The old "Everything is worse now" discussion - General Futurama Discussion. SPOILER ALERT

[Reply #160 on:]

Their no point discussing this sorry I asked if someone could upload the commentary to youtube. You guys are right about helping to support the show, afterall it's better than having no futurama at all. I'm going to go buy the volume 5 dvd now.

[Reply #161 on:]

Their no point discussing this sorry I asked if someone could upload the commentary to youtube. You guys are right about helping to support the show, afterall it's better than having no futurama at all. I'm going to go buy the volume 5 dvd now.

Good for you! I thought it was worth it (in spite that I had to pay for shipping from the US and I can only play it on the computer because of the region), but then again I like the show also. :P

Except for everything the others said about it being disrespectful to ask supporters to help you when you can actually buy it, PEEL also has a policy about discussing torrents and such illegal upload possibilities. In other words I couldn't help you even if I wanted to.

[Reply #162 on:]

Their no point discussing this sorry I asked if someone could upload the commentary to youtube. You guys are right about helping to support the show, afterall it's better than having no futurama at all. I'm going to go buy the volume 5 dvd now.

Good for you! I thought it was worth it (in spite that I had to pay for shipping from the US and I can only play it on the computer because of the region), but then again I like the show also. :P

Except for everything the others said about it being disrespectful to ask supporters to help you when you can actually buy it, PEEL also has a policy about discussing torrents and such illegal upload possibilities. In other words I couldn't help you even if I wanted to.

I'll buy it when it comes out in the UK. I'm still confused on how it's going to be labelled because what I think they should do is merge all the movies in one as Season 5, and the entirety of Season 6 as all 26 episodes, right?

[Reply #163 on:]

There's already a box with all movies, don't know if it exists in all regions though. But broadcast season 7 hasn't aired in UK yet, have it? Because I don't think they'll release it until it has aired.

[Reply #164 on:]

There's already a box with all movies, don't know if it exists in all regions though. But broadcast season 7 hasn't aired in UK yet, have it? Because I don't think they'll release it until it has aired.

It seems pointless to withhold the Region 2 DVDs of Volume Five if that season hasn't aired by now in the UK. If they were going to air it, they would have by now. So they should just release the DVD and Blu-ray Volume and support the show that way.

I live in Canada and unfortunately I can't get Comedy Central on my satellite service -- supposedly because the Comedy Network is supposed to the equivalent of CC, which is true for virtually everything except Futurama. I suspect it's because Canwest Global still retains the rights to broadcast new episodes of Futurama, and its competitor, CTV, owns the Comedy Network. So basically Canadian Futurama fans like myself get screwed out of being able to watch these new episodes of Futurama on TV, which is a terrible shame, because I want nothing more than to support my favourite show!

I've supported the show the only way I can: by having bought the Blu-ray of Volume Five.

It seems I'm fortunate to have been able to do that. I can't imagine how awful it is not even being able to buy last season's episodes of Futurama now, nearly a year later. That sucks.

[Reply #165 on:]

It seems pointless to withhold the Region 2 DVDs of Volume Five if that season hasn't aired by now in the UK. If they were going to air it, they would have by now. So they should just release the DVD and Blu-ray Volume and support the show that way.

Don't say that, many shows start airing internationally a long time after they first air in the US. Especially if you view this as a new series and not a return. Futurama used to air in Sweden, for example, but it has yet to start air the second run. I'm fairly certain the entire season 6 will air as a whole in most places outside of the US, in other words they will air it next year, then have a one year hiatus and air season 7.

It's also not as simple as it may seem to "just release the DVD". A lot of money goes into producing and releasing the DVD (yes, even though it already exist in one season), and if they don't think it's worth the money, they aren't going to do it.

[Reply #166 on:]

Don't say that, many shows start airing internationally a long time after they first air in the US. Especially if you view this as a new series and not a return. Futurama used to air in Sweden, for example, but it has yet to start air the second run. I'm fairly certain the entire season 6 will air as a whole in most places outside of the US, in other words they will air it next year, then have a one year hiatus and air season 7.

It's also not as simple as it may seem to "just release the DVD". A lot of money goes into producing and releasing the DVD (yes, even though it already exist in one season), and if they don't think it's worth the money, they aren't going to do it.

I don't know how you can stand it. I mean, last season (what was it, "broadcast season 7" or something) aired in the U.S. over A YEAR AGO, but they still haven't broadcast where you are? Have they even announced when they will air the new episodes? Because if not, the delay really seems pointless.

I sort of understand the situation, because I've been waiting for the English dub of "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" movie to be released here in North America for over a year now. The theatrical release was February 2010, and the original Japanese version was released on DVD in Japan last Christmas; and I've only seen the movie with Japanese subtitles. I've been anxiously waiting for the English dub DVD, but apparently it won't be released until the Fall or Winter! That's nearly two years!

If that happened to me with Futurama... I don't know what I'd do -- probably emigrate.

[Reply #167 on:]

It's not that annoying. I don't watch much TV, I buy the DVDs instead, as have I bought all the Futurama DVDs.

[Reply #168 on:]

If you are going to purchase Futurama related items from Amazon US, please consider going through the Amazon link on the front page of Can't Get Enough Fututama to help support them since PEEL is hosted on their server.

[Reply #169 on:]

It's annoying having to wait for the DVDs in the UK, but it's not too bad. I know that they'll be released eventually and currently there's a decent chance of all of season 6 being released as one DVD set which would be fantastic.

Plus, I'm pretty sure they'll get some sort of structured plan together for releasing the show. Look at the movies for instance. Bender's Big Score took 6 months to come out in the UK, then the next 2 movies took a week or so longer than the US and Into the Wild Green Yonder actually came out a day or two earlier.

[Reply #170 on:]

I also seem to recall the first four seasons being released in R2 before they were released in R1, but I could be wrong there. Were the episodes aired concurrently in the States and abroad during the original run (because the show aired on Fox, a broadcast network that is presumably analogous with a station in the UK and elsewhere), and did that possibly affect the release dates for the DVDs in various countries? [/culturally-ignorant questioning]

[Reply #171 on:]

All of the first four seasons' DVD sets were released in Regions 2 and 4 before Region 1. The first three were released in R2 a year ahead of R1 (Seasons 1&3 a year ahead in R4, Season 2 only a few months ahead), the fourth was released in R2+4 two years ahead of R1. I had no idea why it happened like that then, and I still have no idea now.

[Reply #172 on:]

I too am more annoyed with not having Season 6 DVD's available in the UK than anything else. I want those commentaries dammit!

[Reply #173 on:]

Eh, I've heard better, though I completely understand your plight.

I just want to remind everyone there's still two days left to nominate for June POTM. I realize not everyone here lurks the Offtopic, so I thought I would bring it up to those newcomers for those who may have been impressed by some posts here last month.

Now back to your regularly scheduled bickering polite debating

Also, to those who are new to the gig, please take a minute to read the POTM Rule Overview because I know this doesn't really get much exposure here.

[Reply #174 on:]

Nuchacho is the only gender of rock alien I reckon.

Wasn't that established in the SAME sentance that it first mentioned that word....?

Would you care to restate that sentence with better grammar. I cannot follow your logic with your crummy sentence structure.
You were obviously left behind as a student.


And it is spelled sentence.

[Reply #175 on:]

I thought his sentence was perfectly understandable in spite of the grammar.

[Reply #176 on:]

Would you care to restate that sentence with better grammar. I cannot follow your logic with your crummy sentence structure.
You were obviously left behind as a student.
And it is spelled sentence.

It made sense to me... Sure I spelt sentence wrong, but I always have typos...

And I said 'it' instead of he or she because it isn't a he or she. Although I could of put Nuchacho...

[Reply #177 on:]

Yes, and as I prefaced my reply with, I appreciated you taking the time to provide examples of what you found funny, as I requested.

I simply didn't consider those to be funny -- or at least not LoL funny. (As I explained, IMO chuckles don't count.)

Who are you to say what constitutes as counting or not? You don’t have to agree with me and think that those examples are funny just because I do, but you do need to accept that I, along with many other Futurama fans do find various aspects of this episode funny that you don’t. That’s one of the main reasons our views on this episode are so drastically different, and we’re perfectly entitled to think that...

Because, with the exception of this episode, I consider Futurama to be FUNNY, and I enjoy watching Futurama more than any other show on television. That's why I was so terribly, terribly disappointed by this episode. My involuntary Kiff-groan reactions to virtually ever "joke" in this episode illustrates that point.

Again, the fact that I consider this episode to be the most unfunny and least enjoyable episode of Futurama merits a 1/10, because it's impossible to give it a whole number less than 1.

Perhaps I should explain that I'm grading on what I call the "Futurama scale", not on the "TV scale", which means that the average episode of Futurama scores a 5. For example, an average Futurama episode, like "A Fishful Of Dollars", I would give a 5/10 on the Futurama scale; whereas it merits a 7/10 on the TV scale.

This episode I gave 1/10 on the Futurama scale, because I consider it the worst. Whereas on the TV scale, it probably deserves a 4/10; meaning that it's not the worst TV show that I've ever seen, but anything below 5/10 is something I don't ever want to see again.

You’ve completely neglected my point regarding other aspects of the episode outside of humour. Unless you seriously rate every episode based on humour and nothing but humour alone then I fail to see what you’re conveying here by rating it a 1/10 without justifying what else disappointed about the episode other than humour? Must we assume that you felt there were absolutely no other redeeming qualities about this episode at all?...

I see that it's been left down to me to get the ball rolling here, so what about the animation? What about the voice acting? Perhaps some of the secondary characters who made a brief appearance may have counted for something? There is more to Futurama than just humour, but talking to you anyone would think that’s all it’s about and that’s all you care about. That would be a very shallow perspective of the show. Please tell me that is not the case, otherwise your review and subsequent waves of rambling negativity look very one dimensional indeed, and quite frankly difficult to take seriously, let alone respect...

I realize that most people here seem to voting on a TV scale, meaning they compare Futurama to all of the other crap on TV, which I believe is the reason why fans score Futurama episodes 7 or higher. I don't because if the average episode of Futurama is scored 8/10 by everyone else's standards, there's very little contrast between an 8/10 "average" episode, and an 10/10 exceptional episode. I want as many points as possible separating "A Roswell That Ends Well" and "Amazon Women in the Mood", perfect 10s, from abysmal episodes like "That's Lobstertainment", "A Leela of Her Own", "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela", "Attack of the Killer App", and this episode. Those episodes deserve 4s and 5s on the TV scale, but that's too close to Futurama's best episodes IMO; that's why I use the Futurama scale instead, so I can score them 1, 2s, and 3s.

What if an episode comes along that you hate even more than this one? Where will you go from here? You’ve already gone to the bottom end of the scale, so how would it be a fair then? And don’t tell me it couldn’t get any worse, because believe me it could...

I cannot disagree with you more. I consider the ending of "Ghost in the Machines" to be unforgiveably awful. It's an ending without a button. I know that there are several episodes of Futurama with lackluster endings, but this episode's ending was like the rotten, bitter, tooth-chipping pitted cherry on a manure sundae. Ironically, it was the "perfect" ending to what I consider to be the worst episode of Futurama.

Well surprise surprise, I cannot disagree with you more either, at least we’ve got something in common. I’ve already explained why this episodes ending wasn’t as bad as you claim, so your long winded metaphor doesn’t stand up, it’s just a poorly executed opinion...

For fuck sake guys! I think 2 pages of SorynArkayn ranting how unfunny this episode is speaks for itself. It must be true that this episode is worse than the Holiday Spectacular because all the evidence is there! Oh wait...

Yeah, because long, carefully written posts with vehemently defended opinions, utterly devoid of cursing or petty insults, are equivocal to "rants".

He’s making the point that despite you being asked on more than one occasion, you still haven’t delivered any examples as to why you think Holiday Craptacular was better than Ghost In The Machines and apparently funnier in your opinion. You haven’t backed up your claims, and therefore they are empty statements without coherent justifications. They mean very little and that means people will find it very hard to take you seriously...

No excuses anymore, I’ve already pointed you in the direction of the review thread for that episode, then again if talking about another episode in this review thread bothers you so much, to the degree of deliberately not backing up your statements, then it seems highly hypocritical that you’re willing to talk in depth about the ending of The Cryonic Woman in this very thread along with your opinions of other episodes as well. Double standards much? I don’t want to hear anymore excuses from you. Deliver the relevant justifications and stop making hollow meaningless claims, and if you can’t do that then your argument will only be taken even less seriously...

I still think you’re being overly dramatic about your hate for this episode, we get it, you don’t like it, so how about some proper justifications ...

[Reply #178 on:]

I ebt yuo cna stlli raed thsi dpesite teh poro ragmmar, nda fi aneyon cna't hten teh jkoes on yuo ...

As for Season 6 coming out (or not) in the UK, I believe it's quite likely it will be released as one complete production season after all of the season has aired. Perhaps a long time after, but at some point...

[Reply #179 on:]

Spelling != grammar.

[Reply #180 on:]

I ebt yuo cna stlli raed thsi dpesite teh poro ragmmar, nda fi aneyon cna't hten teh jkoes on yuo ...

Grammar or misspelling should be pointed out when it becomes really irritating, or when the poster obviously doesn't care to fix mistakes. Just about any mistake should however not be pointed out.

[Reply #181 on:]

Yeah, that was all typos btw ...

[Reply #182 on:]

Who are you to say what constitutes as counting or not? You don’t have to agree with me and think that those examples are funny just because I do, but you do need to accept that I, along with many other Futurama fans do find various aspects of this episode funny that you don’t. That’s one of the main reasons our views on this episode are so drastically different, and we’re perfectly entitled to think that...

What I meant about not counting chuckles is that in another post I explained that even the worst sitcoms on television can elicit chuckles, but that doesn't make those shows good or funny.

I chuckled occassionally at some of the "jokes" in this episode, but I didn't consider them very funny; hence why I stated that only laugh-out-loud laughes count, because only those jokes are truly funny.

You’ve completely neglected my point regarding other aspects of the episode outside of humour. Unless you seriously rate every episode based on humour and nothing but humour alone then I fail to see what you’re conveying here by rating it a 1/10 without justifying what else disappointed about the episode other than humour? Must we assume that you felt there were absolutely no other redeeming qualities about this episode at all?...

I see that it's been left down to me to get the ball rolling here, so what about the animation? What about the voice acting? Perhaps some of the secondary characters who made a brief appearance may have counted for something? There is more to Futurama than just humour, but talking to you anyone would think that’s all it’s about and that’s all you care about. That would be a very shallow perspective of the show. Please tell me that is not the case, otherwise your review and subsequent waves of rambling negativity look very one dimensional indeed, and quite frankly difficult to take seriously, let alone respect...

I don't rate episodes solely on humour. I rate them based by my overall enjoyment of the episode -- not as the sum of its parts. The animation, voice acting, music, guest stars, etc. all contribute to the episode, but I don't give points for each. Besides, I don't think that there was anything above ordinary worth considering in this particular episode -- not even the Robot Devil's guest appearance. Perhaps if Bender hadn't squashed the Robot Devil's "S.S. Anything Goes" song-that-wasn't, maybe I wouldn't have thought that the Robot Devil was utterly wasted in this episode.

BTW, I've pin-pointed that particular part, when Bender squashed the song. as the moment that killed this episode for me. I didn't laugh or enjoy anything after that unforgiveable blunder.

I stand by my score of 1/10 for this episode, because I did not enjoy it at all, and it's the worst episode of Futurama IMO. I'm not going to give it mercy points just because the animation or voice acting was on par with other Futurama episodes.

Obviously we don't rate episodes the same way; and just like our opinions, we're each entitled to our own rating criteria.

What if an episode comes along that you hate even more than this one? Where will you go from here? You’ve already gone to the bottom end of the scale, so how would it be a fair then? And don’t tell me it couldn’t get any worse, because believe me it could...

Simple, if there's ever a worse episode of Futurama than this (and I desperately hope that never happens), I'll revise my score of this episode by adding a 0.1, just like I did for "That's Lobstertainment".

I'll show you. Here's my current Worst Episodes of Futurama List:

10) The Route of All Evil = 4/10
9) Bend Her = 3.5/10
8) Where The Buggalo Roam = 3.1/10
7) The Duh-Vinci Code = 3/10
6) Attack of the Killer App = 2.5/10
5) A Leela of Her Own = 2.1/10
4) In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela = 2/10
3) The Futurama Holiday Spectacular = 1.5/10
2) That's Lobstertainment = 1.1/10
1) Ghosts in the Machine = 1/10

You can gripe that it's wrong or unfair to revise an episode's scores, but that's ridiculous, because there's no reason why anyone's scores must be written in stone. People's opinions change over time -- hence why the CGEF's rankings of Futurama episodes have changed over the years.

I cannot disagree with you more. I consider the ending of "Ghost in the Machines" to be unforgiveably awful. It's an ending without a button. I know that there are several episodes of Futurama with lackluster endings, but this episode's ending was like the rotten, bitter, tooth-chipping pitted cherry on a manure sundae. Ironically, it was the "perfect" ending to what I consider to be the worst episode of Futurama.

Well surprise surprise, I cannot disagree with you more either, at least we’ve got something in common. I’ve already explained why this episodes ending wasn’t as bad as you claim, so your long winded metaphor doesn’t stand up, it’s just a poorly executed opinion...

You inexplicably hate The Cryonic Woman's ending; whereas I've explained why I didn't enjoy this episode and hate its ending. Since we don't agree on this episode being the worst, it's not surprising that we can't agree that this episode has the worst ending.

[Reply #183 on:]

Wow, all this negative reception is awful, I'm enjoying the new eps, maybe the need to tone down the Pop Culture references a little, but overall great stuff.

[Reply #184 on:]

Well, when I'm fiding Ugly Americans more entertaining on a regular basis, something's going wrong.

[Reply #185 on:]

Maybe you are not a Futurama fan after all.

[Reply #186 on:]

Svip, come on: You're supposed to be a duck, not a troll.

[Reply #187 on:]

What I meant about not counting chuckles is that in another post I explained that even the worst sitcoms on television can elicit chuckles, but that doesn't make those shows good or funny.

I chuckled occassionally at some of the "jokes" in this episode, but I didn't consider them very funny; hence why I stated that only laugh-out-loud laughes count, because only those jokes are truly funny.

First of all, I hope you can still accept them I did find them funny. I acknowledged and accepted that you didn’t after all. The picture I’m getting here is that you did find some of my examples chuckle-worthy, as per:

I simply didn't consider those to be funny -- or at least not LoL funny. (As I explained, IMO chuckles don't count.)

That being the case, are you saying that chuckles simply count for nothing? Your score certainly suggests so. I then feel compelled to question, why does every joke have to be laugh out loud funny anyway? There are different types of jokes to suit different types of humour, and one person may laugh out loud at one joke while another chuckles, and possibly vice-versa at the next joke. There are all sorts of textures and subtlety within jokes...

I take your point that a bad sitcom can still elicit chuckles and still be bad, but this isn’t a bad sitcom, this is Futurama, so I counter that point by asking; do the chuckles you got out of this episode simply count for absolutely nothing? It seems overly harsh to me, which is why I question your logic...

I don't rate episodes solely on humour. I rate them based by my overall enjoyment of the episode -- not as the sum of its parts. The animation, voice acting, music, guest stars, etc. all contribute to the episode, but I don't give points for each. Besides, I don't think that there was anything above ordinary worth considering in this particular episode -- not even the Robot Devil's guest appearance. Perhaps if Bender hadn't squashed the Robot Devil's "S.S. Anything Goes" song-that-wasn't, maybe I wouldn't have thought that the Robot Devil was utterly wasted in this episode.

BTW, I've pin-pointed that particular part, when Bender squashed the song. as the moment that killed this episode for me. I didn't laugh or enjoy anything after that unforgiveable blunder.

You don’t have to give points to each aspect of the episode like a child might, I’m not getting at that, but I am pointing out that there are various other elements and criteria within an episode which are wholly worthwhile in considering when rating an episode and writing a review. The fact that your review was extremely one-sided and didn’t reflect the whole picture made it come off as unconsidered in my view. If nothing else stood out to you, or even made you consider rating the episode higher than a 1/10 then that’s entirely your loss...

I stand by my score of 1/10 for this episode, because I did not enjoy it at all, and it's the worst episode of Futurama IMO. I'm not going to give it mercy points just because the animation or voice acting was on par with other Futurama episodes.

What if the voice acting was shit? Would it still have gotten exactly the same score?...

Obviously we don't rate episodes the same way; and just like our opinions, we're each entitled to our own rating criteria.

True, even if yours is fundamentally flawed in my opinion...

if there's ever a worse episode of Futurama than this (and I desperately hope that never happens), I'll revise my score of this episode by adding a 0.1, just like I did for "That's Lobstertainment".

That’s lame, changing the score of an episode based solely off of a different episode being worse in your opinion and then you having nowhere to categorise the new one properly within your score system. It only highlights the flawed grading system you’ve concocted...

I'll show you. Here's my current Worst Episodes of Futurama List:

10) The Route of All Evil = 4/10
9) Bend Her = 3.5/10
8) Where The Buggalo Roam = 3.1/10
7) The Duh-Vinci Code = 3/10
6) Attack of the Killer App = 2.5/10
5) A Leela of Her Own = 2.1/10
4) In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela = 2/10
3) The Futurama Holiday Spectacular = 1.5/10
2) That's Lobstertainment = 1.1/10
1) Ghosts in the Machine = 1/10

You can gripe that it's wrong or unfair to revise an episode's scores, but that's ridiculous, because there's no reason why anyone's scores must be written in stone. People's opinions change over time -- hence why the CGEF's rankings of Futurama episodes have changed over the years.

Of course your opinions of episodes can change over time, I would never contest that, but it’s ridiculous that you would shift other episodes grades not based on a change of opinion for those episodes, but purely because there’s no where to fit the new episode based of your flawed grading system...

Also, if you’re going to add decimals then you may as well just grade out of 100...

The only surprising thing is that you're continuing to belabour which episode has the worst ending. You inexplicably hate The Cryonic Woman's ending; whereas I've explained why I didn't enjoy this episode and hate its ending. Since we don't agree on this episode being the worst, it's not surprising that we can't agree that this episode has the worst ending.

And you refuse to acknowledge why I think the Cryonic Woman has a worse ending as evidenced by this poorly judged reply:

Since you haven't bothered to justify your hatred for the ending of "The Cryonic Woman", at the very least you're being just as hypocritical.

But look at what I already wrote:

Sure you can try and logically justify the ending, but that doesn’t change the fact it was a bad ending because it was simply lazy writing. It was trying too hard to quickly wrap it up and attempt a cheap laugh

The 5/10 was my initial impression of the episode after only seeing it once.

Any Futurama fan understands that Futurama episodes need to be watched multiple times to truly appreciate them -- for better or worse.

After a good night's rest and seeing this episode again in the light of day, I recognized how unfunny it was, and realized that I disliked this episode more than any other Futurama episode -- even "That's Lobstertainment". That's why I revised my score to 1/10, to rate it as the worst Futurama episode ever, IMO.

BTW This isn't the first time that I've revised my score on an episode. So what?

I don't begrudge anyone the freedom to change their mind. Why do you, Otis P Jivefunk?

What this shows me is that either you’re incredibly fickle, or you must have found some enjoyment in your original viewing of the episode to rate it 5/10. To back-pedal as you so love to put it only makes your score now seem less solidified. Sure you can change your mind, but as I already pointed out, it’s a significant change in a very short period of time. One has to wonder, why did you feel so generous as to rate the episode 5/10 originally? You must have seen something in it, surely...

[Reply #188 on:]

Svip, come on: You're supposed to be a duck, not a troll.

I actually trying to make a serious comment, even if snarky.  Could it not be that some of us simply do not enjoy Futurama after the years it was gone?  Is that not possible?  Maybe it is us who has changed and forgotten or seen pass the flaws the original Futurama had.

[Reply #189 on:]

I second with Svip on this one. I probably enjoy the show more now simply because I'm older and more mature, and can see a lot of the humour I couldn't before (I was around ten when the show first aired).

[Reply #190 on:]

Crap. Now I look like the troll.

You do have a point, both of you. The Nostalgia Goggles are probably impairing some posters' (and I include myself in that assessment) enjoyment of the new episodes. But I don't think people are wrong to compare the current episodes to the original run; the production crew is the same, so we should expect the quality to be around the same. The problem is just that the television landscape in general has changed so much in the seven years between Devil's Hands and "Rebirth," and it's only natural that Futurama would be affected by changes in the medium.

[Reply #191 on:]

If the show becomes more an ensemble sort of deal, that's not necessarily the worst thing in the world. I just don't think it's gotten to that point yet. I mean, it's pretty obvious that "Benderama" is meant to be a Bender episode (and the rest of the crew is mostly just along for the ride), and "Ghost in the Machines" is a Fry and Bender episode, similar to much of "Jurassic Bark." I think the problem is that the writers have been including the supporting characters too much in those episodes that are not clearly-defined as group affairs ("Neutopia" and "The Prisoner of Benda" are examples of group affairs, and entire crew is utilized well in both).

[Reply #192 on:]

...
WHAT?!

(that was Fry's voice from Roswell, by the way.)

No way are, say, Amy and Zoidberg as interesting or worth developing as the main three. It is a widely-held opinion that Zoidberg-centric episodes suck and he is funniest as a source of one-liners. And Hermes? One-offs like Lethal Inspection are great, but there's no way it's worth sacrificing trio plots for more Hermes! Grrrrr. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.

[Reply #193 on:]

I really don't mind the whole crew tagging along, but as Gorky says, they could use it much better. In for example Benderama they came along and barely had a line.

I Know but still he's saying the 3 main can't carry an episode together anymore and that they need the help of the minors, to keep the story together which is ridiculous. I really don't understand why the futurama writers think this, It's ludicrous.

Then it's a good thing you're not a TV writer.

[Reply #194 on:]

No way are, say, Amy and Zoidberg as interesting or worth developing as the main three. It is a widely-held opinion that Zoidberg-centric episodes suck and he is funniest as a source of one-liners. And Hermes? One-offs like Lethal Inspection are great, but there's no way it's worth sacrificing trio plots for more Hermes! Grrrrr. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.

I don't know about Zoidberg ruining an episode; I have a soft spot for "A Taste of Freedom." I don't think Amy is particularly interesting, though (and have no desire to see the writers attempt to make her more interesting by devoting episodes to her). Hermes got his requisite character development in "Lethal Inspection," and I would be perfectly content if he existed as a supporting character alone from now on. And Farnsworth probably still has a lot of stories in him (his relationship with Mom and Igner could be interesting to explore further). But I don't need to see any of these characters in every damn episode, which I guess is sort of my point.

[Reply #195 on:]

I don't want to be tv writer Aki stop stirring shit for the hell of it. Loads of fans would agree that it's a big mistake having the whole crew feature in every episode.

[Reply #196 on:]

I agree with Aki that it'd be okay if the whole crew was there for some reason. Still, it feels crowded. And I definitely agree with Gorky that everyone just doesn't have to be there all the time.

Also, okay, Taste of Freedom is pretty funny. Crustacean In Love and Lobstertainment, though... not a fan.

[Reply #197 on:]

"A Taste of Freedom" was actually my favourite episode for a while. I still regard it as extremely funny, and one with a nice meaning.

I do think the crew can be there a lot more than in the original run, but not always. There should still be a few episodes a year with just a few characters. For example I love "Godfellas", which practically feature Bender in the a-story and Fry and Leela in the b-story, and the others just have a line or so.

I don't want to be Aki stop stirring shit for the hell of it, Loads of fans would agree!

Huh?

[Reply #198 on:]

First of all, I hope you can still accept them I did find them funny. I acknowledged and accepted that you didn’t after all. The picture I’m getting here is that you did find some of my examples chuckle-worthy, as per:

I simply didn't consider those to be funny -- or at least not LoL funny. (As I explained, IMO chuckles don't count.)

That being the case, are you saying that chuckles simply count for nothing? Your score certainly suggests so. I then feel compelled to question, why does every joke have to be laugh out loud funny anyway? There are different types of jokes to suit different types of humour, and one person may laugh out loud at one joke while another chuckles, and possibly vice-versa at the next joke. There are all sorts of textures and subtlety within jokes...

I take your point that a bad sitcom can still elicit chuckles and still be bad, but this isn’t a bad sitcom, this is Futurama, so I counter that point by asking; do the chuckles you got out of this episode simply count for absolutely nothing? It seems overly harsh to me, which is why I question your logic...

As I've stated before, the 1/10 score is indicative that I consider this episode to be the worst episode of Futurama; meaning that it is the least funny and least enjoyable to watch, and I do not intend to watch this episode ever again -- except maybe with audio commentary to gain some insight as to WTF went wrong. I desperately want an explanation why the writer thought it was better to omit the songs, because the song-that-wasn't RUINED this episode for me!

Anyway... (IMO) chuckles only count to the funny factor of the episode if they are not accompanied or followed by: involuntary eye rolling, Kiff-groans, and/or head shaking.

You don’t have to give points to each aspect of the episode like a child might, I’m not getting at that, but I am pointing out that there are various other elements and criteria within an episode which are wholly worthwhile in considering when rating an episode and writing a review. The fact that your review was extremely one-sided and didn’t reflect the whole picture made it come off as unconsidered in my view. If nothing else stood out to you, or even made you consider rating the episode higher than a 1/10 then that’s entirely your loss...

I've acknowledged that I didn't get this episode.

There's nothing I want more than to watch a new episode of Futurama and laugh so much that I cry and have to catch my breath so I can continue laughing. So the fact that I hated this episode so much, whereas others seemed to enjoy it, is indeed my loss.

What if the voice acting was shit? Would it still have gotten exactly the same score?...

I can't think of an occasion that the voice acting was terrible. The only times that has happened are when there has been a guest star that I didn't like, like Chris Elliott as V-Giny in "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela". Dan Castellaneta's voice acting was fine in this episode; but it was the poor writing that wasted the Robot Devil's guest appearance in this episode. I'm certain that if the Robot Devil had been allowed to sing his song I would've rated this episode higher.

That’s lame, changing the score of an episode based solely off of a different episode being worse in your opinion and then you having nowhere to categorise the new one properly within your score system. It only highlights the flawed grading system you’ve concocted...

Considering that CGEF's rankings of Futurama episodes change over time, I see no problem in revising the scores as necessary. If you feel it's necessary to chisel your scores into stone, be my guest.

I'll show you. Here's my current Worst Episodes of Futurama List:

10) The Route of All Evil = 4/10
9) Bend Her = 3.5/10
8) Where The Buggalo Roam = 3.1/10
7) The Duh-Vinci Code = 3/10
6) Attack of the Killer App = 2.5/10
5) A Leela of Her Own = 2.1/10
4) In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela = 2/10
3) The Futurama Holiday Spectacular = 1.5/10
2) That's Lobstertainment = 1.1/10
1) Ghosts in the Machine = 1/10

You can gripe that it's wrong or unfair to revise an episode's scores, but that's ridiculous, because there's no reason why anyone's scores must be written in stone. People's opinions change over time -- hence why the CGEF's rankings of Futurama episodes have changed over the years.

Of course your opinions of episodes can change over time, I would never contest that, but it’s ridiculous that you would shift other episodes grades not based on a change of opinion for those episodes, but purely because there’s no where to fit the new episode based of your flawed grading system...

Also, if you’re going to add decimals then you may as well just grade out of 100...

A 0.1 addition to my original scores doesn't constitute a drastic change to my rating of a particular episode.

Removing the decimal and scoring the episodes out of a hundred won't alter my opinions about the episodes, so it's pointless.

And you refuse to acknowledge why I think the Cryonic Woman has a worse ending as evidenced by this poorly judged reply:

Since you haven't bothered to justify your hatred for the ending of "The Cryonic Woman", at the very least you're being just as hypocritical.

But look at what I already wrote:

Sure you can try and logically justify the ending, but that doesn’t change the fact it was a bad ending because it was simply lazy writing. It was trying too hard to quickly wrap it up and attempt a cheap laugh

That is my justification, try actually reading my posts properly and acknowledging them before insulting me by making false claims that I’m being just as hypocritical as you. Also by saying that I’m being "just as hypocritical" implies that you believe you are being hypocritical, because if you believed that you aren’t, then I couldn’t be either ...

I completely disagree that it was "lazy writing". I thought it was completely in character for the Professor to have forgotten why he fired Fry, then for Bender to screw Fry over by reminding him, and then for the Professor to react so harshly. The funniest part was that the PlanEx ship suddenly had a trap door for Fry to fall out of. The absurdity of that, combined with the shock, and the presumption that Fry was severely injured in the fall, are what made it funny.

You can libel that as "lazy writing" if you want, but the fact is that "The Cryonic Woman" did have a button -- meaning a final joke -- but you just didn't consider it to be funny. The crucial difference is that "Ghosts in the Machine" did not have a button. Instead, it simply had Fry accusingly ask Bender if he haunted him, then an excrutiating SILENCE with the expectation of a joke... which never came! I don't know if that was "lazy" writing per se, but IMO it was definitely BAD writing. And a befittingly awful ending to an abysmal episode.

The 5/10 was my initial impression of the episode after only seeing it once.

Any Futurama fan understands that Futurama episodes need to be watched multiple times to truly appreciate them -- for better or worse.

After a good night's rest and seeing this episode again in the light of day, I recognized how unfunny it was, and realized that I disliked this episode more than any other Futurama episode -- even "That's Lobstertainment". That's why I revised my score to 1/10, to rate it as the worst Futurama episode ever, IMO.

BTW This isn't the first time that I've revised my score on an episode. So what?

What this shows me is that either you’re incredibly fickle, or you must have found some enjoyment in your original viewing of the episode to rate it 5/10. To back-pedal as you so love to put it only makes your score now seem less solidified. Sure you can change your mind, but as I already pointed out, it’s a significant change in a very short period of time. One has to wonder, why did you feel so generous as to rate the episode 5/10 originally? You must have seen something in it, surely...

Initial impressions are notoriously unreliable. Anyone who bases their opinion on their initial impression and decrees it to be irrevocable, is an IDIOT.

Now, here is my explanation for why my initial impression of this episode was mistaken: I didn't watch this episode at 10 PM on Comedy Central because I live in Canada and can't watch the new episodes on Futurama on TV. I had to wait until this episode was uploaded around 11 PM, then I downloaded it, and I watched it after The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. So it was after midnight, and I was admittedly very tired. I wasn't counting how many times I laughed the first time I watched it. My initial impression of this episode was that it was merely average by Futurama's high standards, so I voted 5/10 in the poll, but I was too tired to write my review, so I went to bed.

The next day, I re-watched this episode and realized how devoid of humour it was. I wrote my review accordingly, in which I admitted the mistake I had made by voting 5/10 in the poll, and revised my rating to 1/10.

That seems perfectly reasonable and justified to me.

[Reply #199 on:]

My two cents.

To both of you: Either have a descent discussion with, or let it be. In other words: either confront the other as a normal poster, or confront him as a troll. And the general rule with trolls is...



If you want a discussion with proper arguments and no ad hominem attacks, do so. If you want to bitch around and throw feces, do it someplace else.