Futurama Volume Six
I often wonder why The Simpsons has gone on for so many seasons on Fox, yet a show like Futurama, which has all the same elements, was cancelled after a mere four seasons. I also wonder if it wasn’t the plan once upon a time for The Simpsons to quietly bow out of their timeslot and let Futurama take over, as The Simpsons sort of ran out of ideas and Futurama seemed to be, well, the future.
Regardless, this is our second set of episodes from Comedy Central whilst Fox is putting out I don’t even know what animated shows. In one episode, Bender has to go into witness protection and when he is found (or so they think it is him) he says his name is Billy West, which Fry appropriately scoffs at.
My other favorite episode is the last one, “Reincarnation”, in which the stories of various Futurama plots are told in three separate tales, each in a different style. The first is old black and white, from the Steamboat Willie era of Mickey Mouse, which is okay but not my favorite. The second is my favorite as it is told in eight bit and even pays tribute to certain Atari games I love such as Dig Dug and Adventure. The third tale is done in a traditional American anime form, which is funny at best.
In the future (Ahhh, the future of Futurama, the universe is exploding on itself!!) I wouldn’t mind seeing a Robot Chicken tribute to Futurama somehow, using all the finely crafted Futurama toys out there. That’s just my suggestion.
Volume Six is great though. After seeing Volume Five and now this, I just wonder why they ever got canceled in the first place. Such a quality show.
