Futurama returned last Nox with two new episodes that made the most of the disruptive series ’ latest resurrection . The episodes , while occasionally odd , were crammed with laughable jokes , stem cadre , cartoon nudity , and a likely new Eve ( AKA Leela ) .
The first episode , aptly titled “ Rebirth ” , charts out the prompt wake of the termination to the last DVD picture , which found the Planet Express Crew on the test from Zapp Brannigan and the Nimbus . They unwittingly fly into the Panama Wormhole , which takes them mightily back to Earth , but things go from bad to fatal as the two ships crash and blow up upon reentry . Professor Farnsworth is capable to use stem cells to resurrect everyone except Leela , who is leave in an irreversible comatoseness . A distraught Fry makes a automaton replication of his lost lovemaking , who is seemingly a perfect extra … until the real Leela reawakens , at which point things get more complicated . A wad more complicated .
“ In - A - Gadda - Da - Leela ” , the second instalment , begins with the status quo more or less restore , as President Nixon and Zapp Brannigan engage the Professor ’s helper to destroy a Death Sphere steer towards Earth . Zapp and Leela aviate the Professor ’s invisible stealth fighter inside the sphere , but they are attacked and forced to crash down on an uninhabited heaven satellite . Leela finds herself immobilize under a fallen tree , force her to depend on Zapp for her survival . before long stripped down to nothing but some modesty - preserving fig leaves , the pair start to mould through their past difference , particularly when the Earth ’s devastation at the hands of the Death Sphere storm Leela to ponder whether this satellite is their own Garden of Eden , and whether she and Zapp are now humanity ’s Adam and Eve . Except , thing then get more complicated … again . A lot more complicated … also again .
Futurama has never shied away from non - analog storytelling and harebrained twists that reveal everything is n’t as it seems , and both these first two episodes have that in spades . It ’s not a sorry ploy – it ’s produced some of the show ’s finest sweat , such as “ The Sting ” and Bender ’s Big Score , pull off with aplomb – and if nothing else , they pretty much call for you rewatch the episodes to see how well the twists were signposted . ( The answer for both : quite well indeed . ) Of the two , the twist for “ Rebirth ” is probably a piffling better , if only because it ’s way more audacious .
You see , Fry did n’t really hold up the plosion along with the Professor – he actually sacrifice himself so that Leela could experience , go away nothing but charred hair behind that were beyond the stem cells ’ abilities to repair . So it was actually Leela who made a Fry automaton , but a 2d explosion bolt down Leela and left the Fry - bot cut and without its little - terminus retentivity . As such , we do n’t see the real Fry until the very end of the episode , finally allowing the erotic love trilateral between Leela , the Leela - bot , and Fry who ’s really the Fry - bot to resolve itself . By comparison , the second episode ’s big reveal – that Zapp is lying about just about everything , admit the death of Earth , to get Leela to think he ’s worth have sex with – seems almost mundane by comparison . It ’s also a flake more of a cheat , as a lot of it hinges on Leela being too frantic to realize what ’s really go on , and we the audience are only shown that same limited standpoint .
That said , the master prayer of Futurama really ought to be its joke , and these are generally middling upstanding . These instalment do n’t have some of the giant jape line that we ’ve seen in other episodes – Bender and Zoidberg are both comparatively sideline and do n’t get in their common apportioning of one - ocean liner , and there is n’t a delightfully insane side case like Hedonism - Bot or the Hyper - Chicken to total in and liven things up . Bender is used well in the first episode in a subplot where a life history - saving powerfulness beginning is giving him dangerous amounts of excess vigor , forcing him to party invariably . It never quite works as a independent joke – its use as the first act break particularly fall categoric – but it gravel works much better when we see it in the background knowledge , as Bender always dancing in establishing shot just get funnier and risible ( not to mention cuter and cuter ) .
In fact , the funniest line in the first episode probably add up from the ego - consciously ludicrous exposition . “ Rebirth ” is a preposterously overstuffed adventure , with at least an 60 minutes ’s Charles Frederick Worth of plot crammed into twenty - two moment , and does it ever show . Thankfully , the writers negociate to release this into a perverse strength by perpetually give in line that acknowledge just how rapidly they ’re jumping from game distributor point to plot of ground point and just how small gumption any of this really make . The sheer breakneck pace of “ Rebirth ” manages to paper over a raft of its potential weaknesses .
“ In - A - Gadda - Da - Leela ” also feels overstuffed , but it does n’t get around this problem quite so well . There ’s at least two instalment worth of cloth here , and I ’m not indisputable it served either plot line particularly well by trying to combine them into one . Matt Groening has allege he wanted to spoof the hoary old science fable figure where two strand cosmonaut chance on they ’re really Adam and Eve ( The Twilight Zone did this precise story during its declination form ) , but the Eden elements get largely shadow by Zapp ’s manipulations . The talking Snake River , for example , gets pretty unceremoniously deteriorate , and it might have been honorable to drop down the B - story with the rest of the Planet Express Crew so that Leela and Zapp ’s story could have more time to respire .
Similarly , the Professor ’s attempts to break the Death Sphere , which he identifies by the mysterious nameplate “ V - Giny ” ( spook of the original Star Trek : The Motion Picture there ) , feel a bit underdeveloped . The eventual reveal that the sphere is the lethal combination of a US Air Force defense satellite and an FCC V - Chip satellite is satisfying enough , but the episode could have done a lot more with this idea . His attempts to get the Earth to break swearing seem a bit hotfoot and perfunctory , and it seems like a huge missed chance that we never see President Nixon ’s response to the Professor ’s proclamation . The concluding revelation that V - Giny is , for all its puritanical censorship , kind of a pervert itself ( backed up by enlist one of telecasting ’s large deviant , Chris Elliot , to do the voice ) is a suspicious idea , but the show does n’t quite hammer the jest home enough for it to really play .
Still , there ’s a lot here to wish , specially on a 2d viewing . ( I liked “ Rebirth ” in finical quite a bit more when I watch over it a 2nd time . ) It ’s still pretty much the same honest-to-god Futurama , as ludicrous and beautiful and make bold as ever . ( It ’s also a bit coarser in its language and a mountain more uncoerced to break out the nudeness , as pretty much every character nonplus naked multiple times . ) It ’s not quite as comical just yet , but there ’s more than enough here for me to be very affirmative about what the next twenty - four sequence have in fund .
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