…………………………………………………

Futurama Season 8 Review

The eighth season of Futurama premiered in 2023. This season spelled a solid return of this show and hopefully it will stay with us longer this time around.

………………………………………………….

“Anything I can’t understand is fake!“

…………………………………………………..

The Impossible Stream sees Fry binge a show for hundreds of episodes. For what was supposed to be a Fry episode, he wasn’t much in it. I liked the concept, but eventually this was all just an excuse to include countless jokes about the show being canceled numerous times. It’s a meta episode that is amusing to a degree, but far from impressive or memorable overall.

Children of a Lesser Bog was on the more serious side of things. Kif and Amy need to take care of their babies, but Leela babysits them, so now Amy is concerned that they like her more. This is a character-centric episode that was charming for sure, but I like both of these characters much more when they are on their own than when coupled.

Now we come to the two standouts of the season – How the West was 1010001 and Parasites Regained. Both of these episodes focus on the crew going off on an adventure, which were always my favorite Futurama episodes. They didn’t disappoint, but still the decision to not include any truly intergalactic voyage this season was a problematic one. The former episode worked in making fun of Bitcoin, but it also worked in its recreation of the Old West setting with Bender being particularly amusing.

But the latter episode is my favorite one. This is where they parodied ‘Dune’, and they did it in such a clever and fun way. The various creatures residing in Nibbler’s litter were so well realized and the world building was fantastic here. It’s a creative episode that is also very funny and it made me laugh numerous times.

Relates to Items You’ve Viewed brings back Mom, but I’d expected more from her. She is usually much more fun than she was here. The overall episode has its moments and Bender got a great arc, but more could have been done with this premise ultimately.

…………………………………………………..

I Know What You Did Next Xmas is one of my absolute favorites here. This episode works on so many levels. Not only do we see the return of Robot Santa in his deliciously devious form, but we also see a solid adventure, terrific humor and the best dynamic of the entire season – the sweetly amusing friendship between Bender and Zoidberg. I love those two together.

Rage Against the Vaccine worked best when it focused on Hermes. This is effectively his episode and he was very memorable. LaBarbara and Barbados Slim were hilarious and so well used. But the overall plot was annoying as Groening made way too much fun of anti-vaxxers while disregarding other issues stemming from the pandemic. It’s an episode that felt dated as it came too late after the event.

Zapp Gets Canceled is one of the more disappointing outings. I love Zapp Brannigan and he was reliably amusing, but nowhere near as hilarious as he usually is. They muted his personality quite a bit. The storyline focused on cancel culture, but it did not have anything insightful to say about it. The other subplot with the rest of the gang was a SF one for once, but that one was also just okay.

The Prince and the Product is the penultimate episode of the season and one of the worst the show has ever produced. This is just a filler episode where the main storyline was so slim and weak that they had to include all of this other tangential stuff that had nothing to do with it. The gang becomes wind-up toys, Round Wheels cars and rubber ducks. None of these segments worked and they were all super lazy.

…………………………………………………..

As for All the Way Down, I appreciated its scientific elements as it explored the concept of the universe being a simulation, but the episode forsake fun for world building, being too dry for my taste. The ending was also a letdown.