Futurama Season 3 (2001)
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Futurama Season 3 Review
The third season of Futurama is another uneven season with many episodes being the most disappointing or the most impressive of the series so far.
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“As a robot, I can’t feel human emotions,
and sometimes that makes me sad.“
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Amazon Women in the Mood is so incredibly entertaining. Not only does it have an expectedly terrific use of Zapp, but Kif himself is also memorable and the story where the men are taken hostage by the women in an all-female planet was executed as well as it could have been executed with many hilarious moments. Parasites Lost is an interesting episode that finds Fry beginning a relationship with Leela while the rest of the crew goes into his body to fight the parasites that are living there. The episode is both emotional and imaginative.
A Tale of Two Santas is a solid, if uneven episode that isn’t particularly funny but finds a good use of Bender who is quite memorable here and the setting is fun as well. The Luck of the Fryrish is about Fry realizing how much his brother truly loved him. I have conflicting thoughts about this episode. On the one hand, it is so competently made and very dramatic and sometimes quite inspired with a great use of flashbacks. But on the other hand, its ending was overly sentimental and the sometimes present overabundance of emotion is one of Futurama’s weaknesses as comedies to me are supposed to be more lighthearted and less serious.
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The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz should have been much better and funnier, but I liked Bender a lot here as his involvement with the penguins produced a couple of amusing scenes. Bendless Love isn’t really memorable or funny, but has some fun moments and a good use of both Flexo and Bender.
The Day the Earth Stood Stupid features such a fantastic, unexpected and fun twist regarding Nibbler’s origin, but it also features Fry saving the day with his stupidity and that was bound to be entertaining and it is. That’s Lobstertainment! is regarded as one of the worst episodes of the show ever and I do not get that. Yes, its first half is dull, but the second one is so amusing as watching the Academy Awards in the future was such a tremendously riotous experience for a movie buff like me.
Leela gets two eyes in The Cyber House Rules only to realize that she was special all along with just one eye in an episode that is well meaning and a great character arc for Leela. When the Buggalo Roam was too much of a western for my taste, but Amy’s parents are very funny here and Kif is really good himself.
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Insane in the Mainframe is a parody of a movie that I strongly dislike which is why this episode was uninvolving and not for me. The Route of All Evil follows Cubert and Hermes among others which is why the episode is so weak and incredibly boring as I do not like those two at all.
Bendin’ in the Wind is another one of those episodes where Bender gets a new obsession, but it is better than most due to a mostly well crafted story. But it isn’t particularly memorable. Time Keeps On Slippin’ is another solid Fry/Leela romantic episode, but with an unfortunate sporting angle to it.
I Dated a Robot finds Fry doing just what the title suggests and of course it is an episode that is both clever and funny. The third act was a bit too action-oriented in my opinion, but the rest of the episode is stellar stuff. A Leela of Her Own is one of the weakest Leela parts with a couple of fine moments, but with an overemphasis on dull sports and repetitive storytelling.
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Here we get to the greats. A Pharaoh to Remember is such a wonderfully adventurous Ancient Egypt story filled with excellent animation, a really cool humor as some lines made me laugh quite a bit and such emotional and relatable Bender. Anthology of Interest II is miles better than its predecessor with all three of its segments being absolutely fantastic. I, Meatbag finds Bender becoming a human in a physically humorous segment; Raiders of the Lost Arcade is one of the Futurama stories that contain the most references and watching all those video game characters was immensely satisfying; Wizzin’ is the best of the bunch as it is such a hilarious parody of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ with a couple of absolutely hysterical lines and a fitting roles for all of the characters.
Roswell That Ends Well is probably my favorite season three episode owing to its very entertaining and yet very well crafted time travel storyline and a couple of very funny moments. Fry’s grandfather is very memorable and this is a great parody of ‘Back to the Future’ for sure. Godfellas is too serious and less funny, but still such an intriguing, even fascinating take on spirituality, religion and most importantly God through once again excellent use of the robot.
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Future Stock has its moments and Fry is memorable here, but it is overall not the most inspired episode. The 30% Iron Chef starts off in such a hilarious fashion, but it worsens with each of the next scenes being more and more disappointing.
Overall, this season is incredibly uneven which is again unfortunate. Some episodes are very weak and just dull, but some are instant classics. It features excellent Fry, Zoidberg and especially Bender among others and whenever it strived for science fiction and comedy as it was supposed to do, it was great plus some of the parodies were so satisfying.
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Worst Episodes: Insane in the Mainframe, The Route of All Evil, Time Keeps On Slippin’ and A Leela of Her Own.
Best Episodes: Amazon Women in the Mood, The Cyber House Rules, A Pharaoh to Remember, Anthology of Interest II and Roswell That Ends Well.
