9/10/2023 0 Comments Parks and rec streaming hulu![]() ![]() ![]() As some critics have thoughtfully noted, the whole thing is definitely fan service–y, and nowhere near as innovative as Futurama’s previous all-time offerings, which could plumb Fry’s family backstories as easily as they could Zapp Brannigan’s ship. It helps, perhaps, that such societal flashpoints are easily pliable to Futurama’s absurdities: Bitcoin mining’s heavy electricity use is shown devastating an entire planet and fueling the exploitation of intelligent robots recurring series villain and business plutocrat Mom becomes the Jeff Bezos stand-in at the head of the ever-growing, ever-ubiquitous, ever-exploitative “Momazon” service. And, thanks to the show’s dedication to open-ended finales (a necessity in light of, well, you know), the new Futurama transitions smoothly from its poignant 2013 ending to its newer story arcs, now crafted after defining motifs of the 2020s: the Wild West of “Crypto Country,” the revitalization of Frank Herbert’s Dune, the rise of 3D-printed goods, the global dominance of Amazon. The core gang of Fry, Bender, Leela, Farnsworth, Hermes, Amy, Zoidberg, and Scruffy is back at Planet Express, ready to (re)experience the 3000s on the USS Planet Express Ship. But for having shown its face again after a purgatorial decade, Futurama is in pretty decent shape. I don’t mean to imply that the most classic and best of Futurama is back just yet-the tear-jerkers, the legendary gimmicks, the love stories, the layered gags. Of course, a series of self-referential gags is one thing (one of many such examples: “How does a show get canceled this many times by this many networks?”), but this disgruntled fan is pleased to say, having also viewed the five following episodes of the revival, that this new season is actually … quite good? The first episode of its weekly Hulurama run, which aired on Monday, is a delightfully meta, inward-looking riff on the new streaming-TV landscape of binge watching, resurrected and reinvented shows, and the “mighty deep diaper of content” available on services like “Fulu.” While celebrating its own return and the circumstances that allowed it, Futurama is not too worshipful of its current masters the plot has room to showcase the streaming industry’s side effects of relentless episode output, schlocky and formulaic plots, overworked writers and actors, and studios’ desire to cut out the writers room in favor of robots. Thankfully, all that’s been resolved, and Futurama is back for real (yes, with DiMaggio in tow). ![]() Was the Futurama we’d missed so much really returning? And if it was, would it be given a proper chance? So when Hulu announced early last year that it had revived Futurama for two new seasons, original cast and showrunners and all, it was easy to feel jaded-especially when it appeared that John DiMaggio, voice of the beer-swilling antihero Bender, might not rejoin the project thanks to cast-compensation issues (a rather prescient controversy in hindsight, just to look at the ongoing actors and writers strikes). The geeky, hilarious sci-fi misadventure always had a cultural presence wider than its actual viewership, whether through meme templates or sob-choked recollections of “ the dog episode” broadcast suits never knew how to handle such a strange piece of culture, wherein a bunch of robots, aliens, humans, sentient human heads, and other bizarre creatures deliver pizza across a universe shaped by complex timelines and generations of science fiction lore. The beloved animated sitcom from Simpsons creator Matt Groening has bounced around every which way since its 1999 debut, canceled and revived and canceled yet again, to the chagrin of critics and fans: four seasons on Fox that ended in 2003, a series of direct-to-video films released from 2008–09, another two seasons on Comedy Central from 2010–13, even a podcast-exclusive reunion episode in 2017. If you had to pick just one classic show whose ignominious fate embodies the commercial sins of the network-TV era, you couldn’t do much better than Futurama. ![]()
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