Thoughts on 6ACV25 - Overclockwise - SPOILERS!

[Reply #40 on:]

Who noticed that they used the same "going out of business forever" banner from ITWGY?
(Or at least I think it was the same banner...   )

[Reply #41 on:]

I noticed that and thought it was hilarious! I loved all the references to previous episodes in here. A great last-episode-ever.

[Reply #42 on:]

I was prepared to walk into a Bender-heavy suckfest like Pharaoh To Remember. Instead, I got a good episode. More later.

[Reply #43 on:]

Best episode since The Late Philip J Fry, right?

[Reply #44 on:]

Well, after reading all these comments, hell, I guess I'll have to watch this one.

[Reply #45 on:]

I'm watching it, and Leela left, and......

[Reply #46 on:]

Best episode since The Late Philip J Fry, right?

I think so.

[Reply #47 on:]

Someone earlier said they would have liked it better without the Fry and Leela subplot, and I completely agree...I HATED it. At first I thought maybe they were poking fun at the people who cared so much about the status of their relationship, but no, they tried to play these ridiculous cheesy, terribly written dialogue scenes between Leela and Fry completely straight, and it SUCKED. It felt like complete pandering, and lazily written pandering at that.

My deal with Leela and Fry's relationship is that I would love to see the two of them together. We've seen it before in bits and pieces (like in The Prisoner Of Benda where they're VERY MUCH together) and it was done in a funny way and shows that the show could still be very interesting with the two of them in a solid relationship. It would bring a new dynamic to the show, and I'm completely for it.

But to unabashedly acknowledge and announce it in an episode like this, in such a cheesy and badly set up way, instead of letting it happen subtly like they had been doing and not making a big fuss about it...it made me cringe quite a bit.

I'm surprised that long time adult fans of Futurama seem to embrace that aspect of this episode with open arms. To each his own. To me, this was a big pile of shit.

Oh ya, I liked the Bender overclocking and taking over the universe stuff. Why couldn't that have made up the majority of the episode instead of sidetracking the plot with the lame trial for Farnsworth and Cubert?

[Reply #48 on:]

I expected another episode that showcased Bender doing Bender stuff. Haw, it sure is funny that he is exactly the same character he was 10 years ago!

Instead, we got a lot of funny jokes, an interesting plot, and finally some kind of answer to what is going on between Fry and Leela, after many episodes when that's not even been poked with an 11 foot pole (for things you wouldn't poke with a 10 foot pole).

Final analysis - this is a classic. TMC says Overclockwise is in his top 10 out of the entire series.

Edit - Josh, You sound upset that the entire season hasn't developed the Fry/Leela dynamic all along. I'm just huzzahing because they finally did anything meaningful with it at all this season.

[Reply #49 on:]

I actually thought more people would have Josh's opinion. This was the most blatant in-your-face depiction of the Fry/Leela relationship we've really ever seen and at some moments it read nearly like bad fanfiction. I personally enjoyed it but I really was not expecting such widely-held support (that poll up there has the craziest percentages of any poll here right now).

I did feel like the writers were poking fun at the way they treated the season 6 relationship in that first sort of weirdly-written scene, which made it cross into "good" territory. The end, though sweet, was definitely sappy/cheesy/what-have-you, and I can totally see why some people would cringe heavily at such a debacle.

[Reply #50 on:]

We haven't had much of the Fry/Leela development recently. Because of that a lot of people are going "What the hell is wrong here". Maybe this issue addresses the idea that they've been in a lukewarm spot for a while. And hey, it ends with a d'awww moment.

[Reply #51 on:]

Edit - Josh, You sound upset that the entire season hasn't developed the Fry/Leela dynamic all along. I'm just huzzahing because they finally did anything meaningful with it at all this season.

I'm not upset. You're right, I would have enjoyed some sort of development like we got last season, maybe a full season build up to the romantic scenes in this episode would have made it work for me. But honestly I didn't really care if they kept the Leela/Fry dynamic the same as they have been for the past season so far. I'm still enjoying the show and it's humor, if Leela and Fry are together, or apart, fine...I can accept that they have an on/off thing as long as there's never any talk of serious commitment between them.

It's not that I needed the talk of serious commitment (like we got at the end of this episode) to accept them as being together either, though. What I'm saying is that if the writers wanted to put their foot down and say "let's portray Fry and Leela together in all future episodes and not be ambiguous any more", they should have just done it. They didn't need to announce it so blatantly in an episode.

I wouldn't have even minded a full episode about their relationship, where they conclude at the end that they belong together, as long as there were events that caused it to happen and it's well written. But that's not what we got here...instead we got a lazy subplot where Fry and Leela say some bullshit to each other, Leela leaves suddenly for no raisin, Fry is super sad, Leela comes back suddenly for no raisin, the two say more bullshit to each other, and then finally "aww let's be together".

It was lazy and stupid and I HATED it. Oh well, there are other future episodes to enjoy, hopefully. I will say this though, if their relationship is still ambiguous after this, then fuck you writers. If I had to put up with watching that sappy crap, then they better be together FOR REAL.

[Reply #52 on:]

Dear God, that ending, I go to sleep an estatic shipper tonight

[Reply #53 on:]

Someone earlier said they would have liked it better without the Fry and Leela subplot, and I completely agree...I HATED it. At first I thought maybe they were poking fun at the people who cared so much about the status of their relationship, but no, they tried to play these ridiculous cheesy, terribly written dialogue scenes between Leela and Fry completely straight, and it SUCKED. It felt like complete pandering, and lazily written pandering at that.

My deal with Leela and Fry's relationship is that I would love to see the two of them together. We've seen it before in bits and pieces (like in The Prisoner Of Benda where they're VERY MUCH together) and it was done in a funny way and shows that the show could still be very interesting with the two of them in a solid relationship. It would bring a new dynamic to the show, and I'm completely for it.

But to unabashedly acknowledge and announce it in an episode like this, in such a cheesy and badly set up way, instead of letting it happen subtly like they had been doing and not making a big fuss about it...it made me cringe quite a bit.

I'm surprised that long time adult fans of Futurama seem to embrace that aspect of this episode with open arms. To each his own. To me, this was a big pile of shit.

Oh ya, I liked the Bender overclocking and taking over the universe stuff. Why couldn't that have made up the majority of the episode instead of sidetracking the plot with the lame trial for Farnsworth and Cubert?

This is literally the opposite of what is true. Every scene between Fry and Leela seemed so perfectly Fry and Leela. I really just don't know what you expected if you thought it was handled poorly. It's not pandering in the slightest, they clearly meant to write the relationship like they did. Would you have been happier if they just acted as though they had been together the whole time? That would have been retarded, it followed the events of the last production season accurately and logically. Please don't abuse the word pandering anymore

[Reply #54 on:]

Edit - Josh, You sound upset that the entire season hasn't developed the Fry/Leela dynamic all along. I'm just huzzahing because they finally did anything meaningful with it at all this season.

I'm not upset. You're right, I would have enjoyed some sort of development like we got last season, maybe a full season build up to the romantic scenes in this episode would have made it work for me. But honestly I didn't really care if they kept the Leela/Fry dynamic the same as they have been for the past season so far. I'm still enjoying the show and it's humor, if Leela and Fry are together, or apart, fine...I can accept that they have an on/off thing as long as there's never any talk of serious commitment between them.

It's not that I needed the talk of serious commitment (like we got at the end of this episode) to accept them as being together either, though. What I'm saying is that if the writers wanted to put their foot down and say "let's portray Fry and Leela together in all future episodes and not be ambiguous any more", they should have just done it. They didn't need to announce it so blatantly in an episode.

I wouldn't have even minded a full episode about their relationship, where they conclude at the end that they belong together, as long as there were events that caused it to happen and it's well written. But that's not what we got here...instead we got a lazy subplot where Fry and Leela say some bullshit to each other, Leela leaves suddenly for no raisin, Fry is super sad, Leela comes back suddenly for no raisin, the two say more bullshit to each other, and then finally "aww let's be together".

It was lazy and stupid and I HATED it. Oh well, there are other future episodes to enjoy, hopefully. I will say this though, if their relationship is still ambiguous after this, then fuck you writers. If I had to put up with watching that sappy crap, then they better be together FOR REAL.

You are also very very clearly missing the fact that this was potentially meant to be the FINALE. They didn't sit down and say "We want Fry and Leela to be together from now on" they sat down and said "We want an emotionally charged ending that promises a future for Fry and Leela... again"

[Reply #55 on:]

Point of interest: Vyolet was on the jury.  I guess the mutants won more than I thought in their revolution.  Sweet!

EDIT:  Also, when did bender upgrade to an Athlon II in his ass?

[Reply #56 on:]

Please don't abuse the word pandering anymore

Sorry, I'll try not to use your precious words in a way that makes you uncomfortable from now on, even when trying to express a personal opinion. My bad.

[Reply #57 on:]

Please don't abuse the word pandering anymore

Sorry, I'll try not to use your precious words in a way that makes you uncomfortable from now on, even when trying to express a personal opinion. My bad.

Thanks mate

[Reply #58 on:]

I think the relationship between Fry and Leela has been lacking. It's one of the deficiencies I've been feeling during season 6-B. The way things have been going, there is no explanation for their lack of relationship. Unless things have been lukewarm for a while.

It'd have been nice to know why that's been the case, but at least they did address it.

And Bender's mental evolution was played far better than I feared, in which we would have been subjected to Bender taking over the episode completely and delivering to us scenes of him doing the usual Bender steal, betray, remorse, reconcile business.

[Reply #59 on:]

I thought this was a great episode. It had lots of cool sci-fi elements and and heart but also quite a few very funny jokes. I'm not too sure what to rate it, though.

Maybe a 9.something/10 rounded to 10 for the poll or somesuch...

[Reply #60 on:]

Honest to your God, I would be completely fine with that being the last mention of the Fry/Leela relationship in the entire series. It was... in a word, perfect.

[Reply #61 on:]

Come to think of it, I think it would probably be the most hilarious thing ever if in the episodes following this one, Leela and Fry just despise each other with no given explanation.

Total mindfuck.

[Reply #62 on:]

Eh, we all know that'll just end it them having sex like everything does these days.

[Reply #63 on:]

Yeah, it would be funny if there was no continuity, Josh. Ayup.

[Reply #64 on:]

Fry and Leela...I can't help but feel resent. :/ But, I must overlook the jealousy. I just want him to be happy and he is. :')

For a "series finale", it did not please. The story was pretty lackluster.

I give this episode a 5.5/10. Sorry Futurama but you can do better.

[Reply #65 on:]

Yeah, it would be funny if there was no continuity, Josh. Ayup.

Exactly! This guy gets it.

For a "series finale", it did not please.

Good thing it's not a series finale then.

[Reply #66 on:]

Whilst I enjoyed the episode, I think it showcases exactly how insecure, selfish and unable to embrace contentment Leela is. Poor Fry, he really does deserve better.

I didn't like some parts of it. From when Fry falls off the bridge (felt pointless) to when he enters the BenderCave, it was too cartoon-y. He was also played as a lot dumber than I think he should be... a lot dumber.

The main plot, now that I enjoyed immensely. Mom was fantastically evil, and it was nice to see familiar faces in the courtroom. Bender's addiction to overclocking and gaining more processor power was well-done (better than I had thought it would be), and I loved the new look he gave himself. Wasn't so keen on the idea that Bender would ever be above the petty concerns of the universe - he seemed jealous that Randy was Fry's new best friend though, that pleased me somewhat - I would think that Bender would be most likely to use his awesome new computing abilities to interfere with people and things for his own amusement.

I found it somewhat odd that Mom remembers Bender, and yet didn't terminate him for being faulty (no backup unit)... but perhaps they installed one when they put him back in factory default condition.

Overall, I think the episode has faults and flaws, I think that Leela is kinda a bitch, and I think that the writers no longer think quite as hard about stuff before they put it on paper.

All that aside, I enjoyed it, so I can't mark it down too far. 8/10. A satisfactory conclusion to the series. Not an amazing one... I think it would have been better to conclude with TLPJF. But satisfactory.  

Of course, since there will be another season, they've got another chance to wind it all up on a high note. I'm looking forward to Broadcast Season 7A now that 6B is done.

[Reply #67 on:]

Hey, Bender faked that note. He just gave them that push they needed xD. Didn't you notice Benders expression when Fry asked him FIRST?!

[Reply #68 on:]

Pure love. Many laugh out lout moments and great animation. It was over too quickly though  Loved the ending!

10/10

[Reply #69 on:]

Hey, Bender faked that note. He just gave them that push they needed xD. Didn't you notice Benders expression when Fry asked him FIRST?!

Yeah I've been wondering about that.  I mean, the note was "Fry and Leela's Ultimate Fate" by Bender.  And there's the whole problem that reading the note changes the future in the first place.

[Reply #70 on:]

But I'm happy with the ending, now Fry and Leela will try to stick to that note. Most likely Bender just changed few things in it, so in future they will make right choice.

[Reply #71 on:]

Fry: I knew he cared about us!
Hermes: You said you knew he didn't could about us.
Fry (sadly): Leave me alone...
 

[Reply #72 on:]

Hoo hoo. I may not be able to see into the future like Bender, but I predict this episode will be very... polarizing.  

Yeah, all you have to be able to do is to look in the past ... At the posts already made.

* The poster of Mom, in the style of Farrah Fawcett (<shudder>), in the sons' game room.

Okay, that's who it was ... I didn't catch it.

And I thought the show was packed to the gills with jokes: the extended word play on Cubert's pug nose, Walt's video game avatar saying "I could have shot a V8 (B8?),

It's a V8, which is a vegetable drink. An old commerical (from the 1970s?) had people drinking something, then slapping their head and saying "I could have had a V8!"

"We're saying 'ding-dong' because you don't have a dorrbell" 

This was funny as hell, but have they really never had a doorbell? hmm.

Even if they did, they might have had to sell it.

• Farnsworth's "I was born in prison, and now I'll die in prison..." line

Is there a future story here?

Did anyone notice that the tentacle robots were like a completely better version of the weird tentacle robots that were on the most recent episode of Doctor Who?

My guess is that the hoverfish are Futurama's version of the flying monkeys (from The Wizard of Oz).

Someone earlier said they would have liked it better without the Fry and Leela subplot, and I completely agree...I HATED it. At first I thought maybe they were poking fun at the people who cared so much about the status of their relationship,

How far in advance are the episodes produced? My impression is that it's too far ahead to be a shot at the 'shippers', just a coincidence.

Point of interest: Vyolet was on the jury.  I guess the mutants won more than I thought in their revolution.  Sweet!

So was the Professor's girlfriend. (The jury selection rules must be different in 3011; I very much doubt that this would be allowed in today's courts.)

Also related to the courtroom scene: Is the "clone defense" legitimate? Hubert Farnsworth and his son are NOT the same person. If the clone defense were real, it would mean that you couldn't try twins for any crimes, because that would be "double jeopardy" as well.

***

General comments, etc:

* "Über" is not the correct word for a game that is finished in German; "fertig" is. (Yes, I know they chose it for the sound, but still ...)

* The bridge that Fry falls off of (right before the scene with Randy) looks a lot like the bridge at the end of TLPJF.

* At the end of the episode, Bender is back to enjoying knock-knock jokes. ("Leela who?") (Was this a bit written just for this episode, or did he like knock-knock jokes before? If memory serves, it was a one-time thing.)

* Leela's stint as a real estate agent was unconvincing; she seemed to come back for no reason. (And now that I think about it, wouldn't she have to get the proper career chip for the job?)

Like Gorky, I'm not exactly sure what to make of this episode. It was supposed to be a season finale, but it didn't really wrap things up.

[Reply #73 on:]

* The bridge that Fry falls off of (right before the scene with Randy) looks a lot like the bridge at the end of TLPJF.

It is the bridge at the end of TLPJF

[Reply #74 on:]

After a disappointing season except three episodes (The Silence of the Clamps, The Tip of the Zoidberg, Yo Leela Leela) came the finale known as Overclockwise.

I wouldn't say it was bad because it wasn't, but it was disappointing. When I think that could have been the last episode ever...

It begins with Fry, Cubert and Bender playing video games. Why is Cubert here? We didn't see him for a year and he appeared without any reason. If he was funny, that could have been acceptable, but this character is probably the one that I want to be killed. The writes knew it was an important episode with a big story and they waste 3 minutes by showing us a WWII video game? And the X-Cube 360! I miss the old subtle jokes.

Then that was one of the wort scenes of all the series, Leela's line "Let's talk about our relationship!" was horrible, that was just a stupid way  to make Leela leave Fry. It felt forced and seemed like a bad fanfic.

Then Bender became faster and win the game. That is awesome (ironic).
OMG! The three german were Mom's sons, we didn't find out two minutes earlier. (ironic)

The there was a stupid scene with Walt who is the elder of the three who cried because he loose a game.  And Mom (who is normally evil and don't care about their sons) wants to know who beat them. Seriously, that's the best the writes could do to insert Mom in the story? She saw Bender but didn't think of Farnsworth, is she stupid or what?

Then Smitty who is back from his retirement arrested Cubert and even did the doorbell. But they had a doorbell before, this was a stupid joke!  

Leela leaves suddenly for no reason. Fry is suddenly friend with Randy, they feed pigeons and not owls. It is a stupid error.

A fan falls on Zoidberg, that is so hilarious, i'm kidding, that was lame!

Fry wants to kill himself because the woman who never loved him left him, and he bought a barrel for 3000$, was that really important.

Bender is now the new Galactic entity, they missed an opportunity to bring back an old character from Godfellas, but no it is better to ask Bender how Fry and Leela will end. The trial, again the same judge and the same court and the same lawyer, the nine man was in the jury, I think that was a good point. But seriously, because they have the same DNA, they are legally the same person. What about in the election episode, the two candidates were clones, so vote for one or for the other was the same?

And then Leela is back, having left for only 5 minutes.
The ending was predictable, the writers didn't want to choose so they make a 45 seconds of happy-angry-sad-happy-sad-happy...
And the end is stupid, Fry and Leela will stay together, and in the next season, they will do as before as if nothing happened.

Besides, I absolutely loved the title of the books read by Bender and I loved the reference to Braino.

[Reply #75 on:]

* "Über" is not the correct word for a game that is finished in German; "fertig" is. (Yes, I know they chose it for the sound, but still ...)

The game was called 'World of World War II 3', what do you want?  I loved that part.  I also liked the fact that the plot about Cubert being convicted for modifying a product he himself owned was an excellent take on the stupidity of DMCA.  I am certain I am going to have to freeze frame it through when Bender reads books too.

Fry's constant worrying about Leela seemed totally in character for him, while Leela's reactions might have been in character, but it wasn't quite a pleasing dynamic to work with.  Maybe it is because I am not a shipper, but the ending just faded out for me.  And I didn't even care if Leela came back or not (I knew she would, she is one of the main cast).  The episode failed to make me worry.  In fact, I was more wondering about how Cubert and Hubert were going to get themselves out of court.  And the legal twist was excellent.  It'll make total sense for the future to have legislation like that.

What I enjoyed even more about that moment was the excellent combination of two plots coming together; the Farnsworths being convicted and Bender becoming all powerful.  You know, unlike the Data subplot in Star Trek: Generations.

Edit:  Also this:



I like how they excluded Zealand and Norway from Axis occupation.  And Austria and Hungary has become one nation again!  Even though Austria was actually part of Germany at the time.  OH THE GOOFS.

[Reply #76 on:]

I loved it. It's easily my 2nd favourite season 6 episode after The Late Philip J. Fry.

I feel like it wasted a trick somewhat by not taking Bender's god-like abilities far enough, but in a way I like that it kept them so down to Earth, almost... in that he only really used his powers to help Fry and Leela's relationship and a court case in the end.

I loved the shippy angle. I'd gotten bored of the whole Fry/Leela thing, but this episode made me care about it all again. I loved Leela complaining about how on-again-off-again they were too... for me, that justifies their sloppy writing throughout the season.

I also loved how it used so many characters so well... in true Futurama-finale style! Nibbler, Mom, her sons, Cubert, Fishy Joe, etc. And whilst it felt a bit light on the jokes, the hit-ratio for the jokes was much higher than usual for me, so it's still one of the funniest season 6 episodes in my opinion.

Oh, and the ending was genuinely touching.


Great stuff.

[Reply #77 on:]

Awesome... awesome to the max. 10/10

[Reply #78 on:]

Great to have yet another amazing episode following last week. A great mix of humor and emotion. A lot of solid jokes and lines, especially from Zoidberg. Cameos from some of the older characters were also fun to see. It also had a nice sci-fi edge to it, which is great.

The plots were great...Bender's overclocking, the trial, and it was also nice to see another development into Fry and Leela's relationship. Great use of Mom in the plot...and the ending was nice and sweet as well. Not to mention the music playing in the background.  

10/10

[Reply #79 on:]

Having just watched the episode and now read through this thread; I agree with Josh. This episode felt so condescending. It was as if the writers had skimmed the Shipper thread on PEEL for their inspiration and thought "hey, the fans want them to be together, so let's just state blatantly that they are in a relationship, rather than build up a proper story around them like people who are actually creative. They won't even notice because they'll be too excited about Fry and Leela being together!" Well I noticed. And it hurt. I feel so betrayed and blue-scented.

I liked the Bender plot and such. I did not like the random Fry/Leela plot. It was weird. The end scene would have been far more heart-warming had a little bit of imagination gone into both halves of the build-up to it. That was lazy, writers. Ever so lazy.