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2ACV01: I Second That Emotion
First UK airing: Sky One, 8:00pm, 14-3-00
"This'll show those filthy bastards
who's lovable!"
Yes! Futurama is back!
Maybe it was the switch from 1ACV to 2ACV (I get the
impression from various sources -- not least from Matt Groening's
online chat transcript -- that Season 1 was originally planned
to run for 13 episodes, but suffered from one of those ludicrous
'hold four episodes back' affairs that American TV seems to enjoy
doing), but 'Emotion' finally kicked the run of parody episodes
into touch, and not before time. Character comedy -- yes! More
to the point, extremely funny character comedy. Note to writers:
more, please.
Bender was the undisputed star of the show this time,
and has rarely been funnier. Whether doing a Harlem Globetrotters
routine with his head, showering rat poison around (a great reversal-of-expectations
gag) or actually using his powers of selfishness and lack of
caring to heroic effect, the 'bot was The Man. Despite this,
everyone got some good moments. Except maybe Hermes, and 1ACV10
aside, that's pretty much par for the course. I especially liked
Fry desperately hoping to get some kind of emotional commitment
from Leela when it looked like their number was up... damn it,
I am turning into a 'shipper! Well, The X Files finishes
soon, and what other TV couples are there to root for? Apart
from Ross and Rachel, Mark and Elizabeth, Niles and Daphne...
(Hmm... all from American shows. Well, that seals the doom of
current British TV -- not one single show I watch in the
whole week.)
It was also fun to have Bender voicing Leela's emotional
state, particularly when the Leela/Amy situation was transferred
to Bender/Fry. ("The only reason you get all the guys is
because you dress like a tramp!"/"They're just responding
to my personality...") The joke about Zapp Brannigan's webpage
was brilliant, as well. Plus it brought back a bizarre, if reversed,
Young Ones memory ("Ah hah hah! Rick is still a virgin!"),
which can only be a good thing.
Despite what I said a couple of reviews back, I think
I can live with the (now fully established) Leela/Amy rivalry,
even if it does adhere to the television rule that two female
characters can't exist in a comedy without being jealous of each
other. It's interesting that Amy doesn't think she's as smart
as Leela -- in my experience, university students think they're
smarter than everybody! On a sidenote, it's also kind
of odd that even in the 31st Century, the only people who can
get past the one giant eye issue are Fry and Zapp Brannigan.
I mean, if you can live with the whole cantaloupe/melon (hey,
I'm British) sized-eye thing, Leela would be a fairly good catch.
Am I right, men?
The Planet Of The Apes riffs with the mutants (BTW,
did anyone else notice the Leela clone down there?) were subtly
done, which after 'Mars University' and 'Slurm Factory' made
a change, and were all the better for it. It just goes to show
that you don't have to ram the joke down peoples' throats for
it to work. Futurama definitely
works best when it's doing the riffs on other movies and shows
as throwaways instead of making them the backbone of an episode.
Despite my ongoing (and fairly hopeless) bid to avoid spoilers,
I get the feeling from the Season 2 episodes that have already
aired in the States that full-on parodies are on the back-burner.
Good! The show is strong enough to do what it's there for --
make people laugh -- without having to reference something else.
(Huh. Now watch 'Brannigan Begin Again' turn out to be a no-holds-barred
parody of Edward Scissorhands, or something.) There were also
loads of freeze-frame gags ('Calculon's Own'!) which went down
a treat on the second viewing.
So there was no sign of the Planet Express ship, which
is the ostensible reason for this site to exist. Well, chah,
do I care? No. I was laughing, laughing, laughing, until the
wine spurted out of my nose (which burns, BTW) and I really had
to get a Kleenex to wipe down my couch. As far as I'm concerned,
that's as good a sign of a winning episode as any.
Rating: 
BTW: Nice work amazon.co.uk -- I ordered
a Futurama Y2Kalendar yesterday afternoon (Monday 13th), and
it arrived this morning. Kudos! And it's got model sheets for
the main characters too. Too bad I didn't get it before
I started drawing 'The Right Way And The Wong Way', but neh...
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