Day Three Hundred and Fifty-seven - Futurama: Season 2, Episode 8, "He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're on the can!"

I may grouse that Futurama has fallen far over the years, basically turning into a somewhat better version of Family Guy that is set in the third millenium A.D.,  but I will always owe a debt to Matt, Billy, John, Katey, et al. for all the good work they did... especially in those early seasons.

Once such example of the sweet, yet insane, adventures of the Planet Express Crew was their first Christmas episode, "Xmas Story," which starts them off on a ski trip in the first act but quickly turns into a race for survival against Robot Santa in acts two and three.

This episode happens pre-Leela's Homeworld and still predicates on the notion that she is the last of her kind, a single cyclops alien with no one to love during the holidays, a fact that Fry agitates by deciding to mope over being a man out of time, alone himself. There's never much in the way that shows things from Leela's side, and Fry's realizations concerning how he hurt her with his careless words are a little too quick, but there's only so much you can do in 22 minutes. At least, that's the excuse I want to use, but I've seen quite a few examples of better characterization from the series that would serve as a counterpoint (Luck of the Fryish, Jurassic Bark).

I think the strength of this episode lies in its many gags. The future ski vacation allows pretty much everyone to shine, from "Trees Down!" to Amy's thinly-veiled cast fetish to the Professor sleep slaloming, that first act is packed full of great one-off jokes. I think my favorite is when Hermes goes bobsledding and fails, first with Zoidberg accidentally following suit and Fry saying 'the heck with it' and doing it a third time. Great stuff.

Acts two and three lose a little bit of that momentum, thanks to the Fry/Leela melodrama, but manages to stay somewhat strong despite that. It helps that Robot Santa is voiced by John Goodman and Bender is off fleecing the poor and destitute. Tinny Tim is so cute in his misfortune and the digital clock gag is just beautiful.

This was also back before Zoidberg was the butt of every joke and even got to be the hero now and then. The fact he's the only one of the crew (possibly the world) whom Robot Santa hasn't deemed "naughty" is deliciously funny. I'm rather glad he was able to find the love of his life in the last season. Plus, I love his Apology Dance!

Xmas Story is one of my favorite Christmas episodes of any series... ranking pretty darn high up there. One of my others will be my pick for the twenty-fifth, which shall remain a mystery until then. Sadly, my absolute favorite isn't available on Netflix in the US (though, I think it is in Canada), but I'll save that for the twenty-fifth as well.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

8!

Day Three Hundred and Fifty - Futurama: Season 10, Episode 10, "One last flashback to the year 2000."

It's pretty much a given that at least once a season Futurama will pull at the heartstrings somehow. Whether it's with Seymour the Ever-Vigilant Mutt or the Five-leaf Clover, as bad as the show can get this late in its run, it still manages to hit you right in the feels.

There's a disaster in the making, a sonic spaceship is heading straight to earth and is destroying every piece of rock in its path and it's up to Fry to figure out what they want considering the fact that he's the only one who recognizes the tune it's belting out. In order to kickstart his memories, The Professor helps Fry dive into his dreamspace where he revisits all of his haunts that last day before he was frozen in our time.

While it's not as high a quality as Life of the Fryish or Jurassic Bark, Game of Tones is pretty darn cute and touches on probably one of the last untapped mines from that period of pre-Futurama wackiness, his sports-crazy mother (voiced by Tress MacNeille). While it's a bit of a stretch to think that Fry would risk the end of the world just to spend more dreamtime with his mother, when he can still have access to the memory world after he finds the tune, but it's good to see the old family again... even that cantankerous old hawk of a father of his.

There are a couple of gags that feel like the Futurama of old, not the Family Guy, break-the-fourth-wall and every other rule while they're at it style of jokes. I love the thought-spikes and the vibrating football game, Nixon and Agnew and the Close Encounters bits. It's not on par with the stuff of old, but still pretty darn decent.

It's kind of sad to think that there are just three short episodes left before the whole shebang is done... at least for now. Sure, there's always talk of finding home on another network (especially from the cast, when asked), but I get this sinking feeling that this is it. We'll have to just wait and see, I guess, and just savor the last few as they come.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Sixty-four - I'm Reed Fish, "but who cares, really?"

Okay, so I was mining the Suggestions Queue for quirky romantic comedies and happened upon a films I'd never heard of before called I'm Reed Fish. I probably wouldn't have watched it purely for Jay Baruchel as, not that I hate the guy, but his attempts at leading man material the past few years have been a bit disappointing (see: The Sorcerer's Apprentice and She's Out of My League). Honestly, the only thing I have truly enjoyed from him in recent memory was How to Train Your Dragon.

That being said, what hooked me was the fact that sharing the lead with him, supposedly, was Alexis Bledel. As a card carrying fanboy of Gilmore Girls, I was instantly sold... then I found out she's not so much a co-lead as supporting love interest.

Curse you, Movie Posters and your lying ways!

You see, the film is about Jay's main character, the eponymous Reed Fish, and how his life is supposedly thrown into turmoil when his childhood best friend/soul mate (who is NOT Alexis Bledel) returns to their small town and throws his heart out of whack. Reed is already engaged and about to be married (yes, TO Alexis Bledel), but he very obviously has cold feet and they argue about the most mundane things... like asparagus.

Anyways, long story spoilerifically short, Reed manages to alienate both the women in his life and pretty much ends up the butt of all the anger in his town as folks are jealous and gleefully wrathful that he seemingly had it all with one gal... then ruined it attempting (and failing) to get the other.

On top of that, there's this whole undercurrent of "living up to one's father" but that angle is corrupted by the fact that Reed's father killed himself, his wife, and his son's fiance's mother in a drunk driving collision... and Reed is trying to emulate him for some reason? Wha-huh?

But, wait! There's more!

About a half an hour into the picture, we're treated to the revelation that we're not actually watching Reed Fish's fall from grace... we're watching a movie WITHIN a movie about Reed Fish's yadda, yadda, yadda, and not only are Alexis Bledel and Schuyler Fisk (odd name, cute actress) actors in the meta-film, you're not sure until the end which one of them is playing the fake version of the "real life" mysterious girl whom Reed invited to the screening... the woman he REALLY loves.

The premise, itself, is one giant tease that awkwardly provides the framework for a long series of shots of Jay Baruchel looking depressed or goofy or mildly annoyed with his character's small town life. To be honest, it mostly leaves me cold and I find myself disappointed overall.

With that in mind, I do want to point out the good bits. Katey Sagal does well in her maternal role as the mayor, Maureen, though there really isn't enough of her for it to help the overall film... and I'm always happy to see DJ Qualls get work, even if he has the range of a thimble.

On the whole, though, I think the film is too scattered and awkward to be much of anything quality and its advertising (the blue poster that is on Netflix) is deceptive. It really felt like a waste of time.

I would almost say it was an admirable failure, as the meta device of the movie screening is an interesting concept, but it was so shoddily executed that it actually lost points for the film. Props for the attempt, at least, though.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~