3. A Tale of Two Santas
4. The Luck of the Fryrish
5. The Birdbot of Ice Catraz
6. Bendless Love
7. The Day the Earth Stood tupid
8. That's Lobstertainment!
9. The Cyber House Rules
10. Where the Buggalo Roam
11. Insane in the Mainframe
12. The Route of All Evil
13. Bendin' in the Wind
14. Time Keeps on Slippin'
15. I Dated a Robot
16. A Leela of Her Own
17. A Pharaoh to Remember
18. Anthonoly of Interest II
19. Roswell That Ends Well
20. Godfellas
21. Future Stock
22. The 30% Iron Chef

HIGHLIGHTS

5 Reasons Why It's the Best

1. Next to "Jurassic Bark" in season 4, "Luck of the Fryrish" is one of the best episodes of the series for being able to look into Fry's family life and provide insight alongside its regiment humor. Most of all, it is a reflection of the series' ability to have twists in the plot that actually pack emotional punches and make Fry seem like more than just a doofus. While the Fry/Leela story also continues to expand and get far more interesting, it is his family and how much he secretly loves their abuse that makes Fry's nostalgia all the more endearing. 

2. "Amazon Women in the Mood" features one of the series' best commentary episodes in which it preaches feminism while also making fun of it. The show is able to do this with its own twist that has the male characters almost die by aggressive sex known as snu-snu. It is full of great moments, though its satire is equally matched by commentary and only made baffling by the reveal at the end. Nonetheless, the series hasn't been high on making thematic episodes, but it does it rather effectively when it wants to.

3. After two years of being teased of Bender's disinterest in being a folk singer, "Bendin' in the Wind" delivers a great parody when he becomes paralyzed and plays alongside the head of musician Beck. The alteration of "Where It's At" in which Beck says "That was a washboard break" is a great nuanced joke that is reflective of the series' ability to sneak in jabs at guest stars without pandering or causing a distracting derailing of the plot.

4. "Anthology of Interest II" remains the series' best anthology episode of the few that they did. It not only features Bender as a human ("Meatbag"), a Wreck-It Ralph-esque (that film's director, Rich Moore, directed episodes in this season) universe ("Raiders of the Lost Arcade") and a Wizard of Oz ("Wizzin'") parody, it also has the jokes to spare. Of the segments, the middle one in which Fry and Dr. Farnsworth get into an argument over whether Donkey Kong is a monkey is beyond inspired. Also, with countless references, it is the most explicit moment in the series' history where it acknowledged who its target audience was: nerds who played video games. I don't, and I still found it hilarious.


5. "Future Stock" is an excellent parody of Wall Street and I want to sing the "Safety Dance" parody for a long, long time. In fact, let's do it!


BEST EPISODE

"Roswell That Ends Well"

In a strong season, it is hard to pick a favorite. However, there's a need to pick this particular one for a lot of reasons. For starters, it is the one that gave the series an Emmy Award. Also, it was directed by the great Rich Moore and explored the series' fascination with time travel in ambitious, perverse ways that set it aside from any other animated sci-fi comedy. However, the real reason that it is one of the best is because it makes fun of the idea of messing up continuity so badly that it ends up making Fry his own grandfather. How does this happen? Just watch the episode. It is chock full of retro references and a lot of great sight gags, including a Back to the Future-type parody that still works. There's too much that's great about this episode to get into detail here. Just see it.

WORST EPISODE

"Godfellas"

The problem is that if given the option to revisit this episode, I likely wouldn't. I find the overall concept charming and interesting, though overall pointless. While the Fry looking for Bender (who was catapulted into space) aspect is rather heartwarming, Bender dealing with a village on his chest as never appealed to me. It felt like such a throwaway story that seemed to exist simply to fill up time. I like the episode, but in a season full of gems, this is the one that feels like filler and doesn't provide enough interesting action beats. It may be that Bender is off on his own and not given a lot to work with that makes him the lovable character that he is. However, the final minutes are touching and reflect the show's strengths to be weird, inventive, and full of wisdom.

FAVORITE PERFORMANCE

Fry in "The Luck of the Fryrish"

Futurama may have started off as a goofy parody series, but as it grew, it found a deeper heart in Fry. He still did crazy things, but he could be counted upon to have a big heart for whatever was called upon him to do. In this episode, it is a mystery wrapped up in a gut punching reveal that his brother Yancy named his son after Philip J. Fry and didn't simply steal it for the fame. There's a lot of subtext and family history explored here that makes it a hilarious, powerful episode that gave the series its legs in the long run. However, it is the bonding that a young Fry and Yancy have that essentially clenches any future flashback and allows for the naivety of time travel to have a sad, irreparable reality.

IS THE REST OF THE SERIES LIKE THIS?

This is the pinnacle of everything that Futurama was best at. Depending on your stances, the later seasons weren't that great and lost some of the heart. However, I debate that the series has always been consistent with its pop culture jabs and its Fry/Leela relationship that became the central plot of the series. With a lot of the characters' best moments and plenty of episodes centralizing around supporting characters, the series continued to grow ambitious. If anything, the prior seasons were a little less polished and Bender wasn't quite that formed. However, the romance was there. As the show got older, it became more obsessed with the concept of time, and I feel like that only grew into the final years of the series. I love the series as a whole and recommend watching almost any episode. However, this one is the best for me because of everything that it did right. Sure, season 1 may have some of my all time favorites, but this one is more consistent and for that, I reward it the top honors.

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