Thoughts on 6ACV17 - Benderama - SPOILERS

[on:]

Review and discuss the new Futurama episode 'Benderama' in this thread and consider posting a short review on CGEF, too!


I'll leave this thread open for the time being, but please don't post before there's something to be said (e.g., before the episode is on).

[Reply #1 on:]

So...why does each Bender have his own duplicator? The duplicator shouldn't have duplicated itself...

[Reply #2 on:]

So...why does each Bender have his own duplicator? The duplicator shouldn't have duplicated itself...

I was thinking that, but I'm chalking it up to the duplicator duplicating Bender and everything insider of Bender as well.

[Reply #3 on:]

Good story turns in this episode. From no matter, to no alcohol, to no water...

[Reply #4 on:]

This is great so far! I love the sub-atomic Benders re-arranging molecules to create alcohol. Stuff like that is why I watch Futurama.

[Reply #5 on:]

I like the more math-oriented episodes. I get a few of them, such as the fact that the duplicator was named after the Banach-Tarski paradox...but I definitely like this episode.

[Reply #6 on:]

Highlight of the episode: The Professor shooting and stabbing the Benders.
 A Kardashians joke? Ehh...
Yay! A callback to The Professor holding meetings in his bathtub!
Drunk Morbo is one of the best things in the world.
"Blender, you're the only one who's sober!"

Fry saying "Fricken'" caught me off guard. And it was pretty hilarious.
The battle between the Giant Unattractive Monster and Bender was very reminiscent of both the Godzilla films (which I am a fan of) and Anthology of Interest 1. Especially Bender losing and Fry becoming distraught over such.

The ending where The Professor was excited over the sweaters was fantastic.

Very great episode. 9/10.

"No, we deaughhiehh."  

[Reply #7 on:]

This was actually a very funny episode...

[Reply #8 on:]

This blew Neutopia out of the water. One of the better episodes of Futurama. The drunk crew had me cracking up the whole time.

[Reply #9 on:]

I thought it was really good. I ROFL'd a lot. It had its moments. A few too many ugly jokes for my taste however.

8/10

[Reply #10 on:]

This episode is just as fast-paced as "Neutopia." That's not a bad thing, just an observation. Like Josh says, there's this rapid progression, this escalation of, like, doomed-ness. I can't decide if I like that or not.

What I do like, though, is Linda losing her mind over the lack of alcohol; that got a belly laugh from me. Morbo patting her shoulder was a nice touch. Leela ranting and raving about Amy while Zoidberg knits beside her also made me giggle.

By far, though, my favorite part of the episode was seeing everyone on earth bombed out of their gourds. Such great acting there. The monster was also amusing, I suppose, but his defeat came a bit too...easily, I guess? Those little Benders didn't do much for me; they were funny in theory, but in practice it was pretty much the same joke (we're-lazy-and-don't-want-to-do-two-things) over and over. Seems like sort of a waste.

This makes me feel dirty to say, but I think I may have preferred "Neutopia" to this one (though I'm giving them the same grade, because this one was only marginally less amusing to me than its predecessor)...

7/10

[Reply #11 on:]

This... this was actually really geeky and good. I was watching with some real big math nerds and they laughed hilariously at the Banach-Tarski and grey goo jokes. I liked this one a lot. I'll wait until my intensive second watching to grade it, but overall, I'll notch it up as a Top 20 episode. Much better than Neutopia in my opinion.

[Reply #12 on:]

Again, absolutely loved it. 9 out of 10. Hilarious, funny, full of math things that I knew about and could mostly understand...

I have high hopes for this season, and can't wait to see the others. I'll have to DVR them, though...

[Reply #13 on:]

Drunk Linda and Morbo was definitely the funniest part of the episode.

[Reply #14 on:]

Anyone else on the east coast have an issue with this episode on a technical level? Not only did my sound crap out for a few seconds (over Zoidberg's line in act three, where he was probably making an ugly joke at the monster's expense or something), but the color was bleached from the scene where Fry begs Bender to save everyone to the moment where Bender rallies the mini-Bender troops. It's storming right now, so I'm guessing this was probably just a local issue, but still. It was a wee bit distracting.

[Reply #15 on:]

Also, forgot to mention something: there was some weird animation with Giant Grey Goo Bender. He looked really broad at times. It kinda ruined the fight scene for me.

Also, I had no issue down here in Maryland, Gorky. Must've been the storm.

[Reply #16 on:]

Drunk Linda and Morbo was definitely the funniest part of the episode.

Hell yes. It reminded me of the brain-drained newscast from "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid." The writers always utilize Linda and Morbo so well.

And weiner, I didn't much care for the animation of Giant Bender, either, but did think that the rest of the episode was pretty spot-on (same goes for "Neutopia"). At the very least, I didn't have to deal with those off-model designs that Otis and I were bitching about in that other thread.

[Reply #17 on:]

It was just some odd angle shots. I actually liked the animation of him a whole lot, especially when Patton Oswalt was attacking him and little Benders were flying off and he was distorting. That was fantastic animation right there.

[Reply #18 on:]

I was pleasantly surprised that this turned into a grey goo centric episode.  Everything felt spot on! I don't know about you but I'd prefer a house infested with little Benders then say rats or cockroaches. Even when he's destroying the earth, Bender is just so damn loveable.

8/10

[Reply #19 on:]

I too was pleasantly surprised by that. I was expecting inane Family Guy tier Bender-centric comedy to be throughout the episode, but what I got was an awesome science plot line! That alone makes it a great episode in my opinion.

[Reply #20 on:]

As a math geek I absolutely loved this episode, right up there with "the prisoner of Benda" episode when they actually showed the proof of a fairly advanced theorem on the episode. However, despite how much i appreciate the reference to the Banach-Tarski Paradox, I have to note that they did not actually use it. what Banach-Tarski actually says is that you can take one sphere, break it apart into a couple of pieces and rearrange them into TWO spheres with the SAME volume, not half the size (hence the paradox). nonetheless I like the math reference and the other ones in the episode as well

[Reply #21 on:]

Another big hit for me. I think it was a very strong start for this season between the two episodes. I loved every second of it. Seeing all those Bender's running around, "being bender" was hilarious. The giant sparkling mech Bender was really cool. My favorite giant Bender to date . I am really hopeful for the future of Futurama. So far I have not been that disappointed with the episodes.

10/10

[Reply #22 on:]

That alone makes it a great episode in my opinion.

Shecond! *Hic*

I put this episode at the top, at the level of TLPJF, and TPOB. Some things that made this one good:

* For those of you who don't know: The Banach-Tarski Paradox is a mathematical theorem that says that you can take a 3-dimensional object, cut it apart into (a finite number of?) pieces, and rearrange them to two objects which are the same shape as the original. The controversial part of it is something called the Axiom of Choice. (Joey 3323 beat me to this.)

* I'm surprised we didn't hear: "Everything is a degenerate version of bending" ... i.e. folding really is bending.

* "There's a big fat roach!" 8-)

* "fit-shaced" --- I wonder if they could have gotten away with that on Fox ...

* Bender introducing the first two copies of him was a reference to the TV show "Newhart", where there are three brothers, two of whom don't talk. Whenever they would show up for the first time in an episode, the other one would say, "I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl."

[Reply #23 on:]

Drunk Linda and Morbo was great. Of course I loved the Bender plot line. I thought the ep was pretty good. The fight animation was great with all the little Benders flying off when hit.

Anyone else on the east coast have an issue with this episode on a technical level?

I had that issue too it's not thundering or anything to my knowledge but ti is really rainy.


I'm going to rewatch this ep and Neutopia tomorrow at some point and come up with better things to say. I had a friend over today who was talking a lot during the episodes.

[Reply #24 on:]

Really enjoyed this one, the animation was amazing.
More in depth analysis after repeat viewings.
For now, 9/10

[Reply #25 on:]

liked the drunk jokes and good cameo by patton oswalt, very enjoyable episode

[Reply #26 on:]

Awsome ep way better than the first 8/10

fry: bender you did erttt

Bender: No we did erttt

[Reply #27 on:]

This is great so far! I love the sub-atomic Benders re-arranging molecules to create alcohol. Stuff like that is why I watch Futurama.

Of course, the second law of thermodynamics would dictate that creating the alcohol would require more energy than it would provide, but I suppose it would enable a gradually decreasing number of them to survive.

Anyone else on the east coast have an issue with this episode on a technical level? Not only did my sound crap out for a few seconds (over Zoidberg's line in act three, where he was probably making an ugly joke at the monster's expense or something), but the color was bleached from the scene where Fry begs Bender to save everyone to the moment where Bender rallies the mini-Bender troops. It's storming right now, so I'm guessing this was probably just a local issue, but still. It was a wee bit distracting.

No problems here, but no storm here either.  What part of PA are you in again?

[Reply #28 on:]

I'm in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, so the northeast. It wasn't storming horribly or anything, but I did see some lightning and such.

[Reply #29 on:]

I loved the episode, but as usual, I seem to be in the minority who preferred Neutopia. They were both very strong overall, so I got high hopes for this season.

8/10

[Reply #30 on:]

I liked the story. Kind of turned of at how 'black' they make Bender sound at times, meaning that he sounded so gangster like that it got annoying and really distracted me. Not as memorable as Neutopia, but the plot flowed better. I like everyone being drunk. And I liked the plot with the big hideous monster, that played out nicely.

[Reply #31 on:]

I'm in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, so the northeast. It wasn't storming horribly or anything, but I did see some lightning and such.

Sounds like you guys got the rain that we were supposed to get here but didn't.

I loved the episode, but as usual, I seem to be in the minority who preferred Neutopia.

Me too, actually.  If you had asked me which I'd like more, an episode where Bender duplicates himself, or a gender bending episode, I'd have thought it would be the Bender one, but not so.

[Reply #32 on:]

Wait a second... an episode with a gender-bending Bender...

Hm, this one could be a classic...

[Reply #33 on:]

Wow, I was extremely surprised by the quality of this episode. I gave it 9/10, a really good episode. It seemed to move in perfect pace, finding new angles and twists without being forced or all over the place. It seemed all natural to me, including the return of the giant and the fight and all that. I was really chocked that they killed him off too - I mean, he wasn't really mean. I felt really bad for him, I really started to like him and feel for him. A really good performance by Patton Oswalt, suited the character elegantly.

Lots of great acting by John DiMaggio as the Benders as well, and awesome animation, some pretty amazing scenes. About the animation of the big Bender, I just assumed that he was off model because the Benders didn't work perfectly, they just did sort of Bender.

Did you guys notice the reappearance of Braino on the 30 dollar bill? I was really excited, having loved his appearance in 6ACV05.

I also loved the Linda-Morbo scene when she tried to handle her alcoholism... so sad and funny. There were many laugh out loud moments in this episode for me.

[Reply #34 on:]

This episode was actually really good. The jokes were funny, the storyline kept my insterest and I liked that it had some nerdy stuff in it as well.

The stuff with everyone being drunk was hilarious and the animation in the fight with the Giant Unnatractive Monster was cool (with the little Benders flying off the Giant Bender and all).

Overall a really good episode.

7.5/10

[Reply #35 on:]

Shockingly, I disliked this episode more than the disappointing premiere episode. I don't know how it's possible considering there were apparently quadrillions of Benders in this episode. And I really liked Bender's other clones, Flexo, and Universe-1's Gold Bender.

And what exactly was the point of Patton Oswald's ugly giant character in this episode? I mean, other than being a punching bag for the giant Bender gestalt?

Maybe my opinion of this episode will improve after multiple viewings, but my first impression of this episode is poor. I gave this episode 6/10.

[Reply #36 on:]

Benderama was excellent!   I'm going to review things in a random order, because I'm tired and still excited by NEW FUTURAMAAMAMA  

Drunken PE crew portion of the episode: Not overdone, and highly amusing. I laughed like a maniac for some reason when Leela said "good one" at her own lame joke when she was drunk   Drunk Linda was hilarious too, and the ugly monster was a better character than I could have ever imagined! Well... perhaps just for how well he worked in the episode.

The number one thing I loved the most was how the atom sized Benders reconfigured the molecular structure of water to make it alcoholic... brilliant.

[Reply #37 on:]

Hm, I enjoyed Neutopia a little more, but still a great ep. Anyone notice the Unattractive Giant monster's animation was really different to what we normally see on Futurama?

Also, looks like Scruffy got turned back into a man. Wonder if we'll see all the Mini Benders again?

7/10

[Reply #38 on:]

As far as we know, Scruffy wasn't turned back into a man; this episode happens before Neutopia.

[Reply #39 on:]

As far as we know, Scruffy wasn't turned back into a man; this episode happens before Neutopia.

Then why did it air after Neutopia?