Futurama update

With a 26-episode arrangement with Comedy Central, I’m not sure if they’ll just keep going for 26 straight weeks or break it up over a year like they do with South Park, these days it’s a few in the Spring and the rest in the Fall. Either way, I’m avoiding the bombardment of ads via my iTunes sub which rocks. They’ve also remained on target because I think they can take more chances on basic cable than broadcast television; I won’t state an opinion of The Simpsons since I haven’t seen the last few seasons at all.

The Duh-Vinci Code is a clever dig at those horrible, improbable crap books/films but it shifted gears toward an odder result about the Renaissance artist-futurist. This episode has a lot of CG machines in it.

Lethal Inspection focuses on Bender as he discovers his mortality and goes on a quest to find the person who let him leave the factory with this critical flaw. It’s an interesting buddy-road show containing a funny dig at tech support, the re-appearance of the Central Bureaucracy and Billy West demonstrating his Paul Lynde imitation.

The Late Philip J. Fry brings back an element the show excels at…time travel, however, the Professor’s new time machine only goes forward. Besides all the jokes covering the possible futures most people know from other stories (The Terminator, The Time Machine and Planet of the Apes) accompanied by a modified version of “In the Year 2525.” The coolest revelation was finding out I have the same birthday as Leela!

That Darn Katz! puts Amy and Nibbler in the spotlight as they try to save the Earth from evil felines who are really from another planet. This one was written by Josh Weinstein of Mission Hill fame and he’s currently a producer with the show.

Scorecard thus far as per The Onion’s AV Club:

  • The Duh-Vinci Code: B
  • Lethal Inspection: A-
  • The Late Philip J. Fry: A
  • That Darn Katz: B+
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