Futurama was cancelled... again... and the last season has finally hit Netflix.
I almost want to feel sad, as Billy West, Katy Sagal, and John DiMaggio have almost always brought me quality scifi adventure with occasionally poignant and thoughtful episodes. Things were especially strong before the "Movie Season" era, but after its return to full run status, the show really hasn't been the same.
Case in point, this first episode of the final season... 2-D Blacktop.Despite its inspired third-act journey to Flatland, a two dimensional world based on Edwin Abbott Abbott's (no, that's not a typo) novella, the rest of the episode is filled with crap gags that are more Family Guy than classic Futurama... and that's a GREAT disservice to the series. I mean, honestly, having Speed Buggy and Speed Racer show up for gags is all well and good, but have them quietly populating the background, don't do one-off reference jokes that break the fourth wall. It's bad enough when Seth MacFarlane does it.
Maybe it's just that they've run out of ideas on how to support the main thematic setpieces, but I see the same problem happening in modern era Simpsons, as well. It's like the story editors have burnt out and don't have anywhere else to go... that or they really ARE pandering to the Family Guy crowd.
That's not to say that there aren't a decent amount of old-style Futurama jokes to be had... like the Constellation Class spaceship in the background of the junkyard and Bender warming up his "blame-Fry" routine, it's just that there's not enough to cover up the shameless bits.With this as the season premiere to it's 10th, I can definitely see how the writing was on the wall for the series. This is technically my first run of the last season, as I gave up cable in favor of Netflix well over a year ago, so I'll definitely keep going all the way through to it's finale... but, at this point, I'm really only interested in seeing the Adventure Time cameos later in the season.
Until tomorrow, Potatoes~
No comments:
Post a Comment