Futurama: "Ghost in the Machines"

Season 6, Episode 16

Back to basics, back to the fun

“Hold on to your dookie, it’s about to get spookie.”

-Bender

After last week’s duo of missteps, Futurama returned with a much stronger focus – and thus a stronger episode. As opposed to the multi-faceted, overly busy outings of last week, this week’s episode kept it smart and simple by keeping the focus solely on the Bender-Fry relationship.  For as much as Futurama deals in cynicism, it also holds that beneath all the biting comments and barbs the characters throw at each other, they hold a deep sense of loyalty and love to one another. It’s a bitter pill at times, but if you can swallow it, it can lead to some pretty great moments.

But before we get to that moment, there were a few other moments from the episode that also merit mention. First off, the humor was both better and as bad as you would expect. What I mean is that the various ghost movie references – Ghostbusters, The Exorcist, etc – tended to fall flat, but the rest of the jokes, but all the others – the character based jokes, the puns – cracked off tonight without a hitch. Likewise, Bender’s attempts to scare Fry were never as funny as all the things that happened because of Bender’s scare attempts, but I don’t think that was the point.

No, the point of this storyline was to reinforce Fry and Bender’s friendship in a way that it’s never been looked at before. Certainly the show has showed us how much Fry (perhaps unjustifiably) cares for Bender, and how selfish Bender is when it comes to receiving attention, but it’s never proven that this relationship is as even as Fry thinks it is. (Or at least not that I can remember.) But tonight that changed, but not without going through the traditional “Bender screws over someone else for selfish reasons” plot first. Yes, it’s something that we’ve seen millions of times before, but it’s something that’s in character for Bender, and it helps to inform all that comes after it.

Now more astute viewers no doubt recognize that the central argument here – whether a robot’s life is worth more, less, or the same amount as a human’s – has some very obvious parallels to various debates, be they about abortion, the death penalty, or even whether or not we can’t think of robots as alive. (We have Terminator and it’s offshoots to thanks for that last one.) And really it’s the fact that it can be applied to any one of those debates that irks me a little, for while I usually enjoy when the show tackles big issues like this, here the show seemingly brought up this issue only as a way to move the plot forward, and it comes off as a bit distraction.

However, despite this distraction I do like how this argument was ultimately used to even up the score between Fry and Bender, to the point that both admitted to seeing the lives of the other species to be just as equal to their own. It was a good way for us to believe both that Bender would forgive Fry for what he had done, especially given the strong irrationality of Bender’s earlier actions, and it gave reason to Bender saving Fry’s life. It’s certainly not the sweetest or most heartbreaking moment the show has ever given us, but Bender willing going to the Amish Home World  - where there’s no booze, strippers, money, or crime – just so he could spend time with his best friend surely say a lot.

Props also go to the episode for using some fairly sound (by television standards) reasoning for there to be such thing as a robot ghost – even if it was a bit off putting to here the show name-check cloud technology – and for bringing back the Robot Devil and satirizing his love of song. (Though I feel this might have been partially motivated by budget cuts, especially considering they reused bits of “Welcome to Robot Hell”.) I also enjoyed the world play inherent in the title, as the episode ended on a very dues ex machina moment, even if it was a robot that ended up in the God machine. It’s shows that the writers are willing to poke fun at themselves, and even more importantly, it lets us know that Futurama is back.

Quotes, Etc:

Opening Caption: #1 Most Viewed Show About Robots

“Oh God no, get out of here you horrific sausage!”

“When I was a boy, we had a parade every day. Those were dark times.”

“Oh no, it’s within munching distance of the Dorito’s float!”

“I have another one that say “Paleontologists do it in the dirt.’ I’m a paleontologist.”

“Hereos don’t do drugs. Except for Drugman, I guess.”

“From here on, this Saturday will be known as Fry-Day.”

“Last time you wend to the suicide both, you ended up dating it for six months.”

“I just thought I has laryngitis and anti-gravity.”

“A g-g-g-ghost?” “No, just the regular kind.”

“An infinite loop? I don’t have time for that.”

“Fry? I hate that guy. We once traded hands. They still smell like candy corn.”

“No, not the armpits! Winter’s is coming.”

“As you can see, since Bender died, request to bit someone’s shiny metal ass has gone down 98%”

“The number you have dialed has been lamed since 1989.”

“Let the séance begin!” “I said ‘science’.”

“Oh Lord, I got the too-much-macaroni sweats.”

“It also keeps cats off the sofa…by killing ‘em.”

“So quiet, so peaceful. Time to lower my guard even for a minute.”

“SURVIVED a heart attack?! Damn you, Obamacare!”

“I afraid you suffered a heart attack. I’m also afraid my cleavage isn’t helping.”

“Yo, Big Bonnet. Move your ugly but modest bonnet.”

“Where’s Granny Hester?” “She’s naked by unharmed.”

“I’m afraid your friend is about to be fully Buckminstered!”

“SHUT UP, ROBOT GOD!”