Thoughts on 7ACV09 - Free Will Hunting - SPOILERS

[Reply #80 on:]

I feel the need to complain about something: where the hell is Nibbler!?  
It's been nine episodes so far and he hasn't made a single appearance.

Nor has Cubert.

I can't say I miss that little runt; even if season 6 did make him slightly more likable.
Anyway, I think this episode introduces a problem that hasn't been in any episode before. There wasn't any character development. Bender had exactly the same attitude and opinions at the end as he did at the start.

I keep comparing it to "Lethal Inspection" because it has similar themes: Bender being unhappy with the way he is. However in the latter episode, he comes to accept his mortality and ends up with a new outlook on life. He changed, and even had the heart to add Hermes to his "do not kill" list. But in "Free Will Hunting" he chases down the source of will, and proceeds to be an ungrateful prick. Bender, you should be more ashamed if yourself than usual!

Shooting Farnsworth lowered my opinion of Bender. Which is a shame, because he's one of the most reliable sources of laughter. And since when did the Professor program Bender? I know he designed modern robots, but that doesn't stop Roberto from tickling him with his knife. Also, they had a quick fight in TLPJF that Bender was definitely winning.

Anyway, this episode feels like a missed opportunity. The premise and underlying themes were excellent, and the jokes were pretty good. Unfortunately the execution wasn't. They should have cut the first act down by a few minutes and used the leftover time to create a better resolution.

[Reply #81 on:]

Best episode of the season. What is up with all of the complaints about pacing lately? "The pacing was too fast!" is the new "this movie was too pedestrian". I thought the first act was just about perfect. Fast-paced comedy is a good thing! Most of the gags worked. Hedonismbot paying $5 for Bender to vomit ever so gently on him while he humiliates a pheasant was hysterical, I thought.

Second act with Bender being all introspective and pining for free will was also very well done. Very moving, in a goofy kind of way. The "monk outfit" joke was one of my favorites.

This episode would have been a 10 if the ending had been better. I felt like they wanted to avoid the safe, predictable ending of Bender deciding not to shoot Farnsworth...but what they don't seem to realize is that having him shoot Farnsworth was even equally more predictable! The unpredictable is now predictable...so they should stop trying to surprise us and just do what makes sense for the story. That's my take on things, anyway.

Still, this was a great episode. Surprised at the negativity. I don't have time to argue in detail, but you guys are wrong!

[Reply #82 on:]

We are correct.  More correcter then you.  This episode was bad and Cohen should feel bad.  Very bad Cohen!  No pudding for you.

[Reply #83 on:]

I actually liked this episode a lot, but I agree with what was said before about it being to fast paced and the ending not tying up loose ends. Those are probably the only criticisms I have for this episode.

I loved Fry and Leela in bed together. This season has focused on their relationship real well in my opinion.

I loved when Bender was getting a tattoo and he wanted a purple dinosaur. It's like something a four year old would want and it was hilarious. 

I surprised no one said anything about this yet but did anyone else just about die from laughter when Bender was being beat up by Girl Scouts? Probably my favorite part.

I give this a 9/10. It was funny, had a decent plot, but there were just some small problems that (to me) weren't a big deal. I really enjoyed this episode.

Hedonismbot paying $5 for Bender to vomit ever so gently on him while he humiliates a pheasant was hysterical, I thought.

That part was... interesting... 

[Reply #84 on:]

Best episode of the season. What is up with all of the complaints about pacing lately? "The pacing was too fast!" is the new "this movie was too pedestrian". I thought the first act was just about perfect. Fast-paced comedy is a good thing! Most of the gags worked. Hedonismbot paying $5 for Bender to vomit ever so gently on him while he humiliates a pheasant was hysterical, I thought.

Second act with Bender being all introspective and pining for free will was also very well done. Very moving, in a goofy kind of way. The "monk outfit" joke was one of my favorites.

This episode would have been a 10 if the ending had been better. I felt like they wanted to avoid the safe, predictable ending of Bender deciding not to shoot Farnsworth...but what they don't seem to realize is that having him shoot Farnsworth was even equally more predictable! The unpredictable is now predictable...so they should stop trying to surprise us and just do what makes sense for the story. That's my take on things, anyway.

Still, this was a great episode. Surprised at the negativity. I don't have time to argue in detail, but you guys are wrong!

I generally agree with Jeff's assessment here. I hadn't thought about Bender not shooting Farnsworth. It would've certainly added a level to the whole free will aspect of the episode, considering that Bender would be going against his basic violent programming by not harming Farnsworth. That being said, it did lead to a nice quick-cut to the court, a nice joke to end on.

And, although this was the episode I most enjoyed of the season, I must say that the season's had a nice upswing since the aptly-named Butterjunk.

[Reply #85 on:]

Edit: _{Definitely replied to page 2.}

I feel the need to complain about something: where the hell is Nibbler!? 
It's been nine episodes so far and he hasn't made a single appearance.

Nor has Cubert.

Cubert will probably make an appearance in "Near-Death Wish" having the whole family together.  It would be neat to see him have a rivalry with Igner, but I won't hold my breath.

I miss Nibbler too.  Hopefully they are saving him for the next Brainspawn crisis.

[Reply #86 on:]

This was a very yucky episode.   Aside from a few good cameos (such as the Crushinator's sisters at uni, or Ruth and Esther in the courtroom in the end) Mom's one scene wonder and the monastery, the episode was easily Cohen's worst.  Too much cliche, terrible pacing, a storyline that contradicts canon too much, pointless scenes, cameos that also contradict canon, not enough jokes, and a sloppy ending. Bad Cohen, very bad Cohen.

Also, when did Chapek 9 change its name to the Robot Homeworld?  I don't know why that annoyed me, but it did.

Basically I agree with this. Shocker, I know. Not THE definitive worst, but Cohen's worst. So much went on in act one that my head was nearly spinning. Then acts two and three came along and put the brakes on so hard I was hitting the windshield with my face. I need that for eating! And seeing! And looking pretty!

This episode seemed to sorta cobble together previously explored venues. I felt like it was a slightly different take on previous episodes with all new animation. Revisting Chapek 9 wasn't a bother, BUT the name was. And I thought they loved humans after the PE crew delivered all the lug nuts... Which I understand CAN be ignored because they could shoe-horn in a reason they hated humans again but... Really? I'm not a fan of that kinda writing. The ending felt wrong. Bender shooting Farnsworth also did. It would've been, I think, more interesting for Bender to have said "screw it" and to have dropped the gun, thus leaving room for a more deep ending.

[Reply #87 on:]

Seriously, can we stop critizing the writers/creators and just give an opinion/analysis about the episode? I feel bad we're telling people how to do their jobs ><

I will do a proper review tomorrow when I'm more awake, but just quickly this episode was good. Good, not great. Although there's lines in there I found amusing. I don't feel it was rushed (perhaps slightly in the beginning, but there was a purpose for everything so that's alright.) 7/10

Alright so it's tomorrow and I'll elaborate. Let's start at the start shall we, actually I want to go back a little - to The Late Philip J Fry, to which this was the room:

Now spot the difference!


Although Bender should have his own room cupboard. The underpants gag was funny, although I do wonder how often Fry changes his ><

"Over there!, I mean over here. I forgot where I was." (does that seem like a very Fry thing to say? or is it just me?)

I really enjoyed the first act, even though it moved fast, it had a touch of montage with it and all wrapped up in a bow when Hermes was like "You've had a busy day." I was feeling sorry for Bender from the moment Hedonism Bot rolled up, and to see Bender reduced to that, and seeing most of how he got there, made me sad for Bender.

Loved this:

Cause I called it the moment the girl scouts came on scene cause I was reminded strongly of this:

From "The Pacifier" (fun movie!)

The Kentucky chicken was a bit OC, but if for the sake of the plot... that's no excuse really is it? xD Leela perhaps should have represented Bender, or something ><

Lol'd at Benders reaction to Amys "For all we know, humans don't even have free will."

I totally called that the Professor had a free will already made at this point and didn't want to give it to him, just from the Professors defensive reaction to Bender asking xD


I had to watch this bit twice over to get the dialogue cause I was too busy wondering how the hell Bender can "chew gum"... Poor Leela, that's a bitch to get out ><

"I wish I was a real boy..."
I honestly thought this was turning into a Pinocchio reference, but was slightly disappointed when Bender went on his 'Kill humans' rant... it was still funny though.

'Sweet meat-bags! *sniff* sweet-bags.'
Wait, what? No "goodbye losers"? Is Bender going soft on us? Also, in Fear of a Bot Planet Bender abandons them for a not too dissimilar reason, although he ends up embracing his robot self more in that episode, in this one he seems rather human...

Just also like to stick in here - this season has done so many flashbacks and referencing to old episodes. I see some people don't like it, but I love revisiting locations that have only been shown once or twice. My only issue is they didn't refer to it as Chapek 9, and the elders looked ridiculous in those outfits, but loved all the parts of it and good to have more to the planet other than the city.

monk chant: 10001000 10101000 = 136 168
Not sure if this is meant to particularly mean anything, I've only just started to learn how to read binary... anyone want to enlighten me?

"How do I join this monk outfit?"
"Put on this monk outfit."

 


This should go in fridge Futurama, but I'm sticking it here
00100100 =  36 (in ascii dec) which is not funny, but in text it's "$"

snoo-snoo ~ <3


Anyone else notice Leelas bewbs and Frys belly are anti-gravity? xD ... also the basketball net has changed again. Also Leela's wearing her wrist thing is pretty strange... I'm not complaining, I love this scene! <3 Nice of it to be shown as a throw away joke as well, I'd love it if this became norm - doesn't have to interfere with the main storyline, just random 'my place or yours?'

I have posted in the shipping thread about several different frame grabs of this scene, so I'm not going to spam you with them here...


Frys eyes look differenty... animation error?

Does anyone know if Bender trying shaped things in his head was a direct reference to anything? I was reminded of this toy I had as a child:

But I don't know if it was meant to refer that or something else specificly or in general.

Farnsworth has a robot free will, called it! xD


 

As Bender was saying his 'giving up line' I was mildly confused cause at the point that it was revealed Farnsworth had the free will (cause Bender would worked out who the employee was), I thought Bender would go and confront him and things would come full circle.

That was until it cut to the professor... sorry Bender, you're not doing anything remotely interesting or unexpected xD (well, not for me anyway - the prof you caught by surprise though!)

Although that "Hand it over" was rather chilling. Kudos to John Dimaggio for not only this line, but the entire performance, he really performs it well! I've grown to love Bender as I actually hated the bot at first, I really only started watching cause I love Fry, but Bender grew on me and now I can't see why I hated him before!


And the episode comes full circle, with Bender now having a free will, I wonder if it will change things much.

Speaking of which...

I think this episode connects with the Robot rising up against humanity as foretold in Decision 3012, but I'll elaborate on that tomorrow as well.

Show spoiler

Ok, so to briefly recap D3012s strange loop of events

1. Nixon won the election
2. All aliens were banned from earth
3. Wall around earth was built
4. Robots rebelled
5. Time code found
6. Travers sent back in time
7. Travers ran for and won election
8. Travers disappeared (Bender: You see, since Nixon wasn't elected, the robot uprising didn't happen and Travers never got sent back from the future. It's Politics 101!)*
9. See #1

*(A better way of saying would perhaps be "Since Nixon wasn't elected, the robot uprising won't happen and Travers won't be sent back from the future." It's all about tense!)

So the robot uprising is going to happen anyway cause of the continuum.

The bit I want to look at is: 4. Robots rebelled
But there was a statement made this episode by Mom that robots can only rebel when they're told to... but then Bender is in possesion of a free will - and he's the leader of the uprising. Don't know this is all connected, but it's something to think about.

[Reply #88 on:]

... although why is Leelas wrist thingy still on? xD

It's the old saying: "No wrist-thingy, no bed-springy."

[Reply #89 on:]

It features several functions that enhance sexual pleasure.

[Reply #90 on:]

How many times has The Professor shot Bender? There was A Tale of Two Santas and Benderama at least.

[Reply #91 on:]

He can shoot bullets into anyone he wants to: he's the Professor!

And speaking of bullets, I was glad to see the return of laser-based weapons. They seem to have faded away as of late.

This episode also needs more credit for the voice acting. It's probably John's best performance to date. "Bendless Love" is the only other that rivals it in my opinion.

[Reply #92 on:]

I'm the only one who saw this scene
and I immediately thought of this 

[Reply #93 on:]

Well, Madison, that's the dejected, mopey walk, executed and recognized across the universe. Probably the good people of Cineplex 14 trudged along the same way when their popcorn shiipment failed to reach them.

Does anyone know if Bender trying shaped things in his head was a direct reference to anything? I was reminded of this toy I had as a child:

But I don't know if it was meant to refer that or something else specificly or in general.

TLF, yes, that was my interpretation. I still love fitting the stars and triangles in their proper slots. So fun!

[Reply #94 on:]

Wow, love the comparison there Madison, nice find!

[Reply #95 on:]

Bender doesn't know what sparking is?  Seriously? 

*McBain voice* That's the joke.

Anyway, I think a lot of people didn't quite "get" this episode. Much of the episode is about portraying "poor deterministic Bender". The first act was not random at all. Bender goes to college. Bender falls in with a bad crowd. Bender becomes addicted to drugs. Bender gets in trouble with the Robot Mafia. Bender discovers religion. Bender's greed makes him betray religion etc. Yes these are all themes we've seen before, and that's deliberate. The episode is trying to convince us that Bender truly is incapable of making his own decisions. He is utterly predictable, and destined to act within his programming forever.

Of course, the latter part of the episode suggests that Bender always had free will all along, and that Hyper-Chicken's brilliant legal shenanigan was actually nonsense after all (which neatly avoids continuity issues). It's meant to be the "twist" of the episode, although I'll concede it wasn't executed very well.

[Reply #96 on:]

Although the episode had a rather bizarre ending (I thought the writers killed off Farnsworth for real!), it was quite funny and a revisit to the Robot Homeworld with the Robot Elders shouting "SILENCE!" again scored the episode high marks. It seemed they tried to cram too much in the episode though and didn't think of an appropriate ending. What the episode should have done in the last 5 minutes is dedicate it to Bender's "Free Will" chip installed and seemingly go on a "Kill All Humans" rampage. Other than that, a solid 8/10 on first viewing and one of the better episodes this season.

[Reply #97 on:]

10/10.  I absolutely loved this episode.  It felt like the original run (and I have liked the whole series).  On first viewing it is instantly probably in my all time top 5, and were it up to me, this is the ep I would submit for the emmy this year.

I haven't posted here in a long time, but this episode resonated so well with me I felt compelled to jump on and chime in.  It gave me the Parasites Lost vibe, or the insanity peppers Simpsons episode.  Mont Saint Michel was a nice touch, and I love Ab Bot & the monk bots.  Philosophy and mockery of philosophy seem to reach me.

"Psst, over there."

[Reply #98 on:]

It's meant to be the "twist" of the episode, although I'll concede it wasn't executed very well.

If I had a nickel for every time I've read (or wrote) that new Futurama episodes have had great inception but poor execution, I'd have... I don't know, a dollar?

Not sure where that was going, but it's true.  Many of the new (and some of the old) eps have fallen flat due to "If only they had done it this way" syndrome.

[Reply #99 on:]

Weak, that is what both my friend and I said at the end, sums it up for me
Almost unneccesary first act and then a rushed ending to boot, other than some monk based puns the only good jokes were those we have seen before back when the show was good, if the ideas are all gone then just quit!

[Reply #100 on:]

ab-bot...


It was said before but I think it need to be said again... Bender had the most ridiculous but yet strangely reminiscent of the past day to show his "predictability" and lack of free will.


8/10 funny, much better on the time through.

[Reply #101 on:]

Anyway, I think a lot of people didn't quite "get" this episode. Much of the episode is about portraying "poor deterministic Bender". The first act was not random at all. Bender goes to college. Bender falls in with a bad crowd. Bender becomes addicted to drugs. Bender gets in trouble with the Robot Mafia. Bender discovers religion. Bender's greed makes him betray religion etc. Yes these are all themes we've seen before, and that's deliberate. The episode is trying to convince us that Bender truly is incapable of making his own decisions. He is utterly predictable, and destined to act within his programming forever.

I actually never noticed this! You make me want to watch it again, because that is a very good point. Now it seems as if Fun on a Bun and Free Will Hunting set out to accomplish similar goals for different characters. Namely, that Fry and Leela will be Fry and Leela (regardless of if they forget each other), and Bender will be Bender (regardless of whether he has free will or not). Although, one thing that annoyed me was how they never definitively answer the question of Bender's free will. Though maybe they did that on purpose to make it more analogous to how it isn't entirely clear if humans even have free will. In which case I should direct my annoyance at the universe, and not David X. Cohen. Man, this is getting heavy. Screw it, I'm going to bed!

Also, I can see I'm in the minority in regards to Bender's percentage joke, that's fine. I still hope they can make it work better in the future, though, for the sake of the longevity of the joke.

[Reply #102 on:]

if the ideas are all gone then just quit!

If you don't like the show anymore, just quit!

[Reply #103 on:]

Anyway, I think a lot of people didn't quite "get" this episode. Much of the episode is about portraying "poor deterministic Bender". The first act was not random at all. Bender goes to college. Bender falls in with a bad crowd. Bender becomes addicted to drugs. Bender gets in trouble with the Robot Mafia. Bender discovers religion. Bender's greed makes him betray religion etc. Yes these are all themes we've seen before, and that's deliberate. The episode is trying to convince us that Bender truly is incapable of making his own decisions. He is utterly predictable, and destined to act within his programming forever.

Of course, the latter part of the episode suggests that Bender always had free will all along, and that Hyper-Chicken's brilliant legal shenanigan was actually nonsense after all (which neatly avoids continuity issues). It's meant to be the "twist" of the episode, although I'll concede it wasn't executed very well.

That's an excellent analysis of the episode, and it's something I am rather certain I noticed on some level whilst watching the episode.  The execution did bother me a bit though.  For the most part, I didn't get enough time investment to really feel Bender's downward spiral; this is unlike episodes such as Hell is Other Robots or I, Roommate where significant portions of the episode are dedicated enough to making me feel Bender's pain and loss.

The ending was also extremely anti-climactic to me, considering the heavy philosophical conundrum presented by the episode's main theme.  Ending on the same note with Bender being happy to go to jail seems against the nature I love about him, and also sloppy, quickly paced, and somewhat lazy.  I'm not saying I could have done better, or how specifically to resolve the issue brought about, but I think the Futurama team have done much better in the past with episodes like Godfellas.

I actually never noticed this! You make me want to watch it again, because that is a very good point. Now it seems as if Fun on a Bun and Free Will Hunting set out to accomplish similar goals for different characters. Namely, that Fry and Leela will be Fry and Leela (regardless of if they forget each other), and Bender will be Bender (regardless of whether he has free will or not).

I think the Fry+Leela relationship was better solidified in season 6a.  I thought the writers were going to go with that, especially with the little nods they threw in there about them being in a relationship without having to resort to making the whole episode about their relationship.  Some people have mentioned they like seeing Leela randomly in bed with Fry, and that's fine by me, but that was already established in my mind with episodes like The Da Vinci Code (Fry and Leela talking about joining the Mile Deep Club) and Reincarnation (Leela propositioning Fry whilst the Professor gabbed).  Unfortunately it seemed like they were want to throw the balance they had established away in favor of sexual tension or what not.  To me, the writers will have won the game if they can pass off Fry and Leela as a regular couple who can joke and hang out with each other without making it a big complicated deal.  They're already both perfect analogues for this, considering they like drinking beer, watching tv, eating nachos with their feet just like normal slightly odd couples who are cute together normal people do.

Although, one thing that annoyed me was how they never definitively answer the question of Bender's free will. Though maybe they did that on purpose to make it more analogous to how it isn't entirely clear if humans even have free will. In which case I should direct my annoyance at the universe, and not David X. Cohen. Man, this is getting heavy. Screw it, I'm going to bed!

The point of the episode was always meant to be open to interpretation.  However, unlike Bladerunner, I feel that the episode failed to be mind-blowing on any level, especially because the writer(s) had planned out such a complex premise to begin with.  As I noted above, they're well capable of establishing an excellent finale to such deeper thoughts, what with Obsoletely Fabulous and Lethal Inspection to name a few.

As for how heavy the idea presented in the episode is, I wouldn't worry too much.  The episode clearly cheats at interpretation of free will and determinism, as evidenced by people pointing out in this thread that robots have already attacked the professor.  Even without that though, for real world discussion, it's almost certain that Bender and other robots demonstrate free will capacities similar to our own.  I would argue that this is the case specifically because the robots can communicate with humans on a level that doesn't suggest they're merely robots.  In order to be able to effectively communicate, humans have to learn from experience, and have room to collect vast amounts of knowledge in order to be able to understand each other.  As an example, if I came up to you and said, "Hey!  Did you catch the Olympics last night?", a human would respond with either a negative answer or a positive answer, followed by information that pertained to the recent Olympics assuring to me that you're aware of specifically what I'm talking about.  A machine would have trouble determining the context of that statement and might start out with references to the 1936 Olympics or something which would confuse a human being.  Robots in the Futuramaverse do not behavior in this manner, and thus can be considered to be making complicated choices in much the same way as humans do.

As far as human beings having free will or not, well I would suggest that you don't worry too much about it honestly.  It's nigh impossible for us to determine whether we have an actual capacity to make choices or not, and even if we could determine that it'd be even more difficult to precisely determine what those choices might be or to distinguish the difference from actual free will or just the perception of free will.  This is because the problem is far too complicated for us to comprehend or compute; a very large finite number of variables influence your day every day, and some of the things that occur are completely out of your ability to control, such as whether or not children will be playing baseball in the parking lot of your local grocers.  What if one of the children hits a line drive foul ball that ends up hitting you in the head?  Whose to say how you would react, whether conscious or unconscious?  Furthermore, all of the choices that you do make are the result of an amalgamation of all the choices you have made previously and all of the experiences that you have gathered through out your life, even further still all the events that ever occurred that had a direct impact on your predecessors through out history for all of the time before you were born.  In order to determine exactly what you'll be doing tomorrow, we'd have to understand every variable up to that point, and determine the likelihood of how all of those variables may behave and interact.  Furthermore, many people believe that at some fundamental physical level the subatomic particles that make up our existence exhibit true random behavior.  Thusly I would suggest that the thought of determinism is not worthwhile to concern yourself with much, because whether we have free will or not, you will never be able to distinguish between the two.  You may as well pretend like you do and go about your day.  Although, I suppose I may have always been predestined to make this comment, and you were always predetermined to believe whatever you do about free will regardless, or possibly specifically because, of what I was going to say in my comment today.

I'm the only one who saw this scene
and I immediately thought of this  

I watched My Three Suns the other night on tv, so I actually did think of that for a brief moment.  Not long enough to point it out like you did, as those are both excellent character shots.  That said, I like My Three Suns a lot better, and I think it goes hand in hand with a difference that's been affecting the show.  My Three Suns has a very simple story to tell getting from point A to point B to point C without much going on in the foreground otherwise; newer episodes seem to be more complicated in that regard, trying to stuff a lot of things going on.  The characters are all simpler in My Three Suns as well, all of them representing simple friend-worker-acquaintances that interact in simple ways with a few jokes thrown in while they conversate.  I could just be biased by my cynical unending mood though.  Perhaps I'll appreciate these episodes more later.

[Reply #104 on:]

Surprisingly decent. Interesting storyline, some good jokes. I agree though that the first part was not well-done. Yes, it was supposed to be quick and everything, but it still didn't go anywhere. As it has been mentioned before, those Latino gang stereotypes didn't work at all.
Other than that, I didn't see any particular trouble with it. I loved them going back to the robot city. Fear of a bot planet was a great episode and I'm happy that the writers for once tried to have a story in the ample universe they set up instead of needlessly introducing new characters and places. I liked the parts with mom, loved the parts with the professor - only didn't like Bender shooting him, which was too predictable for someone who knows Futurama well enough.
The strong last couple of minutes make this a 8/10 for me. I'm happy about this season so far. Things seem to be heading in the right direction.

Edit: Anyone else think that "do not show to horses" is one of the lamest starting sequence lines they've come up with so far?

[Reply #105 on:]

I'm the only one who saw this scene
and I immediately thought of this  

I watched My Three Suns the other night on tv, so I actually did think of that for a brief moment.  Not long enough to point it out like you did, as those are both excellent character shots.  That said, I like My Three Suns a lot better, and I think it goes hand in hand with a difference that's been affecting the show.  My Three Suns has a very simple story to tell getting from point A to point B to point C without much going on in the foreground otherwise; newer episodes seem to be more complicated in that regard, trying to stuff a lot of things going on.  The characters are all simpler in My Three Suns as well, all of them representing simple friend-worker-acquaintances that interact in simple ways with a few jokes thrown in while they conversate.  I could just be biased by my cynical unending mood though.  Perhaps I'll appreciate these episodes more later.

Not to rain on your well-reasoned post, but I thought that the second image was from "The Late Philip J Fry".

[Reply #106 on:]

Edit: Anyone else think that "do not show to horses" is one of the lamest starting sequence lines they've come up with so far?

Nay.

Not to rain on your well-reasoned post, but I thought that the second image was from "The Late Philip J Fry".

I almost definitely stand corrected.  The scenes are similar and I saw My Three Suns the other day.  Similar screenshots from MTS:





I don't have the episode readily available in a digital format at the moment, so I stole those from CGEF.

[Reply #107 on:]

Edit: Anyone else think that "do not show to horses" is one of the lamest starting sequence lines they've come up with so far?

One of the best, IMO.

[Reply #108 on:]

Oh well. Here is to next week.

Is it strange that I always see you posting negative stuff on the newer episodes? 

Yes, because i dont post negative things about episodes i liked, such as last weeks episode, decision 3012, farewell to arms, etc.

[Reply #109 on:]

So now that Bender has been found guilty of (repeatedly) shooting his boss what are the chances of him still being employed by that boss next week?

also, I give this one a 7 out of 10.

[Reply #110 on:]

Reset button says 100% chance that he'll still be employed.

[Reply #111 on:]

Farnsworth is kind of strong for an old man. And he probably wouldn't wanna look around for a new employee, after what happened in "The Silence of The Clamps". So they probably made truce and forgot about the whole thing. 

[Reply #112 on:]

Reset button says...

...stand on one foot.

[Reply #113 on:]

Watched it again last night. The first act was better on second viewing. Still a kind of odd episode and weird ending, but i did really like act 2.

I now feel comfortable rating it.

6.5/10 but ill give it a 7 on the poll.

[Reply #114 on:]

Hey, I found a little song sung by Bender in the credits. It's only available on the iTunes version. Until DVD comes out anyway!

_{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9G87C06KS0}

[Reply #115 on:]

Hah!  That's great!  If I had seen that on broadcast it would definitely have given me a better impression of FWH right off the bat.

Decisionz I made!

[Reply #116 on:]

This is probably the best song Futurama has ever made!

[Reply #117 on:]

I loved this episode. Honestly, I've been really impressed with season  7a so far. The only thing I can say I didn't like was the WTF ending of The Butterjunk Effect. (Seriously. What the f**k?) Other than though, I think the team have been working really hard, with obvious efforts made to address issues fans had last season. (Fry and Leela's relationship neverland, for example.) Overall, I'm impressed.

Anyway, I think a lot of people didn't quite "get" this episode. Much of the episode is about portraying "poor deterministic Bender". The first act was not random at all. Bender goes to college. Bender falls in with a bad crowd. Bender becomes addicted to drugs. Bender gets in trouble with the Robot Mafia. Bender discovers religion. Bender's greed makes him betray religion etc. Yes these are all themes we've seen before, and that's deliberate. The episode is trying to convince us that Bender truly is incapable of making his own decisions. He is utterly predictable, and destined to act within his programming forever.

I actually never noticed this! You make me want to watch it again, because that is a very good point. Now it seems as if Fun on a Bun and Free Will Hunting set out to accomplish similar goals for different characters. Namely, that Fry and Leela will be Fry and Leela (regardless of if they forget each other), and Bender will be Bender (regardless of whether he has free will or not). Although, one thing that annoyed me was how they never definitively answer the question of Bender's free will. Though maybe they did that on purpose to make it more analogous to how it isn't entirely clear if humans even have free will. In which case I should direct my annoyance at the universe, and not David X. Cohen. Man, this is getting heavy. Screw it, I'm going to bed!

Also, I can see I'm in the minority in regards to Bender's percentage joke, that's fine. I still hope they can make it work better in the future, though, for the sake of the longevity of the joke.

Completely agree about the pacing in the first act - I didn't have a problem with it at all. I also thought the rushed nature of it ("That was a hell of a day!") only served to further the joke. It was just so absurd, and so typical of Bender. His plots are pretty much always over-the-top, it's what makes him so hilarious. 

For me, the 40% joke never gets old. 

[Reply #118 on:]

Hey, I found a little song sung by Bender in the credits. It's only available on the iTunes version. Until DVD comes out anyway!

_{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9G87C06KS0}

Wouldn't have known this existed unless you mentioned it, thanks! Definitely appreciate that it's "Certified 40% Platinum". I guess "Young Biddy" will have to be added as an alias on Bender's Infosphere page...

[Reply #119 on:]

No problem! I absolutely loved it! Very Enjoyable/Smart Music Video! I knew I had to share it with my fellow PEELers!

Here's the link again in case someone missed it....  

_{http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9G87C06KS0}