The Endings are So Predictable

[on:]

Its true, lets say this as an example, Leela marries fry for one short episode, then dumps him in the end or either gets their memory altered by something? Thats what my theory is if they would get married. Anyone agree that endings are so predictable and the fact that every tv show ends up going back to the way they were? kinda like a loop. Fry stated that in the episode with the alien invasion in the end.

[Reply #1 on:]

And? That's how most TV shows work. Trust me, I watch most of them. 

[Reply #2 on:]

Not all the time, dude...

[Reply #3 on:]

I know not all the time. That's why I only written most TV shows.

[Reply #4 on:]

Ever wake up in the morning and get really annoyed cos the sky is blue again, i mean the sky is so damn unimaginative....

[Reply #5 on:]

Actually, Futurama has less definate endings than most shows on TV. For example, the slow build to a Fry/Leela relationship. Each episode does slightly bring us to a conclusion, but I don't think that they're "self-containing" as most shows are. After all, so many episodes refer to events in previous ones...(The Nibblonians, the Brain Spawn, Fry being his grandfather, Fry/Leela, Amy/Kif, the Robot Devil, etc...)

[Reply #6 on:]

Fry: It was just a matter of knowing the secret to all tv shows. At the end of the episode, everything's right back to normal.

Then we have an aerial view of citywide destruction. In a loop. Riiiighhht!

[Reply #7 on:]

Well if it wasn't for the predictable endings most futurama fans would get to excited at the prospect off a cliff hanger ending!

[Reply #8 on:]

as for me i vote for more episodes where zoidberg iinflicts more mercy killings

[Reply #9 on:]

Yeah, I totally saw Fry being his own Grandfather. And from the first episode, I knew Leela was a sewer mutant. Talk about predictable.

[Reply #10 on:]

lol BNLbum your totaly right!

[Reply #11 on:]

 What do you guys like hate Futurama. Jeez

[Reply #12 on:]

::Beats chee zit over the head with a copy of Luck of the Fryrish::

::Beats CC5 over the head with the Season 1 boxset::

[Reply #13 on:]

you must be running out of locks.

[Reply #14 on:]

Eh, Futurama is clever enough that "most" endings aren't entirely predictable.  But if any are, that's just the nature of tv.  It wouldn't really work, for a comedy series anyway, for it to NOT go back to the way it was once in a while.  What, do you want Leela and Fry permentantly married (well, I know some of the shippers do, but trust me, they'd get bored with it after a while and it would be Jump the shark), Kif and Amy to actually have babies on the show, Fry to actually know about his importance for more then a few episodes, and Bender to actually be a proffesional country singer in the rest of the series?  Maybe some of these things sound good in theory, but they'd ruin what "works" for the show too much.  Its like when a new character is added, a baby is born, the family moves, etc on other shows.  It ruins what "works" too much.

But again, Futurama is too inventive anyway to really complain about it being "predictable".

[Reply #15 on:]

 

Originally posted by BNLbum:
Yeah, I totally saw Fry being his own Grandfather. And from the first episode, I knew Leela was a sewer mutant. Talk about predictable.

The grandfather thing was a given but you saw that Leela was going to be a mutant? Fuck off you did, I oughta rip out your lying tongue.

Some endings are predictable and some aren't deal with it, it's TV, christ the important thing is it's always enjoyable.

[Reply #16 on:]

 

Originally posted by Britz:
 The grandfather thing was a given but you saw that Leela was going to be a mutant? Fuck off you did, I oughta rip out your lying tongue.

Some endings are predictable and some aren't deal with it, it's TV, christ the important thing is it's always enjoyable.

Did I not make it perfectly clear that I was being blatantly sarcastic?

[Reply #17 on:]

 

Originally posted by BNLbum:
 Did I not make it perfectly clear that I was being blatantly sarcastic?

Obviously not. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said that.

[Reply #18 on:]

 

Originally posted by Britz:
 The grandfather thing was a given but you saw that Leela was going to be a mutant? Fuck off you did, I oughta rip out your lying tongue.

Some endings are predictable and some aren't deal with it, it's TV, christ the important thing is it's always enjoyable.

oh my god, you didnt realise he was being sarcastic lmfao How do you work a computer?

[Reply #19 on:]

If Futurama had twists and unpredictable turns abound, ppl would also complain. Also, it would be kinda like a soap opera with 'da-da-duummm!' dramatic endings, like Leela actually getting together with Fry. Futurama keeps me laughing so I know they have the right formula.

[Reply #20 on:]

Time for a rambling rant by yours truly 

I just completed an essay on the conventions of comedy and one of the key features of comedy is REPETIVENESS. Jokes are repeated, there are parts of the show that constantly reappear (i.e. the couch in most shows, Homer's 'D'oh!') and everything is self-contained so that everything is resolved by the end of the episode. There is usually no developnment throughout the series but the joy for most people is seeing the same characters in another bizare situation week after week. That's why its called Situation Comedy.

It is based on classical forms of narrative and is something that Western audiences have been brought up on so having it play any other way would just be confusing for us. Too much unpredictability not be funny and would put off audiences even more.

I'll shut up now.

[Reply #21 on:]

This is true, but too much predictability and the whole thing becomes boring and humdrum. A comedy always has predictable elements, but these lay more in the characters themselves than in the various plots.

If the characters were not predictable in some form, you couldn't get to know or love them. The plots of the episode must be fresh. The minute you feel you've seen all this before is the minute a show has run out of ideas.

[Reply #22 on:]

Not all the endings are predictable, take 'The Sting' for example. I certainly didn't see that coming, and I know a lot of other people didn't either. Same goes for 'Luck of The Fryrish'   

[Reply #23 on:]

I saw it coming, but on the other hand I never once suspected Leela of being a mutant.

[Reply #24 on:]

You know what they say, there are only seven plots in the world and trick is to just put a different spin on them. We know that Fry, or Bender, or Leela won't die during the episode because that's the rule of all TV shows. But every so often you have to change it to keep it interesting so nowadays lots of shows are using ongoing storylines. It keeps the series fresh and interesting, but used too often can make it difficult to keep up with.

btw, I haven't seen The Sting so no plot details 

[Reply #25 on:]

Lurrr is right, its self-contained, but I think that's a good thing, because isn't that what most of us can relate to? I mean, sure wacky or bizzare things can happen occassionally, but for the most part, we all get up, go to work/school, and come home or go out in the evenings. Nothing too extraordinary. I think it creates a relation to certain shows. Like I can relate to Friends and Futurama and shows about singles, whereas maybe my Mom can relate to um... that Bonnie show or whatever.

[Reply #26 on:]

The Sting ending isn't uncommmon, the most popular example is The Wiz Of Oz, but I didn't see it coming.  I don't remember when I realized Leela was a mutant, because I started watching Futurama after it aired.  So I dunno if I thought she was a mutant or alien.  I never saw the ending to Luck of The Fryrish coming.  Futurama certainly knows how to surpirse us.  Well and wittingly.

[Reply #27 on:]

Hahaha, I was reading what Robit put and thought I wrote it and I was all, "wait, I didn't respond to this topic!" I should have known, tho--I can't stand friends and I ain't single.

And you know, there are only like 5 real plots (don't remember the exact number) total--and every story ever made is a variation of one of these. So I'd like to ask the people who postulate this how they explain the going in the past to grandfather yourself plot.

[Reply #28 on:]

 

Originally posted by Hulkbuster:
Ever wake up in the morning and get really annoyed cos the sky is blue again, i mean the sky is so damn unimaginative....

what about when its red, yelowish or grey?
and i think sometimes the endings are predictable but not more than any other show

[Reply #29 on:]

Futurama isn't predictable though.  Or it is, but in an unpredictable way.  You can look back on an episode and say that the ending seems predictable, with hindsight, but the sheer quality of the writing, the ability of the writers to engage the viewers in the story and the characters instead of just laying out a plot and expecting everyone to say "Oooh, wow, a plot!" makes the endings fresh and satisfying.

[Reply #30 on:]

I actually have a confession - I *did* see Leela being a mutant coming, from 'I Second That Emotion,' because you see her parents in the upper left hand corner of the shot where they all gather round Dwayne for the legend of El Chupanibre.  But I was given Season 2 as a gift before I got Season 1, so I wouldn't have done otherwise.

I think another thing is that the storytelling is a lot more straightforward generally, which makes those storylines where you *do* have six storylines going at once feel so much more exciting.  I'm thinking of 'A Flight To Remember' - that plot felt so alive to me because there were five or six different stories running simultaneously.

Another thing to remember is that by its very nature, some things are going to be predictable - the spoofs and sendups of other things are likely to follow the same structure.  Like in that episode when the Countess dies, you know that one of them is going to die because it's a parody of Titanic, and they're obviously not able to kill Bender off. Am I making sense?

But in the totally original episodes which don't have direct outside influences, they are really original.  And the more predictable endings invariably have a twist added to them because the writers are aware of the obviousness of the script.  Like in 'A Head in the Polls' it's obvious that Nixon is going to get voted in, ostensibly to make way for his future appearances, but they twist it slightly by making his entrance to the White House slightly more unorthodox and so on.

Wow, that was a much longer post than I intended! Sorry about that!

[Reply #31 on:]

 

Futurama isn't predictable though. Or it is, but in an unpredictable way.

You're thinking in terms of specific plot details. Of course we didn't know from the begining that Leela was a mutant. But we did know that there would be many episodes dealing with her search for her homeworld and that they would turn out to be dead-ends ('A Bicyclops Built for Two', AOII). The fact is just because a programme is predictable doesn't make it unoriginal. A lot of the time the writers have used that predictability to their own advantage (i.e. 'Fry and the Slurm Factory'). You have to admit, for a show that lampoons another genre there has to be an element of predictability for it to be funny.

[Reply #32 on:]

for a lesson in why you shouldn't try to prdeict everything, watch Pi. Drilling holes in your head is fun.

[Reply #33 on:]

 Why even start these threads, futurama  getting canceled give it some slack. if you dont like futurama get off this site and go to like some other forum for stupids

[Reply #34 on:]

 yah i said it, know i ruined this Thread

[Reply #35 on:]

well no shit sherlock.

but on a lighter note, dont forget the golden rule of television:

it has to be predictable, otherwise the viewer would become scared and confused.

confused at how intelectual it can be and scared at how things can change. i know it was stated better in the show, but i am too goddamn lazy to look it up.

whatever, i think that is about what the message was....

[Reply #36 on:]

This is one of the major reasons why almost all of us watch Futurama: To see what happens.  If you predict the ending, thats good for you,  but i personally dont try to.  I like to be suprised.

[Reply #37 on:]

 

Originally posted by BNLbum:
 Did I not make it perfectly clear that I was being blatantly sarcastic?

See I didn't get that, mostly because you mixed a predictable thing, him being his grandfather, with an unpredictable thing, you really should clairfy or use better examples.

[Reply #38 on:]

 

Originally posted by SwanMan3000:
 
oh my god, you didnt realise he was being sarcastic lmfao How do you work a computer?

First cockknock, I barely work a computer, mainly because I hate them and aren't some sexless little freak out, secondly, what? Am I the only person who saw the Fry being his own grandfather thing coming? Shit, must have come from watching Red Dwarf, comeon slow bastard, it was a given from the moment they went back in time.

[Reply #39 on:]

There's no need to mudsling!

And Lurrr, I totally agree - to lampoon something and not follow the same structure (ie - making it unpredictable) defeats the whole object.