EVEN MORE Futurama news [Warning: SPOILERS]

[Reply #720 on:]

I assume Fry/Leela will stay married this time. Then the next series final will reveal their time traveling kid.

Still hoping Quid's Game is in some part about Fry's family, either appearing in flashback or a simulation. They did show his old house simulated in the trailer. The clips of the recurring cast being hurt by party games are good trailer fodder, just hoping the episode itself is a lot more than that.

So our trilogy episodes went from parodying children's cartoons, to children's toy's, to children's books. Would love to know what the process was in the writer's room to land on these premises.

[Reply #721 on:]

So our trilogy episodes went from parodying children's cartoons, to children's toy's, to children's books. Would love to know what the process was in the writer's room to land on these premises.

I know during the Comedy Central days that Yo Leela Leela was inspired by so many of the writers having babies/children and having to watch children's TV programmes, I wonder if the same situation applies to the Hulu writers' room.

[Reply #722 on:]

Show spoiler

"In the season premiere, Bender makes an emotional return to his ancestral Mexican robot village, where Danny Trejo has a hilarious guest appearance as Bender’s cousin, Doblando."

Also some promo pics are available here.

[Reply #723 on:]

"There's one that's sort of like Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys," he explains. "Each one takes extremely scientific twists along the way, one of which gets explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson."
 

Jesus man, lol. I don't hold it against the show that it occasionally had kinda terrible people appear on episodes made before whatever allegations came out, but Neil DeGrasse Tyson just feels like willful amnesia. This show is trapped in 2012.

[Reply #724 on:]

Yeah, I had the same reaction to the mention of Neil deGrasse Tyson (though I'd actually forgotten about the sex-creep allegations and was in fact just thinking of his intellectually bankrupt "well, actually" public brand. But yeah, especially after doing a whole damn episode on cancel culture last season, it's kind of weird to invite a man credibly accused of sexual assault to be a guest star on your show).

[Reply #725 on:]

Show spoiler

"In the season premiere, Bender makes an emotional return to his ancestral Mexican robot village, where Danny Trejo has a hilarious guest appearance as Bender’s cousin, Doblando."

Also some promo pics are available here.

This interview also confirms that Cara Delevigne was the owl in those earlier episodes.

[Reply #726 on:]

Still hoping Quid's Game is in some part about Fry's family, either appearing in flashback or a simulation.

Fry's mother is in one of the promo images so I think it's a done deal.

[Reply #727 on:]

"There's one that's sort of like Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys," he explains. "Each one takes extremely scientific twists along the way, one of which gets explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson."
 

Jesus man, lol. I don't hold it against the show that it occasionally had kinda terrible people appear on episodes made before whatever allegations came out, but Neil DeGrasse Tyson just feels like willful amnesia. This show is trapped in 2012.

This post reminds me of something from years back. Did you ever end up watching that episode of the Simpsons with Tony Blair in it after? I recall at the time you didn't watch it because you felt it was inappropriate for him to appear on a cartoon show while the UK was in Iraq.

[Reply #728 on:]

"There's one that's sort of like Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys," he explains. "Each one takes extremely scientific twists along the way, one of which gets explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson."
 

Jesus man, lol. I don't hold it against the show that it occasionally had kinda terrible people appear on episodes made before whatever allegations came out, but Neil DeGrasse Tyson just feels like willful amnesia. This show is trapped in 2012.

This post reminds me of something from years back. Did you ever end up watching that episode of the Simpsons with Tony Blair in it after? I recall at the time you didn't watch it because you felt it was inappropriate for him to appear on a cartoon show while the UK was in Iraq.

Wow you actually remember that lol. Yeah I never saw it. I don’t know that I’d go that far with Tyson (just think it’s really shitty to have him on and does also reflect that the show seems to have not progressed from the “I fucking love science!” era when the show was last on). A lot of my beef with that Simpsons was that, yeah, it was providing active cover for a completely immoral war that was killing thousands of people. I’m not saying that was their intention, but it was an obvious effect they apparently decided they didn’t care about enough to just nix the show. (Not even…I assume they could just cut him out.) It’s sorta beside the point now though as I haven’t watched it regularly since about 2006. For all I know they’ve had Trump or Netanyahu or something on by now.

[Reply #729 on:]

Like pretty much everything from that era onwards, it was a terrible episode of The Simpsons. You're not missing out.

[Reply #730 on:]

They had Julian Assange cameo in 2012. There was also an entire episode dedicated to Elon Musk in 2015, though that was before he became universally hated.

I also forgot about NDT's sexual allegations. He was cleared of the charges, and I can't find much disagreeing with the investigation, but I also don't know any of the details about what happened. Hearing his name just reminded me of the dozen or so cartoons he showed up on in the mid 2010's during the heyday of his popularity. Him doing one of those "explain science to the viewer" cameo's in 2024 does feel a little late.

[Reply #731 on:]

NDT was cleared by internal investigations that had a vested interest in keeping around a money maker. Obviously none of us can know with 100% certitude, but there were multiple accusers and I just don’t really buy that the investigations were impartial, or that a powerful celebrity figure (which is what he is more than a scientist) would ever not be favored institutionally over relatively defenseless women who accused him. Apparently he’s been welcomed back by The Daily Show and Colbert and whatnot since then as well which I guess gives you a window into the level of integrity they have as well.

I’m actually aware of those other Simpsons cameos. Without getting into it, I don’t have such an issue with Assange to be honest (though Chelsea Manning would have probably aged better) but Musk IMO was always beyond embarrassing, though it’s true the broader pop culture didn’t seem to have figured out something that a lot of us had just from actually observing him. And for what it’s worth I bet a lot of the people on the shows he was on were embarrassed by it. I once had an interaction with a Rick and Morty writer on Twitter where she basically openly stated that a lot of the writers at the time were hugely embarrassed by his cameo on the show even when they were working on it. But, you know, it’s not really up to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the younger Futurama writers feel the same way about NDT but aren’t in a place to keep him off the show.

[Reply #732 on:]

Looks like one of the parodies in the anthology episode will be The Adventures of Tintin.

[Reply #733 on:]

NDT was cleared regarding investigations into alleged sexual misconduct in a professional context. The accusations were about things that were honestly not THAT big a deal (i.e. He was a bit creepy with someone once. He invited someone back to his place and then put his hand on her arm to look at her tattoo. Etc). I'm not attempting to belittle what seems to be a pattern of unacceptable and inappropriate behaviour but I'm not someone who believes that should be enough to outright end a person's career or fully shun them from society.

The issue with NDT for me is that he was also accused of drugging and raping someone years earlier. This wasn't part of that investigation because it was nothing to do with his professional life at the time and because the woman alleging what happened didn't pursue any sort of legal or official action against him. She simply wrote a blog post detailing what happened. Given how long ago the event in question would have happened, it would have been basically impossible to gather evidence or prove guilt.

So ultimately it comes down to whether or not you believe the claim of one woman that NDT has vehemently denied (while admitting to the other claims of sexual misconduct). I don't really know how to feel about it, personally. On one hand, it's tragic how little SA survivors are listened to and believed. False accusations are extremely rare. On the other hand, false accusations do happen sometimes and the thought of someone's life being destroyed because of one is also extremely upsetting. When there are numerous claims of this sort made against someone, I think it's usually quite easy to believe women, but when it's a fully solitary claim being made, it's a lot trickier.

[Reply #734 on:]

I don’t have such an issue with Assange to be honest

You probably ought to. Aside from being a prick, he has far more credible accusations of rape against him than Neil Degrasse Tyson. The reason he just spent a decade inside an embassy is because he was avoiding having to stand trial against charges of rape, three cases of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The only real way to brush them aside is to commit to the conspiracy theory that various organisations in Sweden (the government, the police force, etc) worked together to spread a smear campaign against Assange for the sake of... revenge? It doesn't really add up logically.

[Reply #735 on:]

Looks like one of the parodies in the anthology episode will be The Adventures of Tintin.

This makes me far more excited for this episode than I was. It's a crossover I truly never expected.

[Reply #736 on:]

You probably ought to. Aside from being a prick, he has far more credible accusations of rape against him than Neil Degrasse Tyson. The reason he just spent a decade inside an embassy is because he was avoiding having to stand trial against charges of rape, three cases of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

The only real way to brush them aside is to commit to the conspiracy theory that various organisations in Sweden (the government, the police force, etc) worked together to spread a smear campaign against Assange for the sake of... revenge? It doesn't really add up logically.

The great investigative journalist and documentarian Laura Poitras made a documentary about Assange a few years ago. It was at one point totally completed but then an Assange associate (this I do believe without issue) was accused of sexual misconduct and Poitras opted to pull the film, mostly re-shoot and entirely re-edit it, and ultimately put out a film that addressed the subject of misogyny within the hacking community and with Assange in particular. Needless to say, this didn’t leave them on the best terms.

I mention this because in doing press for the film, Poitras was asked straight up about the allegations against him and she basically said that she thought they were probably ginned up. Whatever you think of him, Assange had faced off against extremely powerful people - the entire U.S. government, which he had exposed of doing horrendous war crimes - and had made serious enemies as a result. Enemies that, yeah, had a lot of reason to find something with which to destroy him.

Whatever the truth of those allegations is, I don’t know. They wouldn’t surprise me but the reality is our governments can and do find flimsy justifications to destroy whistleblowers and journalists all the time. I don’t think Obama, Trump, or Biden were so aggressive in trying to extradite him because they had a principled position against sexual assault. That’s just me.

NDT I had heard rumblings about for a while (like, years prior) just from being on social media. Mostly the rape claim, but what happened is that after THAT one finally got media attention (in a way that suggested that it had some legitimacy, though no none of us can ever know for certain with most of these things), several women came forward about him to support the original allegation as pasty annoying Reddit nerds were already calling her a liar. And yeah, they weren’t as bad as the original allegation but they were pretty bad. One of them involved a young assistant being invited over and being very heavily sexually harassed and nearly pressured into having sex. It’s not as bad but a guy who does that should probably lose his job.

And that’s the difference for me. NDT is a powerful celebrity and museum curator preying on much less powerful people, often employees. He’s also not someone anyone has any real reason to destroy. He’s not a guy whoexposed state secrets and needs to be made an example of. He’s just some doofus who posts soy memes from 2012 and entertains whatever people are still watching The Daily Show this far past its sell-by date. Unless you’re trying to exhort money from him (if memory serves, none of the women sued), there’s no real reason to target him. Unless it’s true.

But look, these shows have had horrible people over and over and over again. (Even if one assumes the allegations against Assange are true, that episode was at least made prior to them). At the time of the production of their Simpsons episodes, allegations against, say, James Brown were not exactly huge secrets. I’m sure Al Jean in his next interview will brag about having Sideshow Bob back again and look, not to be depressing but anyone who has had access to the news or the internet should really not have hired Kelsey Grammer to do anything after 1995 considering what he allegedly did with an underage babysitter. I love these shows, but I’m no longer surprised that the people making them have few moral scruples about who they get to do voices. It’s just a stark reminder of how little anyone in Hollywood cares about these things to see that he’s doing a guest voice on this cartoon, like it’s still 2012. Even if one is inclined to give him benefit of the doubt (personally, I am not), he’s not owed a guest appearance on Futurama and the show could just get literally anyone else.

Also, come on. Guilty or not, he’s annoying and has been for a long time. I just get the impression that as an overall show Futurama hasn’t really progressed lately beyond the culture of when it was last on, and this is just another example.

[Reply #737 on:]

Oh I'm with you. SA allegations aside, NDT's constant "Well, actually, science doesn't work like that..." schtick has been extremely annoying for over a decade at this point. I can't say I'm especially excited about the prospect of him making a guest appearance (like I am with Danny Trejo!)

I'm also with you that Assange's charges are most likely somewhat embellished but I suppose we'll never know. Ginned up or not, though, it still seems credible to me that he likely went much further than NDT ever did.

I actually had no idea about those Kelsey Grammer allegations. I know he's a famously horrible person in general though so it's not exactly a surprise.



On a less heavy note, thinking about it I wasn't especially excited about any guest stars last season. Cara Delevigne was the most interesting just because of the mystery surrounding who she played.

This season is already off to a much more exciting start on that front for me with Cara Delevigne's actual proper appearance and Danny Trejo confirmed. I'm sure there'll be a sizeable chunk of returning guests too. George Takei seems like a good bet for someone they might give a line somewhere and I'm still holding out for Emilia Clarke's comeback as Marianne at some point.

[Reply #738 on:]

Yeah Trejo is a cool one. (I am a big believer in OG Star Trek supremacy over the other series but I would have to say I hope they do not get Takei again for...similar reasons as above.) I don't really know why they don't get more people like that, or even Delevigne, rather than relying on the same five people guesting over and over. I know Futurama is really embedded in geek culture, but like all things geek culture itself evolves and moves on at least to some degree. Surely there are some newer actors or something that love the show (maybe even grew up with it like some of the writers!) and want to leave their mark on it, or even just older ones like Trejo who they haven't had before but who the audience would surely like.

Obviously I'm exempting people like Clarke (who hasn't exactly been overplayed in the series anyway) because they play characters who for story reasons SHOULD return. It's more the usual heads in jars-type guests where it feels like they've winnowed it down to just a handful of people who keep appearing past the point of repetition.

[Reply #739 on:]

I'd love it if it was about classic sci-fi novels retold with the 'Rama characters (Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land) but I'm gonna guess it won't be.

I feel like ever since the Comedy Central era, the writers like to take as much of the sci-fi out of the show as possible for the anthology episodes, for better or worse.

The writers must've heard you. I just found this excerpt from an interview that David X Cohen did this month with SFX magazine about what viewers can expect in some of the newer episodes: "He says one of his favorites of this season is the high concept episode, "The Futurama Mystery Liberry", which sees Futurama reimagined as three children's mysteries in totally different styles. "There's one that's sort of like Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys," he explains. "Each one takes extremely scientific twists along the way, one of which gets explained by Neil deGrasse Tyson."

I do wonder what other children's mystery series are famous enough to parody where people would get the reference...the only ones that come to mind are The Boxcar Children and Encyclopedia Brown. They also said that LeVar Burton would be guest starring in this episode too so maybe a parody of Reading Rainbow with his head in a jar hosting it? I think that would be really funny.

Sounds fun and I like how it seems like it's at least one cohesive idea unlike some anthology episodes in the past. Maybe they saw the reaction to "The Prince and the Product" last season and decided to rework the anthology format better. Still don't understand how that episode made it to the point of actually being produced.

Actually both of these seasons were worked on together so any real criticisms wont be acknowledged until season 13.

[Reply #740 on:]

Fry, Leela, The Professor and Zoidberg Break Into a Museum!

[Reply #741 on:]

Fry, Leela, The Professor and Zoidberg Break Into a Museum!

Looks great. I also think the animation looks better too somehow. The writing definitely feels sharper.

[Reply #742 on:]

I probably could’ve done just fine in life never having to hear the words “I found Bender’s NFT,” but if nothing else the voice acting here on Billy West’s characters sounds far less strained/tired than it did last season, so that’s an improvement!

[Reply #743 on:]

NFTs are fine in Futurama, its honestly how the episode is written but bender being behind it actually makes sense and i love it.

[Reply #744 on:]

Bender Strikes it Rich with NFTs!

[Reply #745 on:]

It's more the usual heads in jars-type guests where it feels like they've winnowed it down to just a handful of people who keep appearing past the point of repetition.

I don't think we had that much of it during the original run.

I think it's partly that every time the show is revived, they feel the need to do a nostalgic victory lap bringing back all the fan-favourite characters and guests that are associated with the show.

I'm hoping they got that out of their system for this run in season 8 and season 9 will be more about looking forwards.

[Reply #746 on:]

I probably could’ve done just fine in life never having to hear the words “I found Bender’s NFT,” but if nothing else the voice acting here on Billy West’s characters sounds far less strained/tired than it did last season, so that’s an improvement!

He said he was recovering from COVID when they started recording last season. Sounds like he was telling the truth.

[Reply #747 on:]

Bender Strikes it Rich with NFTs!

This was much more promising than the first clip for me. Nice seeing Amy and Kif's kids appear again too.

[Reply #748 on:]

Futurama’s new season struggles to make NFTs and AI funny

Futurama Season 12 Review

"The Temp" spans two decades, cutting back to the aftermath of ancient season 3 premiere "Amazon Women in the Mood" to introduce an unsung cog of Planet Express. The episode stops short of the Frank Grimes-style autocritique it threatens to become (say, aren’t these space-traversing coworkers kind of assholes, to each other and everyone else?), but it does provoke some entertaining cognitive dissonance before we get the full picture of what’s going on.

‘Futurama’s Future Doesn’t Seem Like A Fun Place to Go (this one feels more spoilery)

Futurama Season 12 Review: Back Stronger Than Ever

Futurama Season 12 Is the Futurama You Know and Love

'Futurama' Season 12 Review: Good News, Everyone! This Show Is Still Sci-Fi Comedy Gold

[Reply #749 on:]

Futurama Season 12 Review – The Future Is Still Bright

[Reply #750 on:]

These are quite depressingly unenthusiastic.

Though they seem utterly hung up on the whole Futurama being topical thing which I've found a tiresome complaint since 2010, frankly.

And that Cracked article claims "Related to Items You've Viewed" has no resolution which is just patently false. That's the opinion of a person who only understands story structure in a completely superficial way.

I'm hoping that means that their read of the buggalo episode being pro-bull fighting is completely wrong too. It would be completely baffling for Futurama to take a difference stance really given their history.

But their complaint that the show is too dark this season sounds like a positive to me honestly. The show has always been more on the side of dystopian future than a utopian one.

I'm expecting a batch of episodes roughly on par with season 8, last year.

[Reply #751 on:]

Another sceptical review.

[Reply #752 on:]

Another sceptical review.

I honestly dont trust this review. It feels TOO harsh and exaggerated which instantly makes it feel like bait.

[Reply #753 on:]

It also heavily implies that they've seen the entire season which seems extremely unlikely seeing as only the first six episodes were sent out for review.

Them not disclosing that in the review makes it feel dishonest and makes me care less.

[Reply #754 on:]

Pins from this years Comic Con, each themed around a Season 9 episode.

https://rb.gy/ioxsqm

[Reply #755 on:]

Interesting.

This suggests "Planet Espresso" might be a Hermes story with flashbacks to his childhood. Could just be a throwaway gag though.

"Cuteness Overlord" looks like Amy gets some new pet that's going to have some sort of sinister plot -- seems a bit close to "That Darn Katz!" though. It could be a toy rather than a pet, I suppose. And there could be more than one of them belonging to other characters as well.

That "Otherwise" pin is very strange. Is it holding a sword? The colours make me think that it might be some weird form of Leela.

[Reply #756 on:]

I assume the “Otherwise” one is Farnsworth’s new device for fixing the flow of time.

The trailer showed Zapp/the crew infiltrating a building with the same toy design Amy’s holding. My first thought was the Lovey Bear factory from “Love and Rocket”. Title made me think this would be a Nibbler episode, but I doubt it now, since like you brought up that would make it too similar to “That Darn Katz”.

[Reply #757 on:]

That's a Lot of Candles Fry!

[Reply #758 on:]

Let the Party Games Begin!

[Reply #759 on:]

Both those clips were entertaining enough. I have no frame of reference here, never having seen Squid Game, but it's been a good while since we've had a Fry-centric episode and I'm curious to see how this one turns out.