Reviewer Rating: 3.5/5.0
3.5
In 1999, Matt Groening was the smartest guy in the room.
As co-creator and executive producer of The Simpsons, Groening not only helped the show reach its creative peak but also launched another timeless gem that same year: Futurama.
1999, Futurama Groundbreaking, it’s literally the future of cutting-edge comedy. It has wonderful new characters, a great plot, and a familiar yet bold new comedic voice.
It’s been a few years since an animated show has been as philosophical as Star Wars, even if it’s packed with laughs.
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The characters explore new worlds, get caught up in incredible scenarios, and break the fourth wall so much that they jump over Karkaron. Uh, shark.
The early cancellation of “Futurama” remains one of television’s greatest injustices.
Not only were they canceled by Fox, but they were canceled by Comedy Central after the first Futurama revival.
There’s nothing you can do to hurt Futurama!
It’s no wonder that Futurama fans are so passionate, or dare we say, robot-crazy, in wanting to secure the show’s rightful place in history and allow it to age and end gracefully.
In 2013, it died gracefully with the masterpiece episode “Meanwhile,” which told the ultimate fate of Fry and Lila, a timeless romance that was simultaneously meta and non-linear.
Then, in 2023, following an outcry from fans who had experienced Bender’s exit, the show returned with a few uneven episodes that, while tinkering with pathos and relatability, At least it retains the Groening humor we grew up with.
Matt Groening’s voice is so acerbic that he portrays two generations riddled with irony: the baby boomers who were subtly caricatured and the Gen Xers who grew up watching avant-garde cartoons from the 1990s.
To my knowledge, he was the first thought leader to introduce core liberal values to impressionable people.
Futurama Season 12 Keeps Giving and Giving (and Giving)
Groening was a force of nature in the 1990s.
But to watch “Futurama”of Today’s latest episode even prompted the question from Springfield’s biggest fans: “Does Groening know how to end any show?”
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Seriously, just thinking about how far past its expiration date (or perhaps defying the concept of cancellation) Futurama has been is enough to give you a headache.
We’re all feeling a bit like Dr. Farnsworth right now, old and tired, but without “good news!” to share with everyone.
Granted, Groening’s biggest fans are no longer learning now, and they no longer expect any profound impact from yesterday’s idol.
They just want to hear audio clips from Frye, Bender, Zoiberg and Zapp Brannigan. They want to meet voice actors at comic conventions and buy collectible toys and hilarious gifts featuring their favorite Simpsons/Futurama characters.
But most of all, they want to continue living in Groening, an existence where no one ages, everything goes on forever and nothing stops – yes, even in the event of cancellation, Then there was a wrap, then it was canceled, then it was reinstated.
While fans of Groening’s world never want the party to end, I doubt Groening knows how to say goodbye to his character and whether he and his writing team can write a powerful and evocative series finale , to recreate the glory days.
Are we simply becoming too cynical or overly mature?of Familiar punchline?
Now that Rick and Morty has trampled all over the broken fourth wall, are we tired of the show’s genteel humor?
In episodes like “Quids Game,” cloying Rick and Morty voices seem to have taken over the world of Futurama. The same, unique R&M sound makes us wonder how long this time-travel farce will last.
Futurama Season 12 sparks mainstream laughter
Strange, brain-heavy aliens force the crew to reenact classic children’s games that Fry played as a child, all in an effort to test whether Fry is an impostor.
This episode is a bit of a clunky parody and spin-off of pretty much everything else on television. One gets the sense that Groening’s creative team studied the game so much that they lost sight of the essence and unique sound of Futurama.
Maybe Bender-filled episodes like “The One Amigo” and “Beauty and the Bug” should feel like classic Futurama. However, they also have a recycled feel and a bit of a Disney focus, riding the wave of Latin cartoon clichés that are popular today.
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What a pity for the future world Since it was once the smartest comedy on television, it had to imitate the style of other popular cartoons to adapt.
Its sensibilities have always been closer to stellar science fiction literature And the non-podcast level writing we see in cheap, crudely drawn cartoons of the 2020s.
However, it wouldn’t be fair to say the entire season was a failure. Two episodes stand out, including “The Extras,” which almost feels like an ode to a forgotten Simpsons conspiracy.
The forgettable temptation “Frank” joins the cast and becomes increasingly miserable as the narcissistic cast repeatedly forgets his name and takes his painful existence for granted. A direct resemblance to Frank Grimes or “Grimey” from The Simpsons!
Speaking of which, after 30 years of plot cycles, what is “The Simpsons” doing now?
Matt Groening, Gen X nanny
However, the best episode of the first half of Futurama Season 12 has to be “One Is Silicon, The Other Is Gold.” The episode excels in relatable and thought-provoking comedy, but also firmly establishes Groening as a baby boomer trying to understand the cool factor of Gen Z.
Still, the idea that chatbots will one day evolve into perfect human companions by giving us equal doses of good, evil, stress, and relaxation is a classic futuristic joke.
Personally, I enjoyed the psychological storyline of Chelsea’s chatbot; that’s not to say the chatbot is destined to be as evil as a possessed clown toy. No, we want them to be evil once in a while!
You can almost hear Groening scoffing at the pretentiousness of the new generation, slamming artificial intelligence chatbots, NFTs (which, oddly enough, are still “new” to a world 1,000 years from now), and, of course, animals Rights and environmental action.
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How lame would the producers of The Simpsons be if they didn’t try to understand millennial socialism?
At least “Futurama” keeps things introspective and doesn’t devolve into the uninteresting debacle of the grandpa pandering and political plot salad of Groening’s other show, “Disillusionment.”
(Let’s take a moment to consider how lucky we are that Disillusionment has finally been discontinued and will now take its place in animation history, one step behind The Critic For the most utterly wasted talent.
Still, seeing Bender grow a soul out of a giant bug treated like livestock is a throwback to Groening’s golden age. Always the first to ask uncomfortable questions. Always a funny guy, delivering sarcastic retorts in between long social lectures. This is the Matt we all know and love.
In “Attack of the Clothes,” he stumbles into a lengthy parody of the fashion industry, culminating in a marshmallow-fuzzed satire of society’s elites who destroy the world with pollution.
Admirable, but nowhere near what we’ve come to expect from South Park.
It’s not entirely fair to say Groening is as stale as rosé and out of step with this generation’s comedy.
Groening never grows up, his world remains stubbornly timeless and trapped in a matrix of unreality.
Maybe in his mind, even Binky from the comic book “Life in Hell” is still alive and well, and doesn’t realize how much the world has changed since Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Stay tuned for more Futurama episodes this season, including guest appearances from Hedonismbot, Yancy Fry Sr., and Sherri Fry (Fry’s parents), as well as more end-of-Earth scenarios coming soon.
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What do you think of Futurama Season 12 so far?
Please share your thoughts on the premiere and your hopes for the rest of the season below.
