|
|
3ACV22: The 30% Iron Chef
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 9-6-02
"I put a tiny spaceship inside
it to keep it from being boring."
I had a dream about this episode, the day before it
aired. (And yes, I know that hearing about other people's dreams
is intensely dull, but bear with me.) I dreamed that while I
was watching it, for some reason my VCR played up and I didn't
get a proper recording. But I wasn't all that bothered, because
I didn't think it was a very good episode.
Now obviously that's crazy dream talk. Every Futurama episode gets recorded and re-watched,
even if it is 'The Cryonic Woman'. But in one respect my dream
was accurate, because 'The 30% Iron Chef' wasn't a very good
episode.
Maybe this is because I've never seen 'Iron Chef'
(in fact, I don't know if it's even been broadcast in the UK),
so I didn't get any recognition comedy out of it. But on the
other hand, this aspect of the show didn't even appear until
the third act, and I was already bored by then. (It obviously
needed more tiny spaceships.) In the past, episodes that were
made at the end of a production block have always seemed to be
lacking a certain spark (case in point: the aforementioned 'Cryonic
Woman'), and this show just plodded. We've seen Bender's cooking
before, we've seen Elzar before, and to be honest we've seen
most of the jokes before. The biggest laugh I got from this episode
(sad to say, also about the only laugh -- okay, that and
the "Domo arigato, Mr Roboto" gag) was Zoidberg's attempt
to frame Fry by with the 'I Hate Bottles' t-shirt, which was
just deranged and unexpected enough to get a response. The rest
of the show, however, was just... there. Bender did nothing
new, and the rest of the crew barely got a look in. And joy,
Bubblegum Tate returned. I suppose I should at least be grateful
that they didn't bang on about him being a physics professor
for half the episode.
Learning that Morbo and Linda are married, and that
Zoidberg's first name is John, weren't enough to hold my attention.
And why was everyone in the office on a Sunday, and why was Bender
cooking brunch at 3pm? The future is indeed a strange place.
This marked the first time in ages when the new Simpsons
episode beforehand (the one with the family re-enacting The Odyssey,
Joan Of Arc and Hamlet) was funnier than a new Futurama
episode. Considering the downturn in The Simpsons lately (swapping
wit and satire for surrealism and sadism), this ain't great.
The good thing is, I've still got 'Where No Fan Has
Gone Before' to look forward to. The bad thing is, I have absolutely
no idea when it's going to be shown...
Rating: 
|
