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3ACV03: A Tale Of Two Santas
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 30-6-02
"My God, the real Santa! Get
him, Jesus!"
Ah, Sky's schedulers. They can always be relied upon
to put episodes on at suitable times, like having a Christmas
episode in midsummer, absolutely as far from Christmas as it's
possible to get. Still, I shouldn't moan too much. At least they
finally got around to showing it!
Not quite as good as Santa's first Xmas outing, but
a close second nevertheless, 'Two Santas' had Bender in an uncharacteristically
helpful mode, which made his eventual rampage, after becoming
the target of every citizen of NNYC, all the more entertaining
(I especially liked him nailing the little girl with the bicycle
gun for her second year running). Although it was hard to hear
under the sounds of battle and the screams of terrified people,
Christopher Tyng did another good job of perverting traditional
Christmas music to sinister ends, as well. Also worthy of note
was John DiMaggio's perfect mimicry of John Goodman's voice for
Santa *and* Dan Castellaneta's for the Robot Devil!
The musical number, which sometimes in the past has
brought shows to an abrupt stop, worked well here, although Sky
inevitably blanked out Bender swearing (in the first showing,
at least -- to my annoyance, the Friday repeat went out uncut,
and of course I wasn't taping it!). What was the deal with the
elves holding hands, by the way? Is this some weird Christmas
thing that only happens in the States, like not having a proper
Boxing Day?
The Professor turning into an unstoppable gun nut
was a great bit of business, and the way he kept plugging Bender
with his shotgun just added to the rare sympathy for our favourite
evil robot (did you know that Slashdot actually ran a poll where
you could vote for your favourite *non-Bender* sci-fi robot?
They obviously knew who would have won otherwise...). Amy didn't
half look cute in her Santa gear too, and Zoidberg was brilliant
as Jesus. "I help those who help themselves!"
The downside is that this episode marks the end of
another season of Futurama, and
a stupidly truncated one at that. As the saying goes, fuck Fox.
(It seems their current policy is to treat shows they don't own
as badly as possible, so they can cancel them and make way for
in-house shows that cost less and earn them money in foreign
and syndication sales. Business it may be, but it's also very
shabby and short-sighted. However, they're losing market share
by the day, so maybe viewers who like their shows to be at least
half-decent will get the last laugh.) But anyway, time to enjoy
the festive Xmas weather. It may be July now, but it's pissing
down with rain -- just like a real British Christmas!
Rating: 
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