Season 2, Episode 12, "The Deep South" (C+)

Hey! Guess what you’re accessories to!

A sitcom - even a crazy, animated, sci-fi sitcom - needs to do two things: tell a story, and tell jokes. Sometimes a great story with compelling characters we care about can sustain our interest through a dearth of jokes, and sometimes a slew of killer gags can distract from an incoherent story told by crudely sketched characters. But what marks a truly great show is how well it balances those two imperatives -- both over the run of the series, and over the course of an episode.

Futurama, of course, balanced the two masterfully through many of its episodes, often telling stories that carried the added heft of genuine feeling and emotional stakes. But what happens when Futurama gives us an episode that strikes a great balance… But between a middling amount of humor and a flimsy plot? Well, we wind up with something like “The Deep South”.

It’s not a bad episode by any stretch, but neither is it an episode that shows off Futurama’s capacity for brilliance, with the exception of its artwork and animation. It plays out less like three coherent acts than three vignettes barely tied together: “Futurama goes fishing”, “Futurama goes diving”, and “Futurama makes fun of Atlanta”. The fact that each of these acts is allowed to drag a bit is a good indication that the episode never quite gelled. No one component was made rich enough to carry an entire episode, and instead of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, we’re just left with, well… Parts.

Though each act has a few good chuckles, it’s the middle act that plays the best. Seeing the Planet Express crew bounce off one another in a (literal) high-pressure situation lifts the pace of dialogue and humor from the languid first act, which was happy to let each (mostly sight-based) gag take its sweet time and coming and going. Not that I didn’t hugely enjoy the Professor’s fish pheromone mishap, or Leela’s success at boot-shopping, but the flow is much better when we’re bouncing from Hermes’s lunch plans, the Professor’s obsession with suppositories, Leela’s dissertations on “Ocean Madness”, and around again.

Even this act stalls out a bit comedically, taking a break to show off some detailed renderings of various aquatic creatures early on, and later to give us a montage of Fry and mermaid Umbriel (Parker Posey) doing cute first-date stuff 20,000 leagues under the sea. Perhaps I’m being a bit too harsh. There really is some fantastic eye candy in this episode, and I can’t fault the creators that much for wanting to show it off, or to show some of it off to the sweet sound of special guest Donovan’s hit “Atlantis”.

The rendering of the ocean’s surface in the first act is impressive: a dear friend of mine now at Pixar did his college thesis on 3-D water rendering, so I can tell you, realistic moving water is - or at least was - one of the biggest challenges for 3-D animators. The only moment the seams show, so to speak, are when Leela fishes Zoidberg out of it, but the broad scene-setting shots flying out over the water and watching the sun go down more than compensate.

Trouble is, no amount of fantastic animation and musical montages can quite sell Fry’s instant love of Umbriel, let alone it being enough to make him abandon his friends and oxygen. What’s worse, it isn’t even necessary to get us to the “mermaid problem” joke (and Night Gallery reference), which I imagine could have been arrived at without the ill-advised attempt to create some suspense. Really, all it does is get Fry down the gullet of a colossal-mouthed Bass so he can fall out of it later, robbing Bender of a prize catch award from the Mayor.

Grade: C+

This Week’s Opening Title Subtitle:

A stern warning of things to come.

This Week In Futurama Signage:



Fry is so dumb… How dumb is he?

Fry is so dumb, he thinks he can store oxygen in a suitcase!

Stray Observations:

-I think “He may have _____ madness, but that’s no excuse for ______ rudeness!” may be one of my most-used Futurama formulations.

-And “Sweet Zombie Jesus” may be one of my favorite Futurama exclamations.

-Having made the mistake of engaging absolutist gun-nuts on Twitter the other day, I can’t help but wonder if the Fishing equivalent of the NRA is responsible for mandatory fishing licenses in the future.

-Aww, a reference to the American Museum of Natural History’s famous “Squid and Whale” display!

-Four jokes about Fry going to the bathroom. A flushing toilet working as a bilge pump? That I can dig. But really, “the water’s getting warmer” jokes seem a little simple and obvious for Futurama.

-How do any of you who are southerners feel about the jokes made at your expense in this episode? Other than the stinging and horribly dated commentary about country clubs and Jews, none of it seems terribly clever, except the digs on Atlanta’s lust for the tourism status of a New York or Paris.

-As for me, all I know is Bender’s got me humming the first few bars of “Dueling Banjos” every time I hear a southern accent.

-This also has to be the single most scientifically implausible and incongruous episode of Futurama. Daylight at 3 miles down? Really?

-Though I will give credit for the Arthur C. Clarke reference of using diamond filament. Bonus points for it belonging to Farnsworth’s grandmother.