Please finish it up Fry

[on:]

Please finish it up Fry, I don't care how it ends anymore.

Really, Futurama was the best animated show I knew until somewhere around the 50th episode, when it took a dive from funny and well-written to, well, not too funny and not very well written. It has become sort of a tv-version of itself, where the humor degraded and tried to please the sitcom-oriented crowd which prefers bad taste over the chance that they might not get a joke or reference right away.

It seems the writers developed a specific amnesia regarding character consistancy. For instance, in "Bender should not be allowed on tv", Bender seems to have grown a Fonzarelli conscience. Leela, who used to be a 'nosy and opinionated' kungfu expert, hasn't been much more than a surrendering schoolgirl nowdays. Fry, originally the lovable nimwit, now seems to have to 'redeem' himself as a normal human being, in case the male (sitcom-oriented) viewers should identify with him. And Zoidberg, the once depressed lobster, has been turned into a clown whose sole role is to cheerfully pass through offensively unfunny jokes about his failure at being anything.

The show insn't about the future anymore. It stopped at least 15 episodes before episode 70.

[Reply #1 on:]

Welcome to peel, Oh yeah great icebreaker 
I havnt seen all the eps in continuity so i am unable to comment, but you may be right...
Posting such a large message, you must.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah, I'll have to agree with you.  I actually don't like about hald of the 4acv episodes.  And of the 16 episodes that aired as "season five", I only likes five of them a whole lot:  Jurassic Bark, The Why of Fry, The Sting, The Farnsworth Parabox, and Devil's Hands.  Crimes of the Hot was okay.  The rest I didn't like at all.  I was trying to figure out why many of the recent episodes were so bad, and I think you hit the nail on the head.

[Reply #3 on:]

HEATHEN! BURN HIM AT THE STAKE! 

Oh, sorry. Welcome to PEEL.

 

[Reply #4 on:]

I love all the episodes!

Yes, even A Pharoah to Remember!

[Reply #5 on:]

 

Originally posted by harrymerc:
The show insn't about the future anymore. It stopped at least 15 episodes before episode 70.

i may be wrong here, but I always thought the show was about the characters and not the future. The future was just the setting.

[Reply #6 on:]

If anything, I like the characters more now than before.

[Reply #7 on:]

Some of the recent episodes were less-than-stellar, but likewise, we've also gotten some of the (in my opinion) best episodes this season as well.  I'm talking about stuff like The Sting, The Why of Fry, Devil's Hands, Leela's Hurdles, and my personal favorite episode, Jurassic Bark.  I still haven't seen Farnsworth Parabox, but I hear it's great.

Also, the rest of them in general weren't BAD, just sometimes not quite as good as we're used to.  I actually loved Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV...I thought it was great.  But this season has started to slip a little.

[Reply #8 on:]

Um...the show's over. You don't have to worry about it any more.

And, most people that I talk to like it when characters evolve. Bender grew a conscience because he realized that being a jerk all the time isolated him. Leela learned that being tough and hiding your feelings only makes you lonely (which I can sort of relate to.) Fry matured, like every one else.

That's it.

[Reply #9 on:]

 

Originally posted by Anarchist:
HEATHEN! BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!   

 

good welcome there. yes I agree, even if the show HAS gone downhill (and I don't think it has) it is still WAY better than the simpsons which is suckier than sucky. they're just trying to tie up all of the lose ends in the last few episodes....

[Reply #10 on:]

 

Originally posted by catindisguise:
 good welcome there. yes I agree, even if the show HAS gone downhill (and I don't think it has) it is still WAY better than the simpsons which is suckier than sucky. they're just trying to tie up all of the lose ends in the last few episodes....

I agree.  The Simpsons is way past it's best, and well, I don't think the went downhill halfway through.  However, I am British so don't trust my judgement...
Oh yeah...welcome to peel
 

[Reply #11 on:]

hey brother I'm British too but we have good taste............ don't we????

[Reply #12 on:]

I do feel there was a tingle to the earlier episodes that are not there in the most recent ones - like there is something slightly missing. Maybe Futurama has slumped slightly, although you cannot deny some of the best ever episodes have been among the more recent ones. Thinking about it, maybe that's why we think that some of the other eps are a bit below-par compared to the old ones, since some of the new ones like The Sting, The Why Of Fry etc have upped the benchmark so much that they affect our judgement?   

Or whatever.
Futurama definitely hasn't gone down the same drain The Simpsons has.
I recently caught the end of the recent one where they become part of a reality TV show, and then the other day saw the ancient one when Marge learns to Bowl with Jacques and nearly leaves Homer. The old one was infinitely better in my mind. Yesterday I caught the beginning of the 300th episode. I watched about 3 mins of it and turned over thinking "but it's just stupid!"
At no point in any Futurama ep has it got that bad, and personally I don't think if Futurama was continued it ever would have/will be.

/edit - and welcome to PEEL BTW 

[Reply #13 on:]

You could rewrite a good number of them and drop any future aspects, but they would still involve heavy sci-fi.  One or two you could even rewrite as a Simpson's episode.  Here is a listing (just if they require a future setting or not):

Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch: Future (had to be)
Leela's Homeworld: Didn't have to be in the future
Love & Rocket: Future
Less Than Hero: Sci-Fi, not necessarily future
A Taste Of Freedom: Social Commentary
Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV: TV/Social Commentary
Jurassic Bark: Definately Future
Crimes of the Hot: Future
Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles: Sci-Fi (I guess it wouldn't have to be in the future, but come on)
The Why Of Fry: Future
Where No Fan Has Gone Before: Future Sci-Fi
The Sting: relationship episode
Bend Her: Sci-Fi social commentary involving robots
Obsoletely Fabulous: A robot becomes obsolete and needs an upgrade.  Sounds like the future
The Farnsworth Parabox: Sci-fi
Three Hundred Big Boys: the episode least necessary to take place in the future
Spanish Fry: Sci-Fi
The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings: relationship

It seems to me that most of these episodes require a sci-fi setting in the future.  If they were rewritten enough for them to not take place in the future, the episode would be completely different.

[Reply #14 on:]

I agree with everything you say, but i still love the show and every episode in it.

[Reply #15 on:]

"hey brother I'm British too but we have good taste............ don't we????"

Of course we do! Apart from tea. We drink waaaaay too much of that. ;-)

[Reply #16 on:]

yeah tea sucks especially that herbal rubbish what are we, a bunch of hippies?
ALL HAIL THE HYPNO TOAD

[Reply #17 on:]

Every episode makes me want to see the next episode, no matter how many times I watch them. That's good writing. In my opinion, all the episodes are stellar.

[Reply #18 on:]

I don't care if it's about the future or not- it has to be in there somewhere.  you see future ads everywhere, you see robots in every episode, and it's just futuristic. 

Also, it may have gone down futuristic- wise but remember- that's when Fry's still getting used to it.

[Reply #19 on:]

the setting plays heavily into the plots but that's what good writing is supposed to do. It shouldn't just be some "anytown USA" type of setting. the show isn't about the setting though. If it was there wouldn't be the same characters each episode

[Reply #20 on:]

I also think that what makes Futurama so great is not the setting, but the characters.  I'm one of those people who normally can't stand sci-fi, but I *love* Futurama because the characters are so great, and as a result the show has more heart than the Simpsons.

[Reply #21 on:]

your saying the characters have changed and its all A writing stuff up. But the characters changing is them growing up. Fry isnt meant to be a lovable nimwit forever because he is meant to grow up.

[Reply #22 on:]

and they even talked about that, how once the character were established they could start growing them and also playing them against type for laughs.