Thoughts on [4ACV15] - The Farnsworth Parabox

[on:]

the review/discussion threads!
The usual tips/rules:

• go away if you don't want to be spoiled!
• special topics like weird scenes/plot problems go to special threads in the according boards.
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Thread will hopefully be opened by some moderator (but me) once the episode is about to start.

[Reply #1 on:]

yay! i'm useful again!

anyway the lengths of wire joke was the best ever. EVER! so much waiting, so much pay off

[Reply #2 on:]

Great ep!!! like i said before in the other thread.....i give it a 5/5......... 

[Reply #3 on:]

Loved this ep like a baby loves crack. Which in my neighborhood, is a lot. The design of the paralell universe was so stunning it was like looking into the reptilian version of God's eyes and hearing him tell me the meaning of life while handing me any woman I want. The plot was so good that it was like if they took the most attractive woman on earth turned her into a graham cracker, put whoop cream on her, and than I swallowed her while drinking the nectar of the almighty Zeus! I liked blue Zoidberg and the other universes too. Get a job you hippies!

EDIT: Sorry for the o. That's how you reserve posts.

[Reply #4 on:]

I liked the Golden Bender.

[Reply #5 on:]

I loved it  !!! I cant believe leela said yes to fry at the end!! Bender and yellow bender were great too!!! this was deffinetly one of the best eps ever!!! I rate this ep 5/5 too!!

[Reply #6 on:]

Yeah, but poor Zoidberg, even himself treats him like crap! 

[Reply #7 on:]

...one is silver and the other...  Goooolld... 

I loved this episode.  These new ones are awsome, some of the best, or maybe it's just that we haven't had episodes....

Anyway 10/5 thumbs up

[Reply #8 on:]

i predicted that the parallel Leela and Fry would be married, but when they first walked into frame and neither of them was wearing a ring i thought i was wrong. How dare they toy with me like that!

[Reply #9 on:]

i liked it; i think the second halfcould've been funnier, but overall it was very good, worth the weeklong wait.
i was pretty disappointed when leela finally said yes to fry, but the episode was already over. i hope they'll open the next ep w/their date, or at least some reference to it.

"Good news everyone! I'm still technically alive!"

[Reply #10 on:]

Excellent episode, very enjoyable.   

Edit: Moved speculations on the box here: http://http://www.peelified.com/cgi-bin/Futurama/3-000366/#t2

[Reply #11 on:]

   

Originally posted by Venus:
i predicted that the parallel Leela and Fry would be married, but when they first walked into frame and neither of them was wearing a ring i thought i was wrong. How dare they toy with me like that!

hehe, they threw us off w/the diamond scrunchie. hey, were they (the parallel fry & leela) referring to a particular ep were they when they talked about their first date?

at first i thought the the boxes were just portals. but that can't be right. i hope that they actually refer to the fact that they have the universe sitting in their lounge. i still don't really understand how that's possible.    but that's probably just me ANYWAY very funny ep i am so sad there are only six left now   

[Reply #12 on:]

OMG! I loved at the end when leela said yes to Fry!

It kept me laughing, and the story was good. Liked the two Bender parts. I also like when they were going thru all the universes. It wasn't the funniest thing with Hermes, but i liked his expression.  Very good, but needs more jokes.  Overall, this ep gets 4 out of 5.

[Reply #13 on:]

I think the Sting and the Why Of Fry were a lot better.I wasn't really crazy about the ploit but it had it's funny parts.C+

[Reply #14 on:]

I watched this episode on a handheld black & white TV hacked into pirated cable-TV with a paper clip and a rubber-band.  Needless to say it was small, crappy, and confusing since so much was aparently based on color. 

Still, I really liked the episode.  The interaction between the characters and themselves was pretty funny.  Also how Hermes has to think about it for awhile before deciding not to kill everybody.

[Reply #15 on:]

no, they were not referencing another ep. and scrunchie or no scrunchie if they're married there is a ring involved somewhere. Show me the ring!
Three hundred big boys is the ep thats cronologically supposed to come after this one, i hope they reference their date in some form. It would really suck for them to not mention something this major ever again.

[Reply #16 on:]

Classic. I loved the "very" different crew, the parallel universes (dibs on the Hippie Amy avatar!), and the weird, WEIRD ending.

[Reply #17 on:]

Pretty good. Good jokes, but also predictable at points. Like Bender falling in love with himself, and Leela saying yes to Fry in the end.

I loved the start, with Farnsworth calling for various deities and evil incarnations to help him, while the PE staff mostæy didn't care.

The various universes were fun, and the parallel staff were too. Loved the hippie universe.

I dunno, it might just be the FOX brains airing it out of order, but the Fry/Leela stuff is starting to get tiresome. This is the 4th episode in a row with their off again-off again relationship playing a major part in the show. "Three Hundred Big Boys" better be a laffer (with two f's) without any shipper overtones or undercurrent.

Didn't "I Dated A Robot" say there only were 2 parallel universes?

Okay, giving characters: 8/10.

[Reply #18 on:]

This episode was almost a trainwreck.  Just wasn't very funny.  Luckily, the third act was golden.  2/5

[Reply #19 on:]

Well, this one wasn't as good as last week's, but of course I really couldn't have expected that.  This one started off slow, but it built up fairly well.  Not an all-time classic, but enjoyable.

I didn't notice any cute references, aside from "Universe 420," of course.  The Professor does say "lengths of wire" again, though.

By the way, it gets around the Professor's statement in "I Dated a Robot" about there being only two universes, since they actually create all the others.  But is the cowboy universe also in the box...?

It had some great science fiction-y ideas, like how each universe was created simultaneously in the opposite universe, and how they ended up with a box containing their own universe.  The ideas are actually nothing new, but still fun.

But the coin-flipping explanation was silly, since there were tons of differences that couldn't be explained that way, and since when does everyone flip coins to make decisions?  I think it would have worked better if they said there were just minor differences everywhere that could lead to major differences, but did not try explaining the differences.

And again we hear of a way that Leela could have fallen in love with Fry if only things had happened a little differently.  I think "Time Keeps on Slippin'" should have been the last word on that subject, though I wouldn't have minded if they just hadn't explained how parallel Fry and Leela got together, and this time it wasn't a major part of the episode.  Still annoying though.

It was kind of strange seeing Leela right back to rejecting Fry after last week's episode, but they were shown out of order.  Also, she did seem to be rejecting him just out of habit, and she does agree to go out with him at the end.  That was a sweet moment, really.

Anyway, we get another new episode next week, but after that I think we'll have three weeks without Futurama.  At this rate we won't see "Devil's Hands" until August 10th.  According to Fox's June 22nd schedule, the NASCAR race ends at exactly 7:30.  But you have to understand that Fox couldn't just show Futurama at a later time, and that it just has to show two reruns of King of the Hill that night....

[Reply #20 on:]

the reason they're saturating us with shippy IS the fault of Fox. there where supposed to be 2 bender heavy eps aired between the sting and parabox. But hey, i LIKE shippy so i am loven it either way.

[Reply #21 on:]

Yeah, Hermes pausing for a couple of seconds before deciding not to blow everybody out of the airlock was funny.

Universe 1729?

Loved how the looked inside different boxes though.

Farnsworth: "This universe is full of womens. I'll save that for later."
(Leela runs by with an octopus stuck on her head) 

[Reply #22 on:]

 

Originally posted by Teral:
Yeah, Hermes pausing for a couple of seconds before deciding not to blow everybody out of the airlock was funny.

Anyone else notice Hermes seems to be turning... evil?
Apart from the delay at not ejecting everybody, he also did the thing with the gun (Use it to shoot those guys...)

And I'm sure that new room is going to send the guy that maintains the planet express ship blueprints batty :P

[Reply #23 on:]

Great episode!
Interesting effect and idea.
I liked hippie-part the most
"Get a job"     

interesting facts:
...we already saw PE crew clones


...space effect was used in "Godfellas"


and music in "The Sting"

...Farnsworth is hippie again ("Teenage Mutant Leela's hurdles" )

...Hippie gives Farnswoth a flower like Fry gave flower to Leela in "The Why Of Fry"

...Its second time Leela has octopus on her head ("Leela's homeworld)

[Reply #24 on:]

I like shippy, but I need more funny- those upcoming Bender eps will be good!

Still, i enjoy shippy eps- I'm not compalining, in fact just the oppisite : :

[Reply #25 on:]

I loved the episode. It has to be one of my all time favorites. I loved the beginning with the Professor yelling for Buddah (sp?), Zeus and God to help him and then saying (Saiten! You owe me one!"

Zoidberg (or the two zoidbergs) were especially funny in this episode. "Stop squirting me with ink Zodberg! Put on some pants Zoidberg!" And then when the pink Zoidberg was praying to the blue one... oh crazy Zoidberg...

And I think they are focusing on Fry and Leela because it is nearly the end, and they will get together at the end.

[Reply #26 on:]

Meh... Zoidy was funny but not as funny as in other eps. 

[Reply #27 on:]

 

Originally posted by mdgirish:
And I think they are focusing on Fry and Leela because it is nearly the end, and they will get together at the end.

Yeah, but they didn't know that when they wrote episodes. The episodes are written in early 2001, and at that point a renewal was still higly likely. At any rate 4 shippy episodes within 7 episodes is still overkill. I start to miss the arch free episodes. Such as "The Bird Bot Of Ice-catraz" and "The Problem With Popplers".

Welcome to PEEL. Enjoy it here.

[Reply #28 on:]

when they wrote season 4 they DID suspect that they were gonna be taken out. They have stated so in several interviews. That's why they did Devil's hands when they did, and it appears that these other shippy eps are lead-ins to this last one.

[Reply #29 on:]

Congratulations everyone, you've all been a part in my experiment to prove my "Kinetic Momentum" theory (I like the name because it sound somewhat fancy). My theory was this: While watching "Why of Fry" I realized this may be the last episode for a while, which it was. After seeing how many fans there are of Futurama and how exicted they got whenever a new episode appeared after a long Futurama drought, I came to this conclusion: Futurama fans always like the first new episode in a series of new episodes and slowly become more picky of the following episodes. I am also like this. Subconsciously, we all get tired of watching the episodes in a row becuase we've adapted to them being shown with long time distances between each other. Basically, because of FOX's deliberate screwing up of the episode airings we have gotten use to it and start to expect more and more of the episodes. This effect wears off however when you watch all the episodes (The Sting, Farnsworth Parabox, Three Hundred Big Boys) a second time. Watching them all a second time will let you view them the way you normally would. So those of you who don't like Parabox much might like it more watching it and the Sting a second time. If people like "Three Hundred Big Boys" less than "Farnsworth Parabox" than my experiment will be called a success!
Plus, even if my theory is wrong it's a good excuse to watch new episodes again.

[Reply #30 on:]

I found it interesting that Leela went immediately back to rejecting Fry after the "Sting" episode hinted this would no longer be the case (assuming these are shown in the right order). I found this to be a little downer. Gotta hand it to Fry, he doesn't give up easily, I would have long before...

BTW, I have only discovered PEEL this past week; it's much better than alt.tv.futurama, which can be such a drag. I hope I can fit in here; a spot check of some profiles leads me to believe I would be one of the older posters here...

[Reply #31 on:]

Welcome to PEEL, j w wimpy. Enjoy it here.

@ OC: I don't know, I have big expectations of "Three Hundred Big Boys". That episode sound like pure, arch free fun.

 

Originally posted by Venus:
when they wrote season 4 they DID suspect that they were gonna be taken out. They have stated so in several interviews. That's why they did Devil's hands when they did, and it appears that these other shippy eps are lead-ins to this last one.

But they still had to leave it open-ended enough to give them a reasonable place to start if the show got renewed. They only had a suspicion, so they were betting on both horses. And with "The Devils Hands..." only 3 eps down the road, it sounds like a lead in. It's just too massive the way FOX airs the episodes.

Maybe I'm just overtired (4 Am here).

[Reply #32 on:]

Another funny season 4 episode. This wasn't as good as the previous two, but thats okay, as they were great. The love stuff I enjoy so it hasn't gotten to me. I think you might get some more of it next week with Leela, Fry and Zapp together again. Still, any episode with Nixon is funny!

And as Venus said, they did suspect that Fox was going to cancel the show. I have a feeling even when they were renewing Futurama, they didn't have good attitudes towards the staff. Still, it was good thinking on their part, and I am glad things will wrap up at the end. (I hope anyway)

Just to note, after next week, there will be five episodes left, three of which sound to be focused on Bender. Hopefully everybody here likes Bender episodes!

[Reply #33 on:]

Absolutely classic episode! Farnsworth really stood out in this episode and how trippy is the thought of our universe being in a box in our universe!? It boggles the mind i tells ya! 

I don't know about your theory OC_James, i mean i didn't think The Sting was that great but i'm probably the minority.

[Reply #34 on:]

When the ep started, the first thought that came to my mind was "after The Sting, this is the ultimate moodkiller". I then proceeded to laugh my ass off throughout the entire ep. I was a little disappointed at the lack of shippyness at first (probably due to the introductory conversation between Fry and Leela), but Farnsworth saved the day.
This has to be my favorite Farnsworth-heavy episode. "Buddha! Zeus! God! One of you guys, help me! Satan, you owe me! Do something!" Also, the way he said "This box contains our own universe!" was more disturbing than usual. Zoidberg was a bit of a letdown and Bender wasn't as good as usual (although that "one is silver, and the other's gold" dialogue was sweet and touching in a hillarious way, and the gag with his eyes when he was stealing the box was priceless), but Farnsworth made up for it.
The shippers weren't left out in the cold, though, and I love what they did. I loved scene in the restaraunt with Frys and Leelas, especially the part where alternate Leela describes the way she always lied to Fry and Fry[A]'s reaction to it. I absolutely loved Fry's reaction. Also, the scene in the end where Leela accepted Fry's offer for a date was amazing. What was really touching about that scene was not that she accepted, but the way she accepted. The coinflip (which, if it decided her answer, would have been really degrading to Fry), and then Leela's sweet smile and the line "let's just say it's heads". Excellent writing, animation, and voice acting. Loved it, loved it, loved it!
Overall, I'd give this episode 9.5/10. Great ep. It in no way beats The Sting, but still one of the better Futurama eps; and "one of the better Futurama eps" automatically means a great ep.

[Reply #35 on:]

Funny episode, but I feel like it could have been better. Alternate universes could have been a little bit wackier...I don't know.

I didn't think it was too shippy though. Sure, there was the whole alternate Fry/Leela marriage thing, but it's not like it was the focus of the episode.

The Zoidbergs were good. Lengths of wire were awesome. I liked it when Fry was occupied by the tangled up christmas lights. Concept of a universe that differs only by coin-flips was funny. I'll flatly list off other things that I liked, when I watch the episode again. But overall, I classify it as "good".

[Reply #36 on:]

Oh, yea, Anarchist, this has got to be one of the greatest Farnsy eps!

[Reply #37 on:]

Very solid episode.  Lots of laughs on many levels, and they didnt have to reach for jokes.  The dual zoidbergs had me rolling.  5/5

[Reply #38 on:]

Yet another very good to great episode from the best season yet.  Can't wait till the 5ACV eps start airing....hehe, oh yeah.

Great one liners ("Help, Satan! You owe me" ) and sight gags (Leela with the octopus box on her head) Good plotline and the parallel crew was great, especially Zoidberg.  Even our Zoidy gets the crappy end of the stick in another universe, when blue zoidy didn't let him have his turn as king. Funnier and less dramatic than the last couple of eps, the shippy angle was handled with a little more restraint, which is a good thing.  It was nice to see Leela finally agree to go out with Fry at the end.

It was weird how Leela was so willing to shoot anyone trying to look in the box.

All in all another winner.  8/10

[Reply #39 on:]

This was a very good episode for laughs and anything else you might be looking for. Sure is weird just what lies at the flip of a coin. Imagine fate being just like that. Fate: So heads this guy gets a girl, tails he remains lonely and dies in a few years. (flips)

So anyway, great ep.