Cast: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Phill LaMarr, Lauren Tom, David Herman
Plot: The further adventures of Fry, Leela, Bender and the rest of the Planet Express crew as they encounter problems with robosexual relationships, Leonardo Da Vinci, Zapp Brannigan and inevitable invasions from Lrr and a race of intelligent cats.
Futurama finally returned to UK televisions earlier this year with season 6 almost a year after it first aired in the US. As a huge 'Futurama' fan seeing the adventures of the Planet Express crew actually return with proper episodes was massively exciting for me, especially after those ridiculous direct to DVD movies. Thankfully the series has returned to focusing on what made it so great...mostly.
We have been treated to only 13 episodes of the season for some unknown reason despite the fact that the series has finished in it's entirety in the US, but from the 13 shown 'Futurama' has promising future. We started with the episode entitled 'Rebirth' which wasn't the funniest of premieres, but was vitally important for scrapping everything from the DVD movies and starting again fresh. There were a few good gags but the focus was clearly to get series moving again.
The follow up to this episode had me slightly worried however with the disappointing 'In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela', which focused solely on Leela and dim witted space Captain Zapp Brannigan in an Adam and Eve scenario. This episode was poorly executed and should have been hilarious with the usually funny Zapp's jokes feeling forced and unnatural. This had me worried because Zapp Brannigan is character I have never found not funny and the fact they got him so wrong in this episode was disconcerting.
Then all my worries were dispelled. Episode after episode got better and better, smarter and smarter and even more funny. Starting this was 'Attack of the Killer App' which introduced us to the new iPhone which was literally in your eye and then we had the robosexual marriage episode 'Proposition Infintiy' where Bender and Amy begin a relationship. Initially this episode seemed aimless, but it had one of the funniest pay-offs at the end. The laughs continue in the mystery solving 'The Duh-Vinci Code' and the Hermes/Bender centric 'Lethal Inspection', which continued to surprise me with how funny they were.
My reviews need this sometimes.
'Futurama' have always excelled with time travel episodes and 'The Late Philip J.Fry' was no exception with it being my favourite so far. The episode follows Fry, Bender and the Professor as they travel in a time machine that can only go forwards. There was a slight dip in quality with 'That Darn Katz' that aside from a professor that made animal noises wasn't the most humourous of entries with a cat invasion not delivering the laughs it maybe should have.
Fortunately a great double of the robot evolution episode 'A Clockwork Origin' and the brilliant body switching 'The Prisoner of Benda' helped elevate the series to a strong finish. 'The Prisoner of Benda' was a real highlight for the season with the writers taking the tiresome body switching concept and making it absolutely hilarious. The final 3 episodes managed a consistent laughs if not matching the quality of the previous episodes with a fake Lrr invasion, a mutant revolt and an Xmas special making up the end part of this half of the season.
While there were many laughs to be had with 'Futurama' and it has reignited interest in the series it wasn't always great. There was a batch of really funny episodes in the middle with inferior ones as book ends, but the future certainly looks promising for the Planet Express Crew. Hopefully there will be even more Bender centric episodes and a Zoidberg entry because he was somewhat absent from this season...at least so far.
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