Futurama: Plus and Minus

If you aren’t watching the second half of season 6 of Futurama airing on comedy central, you are missing what I have come to believe is either a scientific experiment in driving me totally batshit banana-snarf insane, or, a reality-show wherein several film school students audition to be writers for Futurama. Either way it’s doing my dome in being both a mixture of a show I adore and one that seems to still be finding its legs after a period of exile.

Let’s plus and minus the two latest episodes, shall we?

Episode: Law and Oracle

they also spoofed Tron. Yeah.

PLUS: Spoofed Police academy

MINUS: Spoofed Minority Report, also, Tron. Really? REALLY?

PLUS: Tress MacNeille brilliantily delivers some of the best dialogue of the episode. She might refer to her vulva while shaving her face with an electric razor. Now THIS is the sort of exagerrated subversive shit that makes the show sing. None of this thinly slapped together war of the sexes baloney.

MINUS: Wait – did I miss the part where they started delivering pizzas again? This isn’t really a minus. It was hilarious, and also – Fry in shorts = the best.

PLUS: Fry pantless, followed up with the sight gag upon meeting a cop who was also pantless. And very, very tall.

MINUS: Zoidberg is a dog who requires walking, gag. Boooo – let the crustacean make his own magic happen!

PLUS: Roberto the stabbing robot. That guy is the best. I very much enjoyed his demands including a new “Hugh Grant-like” face.

MINUS: Oh my God if Fry makes reference to one more contemporary pop cultural thing I will kill him.

Episode: Silence of the Clamps

PLUS: Godfather spoof

MINUS: Somebody reaaaaally likes Clamps. And that shit is one note, son.

PLUS: Bender confessing to having witnessed the Dombot rough up Calculon and closing his confession with an admission of being very, very good at sex.

MINUS: The Dombot’s daughter Bella. WHATEVER – they had the Dombot’s wife right there, who Bender had already slept with! Futurama, you are normally so good at playing up your bible – PLAY UP YOUR BIBLE!

PLUS: Zoidberg feels threatened by Clamps and his ability to clip things. This whole bit was great.

MINUS: You bring back Crushinator and do not let her speak? NOOOOOOOOO! I love Crushinator so much!

PLUS: The return to the moon, this time exploring its hill-billy side was great.

MINUS: An entire episode about Bender having to go into hiding and no use of Flexo? At all? Uncool.