I haven't been too terribly impressed with the latest episodes. They kind of feel like the new Simpsons episodes. I have a sneaking suspicion that they're sharing writers.
It's like, the Simpsons was around for 300 episodes and then the writers entirely ran out of ideas, so they just kept doing bigger "gotcha" moments and more "zany" gags and more over-the-top shit to make up for the fact that they couldn't think of anything else to do that didn't involve bringing incredibly specific pop culture or government/politics or hotbutton agenda topics into the foray.
They saw South Park doing it, and doing it well, so they figured, why not? We can be preachy too.
But here's the rub: They're on a network. They're network writers. South Park can mash hotbutton topics because it has free reign to do whatever shit the writers want. Sew an 8-year-old boy's mouth to the anus of a Japanese guy just to poke fun at Apple? Sure. Show a gruesome death of Jesus at the hands of the same little Jewish kid? Sure! Doesn't matter. They're on cable.
Simpsons (and, now, Futurama) writers obviously WANT to do this. But whereas the overblown violence and sexuality etc. offsets South Park's preachiness, all network shows can do is add a pinch of raunch or tongue-in-cheek. Which the Simpsons et. al. people have made perfectly clear that they are not terribly good at pulling off.
Now that Futurama is on cable, these latest eps are demonstrating that the writers are starting to feel the same mobility in avoiding censorship that South Park feels. But the show is already long-established as not relying on these sorts of gimmicks, and now that they are starting to implement them, it feels strange and sort of wrong. And, like I said, they're network writers: they're not good at it. Many laughs fall short because it feels like the scenes are grasping for laughs instead of slyly inducing them.
Consider the early eps' scenes. Professor Farnsworth gets mad about something, and says "if anyone needs me, I'll be in the ANGRY DOME!" and leaves. It's not really a joke yet. Time passes, you forget about it, but then, as the ship flies away, the camera grabs a quick pan & glance at the professor pissily ranting away in a glass dome. Boom. If you notice it, you laugh. No hotbutton issues or preachiness to be found. No raunchiness or violence. A pretty clever sight/memory gag.
In a recent new episode (on comedy central), Bender tries to marry Amy, clearly bringing up the hotbutton gay marriage issue. The entire ep is full of little stabs at the pro-gay-marriage and/or anti-g-m agenda. They all fall flat. Hotbutton issues like that can only be funny when handled in a gross, supremely over-the-top manner. And Futurama is not suited to that. At all.
There are still laughs, but the show doesn't feel like it used to. I found myself really really WANTING to laugh, like REALLY wanting it, and even though old Futurama eps that I've seen 257890235890 times can make me laugh, these new eps feel hollow.
Not to mention, they keep grinding old gags & old characters into the ground. The show was great before because they would keep introducing NEW characters and silly situations, and then have them make little "aha!" gotcha cameos once in a while. This latest ep focused ENTIRELY on LRRR of Omicron Persei 8, when he was a 1-sided character with only a few gags and should not be focused on so much!
aaaaagh wrote too much. g'night.
