Season 1, Episode 12, "When Aliens Attack"
Nov 23, 2014 2:58:44 GMT -5
War Is the H-Word, Electric Dragon, and 1 more like this
Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2014 2:58:44 GMT -5
While other people were out living their lives, I wasted mine watching TV, because deep down I knew it might one day help me save the world. Plus, I would have lost my Workman's Comp if I had gone outside.
“When Aliens Attack” is a frustrating early episode of Futurama. There’s a great number of laughs to be had, and the main cast has comfortably gelled, yet it feels somehow incomplete or inadequate next to early standouts like “Hell is Other Robots” and “Mars University”. In fact, to some degree, it feels a bit like an episode of The Simpsons from the same time period, and I don’t mean that in an entirely good way.
Structurally, the episode is oddly post-golden age Simpsons-like. Other than the cold open, the first act, in which the Planet Express crew goes to the beach for that phony-baloney holiday made up by fat-cat union gangsters (Labor Day), is almost entirely divorced from the main plot, save for the last couple of seconds before the act break. The second act would seem to be the meat of the story, if it weren’t for the cold open making us wiser than any of the characters. As amusing as it may be, it’s still emphatically pointless, since we know there must eventually come some reveal to the characters that the “McNeal” the aliens are demanding must be the single female lawyer we saw in the cold open… And even if we didn’t make that assumption, the third act retroactively moots the second act anyways.
In other words, it’s less like a coherent episode of Futurama than three little Futurama vignettes. Think of them as “Futurama Goes to the Beach”, “Futurama Does Star Wars”, and “Fry and Television Save the World”. There’s no larger arc or emotional depth to fall back on, as in the best episodes of the show, and like a post-golden age Simpsons, or an episode of Family Guy, for that matter, there’s a limit to the heights the show can reach, and the milage one gets depends entirely on how well the gags land.
Thankfully, the script, by Simpsons scribe and songsmith Ken Keeler, has an excellent hit/miss ratio, and the episode has a bevy of quotable lines. The only real weakness is in the rather heavy-handed attempt to lay in some sort of commentary about the nature of television… Though what, exactly, the point of that commentary is seems to be as much a mystery to the creators as it was to me. Watching TV means missing out on life, and can result in bed sores, TV is stupid, and TV audiences are stupid because they want things to be predictable and comforting, to the point where they may destroy Earth if a season finale isn’t sufficiently predictable and comforting? That’s all true, sure, but hardly ideas worth hanging bells on.
There’s also the unfortunate focus of the episode’s TV plotline -- Part of what tips us off to “McNeal” being the name of the single female lawyer is that Single Female Lawyer is such an obvious reference to Ally McBeal, which was a certified pop-culture phenomenon at the time this aired. Perhaps some of our younger viewers can tell me -- does it even ring a bell or register for those of you who were only kids when it was briefly the hottest thing on TV? Does it even make sense anymore for a show ostensibly about feminine empowerment to center on a heroine’s sexual promiscuity and search for a man?
I earnestly hope that it plays differently (and better) for those whose memories are blissfully free of the Ally McBeal craze, as well as dancing baby GIFs, but your humble reviewer can’t help but cringe slightly at how badly dated the central reference point of this episode is. It’s a bit, again, like late-period Simpsons episodes that built themselves around a popular (or popular a year ago) phenomenon, and usually a guest star associated with it.
I could go on to criticize the animation of the first segment, with the proportions on Monument Beach seeming to shift and be disconcertingly out-of-whack, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. That one flawed set is sandwiched between two incredibly impressive, if not downright gorgeous, sequences: a Contact-mimicking pull-out from New York City to Omicron Perseii 8, and a complex, expertly directed space battle sequence.
But regardless, what do we have? The structure is fragmentary and weak, the theme is obvious and more than a bit pointless, and too much of the episode relies on an outdated parody. But at least it’s funny (and that’s something most late-period Simpsons episodes with similar problems can’t claim).
The episode introduces the Omicronians, and their royal couple (though perhaps duly elected, David X. Cohen ponders in the commentary), Lrrr and Ndnd. Powerful, murderous alien conquerors/overlords whose love of 20th Century Earth television is matched only by their befuddlement with microphones and love of stylish capes is a wonderful Futurama invention and a welcome addition to the show’s universe. The incongruity between the huge, monstrous, death-ray wielding Omicronians and their incredibly banal past-time is brilliantly summed up when Lrrr wonders, “If McNeal wishes to be taken seriously why does she not simply tear the judge's head off?”
The Omicronians alone would earn the episode a significant pass, but it further ups the ante by bringing in, as defender of Earth, now-25 Star General Zapp Brannigan. Though the segment bears little connection to what comes before or after, every moment of Zapp and his put-upon sidekick Kif delivers the laughs, from his rambling monologue of casual racism (“I don’t care if your skin’s red, yellow, or Chinese”) to his terrified squeal of, “Stop exploding, you cowards!”
Even the first act delivers some solid chuckles, such as the history of New New York’s greatest mayor, an evil supervillain, and a bevy of sight gags I’ll leave to the stray observations.
But the most memorable part of the show comes in the third act, when the Planet Express crew puts on arguably the most horribly acted, ineptly written, and shoddily produced planet-saving show-within-a-show in television history. I sometimes wonder if the episode would have been more successful if the construction of the off-brand Single Female Lawyer episode had been stretched to fill the bulk of all three acts. There was nothing to tie the first act together, and the second act was dominated by supporting players, but clearly, seeing the core characters try to work together, no matter how absurd the purpose, is what coxes the warmest belly-laughs out of Futurama. Plus, it helps keep things predictable so that we don’t feel dumb or surprised!
So, to borrow from Lrrr: I was reasonably satisfied with the events we have seen. Overall I would rate it a GRADE: B. OK, not great. As a result, I will not destroy your planet. But neither will I provide you with my recipe for immortality!
This Week’s Opening Title Subtitle:
Proudly Made on Earth!
Stray Observations:
“When Aliens Attack” is a frustrating early episode of Futurama. There’s a great number of laughs to be had, and the main cast has comfortably gelled, yet it feels somehow incomplete or inadequate next to early standouts like “Hell is Other Robots” and “Mars University”. In fact, to some degree, it feels a bit like an episode of The Simpsons from the same time period, and I don’t mean that in an entirely good way.
Structurally, the episode is oddly post-golden age Simpsons-like. Other than the cold open, the first act, in which the Planet Express crew goes to the beach for that phony-baloney holiday made up by fat-cat union gangsters (Labor Day), is almost entirely divorced from the main plot, save for the last couple of seconds before the act break. The second act would seem to be the meat of the story, if it weren’t for the cold open making us wiser than any of the characters. As amusing as it may be, it’s still emphatically pointless, since we know there must eventually come some reveal to the characters that the “McNeal” the aliens are demanding must be the single female lawyer we saw in the cold open… And even if we didn’t make that assumption, the third act retroactively moots the second act anyways.
In other words, it’s less like a coherent episode of Futurama than three little Futurama vignettes. Think of them as “Futurama Goes to the Beach”, “Futurama Does Star Wars”, and “Fry and Television Save the World”. There’s no larger arc or emotional depth to fall back on, as in the best episodes of the show, and like a post-golden age Simpsons, or an episode of Family Guy, for that matter, there’s a limit to the heights the show can reach, and the milage one gets depends entirely on how well the gags land.
Thankfully, the script, by Simpsons scribe and songsmith Ken Keeler, has an excellent hit/miss ratio, and the episode has a bevy of quotable lines. The only real weakness is in the rather heavy-handed attempt to lay in some sort of commentary about the nature of television… Though what, exactly, the point of that commentary is seems to be as much a mystery to the creators as it was to me. Watching TV means missing out on life, and can result in bed sores, TV is stupid, and TV audiences are stupid because they want things to be predictable and comforting, to the point where they may destroy Earth if a season finale isn’t sufficiently predictable and comforting? That’s all true, sure, but hardly ideas worth hanging bells on.
There’s also the unfortunate focus of the episode’s TV plotline -- Part of what tips us off to “McNeal” being the name of the single female lawyer is that Single Female Lawyer is such an obvious reference to Ally McBeal, which was a certified pop-culture phenomenon at the time this aired. Perhaps some of our younger viewers can tell me -- does it even ring a bell or register for those of you who were only kids when it was briefly the hottest thing on TV? Does it even make sense anymore for a show ostensibly about feminine empowerment to center on a heroine’s sexual promiscuity and search for a man?
I earnestly hope that it plays differently (and better) for those whose memories are blissfully free of the Ally McBeal craze, as well as dancing baby GIFs, but your humble reviewer can’t help but cringe slightly at how badly dated the central reference point of this episode is. It’s a bit, again, like late-period Simpsons episodes that built themselves around a popular (or popular a year ago) phenomenon, and usually a guest star associated with it.
I could go on to criticize the animation of the first segment, with the proportions on Monument Beach seeming to shift and be disconcertingly out-of-whack, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. That one flawed set is sandwiched between two incredibly impressive, if not downright gorgeous, sequences: a Contact-mimicking pull-out from New York City to Omicron Perseii 8, and a complex, expertly directed space battle sequence.
But regardless, what do we have? The structure is fragmentary and weak, the theme is obvious and more than a bit pointless, and too much of the episode relies on an outdated parody. But at least it’s funny (and that’s something most late-period Simpsons episodes with similar problems can’t claim).
The episode introduces the Omicronians, and their royal couple (though perhaps duly elected, David X. Cohen ponders in the commentary), Lrrr and Ndnd. Powerful, murderous alien conquerors/overlords whose love of 20th Century Earth television is matched only by their befuddlement with microphones and love of stylish capes is a wonderful Futurama invention and a welcome addition to the show’s universe. The incongruity between the huge, monstrous, death-ray wielding Omicronians and their incredibly banal past-time is brilliantly summed up when Lrrr wonders, “If McNeal wishes to be taken seriously why does she not simply tear the judge's head off?”
The Omicronians alone would earn the episode a significant pass, but it further ups the ante by bringing in, as defender of Earth, now-25 Star General Zapp Brannigan. Though the segment bears little connection to what comes before or after, every moment of Zapp and his put-upon sidekick Kif delivers the laughs, from his rambling monologue of casual racism (“I don’t care if your skin’s red, yellow, or Chinese”) to his terrified squeal of, “Stop exploding, you cowards!”
Even the first act delivers some solid chuckles, such as the history of New New York’s greatest mayor, an evil supervillain, and a bevy of sight gags I’ll leave to the stray observations.
But the most memorable part of the show comes in the third act, when the Planet Express crew puts on arguably the most horribly acted, ineptly written, and shoddily produced planet-saving show-within-a-show in television history. I sometimes wonder if the episode would have been more successful if the construction of the off-brand Single Female Lawyer episode had been stretched to fill the bulk of all three acts. There was nothing to tie the first act together, and the second act was dominated by supporting players, but clearly, seeing the core characters try to work together, no matter how absurd the purpose, is what coxes the warmest belly-laughs out of Futurama. Plus, it helps keep things predictable so that we don’t feel dumb or surprised!
So, to borrow from Lrrr: I was reasonably satisfied with the events we have seen. Overall I would rate it a GRADE: B. OK, not great. As a result, I will not destroy your planet. But neither will I provide you with my recipe for immortality!
This Week’s Opening Title Subtitle:
Proudly Made on Earth!
Stray Observations:
- So many quotable lines and riffs to save this episode from its weaknesses! I, myself, am partial to The Professor’s reminiscing about the last alien invasion and all that forced mating he was subjected to… What are yours?
- Poor Fry - the monument-destroying Omicronians (perhaps they caught <i>Independence Day</i> on HBO?) even have a miniature, sand-castle-destroying ship!
- Zoidberg’s lines are golden, from the way he pleads, “I’ll never survive in here! I’m too <i>pretty</i>,” to his acting debut beautifully rolling his spanish “r’s” saying, “Gracias!”
- Plus, for the first time, we see Zoidberg scuttle. Keeler is right - the animation team delivered something funnier than you could have imagined.
- “Nobody destroy Kif! Unless you have to.”
- Sing it with me now:
Single female laywer,
fighting for her client!
Wearing sexy miniskirts,
and bein’ self reliant!