Craig Marinaro
02-18-2002, 11:08 AM
I thought it was very good...very different. Futurama, unlike The Simpsons (and even KotH, to a lesser extent) is willing to try new things. They don't play down to anybody, and they don't care about angering the fans who *only* want to see comedy and no dramatic stuff. They're just out there to make a great show, all else be damned. Which I think is what impresses me so much, even when it doesn't quite come across.
A bit more Fry / Leela stuff. I loved last week's episode, but the "trying to find the right words" scenario seemed like a bit of a retread after the climactic ending of the Harlem Globetrotters ep. Here it's less trite, because Fry is honestly trying his best to comfort Leela (despite not being able to resist a few come-on cracks). The camera pan right before the first commercial break was a great cinematic touch. And since *we* know that early in the episode who Leela really is, we're allowed to focus for the rest of the episode not on the mystery, but on Leela trying to find what we already know, and how she's going to take it.
The "You killed my parents" scene was almost certainly the most melodramatic thing this show has ever done. It could have been a real groaner if it wasn't done well. But it was--Katey Sagal gives a marvelous performance (quite possibly the performance of her career), obviously pouring her heart into it. The periods of silence coming between Leela's explosive lines are a great contrast, emphasized all the more by the absence of any underscore. Again, very cinematic. And better animated than almost anything else on TV.
Not as many quotables as last week's ep (I was using the phrase "chalky and unpleasant" all through Thursday whenever I saw one of those stupid candies), but Farnsworth gets some good laughs with his machine ("It can do more things! Why shouldn't it?"; the fact that it *still* produces endless barrels of toxic waste when it's just decrypting a piece of paper). The Bender stuff was probably the weakest part of the episode, but it *did* intertwine quite well with the main plot (a la the classic Simpsons episodes).
Good stuff.
A bit more Fry / Leela stuff. I loved last week's episode, but the "trying to find the right words" scenario seemed like a bit of a retread after the climactic ending of the Harlem Globetrotters ep. Here it's less trite, because Fry is honestly trying his best to comfort Leela (despite not being able to resist a few come-on cracks). The camera pan right before the first commercial break was a great cinematic touch. And since *we* know that early in the episode who Leela really is, we're allowed to focus for the rest of the episode not on the mystery, but on Leela trying to find what we already know, and how she's going to take it.
The "You killed my parents" scene was almost certainly the most melodramatic thing this show has ever done. It could have been a real groaner if it wasn't done well. But it was--Katey Sagal gives a marvelous performance (quite possibly the performance of her career), obviously pouring her heart into it. The periods of silence coming between Leela's explosive lines are a great contrast, emphasized all the more by the absence of any underscore. Again, very cinematic. And better animated than almost anything else on TV.
Not as many quotables as last week's ep (I was using the phrase "chalky and unpleasant" all through Thursday whenever I saw one of those stupid candies), but Farnsworth gets some good laughs with his machine ("It can do more things! Why shouldn't it?"; the fact that it *still* produces endless barrels of toxic waste when it's just decrypting a piece of paper). The Bender stuff was probably the weakest part of the episode, but it *did* intertwine quite well with the main plot (a la the classic Simpsons episodes).
Good stuff.