Futurama

[Dr. Medulla]

Thoughts on the return? For me, three episodes in, it's been solid. Nothing spectacular, but nothing embarrassing.

I liked the first two, but I thought the bitcoin one was a little weak. Like the last time they returned, I think I'll wind up liking the season more with repeated viewings.

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

[Kory]

Thoughts on the return? For me, three episodes in, it's been solid. Nothing spectacular, but nothing embarrassing.

I liked the first two, but I thought the bitcoin one was a little weak. Like the last time they returned, I think I'll wind up liking the season more with repeated viewings.

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

[Dr. Medulla]

Thoughts on the return? For me, three episodes in, it's been solid. Nothing spectacular, but nothing embarrassing.

I liked the first two, but I thought the bitcoin one was a little weak. Like the last time they returned, I think I'll wind up liking the season more with repeated viewings.

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

I've never really thought about the show in that kind of wholistic critique, such as the governing motivation for the narratives. If your observation about the trajectory or emphasis changing is correct, it might also be that the writers/producers themselves started caring about the characters too much. There's a difference between using characters to act out scripts and becoming an advocate for your characters.

[Kory]

Thoughts on the return? For me, three episodes in, it's been solid. Nothing spectacular, but nothing embarrassing.

I liked the first two, but I thought the bitcoin one was a little weak. Like the last time they returned, I think I'll wind up liking the season more with repeated viewings.

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

I've never really thought about the show in that kind of wholistic critique, such as the governing motivation for the narratives. If your observation about the trajectory or emphasis changing is correct, it might also be that the writers/producers themselves started caring about the characters too much. There's a difference between using characters to act out scripts and becoming an advocate for your characters.

Quite so. Either that, or they're just doing what they think people want to see.

[Dr. Medulla]

I liked the first two, but I thought the bitcoin one was a little weak. Like the last time they returned, I think I'll wind up liking the season more with repeated viewings.

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

I've never really thought about the show in that kind of wholistic critique, such as the governing motivation for the narratives. If your observation about the trajectory or emphasis changing is correct, it might also be that the writers/producers themselves started caring about the characters too much. There's a difference between using characters to act out scripts and becoming an advocate for your characters.

Quite so. Either that, or they're just doing what they think people want to see.

One would think that, having been canceled so many times, they've all seen themselves playing with house money with each revival.

[Kory]

That's probably fair. The work at this point seems more like comfort food. Nothing wrong with that, as something like the Simpsons doesn't even qualify there.

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

I've never really thought about the show in that kind of wholistic critique, such as the governing motivation for the narratives. If your observation about the trajectory or emphasis changing is correct, it might also be that the writers/producers themselves started caring about the characters too much. There's a difference between using characters to act out scripts and becoming an advocate for your characters.

Quite so. Either that, or they're just doing what they think people want to see.

One would think that, having been canceled so many times, they've all seen themselves playing with house money with each revival.

I rewatched the last three and the new one last night, and I have to say, so far they have not played into Fry and Leela's relationship a whole lot in this new run, which could be a good sign. One thing that is starting to become clear though is a slight reliance on previous episodes for plots, not sure if that means they are running out of ideas or they're trying to build more continuity? Also I'm not a fan of when they do jokes that reference things in OUR world (like Fry referencing the Kardashians or something). I know they did a bit of that in the original run, but it seems kind of clumsy when they do it now, especially considering they're supposed to be in 3023.

Other notable things—Billy West's voice has gotten noticeably deeper, and I might have said this already, but I wonder how the rest of the cast feels about DiMaggio getting top billing now (likely an extra condition of his holding out for more money at the beginning).

Either way, I'm enjoying it mostly, glad to have something to look forward to each Monday.

[Dr. Medulla]

A more concrete criticism of the show post-season 4, is that I think Fry has become a bit of a sap. The show is mostly about him worrying about Leela and he's always crying or something. I think there was a lot more humor to be had when the show was more about his friendship with Bender and his stupidity. He, and the show in general (since they became aware of how affecting Jurassic Bark was to people) have become over-emotional and it kind of sucks the fun out of it a bit.

I've never really thought about the show in that kind of wholistic critique, such as the governing motivation for the narratives. If your observation about the trajectory or emphasis changing is correct, it might also be that the writers/producers themselves started caring about the characters too much. There's a difference between using characters to act out scripts and becoming an advocate for your characters.

Quite so. Either that, or they're just doing what they think people want to see.

One would think that, having been canceled so many times, they've all seen themselves playing with house money with each revival.

I rewatched the last three and the new one last night, and I have to say, so far they have not played into Fry and Leela's relationship a whole lot in this new run, which could be a good sign. One thing that is starting to become clear though is a slight reliance on previous episodes for plots, not sure if that means they are running out of ideas or they're trying to build more continuity? Also I'm not a fan of when they do jokes that reference things in OUR world (like Fry referencing the Kardashians or something). I know they did a bit of that in the original run, but it seems kind of clumsy when they do it now, especially considering they're supposed to be in 3023.

I linked to a piece upthread about how Futurama has always deliberately drawn on contemporary issues to inform scripts, so much so that given it's nearly quarter-century of existence, it can not act as an archaeological text. I'm ambivalent about that—it can sometimes offer a pointed critique, but it risks becoming dated—but it's part of the show's motivation, so I let it pass.

Other notable things—Billy West's voice has gotten noticeably deeper, and I might have said this already, but I wonder how the rest of the cast feels about DiMaggio getting top billing now (likely an extra condition of his holding out for more money at the beginning).

I wouldn't have described West's voice as deeper so much as older. But it is definitely different even since the last run of the show.

[Kory]

Other notable things—Billy West's voice has gotten noticeably deeper, and I might have said this already, but I wonder how the rest of the cast feels about DiMaggio getting top billing now (likely an extra condition of his holding out for more money at the beginning).

I wouldn't have described West's voice as deeper so much as older. But it is definitely different even since the last run of the show.

It sounds deeper to me and it's definitely rougher, he's getting closer to Lars more naturally now. Also more jowly, if you know what I mean. It will serve him well with Nixon, but it's kind of distracting with Fry. One thing that I've always thought they should have done with the Simpsons to open up new vistas of plotting would be to have them age in semi-real time (would also help them avoid having to have the characters born later and later on a Marvel-style sliding timeline). It would be interesting if they did that here, especially since Bender doesn't age, but Fry definitely would, for example. It's something that I've always respected about comic works like Gasoline Alley, For Better or For Worse, even Cerebus, but I don't think it's been done in animation, really.

[Dr. Medulla]

Other notable things—Billy West's voice has gotten noticeably deeper, and I might have said this already, but I wonder how the rest of the cast feels about DiMaggio getting top billing now (likely an extra condition of his holding out for more money at the beginning).

I wouldn't have described West's voice as deeper so much as older. But it is definitely different even since the last run of the show.

It sounds deeper to me and it's definitely rougher, he's getting closer to Lars more naturally now. Also more jowly, if you know what I mean. It will serve him well with Nixon, but it's kind of distracting with Fry. One thing that I've always thought they should have done with the Simpsons to open up new vistas of plotting would be to have them age in semi-real time (would also help them avoid having to have the characters born later and later on a Marvel-style sliding timeline). It would be interesting if they did that here, especially since Bender doesn't age, but Fry definitely would, for example. It's something that I've always respected about comic works like Gasoline Alley, For Better or For Worse, even Cerebus, but I don't think it's been done in animation, really.

The King of the Hill revival (if it still happens) is supposed to update all the characters in time. But it depends on the premise. Something like Archie needs to be frozen because the whole premise is them being teenagers. Futurama could age, but it doesn't necessarily require it either because it's episodic rather than serial telling. I'd be fine with it, but overall I'm ambivalent.