Thoughts on Episode 6ACV08 - That Darn Katz (SPOILERS)

[on:]

Thread for discussing this week's episode, which hits the air... er, cable? ... in the eastern us in 12 minutes.

I'll unlock it as soon as the ep ends, so you'll have to restrain your urge to get the first comment in until the entire episode has actually aired for a change. If you just have to complain about how terrible it is based on the first 60 seconds,  I recommend the chat room. Be warned, tnuk has powah in there, and he doesn't appreciate spoilers...

Good episode, I guess.
Poll is coming, forgot it the first time around...

[Reply #1 on:]

Another great episode. 8/10.

It had it's flaws, it wasn't like TLPJF or Lethal Inspection, but it felt like an I Dated A Robot-quality episode. Some of the cat jokes were pointless (like the dancing cats joke, it's en-par with the circusitus joke). But still worthy of 8/10 by the series standards, and 9/10 for Season 6 standards.

My favorite jokes were: "A Horse Says: Doctorate Denied," and "As sure as the sun sets in the East!"

[Reply #2 on:]

Cat humor was meh, although I am rather partial to lolcat gifs and the Meow Mix commercial.  Academic humor was devastatingly hilarious.

[Reply #3 on:]

It was okay, I give it a 7/10. "All Employees must has a cat!!1"

[Reply #4 on:]

I'll give it an 8/10,

I did like how the writers didn't take the easy way with that horse sound

[Reply #5 on:]

Meh. This episode was meh. I got a few laughs out of it, but still... Meh. 6/10

[Reply #6 on:]

I was pleasantly surprised. Mid-pack episode for the series as a whole. It would've been better without the cats' can-can. I'll rate it later.

[Reply #7 on:]

9/10 Only a few flaws that I could find!
I loved the guest star(forget his name)
I liked how they described why the Egyptians loved cats and how and why the pyramids were built, that was lol funny.
so many jokes that it would be a long post to mention them all.
all and all best episode yet

[Reply #8 on:]

Pretty good episode. It was disappointing to hear Leela say she has no man, but a lot of the jokes were laugh out loud funny. I was also surprised by the Amy-Nibbler team up, which worked really well.

[Reply #9 on:]

This is the first episode of the season about which I can honestly proclaim, in typical neutral fashion, to have no strong feelings about either way. It was a decent episode--not bad, but not particularly memorable; it reminded me a bit of "Crimes of the Hot" or, like, "The 30% Iron Chef." I have a feeling that, in a few years when I'm looking through my Futurama DVDs trying to find an episode to watch, I'll come across this one and think "Well, I didn't like it much the first time around"; inevitably I'll give it another shot and realize that it has a few funny moments. I mean, it's not an offensively bad episode, I just feel like the premise was lacking. Nice use of Amy, though (in the original 72, they didn't get much use out of her being a grad student and ostensibly good at, y'know, physics and junk), and pairing her with Nibbler provided a few laughs.

Overall, I'll give it a 6/10. It was a perfectly passable episode, but not one that I'll go back to time and again when I'm aching for a Futurama fix.

[Reply #10 on:]

i give it a 7/10. it has the usual good futurama pacing and jokes, but i just didn't care that much for the plot. solid and funny episode though.

7/10

[Reply #11 on:]

I give it a 7. OK, kind of funny, I did like the fact that they teamed up Amy and Nibbler. And that Maurice used his Toucan Sam voice for the cat. Oh, and the references to the McDLT and the old 9 Lives cat food commercials (Morris Katz? That can't just be a coincidence...)

The original 72 had its share of average episodes, too. That's what this is, an average episode. Not great, not bad, just...an episode.

Seeing the "I may not have a man" line within the episode as a whole, doesn't bother me as much. Seems like something Leela would say in the original 72. And my "different writer" guess was right - is this Josh Weinstein's first writing credit on the show?

[Reply #12 on:]

It was a decent episode--not bad, but not particularly memorable; it reminded me a bit of "Crimes of the Hot" or, like, "The 30% Iron Chef."

Crimes of the Hot! That's what I was trying to remember to compare this episode to in my first post! But, oddly enough, I forgot about it.

[Reply #13 on:]

Solid 7.  Seemed like there was a spot or 2 of, gasp, filler. Not bad but they can't all be epics.

[Reply #14 on:]

It would've been better without the cats' can-can. I'll rate it later.

This is Truth. I was already getting bored with the endless lolcaty humor at that point, and not only did it not strike me as remotely funny, it actually elicited a groan of mental anguish from me.  And not one of those appreciative groans that a good pun can elicit; this was the bad kind of groan.

There were some pretty good jokes in the episode, and I wouldn't call it a bad episode, but it was one of my least-favorites of the season so far (which still makes it well above average compared to the rest of the crap on tv)

Also, towards the beginning, leela says "I may not have a man, but [etc]," which caught me by surprise. Just last week they finally seemed to officially confirm there is some romantic relationship between fry and leela, and then this episode opens with that incidental line. I wish they would wake up their minds; I wouldn't want every ep to be a shippy fry/leela thing, but this whole "they're together, except when they're not" thing they've been doing just seems terribly half-assed. In conclusion, make a damned choice, writers; we'll deal with it.

[Reply #15 on:]

And my "different writer" guess was right - is this Josh Weinstein's first writing credit on the show?

Indeed it is. It was funny that his name appeared just as Farnsworth was rambling like an old man: I thought "Hey, he sounded like Mr. Burns just there!" Weinstein had a penchant for writing old-timey dialogue on The Simpsons, so I guess it's natural for that to carry over.

[Reply #16 on:]

You know, I was just accepted for an internship just today and while I was driving home I was thinking about Futurama and thought, "Boy, Amy's been in that internship for over ten years now!" So the concept of that thought being carried into tonight's episode held a special place in my heart  

It wasn't the greatest episode but I did think it was funny. I'll have to watch it again before I can give it a lot more thought. One thing that bothered me was that the way the main crisis was averted was by moving things forward instead of backwards in two consecutive episodes.

Is there any actual science behind using the rotation of the earth to generate power?

Cat Can-Can was a little over the top for me ;p

[Reply #17 on:]

And my "different writer" guess was right - is this Josh Weinstein's first writing credit on the show?

Indeed it is. It was funny that his name appeared just as Farnsworth was rambling like an old man: I thought "Hey, he sounded like Mr. Burns just there!" Weinstein had a penchant for writing old-timey dialogue on The Simpsons, so I guess it's natural for that to carry over.

Weinstein also seems to have missed the memo that dark matter is now inert.

[Reply #18 on:]

Also, towards the beginning, leela says "I may not have a man, but [etc]," which caught me by surprise. Just last week they finally seemed to officially confirm there is some romantic relationship between fry and leela, and then this episode opens with that incidental line. I wish they would wake up their minds; I wouldn't want every ep to be a shippy fry/leela thing, but this whole "they're together, except when they're not" thing they've been doing just seems terribly half-assed. In conclusion, make a damned choice, writers; we'll deal with it.

I'll agree that it's a bit sloppy, but here's something I just posted (perhaps inappropriately) over in the news thread about this very topic:

Leela saying she has no man could really just mean that the man she does have is dancing with Bender and not her. In the context of the rest of "That Darn Katz", Leela's line is pretty innocuous; the point is that Leela likes having a cute pet who will accept her unconditional love (and, y'know, not use it to take advantage of her and try to stop the earth from spinning), in lieu of a person like Fry.

[Reply #19 on:]

Weinstein also seems to have missed the memo that dark matter is now inert.

Also leela, when she was emptying the litter box.

[Reply #20 on:]

Also, towards the beginning, leela says "I may not have a man, but [etc]," which caught me by surprise. Just last week they finally seemed to officially confirm there is some romantic relationship between fry and leela, and then this episode opens with that incidental line. I wish they would wake up their minds; I wouldn't want every ep to be a shippy fry/leela thing, but this whole "they're together, except when they're not" thing they've been doing just seems terribly half-assed. In conclusion, make a damned choice, writers; we'll deal with it.

i could care less. the episodes are now as good as the original 72. leave the job of writing up to the writers.

[Reply #21 on:]

Back in the original 72, wasn't the Fry/Leela relationship also like this? That is, it only seemed to exist in the episodes that specifically focused on it?

It's not like there's some kind of chronological master-plan that every episode is supposed to adhere to, where the ship progressively develops on a set course with each sequential episode, whether or not it's central to the plot.

And has anyone stopped to think that the order in which these episodes were written and developed probably isn't the same as the production order?

[Reply #22 on:]

Good episode, not great. Interesting pairing of Amy/Nibbler with some funny moments. (others missed) Plot was rather meh. I did enjoy that Amy isn't just an intern all this time and the cat's past though.

...Leela's kick was awesome.

7/10

[Reply #23 on:]

Also, towards the beginning, leela says "I may not have a man, but [etc]," which caught me by surprise. Just last week they finally seemed to officially confirm there is some romantic relationship between fry and leela, and then this episode opens with that incidental line. I wish they would wake up their minds; I wouldn't want every ep to be a shippy fry/leela thing, but this whole "they're together, except when they're not" thing they've been doing just seems terribly half-assed. In conclusion, make a damned choice, writers; we'll deal with it.

i could care less. the episodes are now as good as the original 72. leave the job of writing up to the writers.

agreed people are starting to nit pick... the last three episodes in my mind are as good as the original end of story.

[Reply #24 on:]

Back in the original 72, wasn't the Fry/Leela relationship also like this? That is, it only seemed to exist in the episodes that specifically focused on it?

It's not like there's some kind of chronological master-plan that every episode is supposed to adhere to, where the ship progressively develops on a set course with each sequential episode, whether or not it's central to the plot.

And has anyone stopped to think that the order in which these episodes were written and developed probably isn't the same as the production order?

The romantic aspect only came into play in certain episodes, but it was decidedly one-sided throughout much of the series ("Time Keeps on Slipping", for example); we got Fry pining and Leela rejecting. After "Rebirth", where Fry said he would wait for Leela but Leela also admitted to loving Fry, I think it's safe to say the two characters are in something resembling a romantic relationship (at the very least, the love is now requited, which I think should count for something). I understand the frustration with things like Fry saying he's "looking for love" in AoTKA and Leela claiming to not have a man in tonight's episode, because they're inconsequential throwaway lines that, if removed, would eliminate much of the confusion surrounding where Fry and Leela currently stand in their relationship. And clearing up that confusion would make it easier to enjoy those episodes that are non-shippy, because shippers wouldn't have that niggling question of What the hell is Fry and Leela's relationship?

I guess my point is that, though the episodic nature of the relationship--that on-again, off-again thing--hasn't changed in the new season, it is fair for fans to have different expectations of the writing in those "off" episodes now that we know (and Fry and Leela know) that they love each other.

And the issue of production order matters little to me; "Rebirth" was undoubtedly the first episode produced and it established that Fry and Leela are in luuurve and such. You'd expect something like that to carry through into subsequent episodes, or at least not be completely disregarded.

[Reply #25 on:]

Well, that was better than I was expecting. Not GREAT, but watchable.

Even if the science made no sense whatsoever.

Extra couple of points for remembering that Amy used to have a brain.

[Reply #26 on:]

Well put, Gorky.

I, for one, would have been more upset if we hadn't had TLPJF last week. But since the creators basically showed with TLPJF that they intend for Fry and Leela to end up together, I'm not as bothered by things like Leela's line in this episode, since I know that Groening, DXC and co. don't intend to permanently reset the ship.

Hey, at least it's not the comics, where the ship is still firmly anchored in 3ACV territory if it's ever addressed at all...

[Reply #27 on:]

Josh Weinstein wrote this? Another classic Simpsons writer stolen by Futurama!

[Reply #28 on:]

I, personally, loved it. Good jokes and fun episode. I loved the jokes such as the "i can haz cheeseburger" parody poster and such. For something that had a sub-par premises for an episode turned out to be hilarious.

But, also on a personal basis I have to give it an 8/10. Well, my cat just died about a month ago. She was getting old but one of my dogs became bloodthirsty and took her out. I'm now catless, and I sure do miss having a cat, and I know I won't be able to have another cat until a long time from now. I love cats, prefer them over dogs, and watching the Thuban (?) 9 fall demise makes me sad. I hope not all the cats in the Futurama universe dies, or even better, their planet starts rotating again and they can return to their luxurious, sedentary lifestyles.

[Reply #29 on:]

Mmmmm, Amy in a sweaty tank top...

[Reply #30 on:]

I feel like the general reaction to this episode summed up into three words is "better than expected". How far can a show get with lolcat jokes? I really only remember one joke being used (the sign), most of the other jokes were pretty clever ("Cats, go to your posts!"). I appreciated Bubblegum Tate getting a reappearance, and enjoyed that the spin game professor wasn't wasted (especially the horse joke, great misdirection). Has anybody else noticed that Hedonism Bot has had A LOT of screentime this season? He's one of my favorite peripheral characters, but he's getting a lot of action lately (no pun intended). And I think Kif's been in the majority of this season as well.

[Reply #31 on:]

I was glad to see the 1.5 second cartoon in the opening again!

The episode for me was 7/10 - some jokes were funny, one in particular made me gasp & laugh is when Bender said "Aww his anus looks like an asterisk"

Cat jokes dragged on after a while, and I agree with the Wilyfish

One thing that bothered me was that the way the main crisis was averted was by moving things forward instead of backwards in two consecutive episodes.

Couldn't they have separated those two episodes a little further?

I did enjoy Amy/Nibbler pair.  I'm looking forward to see more odd couples in the coming episodes.

[Reply #32 on:]

Solid episode.  Nothing really stood out about it though, other than the return of both the cold-opening commercial (Your leg bone is connected to your CASH BONE!!!) and the opening credits pre-crash cartoon.

Any jokes after Nibbler curled up on Leela's lap?  DVR cut it off.

[Reply #33 on:]

even certain tiny ear bones!

[Reply #34 on:]

Any jokes after Nibbler curled up on Leela's lap?  DVR cut it off.

One. It shows the Planet Express ship landing in the HQ and you can hear this:

AMY: Do you really think that I deserve this PhD (Or something along those lines).
PROFESSOR: Yes!
AMY: You sure?
PROFESSOR: As sure as the sun sets in the East!

[Reply #35 on:]

An Amy episode?  An actual, factual, Amy episode?  One that doesn't turn out to really be about Kif instead of Amy?    Why couldn't we have gotten one of these back during the show's original run? 

Also, everyone knows that Nibbler can talk now?  How does that work?

[Reply #36 on:]

He didn't wipe minds after Bender's Game.

[Reply #37 on:]

david: you missed Bender's Game apparently.

(paraphrasing)
Nibbler: <some stuff from the story> Wait, aren't you all surprised that I can talk?
Leela: No. You forgot to erase our memories last time.
Nibbler: Then why do you let me keep eating pet food and crapping in a box?
Leela: You're cuter that way.

[Reply #38 on:]

I hesitate to express my opinion here, after what happened last time, but (Doc Brown voice) "What the hell":

This gets a big fat MEH from me. Strictly a filler episode. Some of the cat jokes were solid, some were duds. The idea of "mean ol' puddy tats" trying to take over the world isn't terribly original; there's an entire cartoon series on right now - "Kid vs. Kat" - that revolves around this premise. (The Kat is also an alien). Yeah, there were some good one-liners, but when Futurama leans too heavily on them while consistent characterization goes out the window, that IMO when it's at its weakest.

And about that characterization - yeah, the "I may not have a man" line was bizarre, given what happened last week. One also has to wonder why Fry's dancing with Bender instead of Leela in the first place. This back-and-forth stuff from the writers is indeed, as somebody up above described it, "half-assed". I think we've been dealt a total reset, children. There were hints of it before, but now the, um, cat is out of the bag. All in all, I didn't care for this episode much at all. I deleted it off my DVR after viewing it. I've no desire to view it again. I'll await next week's episode with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. This season's certainly had its ups and downs so far...

[Reply #39 on:]

I was quite pleasantly surprised by this ep. The premise had me worried, but I found that this episode, while not gut bustingly hilarious, was a solid and consistent humor filled episode.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Ranking the season I'd say

1) The Late Philip J Fry
2) Lethal Inspection
3) The Duh-Vinci Code
4) That Darn Katz!
5) Rebirth
6) Proposition Infinity
7) Attack of the Killer App
8) In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela