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Author Topic: Thoughts on 6ACV19 - Ghost in the Machines - SPOILERS  (Read 25486 times)
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PEE Poll: Rating
1/10 (poor)   -0 (0%)
2/10   -0 (0%)
3/10   -2 (1.9%)
4/10   -0 (0%)
5/10   -4 (3.8%)
6/10   -5 (4.8%)
7/10   -12 (11.4%)
8/10   -25 (23.8%)
9/10   -36 (34.3%)
10/10 (great)   -21 (20%)
Total Members Voted: 105

[-mArc-]

Administrator
Liquid Emperor
**
« on: 06-30-2011 10:43 »

Review and discuss the new Futurama episode 'Ghost in the Machines' 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).
jeepdavetj

Starship Captain
****
« Reply #1 on: 07-01-2011 04:07 »

First act not bad. Reminds me of old Futurama! Anyone feelin that? Or am I just excited for no reason?
JoshTheater

Space Pope
****
« Reply #2 on: 07-01-2011 04:20 »

There's a commercial for Sonic (the restaurant) that has a blue ghost in it that just aired during the episode...coincidence?
koldstare64
Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #3 on: 07-01-2011 04:24 »

First act not bad. Reminds me of old Futurama! Anyone feelin that? Or am I just excited for no reason?

Yea, I was thinking the same thing too. It introduced some kind of futuristic concept that someone had to explain to Fry, like Blernsball.
Who, Where, What, How?

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #4 on: 07-01-2011 04:24 »

This episode is working because not all the minor characters are featured in it as much...for once
JoshTheater

Space Pope
****
« Reply #5 on: 07-01-2011 04:31 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 04:32 »

Uh...okay. Mixed feelings. I really liked the episode up until the very end where it just went crazy and WAY too much happened really really fast. Also, the way it ended was awkward...

But other than that, I enjoyed most of the episode. The Bender/Fry relationship stuff was touching, although it got to a point where Bender seemed to be acting way more out of character than he ever has before.
Johnnyboy33

Crustacean
*
« Reply #6 on: 07-01-2011 04:32 »

Goin' with a 9/10 after one viewing, although I was admittedly distracted due to a ridiculous lightning storm in the area. That being said there were some wonderful Robot Devil moments and some fantastic call backs to classic Futurama. Gonna watch it again in a couple hours
Imy

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #7 on: 07-01-2011 04:32 »

I absolutely hate the use of minor characters for no real reason. Grrrrrrrr  :mad:

Anyway, I'll just be lurking here while I finish my science work until the episode is available online to me.
koldstare64
Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #8 on: 07-01-2011 04:35 »

I actually really enjoyed that episode. It wasn't as funny as some other episodes, but it had a lot of little things that gave it a timeless feel.

I give it a 9/10.
Gorky

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #9 on: 07-01-2011 04:35 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 04:40 »

Is this a new trend, episodes opening with Planet Express in severe financial straits? I mean, the terror over the dreaded balloon was pretty amusing, but the We're-Doomed opening was a bit too reminiscent of the opening of "Neutopia." I'm just being needlessly nitpicky, though, I suppose.

Anyway: The entire first act went by so quickly. I'm not afraid, per se, but it does kind of bother me that last week's episodes were also really fast-paced. It can be a bit jarring.

That said, I liked how Bender had Fry on his shoulders during the parade; it was a nice way to play up their friendship, and it made Bender's subsequent feelings of betrayal over Fry saving a human instead of a robot seem less out-of-the-blue. I liked the return of the nerdy paleontologist, and calling Saturday Fryday. All in all, the first act was solid.

The beginning of the second act was kind of confusing. Bender doesn't realize he's a ghost? Then what was with the maniacal laughing at the end of act one? Was Bender just thinking, "Hey, we need a hook for the act break. How's about I do a demonic chortle?" The Robot Devil was great, though, and I liked how the writers managed to work in callbacks not only to "Hell is Other Robots" and "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings," but also "The Sting" (Amy trying to console Fry in his guilty-stress by giving him Bender's eyeballs to clink together). I'm not a fan of horror movies, but the parodies were clear enough, and amusing enough. Maybe not particularly inspired, but it was good to see the Preacher Bot and the Gypsy Fortune Teller again (and, hell, I guess that counts as a callback to both "The Honking" and "Godfellas").

Act three was a little...all over the place. Fry has a heart attack, survives a heart attack (I did like the Wikipedia gag), goes to an Amish planet, has a nice little montage there (which was actually pretty cute; Bender sleeping at the foot of Fry's bed like a dog was great), meets up with his friends again, is almost killed, is saved by Bender, and goes back to earth. Meanwhile, Bender follows Fry to this Amish planet, realizes human life actually is important, possesses the Robot Devil, then possesses god (the existence of whom seems to contradict the theology established in "Godfellas," but at least he said it was Robot Heaven, so perhaps that gives the writers a free pass), then finally comes back to earth and is reunited with the apparent love of his life, Fry.

Just a wee bit rushed.

All in all, this was a pretty funny episode. There were some great gags (Leela only meaning to slap Fry twice; Scruffy upping the "bite my ass" quota immediately; the various uses for Bender's body parts), particularly in the first two acts. The Robot Devil had some great one-liners ("She's naked, but unharmed.") This episode had fewer overt pop culture references, so that was a welcome surprise; like W,W,W,H? says, it's also nice to see an episode focused primarily on Fry and Bender, and not the PE crew as a whole. But...I don't know. Something about it just didn't click with me. Subsequent viewings may improve my opinion, but for now this is just an average episode.

7/10
jeepdavetj

Starship Captain
****
« Reply #10 on: 07-01-2011 04:37 »

9/10 for me. It reminded me of early Futurama. And I like that. Also Amish.
HezaDelSol

Crustacean
*
« Reply #11 on: 07-01-2011 04:42 »

Thought it had a very old Futurama vibe, in a good way. Sagged a little in act 2 for me but the episode turned out better then I expected. I thought the premise of "Bender is a ghost" would turn out stupid, but it had less to do with a Bender ghost and more to do with Bender/Fry friendship. I liked that. The ending could have been better, I didn't like the fact that all Fry asks is if he was haunted, and then boom, end. I felt like there should have been some sort of humorous response there.

Enjoyed amish Fry and parade day. Overall, a solid 7.5-8/10, can't decide until I have a second viewing.
Kornography

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #12 on: 07-01-2011 04:43 »

Whoops, I meant to vote 9, but I hit 10 anyway...oh well...

Great episode, but they've gone 3 for 3 with rushed endings, which kinda brought the rating down.
Chives

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #13 on: 07-01-2011 04:44 »

Did, ah, did anyone else think that for the couple of seconds Fry is walking towards the camera with the field to his right on the Amish Homeworld, that he looked more like Homer Simpson than ever before?
Sol23

Crustacean
*
« Reply #14 on: 07-01-2011 04:47 »

Hey Im new. Thought id throw up my opinion of the latest episode. I gave it a 9/10. Did they not establish in s03e20 Godfellas what the God figure of Futurama was and then again in Benders Big Score?
Gorky

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #15 on: 07-01-2011 04:47 »

Great episode, but they've gone 3 for 3 with rushed endings, which kinda brought the rating down.

At least "Benderama" had an ending that made sense in the context of the rest of the episode (there were a zillion tiny Benders wreaking havoc on the world; it was about time they did something useful in taking down the monster). And this episode had a theme of forgiveness and, I suppose, some redemption (Bender realizing that Fry valued his friendship), and at least that was played up in the conclusion, when Bender earns his way to heaven and subsequently to earth. "Neutopia," meanwhile, relied on an alien appearing unbidden to fix the crew's genders. I'd say it's more like one competent ending, one so-so ending, and one what-the-fuck ending.
i_c_weiner

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #16 on: 07-01-2011 04:50 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 04:53 »

That was, without a doubt, the first episode since the return of the series that I truly felt was a classic episode. The entire set-up of the story was pure classic run. You have a random future tradition that Fry learns about (Parade Day, in this case), it causes a rift between two characters (hooray for Ben Beeler's return!), which leads into the main plot of the episode, which is kept throughout the rest of the episode and doesn't jump around like, say, Neutopia does.

I loved the first act; second out made me literally laugh out loud a couple of times, especially from the return of the Robot Devil and him wanting to sing again, and all of the tech jokes that come from robot ghosts; and the third act had one of the most touching montages in the entirety of the series. I was on the verge of mantears when Bender tried to hug Fry just walked through him.

I was very, very happy that they kept up with continuity for all of the Robot Devil call-backs. HIOR is referenced a few times, once overtly with the return of the song; Devil's Hands is referenced with the hands gag; there's even notice that Bender and the Robot Devil have past experience working together in BWBB. I was really looking forward to another song, but was so pleased with how they joked about it. That made me laugh hilariously.

There were only two complaints I had with the episode: the "Obamacare" joke, which was the only out of place cultural reference of which I'm sure some noob will be like ZOMG OBAMACARE IT'S LIKE FAMILY GUY; and the Scruffy jokes. I'm a huge fan of Scruffy, but when he's used multiple times in an episode it can get a little odd. That being said, the "bite my shiny metal ass" joke and Fry asking about how Scruffy was doing on the Amish Homeworld were hilarious jokes. This may just be because he was featured in both previous episodes that were aired and Comedy Central airing them out of order is causing Scruffy overload rather than the writers.

I usually have a policy of holding off officially scoring an episode until I rewatched it, but I actually think I'll enjoy it even more on a second viewing. I hate to throw this rating out there, especially since I get at others who use it, but I'm going to have to give this one:

10/10

Next week better be good too, dammit!
HezaDelSol

Crustacean
*
« Reply #17 on: 07-01-2011 04:52 »

Did they not establish in s03e20 Godfellas what the God figure of Futurama was and then again in Benders Big Score?

I took the God in Godfellas to be God of everything, like instead of the Zeus like biblical god everyone thinks of, it's actually a binary galaxy. Who knew? I took this God to just be robot heaven God.

i_c_weiner

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #18 on: 07-01-2011 04:53 »

Did they even explicitly say the robot that greeted Bender in Robot Heaven was God? I just thought it was the gatekeeper, a sort of Robot St. Peter.
Sol23

Crustacean
*
« Reply #19 on: 07-01-2011 04:55 »

Did they not establish in s03e20 Godfellas what the God figure of Futurama was and then again in Benders Big Score?

I took the God in Godfellas to be God of everything, like instead of the Zeus like biblical god everyone thinks of, it's actually a binary galaxy. Who knew? I took this God to just be robot heaven God.



That makes sense
Imy

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #20 on: 07-01-2011 04:55 »

I'm liking the sound of these reviews. Candy to my ears! (?!)
HezaDelSol

Crustacean
*
« Reply #21 on: 07-01-2011 04:56 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 04:57 »

I don't think he was actually called God specifically. I think it was more of a possible implied thing. We're used to going to robot hell and being greeted by the devil himself. Always possible it was just a gatekeeper robot.

Either way, the robot definitely looked like Eve from Wall-E, coincidence?
Gorky

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #22 on: 07-01-2011 04:56 »

Did they even explicitly say the robot that greeted Bender in Robot Heaven was God? I just thought it was the gatekeeper, a sort of Robot St. Peter.

I think Bender said "Not this guy," or something to that effect. The robot actually looked a bit like Robot 1-X from "Obsoletely Fabulous," but that seems like too obscure a reference for that particular scene, and I'm probably just remembering the design wrong.
Sol23

Crustacean
*
« Reply #23 on: 07-01-2011 04:58 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 05:00 »

Did they even explicitly say the robot that greeted Bender in Robot Heaven was God? I just thought it was the gatekeeper, a sort of Robot St. Peter.

I believe Bender did refer to him as God unless my ears played tricks on me because of was thinking of my earlier post.

Quote from: Gorky
I think Bender said "Not this guy," or something to that effect. The robot actually looked a bit like Robot 1-X from "Obsoletely Fabulous," but that seems like too obscure a reference for that particular scene, and I'm probably just remembering the design wrong.
It does look like the Robot 1-x but it seems taller.
HezaDelSol

Crustacean
*
« Reply #24 on: 07-01-2011 05:00 »

Replayed on my DVR, Bender DOES in fact call him God

"Shut up God"
Sol23

Crustacean
*
« Reply #25 on: 07-01-2011 05:02 »

Replayed on my DVD, Bender DOES in fact call him God

"Shut up God"

which made me think GOD because he refers to the Robot Devil as such, but didn't say Robot God. But what you said makes sense
Johnnyboy33

Crustacean
*
« Reply #26 on: 07-01-2011 05:04 »

Sure it wasn't more of a "Shut up! God!"
HezaDelSol

Crustacean
*
« Reply #27 on: 07-01-2011 05:07 »

It didn't sound like that at all. God starts welcoming Bender to robot heaven, Bender says "shut up God", God says "beg pardon?".

Thinking he is just the God of robots, since only robots will ever meet him. Binary galaxy God was aware of everyone, even Bender's shrimpkins.
Who, Where, What, How?

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #28 on: 07-01-2011 05:12 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 05:36 »

I liked it until the amish bit also shut up hermes amy etc. Was nice just having moments with fry and bender, like the good ol days.

Oh one more thing, Why is scruffy in every ep now? He's a one line character and thats what made him funny.


7/10

Jims

Crustacean
*
« Reply #29 on: 07-01-2011 05:15 »

Maybe I missed something in the episode, but did Hermes hear Bender say the word "limbo"?  It seemed kinda odd, like they were suggesting something there.

(Or maybe it's just Hermes' obsession with the limbo?)

Imy

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #30 on: 07-01-2011 05:15 »

This episode had me at "I'LL SAVE ONE OF YOUUUUU!!"  :p
Who, Where, What, How?

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #31 on: 07-01-2011 05:46 »

I'm just gonna say it, this show would be so much better if it just focussed on Fry, Bender and Leela. No more minor characters! they aren't even needed for the scenes really. I don't find Hermes or Amy a strong character and it really bugs me when they get a lot of screen time in the new episodes.

Also I may be the only one who thinks this but I don't like the tune that plays during the beginning of a new scene. sounds like an instrumental to a nursery rhyme or something, very un futurama esque.
Johnnyboy33

Crustacean
*
« Reply #32 on: 07-01-2011 05:48 »

I'm just gonna say it, this show would be so much better if it just focussed on Fry, Bender and Leela. No more minor characters! they aren't even needed for the scenes really. I don't find Hermes or Amy a strong character and it really bugs me when they get a lot of screen time in the new episodes.

Also I may be the only one who thinks this but I don't like the tune that plays during the beginning of a new scene. sounds like an instrumental to a nursery rhyme or something, very un futurama esque.

I don't mean to sound pretentious, but it's a good thing you don't write for Futurama.
Freako

Urban Legend
***
« Reply #33 on: 07-01-2011 05:51 »

This was probably one of those episode ideas they had left over from the original run, because that was damn entertaining.

Also it made lethal inspection a gigantic waste of animation.
Johnnyboy33

Crustacean
*
« Reply #34 on: 07-01-2011 05:52 »

This was probably one of those episode ideas they had left over from the original run, because that was damn entertaining.

Also it made lethal inspection a gigantic waste of animation.

God why do people say shit like this? It was so entertaining! It COULDN'T have been a new idea! Ignorance
Gorky

DOOP Secretary
*
« Reply #35 on: 07-01-2011 05:53 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 05:54 »

I'm just gonna say it, this show would be so much better if it just focussed on Fry, Bender and Leela. No more minor characters! they aren't even needed for the scenes really. I don't find Hermes or Amy a strong character and it really bugs me when they get a lot of screen time in the new episodes.

Also I may be the only one who thinks this but I don't like the tune that plays during the beginning of a new scene. sounds like an instrumental to a nursery rhyme or something, very un futurama esque.

I don't mean to sound pretentious, but it's a good thing you don't write for Futurama.

I agree with him that the heart of the show is really the dynamic between Fry, Leela, and Bender. In the pilot, they are established as the core trio, the characters we are expected to root for. And, honestly, my favorite episodes of the series either focus on the characters individually (so, say, "The Why of Fry"), or as duos (any shippy episode, or something like tonight's episode for how it examines Fry and Bender's friendship), or as a trio ("The Honking" comes to mind, as does the subplot in "The Route of All Evil"). The supporting characters have their moments (I love Hermes in "Lethal Inspection," and Farnsworth in "Mother's Day"), but I don't think they're the heart of the show, and seeing the entire PE grew act as a family unit in every single episode becomes a bit grating. When used in moderation, though, the supporting characters are great.
Mongo

Bending Unit
***
« Reply #36 on: 07-01-2011 05:53 »

I liked the call-out to "Life in Hell", MG's first venture into comics,
.
Who, Where, What, How?

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #37 on: 07-01-2011 05:54 »
« Last Edit on: 07-01-2011 05:56 »

^ Did I say I wanted to write for Futurama? ^

Johnnyboy69 look ok all i'm saying is the episodes from 1999-2003
focussed mainly on Fry,Bender and Leela.
The new episodes focus on the whole crew
and that is what disappoints me about the new season.
homerjaysimpson

Space Pope
****
« Reply #38 on: 07-01-2011 05:58 »

This episode was a bit better than last weeks two episodes. Still it wasn't that great. 6/10



Also it made lethal inspection a gigantic waste of animation.

At least it wasn't like the tomacco episode on the Simpsons, I pretty much stopped watching The Simpsons for a long time after that.
Who, Where, What, How?

Delivery Boy
**
« Reply #39 on: 07-01-2011 06:04 »

Homerjaysimpson that episode was great just because of this joke

Ralph: Eww daddy this tastes like grandma

Chief Wiggum: Oh my god it does taste like grandma
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