Futurama: "Neutopia"/"Benderama"

Season 6, Episode 14 & 15

Over-plotting destroys two sure-fire premises

“Neutopia”

I’m not a fan most gender-based jokes. At best they come off as lazy observations, and at worst they are just offensive. Either way, they’re just not funny. (This goes for jokes for both genders.) Yet I was actually kind of looking forward to this episode of Futurama (which for some reason was the only of tonight’s two new episodes that was present in the promos), because the show has a good history of subverting traditional gender stereotypes, even if it usually boils down to us laughing at certain characters thinking along such (obviously stupid) lines. And while that doesn’t sound that funny in concept, with a voice cast this talented, they certainly can sell at lot of these lines, and more specifically the stupidity behind them, which ends up making them funny.

And when the episode stuck to this conceit, the episode worked like gangbusters, with jokes a-crackin’ at a very nice pace. (I was even able to overlook some of those jokes that are just gender stereotypes, even though it confounds me that this show will both subvert and actually employ such backwards thinking.)  Unfortunately, the episode stopped working when the overstuffed plot got in the way, as it took time away from a plotline that was working to jump to one that maybe didn’t work so well, or one that would have worked had it only the time to flesh itself out.

Now I get that Futurama is never going to be great on plotting, as the first act is almost always going to be thrown-away, used as set-up for the episode’s main storyline. (This is something passed down from The Simpsons, who in turn borrowed this from a good deal of Monty Python sketches.) I’m actually okay with this approach, as it keep viewers on their toes, while also making sure that the plot avoids too much bloating. But when the writers try to make the story too busy, it becomes much harder to become invested in the storyline, and that generally keeps the stories from landing. I know this seems a bit picky, especially for a show that’s as quotable as Futurama, but this show has proven it can make great stories that logically progress from one plot point to the next (especially “Jurassic Bark”, which didn’t even used the standard first-act-throw-away), so I believe I’m not out of line to expect better.

I was okay with the first “girly calendar” shoot, as well as the commercial airline (spaceline?) idea, and I was even okay when they crashed landed on an alien planet and had to compete in a battle of the sexes. But when it came around to the rock alien (who never got a name, as far as I could tell) making them all genderless – a one-joke idea that outstayed it’s welcome – and then moved on to accidentally switching their genders, it all became too much, and it felt like the show was making up plot point that added nothing new to the discussion of gender perception. (I did, however, get a good laugh out of the fact that it was Brannigan that caused them to be stuck in their reversed genders.)

And then, after a few more jokes – which included some that made it seem as if the writers thought as if it’s easier being a woman, something I found weirdly misogynistic – the episode felt the need to loop back around to the “girly calendar” idea before just kind of ending, with all the genders reversed once again by another magical rock creature. It was a forced, unnatural conclusion to the episode, as if the show couldn’t find a more natural way to wind things up. Oh well, at least we got a montage set to Motley Crue’s “Girls, Girls, Girls”.

“Benderama”

Much like “Neutopia”, “Benderama” also had its share of plotting issues – more, actually – but it also wasn’t nearly as funny. While the idea of Bender copying himself isn’t all that original, or surprising, it was at least fairly entertaining to watch Bender bounce of his copies for a while, and I hoped that the episode would keep going in that vein. Yet instead of giving us something like Bender fighting with his two other selves, and then maybe a sappy ending or something, they instead went the far more predictable route of the “the copies are making copies” routine. Sure it was something that Bender (and by extension, his copies) would do, but it’s not exactly the most original idea, and it makes me a bit sad that the writers couldn’t come up with something more original. (Or alternatively, that they didn’t scrap this idea when they figured out that they couldn’t go anywhere with it.)

Instead, they just shifted from random plot point to random plot point in the hopes that fresh storylines would distract the audience from the poor setup. It didn’t. First all the Benders would destroy all the mass in the world. Then, upon failing to get one small Bender during clean up, a bunch of microscopic Benders were made. But don’t worry, they’ll all die after they’ve destroyed all the alcohol! Except now the microscopic ones are turning water into alcohol! Now everybody’s drunk! And uh-oh, the ugly giant teenage alien (Patton Oswalt) from earlier in the episode  has come back! Everybody insults him! He gets angry! This leads to a fight between him and all off the Benders merged together into one giant robot! He dies! The Bender copies leave to avoid doing any more work!

Oh dear, I’ve gone cross-eyed.

Like I said, it was a busy episode, full of half-baked ideas, few of which landed, with the good ones given no time to flesh themselves out. We’ll just chock this one up to a loss. But hey, at least we saw the return of The Scary Door.

Next Week: Bender’s a ghost. Sure, why not.

Quotes, Etc:

“Wow. That’s actually a pretty good idea for a woman.”

“Forget. I promised myself I wouldn’t pose nude until I was married.”

“Eh, whatever, I ran out of film an hour ago.”

“A three month calendar? What is this, Mercury?”

“You put Goofus and Ganga in charge?”

“In the event of a wormhole causing us to travel back in time, do not kill your parents. If you are traveling with a small child, help them to not kill you before you don’t kill your parents.”

“Shut up and put on four episodes of The Office.”

“Roller derby is not a society!”

“We can’t trust a woman’s math! Count again!”

“Chocolate, Mac, men. The end.”

“Name any one of the twelve Desperate Housewives.”

“In your face, decumbent urinaters!”

“So if anyone has any good fart jokes, now would be the time.”

“Was that a fart joke, because I don’t find that amusing.” “No one does!”

“Goodbye, cruel me!”

“Do you mind if we sleep with you?” “I have no opinion.”

“Now I got a whatyacallit instead of a kajigger, you stupid whatyacallit.”

“Well, hello from the neck down.”

“Did you know there are more than two feelings?”

“Oh, your manwhich!”

“Thank god most of our fans are huge perverts!”

**********

“I like how it’s not killing us so far.”

“So that’s where baby sweaters come from.”

“That’s “Eerie” with two e’s.”

“Robot, experience this tragic irony for me.”

“You want me to do two things? I’d call my lawyer if dialing the phone wasn’t such a hassle.”

“And one regular sized condom.”

“Ah, shield your eyes! It’s like Edward James Olmos on Imax!”

“Which way to the tiny hookers?”

“Ah, a big fat roach!” “What? I thought I put that thing out.”

“I CAN NO LONGER FACE MY CHILDREN!”

“It’s like fine cognac with a hint of aged scrotum.”

“Turning to sports, the Indy Five Tundred was today. There were no survivors.”

“Walk toward the light, Bender.” “Aw man, do I have to walk?”