Season 1, Episode 3, "I, Roommate" (C)
Aug 16, 2014 15:35:13 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 16, 2014 15:35:13 GMT -5
FUTURAMA CLASSIC
Season 1, Episode 3, “I, Roommate”
Hey, sexy mama… Wanna kill all humans?
It’s no secret that from the start, Futurama frightened and frustrated the Fox network, who went from enthusiastically giving Matt Groening a chance to duplicate The Simpsons’s magic, to only allowing the show a meager existence at all because of Groening’s Simpsons-based clout. Suicide booths, lobster monsters doctors, buxom cyclops, and an anti-social robot all resulted in copious notes from network suits, and desperate requests for more “down-to-Earth” storylines. In an attempt to placate them, the Futurama crew crafted “I, Roommate,” the third episode of the series, around some of the most well-worn sitcom premises, rhythms, and jokes.
The fact that it works is a testament to the solid chops of the writing staff. The fact that it is so much less compelling, touching, or hilarious than Futurama, in just two episodes, had already demonstrated itself capable of being, is a testament to how wrong the network suits were. Indeed, in spite of having the episode written to specifically address their concerns, the network overseers declared this script to be the worst of them all. They were wrong there, too - the first season managed two weaker installments - but the Futurama team decided to make the show they wanted to make from that point on, network input be damned.
The premise is simple: Fry is sleeping in the Planet Express offices and needs to find an apartment. He and Bender become roommates, and after one abortive situation Fry can’t handle, and another one Bender isn’t cut out for, they decide that their friendship is more important to them than any housing amenities like “room to lie down”, or “not having to self-mutilate to get TV reception.” The beats are simple, runners are carefully arranged according to the”rule of three” (problems with Fry living at Planet Express, apartments visited, Bender’s antenna cutting off the TV signal), and it’s all resolved with a deus ex closeta that wouldn’t feel out of place in an episode of I Love Lucy.
But Futurama has some fun within the tropes by making use of their setting and the freedom allowed by animation. From “Bachelor Chow” (which has since been invented, it’s called Easy-Mac), to alien mummies being consumed as jerky, to an apartment based on M.C. Escher, with “a dimension we’re not gonna use”, many of the jokes land solidly. The script even works in a perfectly timed dig at New Jersey that any fan of Seinfeld (or The Honeymooners, for that matter) would appreciate.
But it’s what doesn’t work in this episode that stands out. After all, this is an episode that ostensibly establishes the friendship between Fry and Bender that serves as one of the anchors of the series -- so why isn’t there any real emotional resonance in Fry’s decision to move back in with Bender, his own health and well-being be damned? Bender seems genuinely upset when Fry first forsakes him, and his harrowing descent into sobriety is compelling… But the episode then sacrifices all that earned emotion on the joke of “AN ANTENNA IS LIKE A PENIS HA HA HA”, played so tritely and obviously even Chuck Lorre might find it embarrassing.
Even if we get the introduction of All My Circuits (even at the time, a seemingly anachronistic spoof on the golden age of daytime soaps) and Calculon, it’s that dearth of a genuine emotional foundation that marks this as a weak episode of Futurama. Fry is not merely oblivious, but actively blasé, and Bender’s intense distress is sold out and undermined right when the show has the opportunity to bring Fry and Bender closer together in something other than circumstance. There are some shows that serve mainly as gag delivery devices, for whom that wouldn’t play as much of a detriment. But <i>Futurama</i>, even at this early stage, already showed that its best jokes, and its most satisfying humor, comes from situations with genuine emotional stakes that drive the characters to do stupid and bizarre things they could only get away with in the 31st century.
Fortunately, next week, we get to enjoy the intense egotism of the man with no name - Zapp Brannigan - and Leela’s eternal conflict between lonliness, and being deliberately single because all the men in her universe are, not to put too fine a point on it, morons.
GRADE: C
Stray Observations:
- Bachelor Chow! (Now, with flavor!)
- We get to meet Hattie, who hasn’t yet found a way to “kajigger” everything, calling Fry merely a “young whatchamacallit”.
- “There’s no catch. Though were are technically in New Jersey.” Glad to see some things never change, even after a thousand years.
- Benders blitzed-out sober nightmare stroll past neon signs is a reference to the classic film The Lost Weekend.
- Speaking of which, there is NO SUCH THING as a “Boring Geology Lecture”!
- Apparently Matt Groening had never seen the classic TV show The Odd Couple with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. If you haven’t either, you might have missed some of the loving gags of that sequence of Fry and Bender moving into Dr. Mobutu’s old apartment, set to the show’s theme song.
- Cigars make you look cool.
- Grades? Yes or no?
- Those could be anyone’s thoughts, fat-ass.
This Week in Futurama Signage:
10 HOME
20 SWEET
30 GOTO 10
Season 1, Episode 3, “I, Roommate”
Hey, sexy mama… Wanna kill all humans?
It’s no secret that from the start, Futurama frightened and frustrated the Fox network, who went from enthusiastically giving Matt Groening a chance to duplicate The Simpsons’s magic, to only allowing the show a meager existence at all because of Groening’s Simpsons-based clout. Suicide booths, lobster monsters doctors, buxom cyclops, and an anti-social robot all resulted in copious notes from network suits, and desperate requests for more “down-to-Earth” storylines. In an attempt to placate them, the Futurama crew crafted “I, Roommate,” the third episode of the series, around some of the most well-worn sitcom premises, rhythms, and jokes.
The fact that it works is a testament to the solid chops of the writing staff. The fact that it is so much less compelling, touching, or hilarious than Futurama, in just two episodes, had already demonstrated itself capable of being, is a testament to how wrong the network suits were. Indeed, in spite of having the episode written to specifically address their concerns, the network overseers declared this script to be the worst of them all. They were wrong there, too - the first season managed two weaker installments - but the Futurama team decided to make the show they wanted to make from that point on, network input be damned.
The premise is simple: Fry is sleeping in the Planet Express offices and needs to find an apartment. He and Bender become roommates, and after one abortive situation Fry can’t handle, and another one Bender isn’t cut out for, they decide that their friendship is more important to them than any housing amenities like “room to lie down”, or “not having to self-mutilate to get TV reception.” The beats are simple, runners are carefully arranged according to the”rule of three” (problems with Fry living at Planet Express, apartments visited, Bender’s antenna cutting off the TV signal), and it’s all resolved with a deus ex closeta that wouldn’t feel out of place in an episode of I Love Lucy.
But Futurama has some fun within the tropes by making use of their setting and the freedom allowed by animation. From “Bachelor Chow” (which has since been invented, it’s called Easy-Mac), to alien mummies being consumed as jerky, to an apartment based on M.C. Escher, with “a dimension we’re not gonna use”, many of the jokes land solidly. The script even works in a perfectly timed dig at New Jersey that any fan of Seinfeld (or The Honeymooners, for that matter) would appreciate.
But it’s what doesn’t work in this episode that stands out. After all, this is an episode that ostensibly establishes the friendship between Fry and Bender that serves as one of the anchors of the series -- so why isn’t there any real emotional resonance in Fry’s decision to move back in with Bender, his own health and well-being be damned? Bender seems genuinely upset when Fry first forsakes him, and his harrowing descent into sobriety is compelling… But the episode then sacrifices all that earned emotion on the joke of “AN ANTENNA IS LIKE A PENIS HA HA HA”, played so tritely and obviously even Chuck Lorre might find it embarrassing.
Even if we get the introduction of All My Circuits (even at the time, a seemingly anachronistic spoof on the golden age of daytime soaps) and Calculon, it’s that dearth of a genuine emotional foundation that marks this as a weak episode of Futurama. Fry is not merely oblivious, but actively blasé, and Bender’s intense distress is sold out and undermined right when the show has the opportunity to bring Fry and Bender closer together in something other than circumstance. There are some shows that serve mainly as gag delivery devices, for whom that wouldn’t play as much of a detriment. But <i>Futurama</i>, even at this early stage, already showed that its best jokes, and its most satisfying humor, comes from situations with genuine emotional stakes that drive the characters to do stupid and bizarre things they could only get away with in the 31st century.
Fortunately, next week, we get to enjoy the intense egotism of the man with no name - Zapp Brannigan - and Leela’s eternal conflict between lonliness, and being deliberately single because all the men in her universe are, not to put too fine a point on it, morons.
GRADE: C
Stray Observations:
- Bachelor Chow! (Now, with flavor!)
- We get to meet Hattie, who hasn’t yet found a way to “kajigger” everything, calling Fry merely a “young whatchamacallit”.
- “There’s no catch. Though were are technically in New Jersey.” Glad to see some things never change, even after a thousand years.
- Benders blitzed-out sober nightmare stroll past neon signs is a reference to the classic film The Lost Weekend.
- Speaking of which, there is NO SUCH THING as a “Boring Geology Lecture”!
- Apparently Matt Groening had never seen the classic TV show The Odd Couple with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. If you haven’t either, you might have missed some of the loving gags of that sequence of Fry and Bender moving into Dr. Mobutu’s old apartment, set to the show’s theme song.
- Cigars make you look cool.
- Grades? Yes or no?
- Those could be anyone’s thoughts, fat-ass.
This Week in Futurama Signage:
10 HOME
20 SWEET
30 GOTO 10
