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realcaseyrollins @kbin.projectsegfau.lt

2y ago

‘Futurama’ Review: New Episodes on Hulu Are Fun Fan Service, but Not Much More (And That’s OK)

www.hollywoodreporter.com ‘Futurama’ Review: New Episodes on Hulu Are Fun Fan Service, but Not Much More (And That’s OK)

After runs on Fox and Comedy Central, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen's animated sci-fi comedy leaps into the bold new frontier of streaming.

‘Futurama’ Review: New Episodes on Hulu Are Fun Fan Service, but Not Much More (And That’s OK)

After runs on Fox and Comedy Central, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen's animated sci-fi comedy leaps into the bold new frontier of streaming.

36 comments

I'm really annoyed at the sentence "And That’s OK" as if I can't form my own opinion on a topic. Yes, I'm triggered but it's a useless choice of words for a title.
- Yes, I’m triggered but it’s a useless choice of words for a title.
  And that’s ok.
  
  And that’s ok.
  And that's ok.
- It’s framing. If the title ended at “not much more,” it would look like criticism. They could do “not that we’re saying that’s bad” but that’s not terribly professional and isn’t very brief

I liked it. I watched it at 2x speed.
- If Law and Order can do it so can we!

I haven't seen it yet, but I know that in the past when they've come back from cancellation, the first episode can been very meta and fan-servicey.
Leela: "What about us and our many fans?"
- I watched it last night. You hit the nail on the head - it was just like the first episode after the other reboots. Not a bad thing, and I enjoyed it. Still felt like Futurama and the writers continue to respect the continuity of previous seasons, which is something I always appreciate.
  
  The writing also felt pretty sharp still - the characters all acted in line with what I expect from them, and the Hulu/fulu futurama/all my circuits meta parody stuff worked really well.
  
  Imo the continuity of the previous seasons is the worst thing that has happened to futurama

Yeah first episode was alright, but nothing spectacular, a little too meta in my opinion. I feel like it didn't have much emotion for the characters, but we'll see as the next episodes are released
- Personally, I feel the episode was subpar. Even when compared to the worst episodes of Comedy Central's run of the show. That run was rife with Meta humor.
  This episode just felt beneath even those IMO. It doesn't help that it seemed like their was only one good joke that landed which was a 20th century version of binging. The rest fell flat or just gave a slight chuckle.
  Overall for me, it was not a good start, but here is hoping the next episodes are better.
  
  This was pretty much my take too. I went in wanting to love it, but it ultimately fell flat for me—even if I didn't exactly hate it. I re-watched the first four seasons back when it was announced this was coming. So, maybe I did this to myself by setting the bar way too high. I'm still going to give it a chance, hoping the overreliance on meta humor was a one-off, but I'll be tempering my expectations going forward.
  
  Nothing will ever be worse than the cat episode.
- All of their many, many reboot episodes have been nothing but meta in jokes. Episode 2 will be much more informative.

The self-referential aspect of the episode was a bit much, but I was actually buoyed by the episode on the whole. The content was kind of meh, but the tone was right. The Comedy Central episodes always seemed to suffer from tonal issues.
Now, the pacing felt a bit weird in this one, but I feel like a lot of TV is weirdly and poorly paced now.
- I felt the same about the pacing and it is endemic of series these days.
  They have the same amount of content as they did when they weren't made for streaming, but for some reason they feel both rushed and slow at the same time. It's hard to describe why it actually feels off.
  
  My guess is either they don't have the funding to spit out a full 24 minutes anymore, and they never figured out how to write for shorter, or the lack of commercial breaks aren't forcing them to hit certain milestones in the episode. But I really don't know.

If someone didn't like Futurama 20 years ago, does anyone expect those people to start liking it now?

I quite liked the episode, it felt on par with any of the comedy central episodes, or maybe my standards have dropped. The meta jokes were a bit too much at points though
- Meta was borderline cringe but the rest was aight. Think it was ripping off the bandaid acknowledging the gap and hope the next episodes are better

I keep seeing references to new episodes (plural) on Hulu but I just see the one, with the next two listed as coming in the next two weeks.
Also confused bc there's a joke in first new ep seemingly directing audience to binge "no less" than ten episodes in a row.
Where are people seing the others?
- Idk, tbh an AI is probably writing these articles and they didn’t edit it to account for the few days here where only one episode is available
- There is only one episode available to the public. Critics usually get access to multiple episodes before they publish reviews like this.

Yes, I’m triggered but it’s a useless choice of words for a title.
And that’s ok.

I liked the "Scary Mirror" reference, but didn't like the episode overall. Leela encouraging Fry to do such a dumb thing was really out of character. Hoping they get better.

Well also confusing is there's a joke in the first ep seemingly directing audience to binge "no less" than ten episodes in a row.

Instructions unclear: David Twitter Cohen?
- Twitter gon' give it to ya

Personally I found the first 2 seasons much better than the rest. The rest were hit or miss with not so many hits the further the seasons progressed. Not saying they were bad, but the quality of the plots dropped significantly for seasons 4-5.

36 comments