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Post by classicswim on May 18, 2023 9:57:37 GMT -8
Relieved the animation still looks good. I’ve heard it’s dropping weekly as well so that also might help.
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Post by classicswim on Jun 26, 2023 10:44:26 GMT -8
They’ll be releasing a trailer tomorrow.
Between the BenderGate movement going tragically nowhere, the current discussion on Futurama already being toxic and douchey to no end, and just me not wanting the show back; I’m still feeling groggy.
Hopefully they impress somewhere. Though I can tell that tomorrow is going to be a very annoying and obnoxious day.
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Post by classicswim on Jun 27, 2023 8:25:43 GMT -8
Welp, here we go.
Saw a bunch of familiar faces, notably Fry’s old parasites. Wouldn’t say I’m all that excited still, but it was something. I’m guessing maybe that Fry & Leela are still married, or at the very least are engaged. Feel like after Meanwhile they might as well be husband and wife to throw a bone and set things apart. Something to step up from the dating stage they already had throughout the Comedy Central run.
They’re also having some fun with the fact this is the 4th time back.
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Post by fonebone on Jun 27, 2023 9:08:57 GMT -8
That trailer is awesome. Excited now.
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Post by classicswim on Jul 3, 2023 6:38:02 GMT -8
Adult Swim presents Bender’s Best Scams and Schemes.
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Post by Admin on Jul 18, 2023 16:12:33 GMT -8
Hulu has preview descriptions for the first two episodes.
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Post by classicswim on Jul 23, 2023 22:43:29 GMT -8
[ The Impossible Stream] There’s some things I really need to get into before even tackling the premiere itself. Because the existence of yet another Futurama revival requires some type of exordium. Futurama started out on the shite vessel that is FOX; 20th Century network that purely hated the program, and did every possible thing to undercut its airtime way back when cable still mattered. Then it gets cancelled!I knew about the series during the FOX run, but my love for Futurama just like everyone else started with Adult Swim. 2003-2007, [as] was the true home to Futurama. Triumphantly building the fandom and status into what it is now.
Within just those five years, those reruns were everything to me. It didn’t matter so much that they were repeats. It was something I had never seen before. And while the fandom was at large, it was at this time when I felt we’d never get new episodes again. Then the movies came! Futurama was finishing up its run on [as], I waltz’d over to Walmart to pick up Bender’s Big Score and the three sequels that would later follow. A certain void was filled. Have they aged the best? Maybe not so much. But for then, it was a treat. When the series finally relaunched on Comedy Central, it was an event. I might not have watched reruns as religiously as before, but I’m almost positive I never missed a single new episode premiere. The series ended on CC with about the exact same shelf life as the original FOX run. It was a bummer seeing “final season” advertised, but it felt good we succeeded in our outcry for more in the first place. I regard the CC finale to be among the last televised airings in the 21st century to have some importance. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Sheesh...... that whole premiere episode was about as funny as being on a flight targeted by the Unabomber. Futurama’s initial enemy is far past the point of relevancy as I’m typing this. At least for this discussion. It really meant something in 2007 to have the people of FOX represented as the window lickers that they are. With this episode, I was expecting almost bare minimum tongue-in-cheek effort. I really thought Hulu would just be FULU for the lulz, and that I could briefly feel my prostate tickle from embarrassment and that would be it. It was clever to satirize this revival by having “All My Circuits” not just be cancelled 10 years ago, but also have about 47 seasons with +13K episodes. It gives you a good idea that yes, this whole thing was unnecessary. That’s my only compliment. The rest of the episode was so up its own ass it was exhausting. They poke fun at hate-watching, which was never my intent. But if a car salesman throws horse shit at my face before I even roll eyes on the used Mitsubishi, I’m going to comment on it. I’m not inclined to lie for nostalgia sake. This sucked. Episodes that go “haha binge watching ” are just fucking lazy, and could not be anymore void of substance. And I never knew Futurama to be the type to refute bad writing by having the characters go “hey! This is bad writing!” Usually they could just write good jokes instead. Just because it’s satirical of certain culture doesn’t mean said satire isn’t unfunny nonsense. I can tell with some other upcoming titles that I’m only gonna see more cons against this return moving forward. That being said, I have an even larger bone to pick with the ass-hats who used this opportunity to shit on the masses, all in favor of contrarian edginess. “If you even think of giving this a chance, you deserve A.I media. I’m so cool because I can dismiss constructive criticism as a concept!” Those are the insufferable cunts rallying against the show now. Signed, a person who ALSO doesn’t want Futurama season 15 to exist. You just don’t see me taking it out on innocent people like a twat. I’m excited for the second episode! The second episode will be not just a continuation, but an actual episode with something to say! I found this one to be painfully awful, but unlike the rest of the internet, I respect anyone who thinks of it way more positively than myself! Because I don’t look down on others over make believe! I get this doesn’t help my cause much since I’m noticeably angry. I’m aware I flew off the handle with this. For whatever reason I just didn’t have the patience. I’m sure at least some episodes could do a little good. Any other props I could give:- The day the Hulu return was first announced, I immediately said this was gonna be *blows raspberry* after “Meanwhile.” I wasn’t too worried about how they’d soft reboot things, but they handled that matter quickly which was good enough for me. - Calculon was revived! And the Network Execubots returned to represent Fulu! And they got Dan Castellaneta to throw a Robot Devil cameo! Too bad all were wasted on this mess. Regardless, was good seeing them again!
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Post by fonebone on Jul 24, 2023 17:11:54 GMT -8
Futurama "The Impossible Stream"
Whatever my reservations, the tagline being "Avenged!" won me over. Just that easily.
I feel like revisiting the final episode was unnecessary, because it wasn't actually a cliffhanger. But the writers are smarter than me. They used that as an excuse to fast forward the series to 3023 without having to age the characters. I never would have thought of that. It's great that the last episode randomly led to it.
"PC crowd" is a great joke. Unlike MANY of the nerd jokes, I liked it because I understood it.
I have mixed feelings about John DiMaggio being placed first in the ending credits. Him NOT walking away really irked me, and I felt that that specific bluff would make it harder for actors actually demanding fair pay in the future. And surprise, there's an actor's strike currently. DiMaggio being rewarded for going back on his word and his solidarity with the other actors is not okay.
And you know I know the show is written by writers, but the slam at writers feels a bit too raw and sensitive right now too. I think the problem regarding its critiques of streaming is it's missing the forest for the trees. This is definitely a problem for The Simpsons, but it hitting Futurama makes it feel a little dated. Which considering the premise, it never should.
I was actually hoping when the show came back it would be a 20 episode serialized epic. But apparently the writers think smaller than I do. I'm a little disappointed, but since the episode itself was disappointment, at least we get a new topic do-over every week.
You might complain that after all the trouble they went through killing Calculon off (twice!) that his return is beyond anticlimactic. Which would be a valid concern if both deaths weren't already that. Calculon's resurrection is underwhelming because Calculon's entire arc has always been underwhelming.
The Slurm ad tells me fake future commercials are something the show always wanted to do, but were denied by first Fox, and then Comedy Central, probably because they believed the viewers are so dumb they'd get confused. Just, for the record Fox, Futurama aims for a different demographic than your News Channel. While we're going there.
The tag with Nixon was neither here nor there. It felt like the episode didn't really know the proper way to end itself.
You know what? I'm glad the show's back. It's always held my interest, and it's rarely been terrible. People complaining it shouldn't come back because it was no longer amazing, are like the writers, and missing the forest for the trees. "The Luck Of The Fryish" and "Jurassic Bark" were phenomenal, but a TV show doesn't have to deliver episodes THAT phenomenal to have a right to exist. Futurama as coasting on Comedy Central was still a HELL of a lot better than most other animated fare. Hell, it was the best cartoon on Comedy Central itself during its entire run. I'll forgive it currently underwhelming me a bit. It's still totally watchable.
It was a decent first episode back, but I do confess to being disappointed the Hulu stuff is episodic. The streaming format would have REALLY lent itself to a 10 hour movie. I'm sad the writers didn't think big enough to give it to us. ***1/2.
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Post by classicswim on Jul 24, 2023 17:47:57 GMT -8
I have mixed feelings about John DiMaggio being placed first in the ending credits. Him NOT walking away really irked me, and I felt that that specific bluff would make it harder for actors actually demanding fair pay in the future. And surprise, there's an actor's strike currently. DiMaggio being rewarded for going back on his word and his solidarity with the other actors is not okay. I didn’t even notice they swapped Billy West from top credit billing and gave it to DiMaggio until you pointed it out. John doesn’t deserve that luxury at all. I agree with you entirely on this. He actually did a piece just awhile ago, and it felt so distasteful and tone deaf. variety.com/2023/tv/news/futurama-john-dimaggio-bender-salary-1235677962/I get the largest offender of this story will always be the ones that underpaid in the first place, and he’s most likely on the picket line now, but I still look at him very differently ever since. Had the strike not have happened, he would’ve just kept his mouth shut and taken the money, while everyone else could get an even more raw deal. It’s especially a slap in the face because he’s one of the most prestigious voice actors in the industry. And he wants to compare his ordeal to the story of David and Goliath.
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Post by fonebone on Jul 24, 2023 19:49:54 GMT -8
He made it harder for other actors demanding fair pay. Specifically ones who actually stand by their convictions and don't bluff for fame and attention. He got a LOT of undo sympathy and support that he folded under instead of walking away like he actually threatened to do. I would have respected him for doing that. You warned me how tone-deaf he is in that article and you aren't kidding. David doesn't capitulate to Goliath when is looks like he IS actually going to have to put his own skin in the game. He fights. I used to be a fan of DiMaggio, but I'm not anymore.
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Post by classicswim on Jul 30, 2023 23:41:04 GMT -8
[Children of a Lesser Bog]
See? Much better.
Because this episode’s a direct sequel to the season 4 opener from 20 years ago, let’s have another refresh.
In fact, I’ll use the words described by Adult Swim back in ‘06.
“Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch tells the story of Kif & Amy, whose love was too great to be chained by either common sense or decency.
And so, this episode teaches us that love, no matter how disgusting, endures all.”
And that episode was later on in the original FOX run where the fate of the show was already sealed. Or so we thought.
I watched that classic again hours before this, and I took great notice in Kif saying the children WOULD emerge after twenty years at the end.
Obviously something they had never actually planned for previously. And if I must say, this premise by itself is the one thing as of yet that’s holding a very positive argument for this revival’s revival revival deluxe.
Kif & Amy’s relationship has grown to be difficult ground to tread. Possibly because...
A.) Everyone hates Amy’s parents.
B.) There’s obviously not much friction or conflict with those two compared to Fry & Leela’s development.
C.) One valid flaw to give the previous run, Comedy Central really did not do a good service to Kif or Amy specifically. Things got pretty weird.
Nonetheless, I always appreciated and adored Kif & Amy’s role on the show. Futurama’s a romantic comedy, and the love between the squishy Amphibiosan and his smizmar is something they’ve been building on since the Titanic episode!
This one was full of surprises and pleasantries!
You couldn’t have an episode like this without the Grand Midwife! Tress MacNeille never disappoints.
Oh and, Billy West doesn’t voice Leo Wong anymore! Don’t think that’s gonna deter anyone from still disliking Leo, but oh well.
I was happy with the return of the *former* Whale Biologist. He was a rather obscure joke character I didn’t think anyone else was that amused by besides me.
The story at hand was something. There were a couple bits at the start where they jogged your noodle incase you forgot about that other episode.
Kinda funny to me they killed off a fuckton of the kids in the swamp. It makes sense to shrink down the size. It’s just that Amy once fought off the same creatures to protect ALL of the offspring; and a lot of them just die in front of the crew anyways. Even Zoidberg has a go.
The cool thing with Kif in this episode is that the show doesn’t forget his primary function. He’s Zapp Brannigan’s lackey. I can’t recall any other episode besides this one where he swoops in to save Zapp, and did so without thinking how better off he’d be if Brannigan was torn apart.
The original episode made a point about Amy still being a spunky care-free kid, and how she had to overcome that for the sake of her life with Kif.
The last couple minutes of this new episode, you can’t even recognize Amy because of how emotional she is. It’s a remarkable performance by Lauren Tom.
Wasn’t perfect. Leela wasn’t real bad or anything, but something about her after awhile felt off. There was less sass with her when Amy confronted her. Which makes sense because of how delicate things are, but Leela just walked into some scenes stone-faced. I don’t know.
Overall though, the episode was still about as rewarding as I expected!
Oh, and this time around... Katey Sagal has top billing in the credits. So it’s just a random thing.
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Post by fonebone on Jul 31, 2023 12:08:28 GMT -8
Futurama "Children Of A Lesser Bog"
Nice! Sweet episode.
Katey Sagal actually was billed first in the credits, which means I'm betting the main cast is getting rotated first there. John DiMaggio apparently did not get promoted for no reason. The show is simply acknowledging the importance of everybody.
Mr. Wong has a new voice actor because Asians now always play Asian characters. I am so grateful Lauren Tom is where she is, and didn't have to get recast. For the record, this episode is probably Tom's best performance as Amy ever. She brought the dramatic goods.
The one thing I didn't like was the winnowing being played for laughs. Zoidberg actually eating some of them was grotesque, and I kind of hate the character now. Funny how murdering the children of another main character will do that.
But I thought the rest was very sweet and nice. ****.
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Post by fonebone on Aug 6, 2023 20:48:08 GMT -8
Futurama "How The West Was 1010001"
Billy West back on top!
For some reason a Bitcoin parody already feels dated. But even if it weren't, it's one of those things that WILL make the episode feel dated (AND lame) in a couple of years.
Also, it's comedy malpractice there are ZERO Westworld jokes. You want to do a sci-fi Western with robot abuse, THAT'S the spoof, not Bitcoin.
Dwight is leery of murder because colleges look at that. Also he's great at limbo because he's been run over.
The season premiere did a great job creating a canon excuse why the characters haven't aged since the show came back after ten years. What the show has never been able to satisfactorily explain is how Dwight (and Cubert) haven't aged AT ALL since 3000. That requires a MUCH bigger suspension of disbelief.
Fry and Leela still havin' sex. Good. I love Leela calling the Borax Kid's proposition both highly offensive and slightly flattering. Because yes, it was both.
That felt like a weak outing. Can't lie. And its lack of Westworld references is both shocking and seems to be mocking me. **1/2.
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Post by classicswim on Aug 6, 2023 22:29:32 GMT -8
[How the West Was 1010001]
Crypto Country, huh? Fucking nauseating.
I was so worried about this sucking. Farnsworth mentioning less than 1 minute of the episode’s runtime that he lost everything to Bitcoin was sure to make all the audible groans.
After Leela said the blatant piece shortly after, I got over it. The crypto part had nothing much to say whatsoever, and it was all basically a slight repeat of western episodes they’ve already done in the past.
The Borax Kid returns! That was something.
Given the episode description, I was expecting the Robot Mafia to be oversaturated in this just like Fat Tony and his Springfield crew. Then they just... didn’t appear much. At the beginning and the end. Think the Don Bot said literally only one line. And I love all those guys so really, I don’t know.
Roberto’s back, and he’s a known riot. Except he’s not all stabby here soooo, that kinda weighs him down. He explains why he goes with the knife gun in the west so, sure. Just wasn’t that impressed with him this time around.
I would’ve found the plot between Hermes and Dwight to be nice, only Dwight was a dick for most of it. Plus, Dwight is much more fun with he’s got Cubert around to bounce off of. But everything wrapped itself nicely.
So far this season, I feel Bender’s been on the sidelines just a little. No where near as loud as he was from 3010-3013 which is a good thing.
I guess Bender had his moments. He sang about his ass! Then you remember he did the same thing in the Buggalo episode! You get the point.
One thing I hate about my own negative/critical TZ postings sometimes is how it sounds like I’m expecting X episode to be precisely as well-done as Y episode from several years ago when I just want things to be more clever is all.
I’m saving my energy depending on just how bad “Zapp Brannigan Gets Cancelled” will presumably be, but it annoys me.
You’ve seen me give the middle finger to those who use the diminishing quality of this series as an excuse to attack others for simply watching and enjoying.
But, BUT! I also can’t stress enough how exhausting it is to have an undeniably bad episode come along, then have the guy who desperately wants to be right go “now now! Futurama was always satirical!”
YES! I know this! Thank you for lecturing me like a 4th grader! Did you pee in your little panties to the daring wittiness that is all the NFT jokes Futurama has made thus far?
The issue isn’t whether Futurama does satire. The issue is whether said satire is worthy of a single laugh. And maybe I’m being unfair since I already don’t wanna hear a single thing about Crypto, but come on. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly... but Bitcoin. Revolutionary!
This was the series that began with the concept of Suicide Booths.
Everyone these days has something to say about the CC era of Futurama, but the original run will forever be more than enough where I’ll always hold their plotting to a more clever standard. This was only mildly feasible.
A final prop I could give here was me being amused by Zoidberg taking up the town doctor spot.
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Post by classicswim on Aug 13, 2023 22:15:50 GMT -8
[Parasites Regained]
“Don’t most pets eat at home and poop outside? Like college students?”
I was quite impressed with this one.
Going by the direct reference title and knowing the worms would reappear, I wasn’t sure how they’d tackle this.
“Parasites Lost” was this sci-fi voyage that unraveled the duality of Fry & Leela’s love. Even introducing the holophonor which would be important for the final episode of that run.
So with that previous information, and just loving the direction of that previous episode as a standalone, I was skeptical before watching.
Unlike “Children of a Lesser Bog,” this didn’t set out to be a direct sequel.
This actually went by its own fun, eventful journey that just so happened to have some old faces. And a Dune parody.
Was blown away by the execution here and really saw some improvements.
The models for the new intro have looked weird as hell to me compared to the original ones. When this show opened in 1999 it had revolutionary software. Last week, people were laughing at Dwight’s Vivendi Universal esque limboing. But this episode I saw some spouts of the new 3D and thought “wow, now that actually looks good!”
Welker’s Nibbler was a bit rusty at certain parts, but he’s been away from it for a long time. Plus, he’s been Fred Jones for more than half a century. I respect him for even coming back!
Feels like the more Futurama went on in the past, the less they really utilized Nibbler the way that they should have. I think it’s good for the show to actually present him as a meaningful priority again.
That being said, this was clearly their first real big adventure of the season and I think they handled it well.
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