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3ACV20: Godfellas
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 5-5-02
"This looks like a job for God!"
The vagaries of scheduling are a funny thing. Last
week we had a Bender episode where he behaved like an absolute
shit for 22 minutes and got away with it, learning nothing; this
week, we had a Bender episode where, despite himself, he was
forced to deal with the consequences of his actions and as a
result actually ended up doing a selfless good deed at the end
of it all. This being series television he'll probably be back
to an average state between the two extremes next week, but I
thought it was interesting to note.
Another odd scheduling coincidence was that right
after 'Godfellas' (an episode where Bender meets God) on Sky,
the Simpsons episode was 'HOMR' -- the one where Homer gets smart
after having a crayon taken out of his brain and as a throwaway
gag proves the non-existence of God. For us Brits it's something
of a non-issue -- God may exist, or may not, but either way the
trains still don't run on time -- but I sometimes wonder which
winds up the more fervent American religious types the most;
shows that take an atheistic line, or ones that have the blasphemous
audacity to portray God in any way, shape or form. After all,
Dogma -- one of the most pro-God, pro-faith films of recent years
-- was caught in a shitstorm of protest from members of the same
religion its creator follows on the grounds that it had some
naughty words and fart jokes in it. Or maybe they were just outraged
that God is Alanis Morrissette. Hey, so long as it's not Celine
Dion...
Speaking personally, I wouldn't follow any religion
whose God doesn't possess the best sense of humour in the universe.
But that's just me. Theology contained in my writings may not
be entirely accurate.
But enough religious controversy; after all, I suspect
that 'Godfellas' wouldn't have aroused any such thing when it
was aired because it's on Fox, which is both watched by hardly
anyone and in the hands of a possible minion of Satan
(hey, Futurama got cancelled, what more proof do you need?),
thus ensuring no easily-offended types would have seen it. Was
the episode actually any good? I thought so -- the setup was
handled staggeringly quickly and with plenty of good jokes along
the way (like Bender's earplugs), and Fry's determination to
find and rescue his best friend despite all the odds was another
little hint that he can be a lot more than a lazy dimwit when
he (and the writers) wants to. Considering how often he's turned
out to be right in the end, despite his veneer of idiocy ("idioticness"?),
maybe Leela should be paying closer attention to him!
The visuals in this episode were outstanding as well.
From the pirate galleons at the beginning to the beautiful space
backgrounds -- I'm a sucker for astronomical photographs, and
recommend that anyone who likes to experience a bit of awe every
now and then should check out the book 'Magnificent Universe'
by Ken Croswell, especially the pictures on pages 113 and 127
(plug plug) -- it was one of the most impressive-looking shows
Futurama has ever done. They even synced the lighting effects
and shadows on Bender to the flashing stars when God was talking
to him - -now that's attention to detail!
My only real problem with 'Godfellas' was that it
was a bit too reminiscent of the 'Lisa creates a microscopic
civilisation' segment ('The Genesis Tub') of one of the Simpsons
Halloween episodes. But I can live with this. Like I said at
the beginning, it was good to see Bender actually show remorse
for his actions without having to be forced!
Sci-fi-wise, the whole business with the monks was
reminiscent of Arthur C Clarke's short story 'The Nine Billion
Names Of God' (you know, you could probably use Visual Basic
or whatever to run that program in a matter of days now...),
and the bit about the PE ship being at maximum speed brought
up that eternal raging geek nitpick about Star Trek's impulse
drive. "It's a function of acceleration, not velocity,
you jerks! [Smack]"* Another nitpick -- that was a damn
good picture for a radio telescope...
Not a good showing for Ms Wong, though. Do the guest
stars record several episodes at once? It hardly seems worth
Lauren dragging herself down from her very very very nice house
(check out the link to Very Nice House magazine, or whatever,
on her homepage) to record
one line of dialogue. On the other hand, since I think actors
get paid the same however many lines of dialogue they have in
an episode, maybe it's not too bad a deal after all. Shame the
same doesn't apply to magazine editors. I'd love to be able to
roll into work, edit one line of text and then head for home
again on full pay...
Rating: 
*If you're wondering "the hell?",
Star Trek treats "full impulse" as an absolute speed
-- 1/4 the speed of light -- when even an idiotic excuse for
a moron could tell you that as long as you have fuel, you can
keep accelerating indefinitely to any speed below C, according
to Einstein. Don't get me started...
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