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3ACV18: Anthology Of Interest II
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 31-3-02
"Amy, tend to the widow Pac-Man."
Hmm, I sense a theme in Leela's fantasies -- namely
killing her co-workers, especially Amy. Would you want to work
with this woman?
Another 'what if?' show, and another very funny half-hour
-- especially Fry's segment. As a one-time videogame magazine
editor, and somebody who's been playing videogames since the
days of Pong (and who has been forced to the conclusion that
the old ones really are the best -- the only reason I've
bought a game recently is to play Robotron on my Game Boy Advance!),
it was great to see that the writers of Futurama
are people like me. Only American. And paid a lot more.
Bender's segment was the weakest of the three, but
since this is in comparative terms it was still a jokefest ("You'll
make God cry!") -- and the sight gag of human-Bender cramming
hot dogs into his mouth as he French-kisses a rather surprised
dancer makes me laugh out loud each time I see it. Good to see
the return of Wernstrom as well. But that's two for two with
Bender dying in his alternate lives, and the line "Goodnight,
sweet prince" got another airing. Wow, it's almost as if
the writers think about these things!
Absolutely loved the announcer's line "You watched
it -- you can't un-watch it!" I'll have to find excuses
to use that in everyday conversation.
Then onto Fry's gaming extravaganza, which managed
the seemingly impossible feat of cramming in more game references
than in 'Fear Of A Bot Planet' -- in a third of the time! It
obviously proves that modern videogames aren't as iconic as the
oldies, since there didn't seem to be a single post-1984 game
riffed. And there was even a Battlezone tank in there -- one
of my all-time favourite games! But since when did Donkey Kong
wear a loincloth? The emulator version of DK I have running on
MAME shows him as naked as... well, a gorilla, I suppose. The
ending was a bit limp, but I can forgive it on this occasion.
Finally, Leela's dream (although I wanted to
see Amy's 'what if'!) was a great take on The Wizard Of Oz, which
staggeringly I had never seen all the way through until last
year -- as a Christmas Day TV staple, I tended only to have seen
it in ten-minute chunks. But lo, who's that with Cubert but Dexter,
the as-yet-unintroduced son of Hermes and Labarbara? Nice scheduling,
Fox. What's next, Amy and Kif pushing a baby around before either
of them get pregnant? Abracaduh! Leela turning evil was a brilliant
capper to the whole story -- she looks quite good in a pointy
hat, don't you think? Nice subtle touch after she woke up as
well, when she says she had a wonderful dream, "Except you
were there," (points at Zoidberg) "and you were
there," (Amy) "and you were there." (Zoidberg
again!)
The only downer was the unfortunately ironic line
at the end, though. There isn't always next year...
Rating: 
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