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Written for Space Pilot 3000 on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:9
Guest actor performance:9
Continuity:10

This is probably the best pilot for a story-driven comedy that I've ever seen. It's fair to say that Futurama hit the ground running and whilst it may have increased its running speed in later seasons, it's like comparing gold and platinum. Both are great. The episode had to establish a lot, and it does so simply, effectively and with fantastic pacing. More importantly though, it doesn't sacrifice humour in place of story. It establishes the several laughs-a-minute format of the show from the opening line of dialogue onwards. For big fans of the show, there's a lot of fantastic set-ups for later on. Not only do we see a brief moment between Fry and Leela and a certain shadow that fans of the show should know about by now, but the core members of the Planet Express crew are all introduced along with fan-favourite: Richard Nixon. And their characters haven't changed a bit since unless you count the voices being ever so slightly different... which personally, I don't. All in all, this episode was a brilliant start to a brilliant show.

Written for The Series Has Landed on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:10

The show built on its incredibly strong pilot with an even stronger 2nd episode. The plot may not be a Futurama epic, but it does an absolutely outstanding job of establishing the sort of futuristic world that the show's dealing with. A trip to the moon is like a trip to the park a thousand years into the future. On top of this, it's simply quite a funny observation. And for a story about characters going to an amusement park, there's far more scope and emotion than you'd expect. It's all the more worthy of praise when you take into account that the first act was saddled with the task of establishing all of the main characters not seen in the pilot (Hermes, Amy and Dr Zoidberg).

On the comedy front, the episode again builds on the pilot. It's quicker, more confident in its approach, and most quite simply funnier.

The Series Has Landed is an extremely fitting title; it essentially sums up my feelings on the episode.

Written for I, Roommate on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:10

Another early episode that was burdened with the task of establishing things (this time, it's the case of where Fry will live). Taking that into account, it's great. It's not one of Futurama's most incredible plots -in fact, it's extremely simple, like an average sitcom -to the point that it actually feels like a parody of sitcoms in general at times. Personally, I love this contrast. The show started off with its opener, then a story with characters going to the moon, with this episode, decided to show its other side: New New York-based sitcom shenanigans.

On the comedy side, it was the funniest episode up until this point (but it was only 3 episodes in so that's hardly saying much). Even so, there are plenty of laughs to be found here.

Written for Love's Labours Lost in Space on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:10

This episode introduces us to the wonderful Zapp Brannigan (as well as Kif and Nibbler). Story-wise, it doesn't do much for me. It mostly serves as an introductory vessle which gave us Zapp to enjoy in later episodes. That's not to say that the plot is bad, it just feels somewhat dull when compared to the past 3. To make things worse, I don't find it as funny as the previous 2 episodes either. However, it's still got plenty of great moments and as I said, it's an important episode for the show's development as it was referenced a lot since.

Written for Fear of a Bot Planet on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:9
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

For my money, the weakest episode of the first 5 -but that doesn't mean it's bad!

The plot is my least favourite of the first 5 episodes. It's incredibly fun in a 'kooky' sort of way, it just lacks an emotional resonance that usually exists in Futurama.

However, gag-wise, it's probably my favourite episode of the first 5, so if you prioritise humour above plot then take from this what you will. This episode is packed full of nerd-jokes in particular, as well as some great role-reversal stuff with humans being portrayed as monsters.

One thing that lets the episode down is its visuals. Everything is very dull and grey throughout and whilst I understand that it's a robot planet so the dull colours were absolutely necessary, it's simply unfortunate as it does somewhat lessen my overall enjoyment of the piece.

Still, a solid episode when taken in context of the show as a whole.

Written for A Fishful of Dollars on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:6
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:6
Continuity:10

One of the weakest season 1 episodes.

The plot's overall concept is brilliant. I just don't feel that it plays out as well at it should have done. That's not to say that the end result is bad, it's just somewhat bland at times and suffers from a few unnecessary things such as Pamela Anderson's guest appearance which adds nothing to the show other than a few throw-away gags and isn't really justified.

This isn't helped by it being the weakest episode yet (of the first 6) in the joke-department. It's still hilarious -it is Futurama afterall -it's just less hilarious than the 5 episodes that had gone before it.

I want to stress that a 6 out of 10 is not a bad score from me. If Futurama's worst episode is a 1/10 and the best is a 10/10, a 6/10 is basically just an ever so slightly better than average episode. That's what this is. Also, every time I watch this episode, I get an anchovie pizza craving.

Written for My Three Suns on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

Another of the first season's weaker episodes in my opinion -though still FAR from being bad.

The storyline is quite cool but for some reason, I always find it quite anti-climactic. I can't really justify this because the climax is there. It just doesn't work for me on a personal level. Like 'Fear of a Bot Planet' this episode also suffers from bland visuals. Everything is yellow or orange and whilst that was fairly unavoidable given the plot, it does prevent me from liking the episode as much as others.

Finally, it's also lacking in the humour department. Don't get me wrong, it IS very, very funny; it's just less funny than the 6 episodes that it followed. Futurama is capable of so much more.

Overall, not a bad episode. Just not a particularly special one either.

Written for A Big Piece of Garbage on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:9

For my money, the best episode up until this point in the series (which is only 8 episodes in, but still).

The plot is merely a simple take on the likes of Armageddon, but it makes for a large-scope, action packed storyline full of peril. It's great.

The plot's simplicity also lends itself to being a springboard for jokes. The episode was one of the funniest yet and all in all made for a very enjoyable, if somewhat 'disposable' entry into the series' canon.

Written for Hell Is Other Robots on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:10
Continuity:10

One of the best episodes from the first season. The storyline isn't quite as focused as I'd like, but the concept of a Robot Devil was inspired and Dan Castellaneta's performance as such goes to show why he's one of the all time great voice-actors. Almost all of the character's life and personality comes from Dan.

It's also a very funny episode. Not as funny as Futurama would get in later episodes, but still very funny.

The episode also features perhaps the best musical number in the show's history which turns a rather lame joke into an incredibly funny one simply because it rhymes.

Written for A Flight to Remember on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:9
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

One of my personal favourites from the first season. The plot is a parody of Titanic, and whilst it should bother me that the spacecruiseship that they board is called 'The Titanc', for some reason, it doesn't, so there you go.

There's a lot of nice character-based stuff in this one. There's some early Fry/Leela stuff, there's some hilarious Zapp/Leela stuff and Bender has his first romance in the show's run in a fairly enjoyable subplot.

There's some gorgeous looking design work in this episode, and the music, whilst mostly parodying the score to Titanic, is amonst the best of Futurama's entire run. I'd take it over the actual score to Titanic any day.

Written for Mars University on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:2
Characters:8
Gags:5
Sideplot:7
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

The worst episode of the first season by a mile in my opinion.

The plot is a parody of teen college movies, Animal House in particular. I believe that comedies should rarely be spoofed, especially when they're not being mocked so much as repeated with different characters as they are here. The main plot involves one of the most hideously awful characters in the show's entire run: Guenter. This whiney little character has no good lines of dialogue and his voice is simply annoying.

The episode is funny. But it's considerably less funny that the rest of the season. As far as I'm concerned, Mars University is somewhat of a blemish on season 1, although it's far from being as bad as bad episodes in later seasons. And even bad episodes of Futurama are excellent entertainment. I actually really love this episode, just not as much as I really love other episodes.

Written for When Aliens Attack on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:9
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

This is my favourite episode from season 1.

The plot is a simple alien-invasion story (with a contemporary-TV twist). This keeps things simple as well as very enjoyable as even if it's been done before, there's no denying that Earth being under attack by aliens is quite an epic, large-scope and thrilling story.

Just as in 'A Big Piece of Garbage', the plot's simplicity allows it to be used as a springboard for great humour. For my money, this is the funniest episode of season 1 -mostly thanks to Zapp Brannigan who is on top form throughout.

It's still far from the heights that later episodes of Futurama would climb to, but it's a damn fine episode all the same.

Written for Fry and the Slurm Factory on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10

A decent episode, though nothing particularly special.

I absolutely adore the first act, it's hilarious and flat-out fun. Then the episode gets bogged down with the real plot, mostly a parody of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but one that soon devolves into something more sinister. It's very enjoyable and very funny, though less funny that your average season 1 episode once you get into acts 2 and 3.

Good, but not great (by Futurama's standards).

Written for I Second That Emotion on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

A solid opener to season 2 that expands upon the Futurama universe very nicely. The plot is inspired by Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and is very cool. It also features some really nice characterisation for Bender.

Visually, there's a lot of nice things to look at throughout the episode as well. Most of the episode takes place in a sewer with some really interesting backdrops, but even the backgrounds in the Planet Express building are full of detail.

It's also hilarious. About as funny as the funniest episodes of season 1.

Written for Brannigan, Begin Again on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

One of the funniest episodes from the second season. The plot isn't up to much, being a very simple and somewhat sitcom-y set-up, but it's more of a full on comedy episode and it is very, very funny -mostly thanks to Zapp Brannigan who is on top form as usual.

Written for A Head in the Polls on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:5
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:5
Continuity:10

Quite a polarising episode amongst fans. A lot of people adore this episode, other people like myself consider it one of the weaker entries.

Whilst I love Richard Nixon's head as a character and I find the very idea of him being Earth president hilarious, it's not enough to keep a plot about politics from being dull by Futurama's usual standards and the jokes get a bit old after a while. Whilst Watergate jokes are great, it's nice to have variety.

It's far from a bad episode, but it's one of my least favourites from the 2nd season.

Written for Xmas Story on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10

As far as Christmas specials go, this is one of the best I've ever seen. However, something about it being so Christmassy takes away from the overall plot for me. I love aspects of the story, but other bits such as the crew sat around celebrating Xmas together cause it to stop and start.

It features some extremely nice characterisation from Fry and Leela however and the humour is standard for Futurama.

Written for Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love? on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:4
Characters:8
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

One of the season's worst.

The plot is inspired by an episode of Star Trek which is a big plus for any geeks like myself but unfortunately, Zoidberg just isn't lead-character material. He's my favourite character in the show, but he seems unable to sustain his own plot. Add on to that how most of the episode takes place on his home planet which is a visually very dull place with everything being made out of sand. Bland visuals really do go a long way to turn me off of Futurama and it's simply unfotunate that Zoidberg's planet had to look like it does.

On the humour front, I've seen better, but I've also seen worse. Not one of Futurama's best but there are worse episodes.

Written for The Lesser of Two Evils on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:5
Continuity:10

A hilarious episode that has a reasonably interesting plot and a lot of time spent on the Planet Express Ship which, to me, is a bonus.

The episode also introduced us to Flexo who is a great character and has some lovely visuals. Bob Barker's appearance is fairly justified within the plot, so I forgive some of his somewhat stilted delivery.

Finally, there's a lot of absolutely fantastic gags throughout this episode, especially the final moment.

Written for Put Your Head on My Shoulder on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:3
Plot:3
Characters:8
Gags:7
Sideplot:5
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

The worst episode up until this point in the series. Whilst the humour is moreorless as good as ever, the plot leaves a lot to be desired, being very simply all about romance and relationships, but not in a way that makes you care for the characters like I usually do with Fry and Leela.

Written for Raging Bender on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

A great plot let down by a less interesting subplot. The humour is on form though. There's a lot of great action sequences in the form of robot fights too which certainly help to keep things interesting. The overall visuals are constantly interesting too which some huge, crowd sequences and interesting lighting.

Written for A Bicyclops Built for Two on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:7
Sideplot:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

A brilliant first act spent on the internet (albeit a somewhat dated look at the internet) turns into a very, very interesting idea about Leela discovering her home planet. Unfortunately, the idea doesn't play out to its full potential. The visuals are somewhat bland here and there with a fairly limited colour palette but I think I'd forgive that if it wasn't for constant spoofing of Married... with Children. I know, I know, Katey Segal was on the show, I get it. I just feel that parodying a (really bad) sitcom almost turns the episode into a bad sitcom. It takes away from a lot of its scope and emotion.

I also never found those moments particularly funny, so it impacts on the episode's overall gag-quality too.

It's not a bad episode, but it could have been a lot better.

Written for A Clone of My Own on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

This episode has a fantastic plot with real scope and a great action sequence towards the end. Whilst most people hate Cubert, and he is annoying, I feel that he's important for the show. Firstly to fill that nerd role criticising flaws with the show's logic, but also to develop the Professor somewhat. His relationship with the Professor is handled very nicely.

There are a lot of great visuals in the episode, taking inspiration from films such as The Matrix. More importantly, the episode is very funny. One of the funniest episodes up until this point in the show's run.

A strong episode all round.

Written for How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:6
Characters:9
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:9

A decent episode. The plot isn't particularly interesting, what with it being about the central beauracracy and all, but even so, it's funny and has a great musical number near the end. It's also nice to see a Hermes-centric episode for a change as he's a character that rarely has any impact on the plots.

It's not an incredible episode, but it's also not half bad -although given the choice, I'd have preferred it if the writers had kept Hermes' brainslug from Raging Bender throughout the season instead of opting to make this episode instead. Still, I can't complain.

Written for The Deep South on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:7
Sideplot:6
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

This episode's first act is incredible. I wish that the rest of the episode had maintained the brilliant plot of being stranded at the bottom of the ocean and so forth, but unfortunatley it soon devolved into some tosh about mermaids. Still, the plot isn't half bad and the idea of the Lost City of Atlanta is novel.

There are plenty of good gags to be found and Parker Posey does a fairly good job as Umbriel, the mermaid that Fry falls in love with.

Unfortunately, Atlanta's quite a bland place and that rubs off on the overall feel of the episode, despite it being underwater. Not bad, but not great either.

Written for Bender Gets Made on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:9
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

This is my favourite Bender-centric episode by a considerable amount and my favourite episode by this point into the show.

The plot sees Bender getting involved with the robot mafia. First up, every member of the robot mafia is an inspired character and everything to come out of their mouths is comedy gold. Secondly, they allow for an interesting crime-driven plot which is a bit of a break from the usual Futurama. One things I really love about this episode's storyline is that Bender is an anti-hero rather than a hero. He's doing bad things and in pretty much any episode of most shows to do the same sort of plot, the character behaving badly would get moral comeuppance -but not here. It's quite refreshing that this episode doesn't have a moral leg to stand on.

Plot aside, this is a comedy-driven episode and the jokes are fast and strong as ever.

Written for Mother's Day on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:4
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

One of the weaker episodes of Futurama. The first two acts are quite strong with a great story about a robot uprising, but then it turns into a love story between the Professor and Mom and whilst their backstory is very interesting, it makes for a bit of anti-climax following on from robots trying to overthrow the planet. The humour is also ever so slightly weaker than usual, but there are still plenty of good gags dotted around.

It's not a bad bit of entertainment, it's just that Futurama is usually much better.

Written for The Problem with Popplers on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:10
Continuity:10

This episode has an inspired premise, but it doesn't quite play out to its full potential. That's not to say that it doesn't play out well though, because it does. It's a very engaging story that puts Leela in jeopardy enough for you to worry about her.

Phil Hendrie is excellent as Free Waterfall Jr -this remains my favourite of his appearances. The voice is not only original, funny, but also well acted.

It's also very funny. Certainly one of season 2's stronger episodes.

Written for Anthology of Interest I on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:8
Characters:8
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:6
Continuity:8

By far the funniest episode of Futurama up until this point in the show's run and my favourite up until this point too.

This borrows the basic format of The Simpsons 'Treehouse of Horror' episodes (three non-canon segments) and it works much better than you'd expect.

The first segment sees what would happen if Bender was gigantic. It's a never-boring plotline and absolutely hilarious with a brilliant fight-sequence inspired by old Godzilla movies.

The second sees what would happen if Leela were more impulsive. This episode's plot is less interesting (but only slightly), but it's just as funny -the final joke in particular is amazing.

The final segment is by far the weak link in the episode. It sees what would happen if Fry never came to the future and even though it has some brilliant jokes (mostly involving Stephen Hawking), it also has some fairly unnecessary celebrity appearances -Hawking is the only really justified one. The plot also just sort of ends without much of a conclusion. It's not too much of a problem given that this is a small non-canon storyline, but still. Finally, there are some problems with the logic of it all. If Fry never went to the future, how would Fry, Bender and the Professor have met (they appear together in a rip in time).

Overall, it's a great episode and even the wrap-arounds are amusing. The final part especially. If you just want to laugh, this is the episode for you.

Written for War Is the H-Word on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:9
Gags:9
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:8

One of the best episodes of season 9, possibly THE best. The storyline is great, seeing Fry and Bender going off to war and lots of Zapp Brannigan. But more importantly, the episode is one of the funniest episodes yet (up until this point in the show). Brilliant stuff.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the final moment, I can forgive it because the rest of the episode is so strong.

Written for The Honking on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:6
Characters:7
Gags:9
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:7

Whilst I have a lot of issues with the plot (Bender becomes a werecar and transforms into a car in a way that looks basically like magic. They could have easily gone all Transformers on us, but instead his hands just pop into rubber tyres. Futurama usually has less cartoon logic than this), I also love horror films and so I enjoy the pastiche of the genre on a guilty pleasure level. The first act spent in a haunted castle in particular.

It's also one of the funniest episodes of the first two seasons in my opinion, which helps to justify me forgiving problems I have with the story. Again, maybe I just find it funny because I love the films it's mocking, but it also has a lot of great geek humour (binary code being written on a wall in blood, only for it to be mirror writing).

It's not an all-time classic, but a very, very fun episode all the same.

Written for The Cryonic Woman on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:1
Plot:6
Characters:7
Gags:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:4
Continuity:6

The worst episode of the original run by far in my opinion.

The plot actually has a brilliant basic premise. The idea of someone from Fry's past in the present coming to the future (keep up), is fantastic. Unfortunately, it just doesn't make effective use of it. The first act is enjoyable in a comedy caper sort of way, but there's very little storyline and the missed opportunity for touching emotion is rubbed in your face by the inclusion of Pauly Shore for no reason other than somebody on the show's staff must have liked him.

He is terrible in this episode and ranks among the show's worst guest appearances ever. His acting is somewhat subpar but worse, he's not funny and he's crammed into the plot for the sake of it. He doesn't compliment it at all. Sarah Silverman on the other hand is fantastic as Michelle. I'm not a huge fan of hers, and I don't like the character of Michelle, but in terms of casting, she is perfect for the role. She has a very unique voice and suits the character to a T.

Going back to the plot, the ending is awful. It offers no conclusion, something Futurama is usually great with and is thoroughly unsatisfying as a result. This might have all been forgivable if the episode was funny enough, but it isn't. It certainly has its moments, but it's subpar for Futurama.

The worst episode of the original run, and currently my 2nd least favourite episode ever after Attack of the Killer App.

Written for Amazon Women in the Mood on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:6
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

The start of Futurama's 'a dirty episode every season' tradition. And the best episode to fall into said category too.

The first act is actually my favourite with Zapp on hilarious form trying to woo Leela on a half date and the start of Kif and Amy's relationship which in my opinion, really enhanced two otherwise boring characters. There's also a brilliant joke for fans of the show who remember A Flight to Remember in the background.

Once the characters are stranded on Planet Amazonia, there's less focus on character and more on flat out dirty jokes. But they're really, really funny, so who cares?

The episode ends nicely enough and establishes Amy and Kif as a couple, something which is ongoing to this day.

Written for Parasites Lost on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

The first episode of Futurama that I deem to be incredible.

It seems to be the moment whereby they perfected the formula for a perfect episode. This episode has it all: laughs, genuine emotion, an interesting adventure into a new world (if inside Fry counts), thrilling action sequences and it's part of an ongoing story arc.

The plot is absolutely fantastic. It takes cues from The Fantastic Voyage which sets us up for an interesting number of locations and a lot of gorgeous animation and interesting visuals. There's also a nice running joke at the expense at the film for those who've seen it (Bender being overly keen to abandon ship). The music is great throughout too.

The humour is good quality Futurama stuff as you've come to expect. It's not the funniest episode by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still a strong example of the laughs Futurama can deliver.

This is the first big Fry/Leela relationship episode too and it handles the situation beautifully. This episode set a new bar for the series and thankfully, it managed to keep up.

Written for A Tale of Two Santas on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:8
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:9

Personally, I opt for this Christmas episode over 'Xmas Story'. It's not incredible but makes good use of the Robot Santa characters, has a great musical number and whilst the laughs are somewhat hit and miss, when they hit, they hit hard.

The visuals are also very nice. Planet Neptune is lovely to look at and there are many examples of great animation throughout the episode.

Unfortunately, I don't quite buy Robot Santa's characterisation towards the end when he gets Bender to help him 'save Xmas' only to let him live, but still, it's better than the heartfelt crap in most Christmas episodes of sitcoms.

Written for The Luck of the Fryrish on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

Almost straight after 'Parasites Lost' comes this, another incredible episode.

The plot is downright amazing. It manages to cram an insane amount of storyline into 22 minutes without feeling rushed at all. The way the story swaps back and forth between the past and the present (future) is just brilliant. Who'd have thought that a TV sitcom would ever feature such sophisticated non-linear narrative. And it is a sophisticated example because of the way that each scene in the past compliments the scenes in the future around it and the way it unfolds as one. Technical aspects aside, the storyline is full of emotion -and genuine emotion, not cheesy sitcom emotion. I was amazed at how touched I was when I first saw this because I just wasn't used to it. It handles subtle themes such as lonliness and unconditional love superbly and on top of that, we get to see a number of new locations for the show. All of which are richly detailed and interesting to look at -even the scenes set in the past.

It's not the funniest episode of Futurama ever, but it's certainly up there. Several moments are incredibly funny and the jokes never tread on the emotion -whilst the emotion never becomes overpowering. It's an insanely intricately balanced juggling act of comedy writing and they pull it off expertly.

The final moment is one of my favourite moments in Futurama history.

Written for The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10

This is probably my favourite enviornmentally conscious episode of Futurama -another of their 'one per season' traditions.

The storyline itself is nothing special, but it's written and directed in such a way so as it never becomes boring for a second. Each of the three lead characters get used in a brilliant way that truly develops them as people and Zoidberg has a big (but not too big) supporting role throughout which adds to the comedy.

Bender's subplot of escaping amongst the penguins is probably amongst the best Futurama subplots of all time. Not only does it compliment the central story well, but it's great on its own merits.

The humour is also on full force here. Not Futurama's funniest, but still very funny with a handful of outstanding jokes thrown in.

Phil Hendrie comes back as a new member of the Waterfall family, but unfortunately, this voice is far less inspired that his previous effort and far less fun to listen to. He also has a few moments of questionable line-delivery that let it down -though that's not to say he's a bad guest at all.

There are lots of great action sequences in this episode and the ending moment is absolutely hilarious.

Written for Bendless Love on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:5
Characters:9
Gags:7
Sideplot:9
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:8

This is an interesting episode. It's one of the weaker entries in a generally superb season, but it's not without it's good points.

The plot isn't too interesting by Futurama's standards and the humour's a cut below the usual for the show, but Jan Hooks is excellent as Angleyne and the robot mafia have a reprisal -and they're always good. It's also nice to see Flexo again.

The ending to this episode does bug me somewhat with Bender 'knowing nothing about lifting' being one of the few examples of lazy writing in the show's history, but it makes for a funny gag and doesn't really hurt the overall plot.

On the plus side, the subplot involving the professor is absolutely hilarious and one of my favourite side-stories in the show's run.

An entertaining episode but nothing special.

Written for The Day the Earth Stood Stupid on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:10
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

This episode is great. It's the first we see of Nibbler's double-life and the story of Earth vs the Brain Spawn is nice and epic, just as I like my sci-fi cartoons to be -that is, until they get to a library and things go downhill. It's not to say that the library sequence is bad, because it's not, it's great in fact, it's just not as great as the stuff that happened prior to it.

The episode is also one of Futurama's funniest ever. The first two acts with people behaving stupidly are just incredibly funny. The moment on the news involving a train may just be the funniest thing I've ever seen on Futurama.

There's also a nice little 'shock-twist' near the end which is set up and taken away within a minute, but it still has the impact intended.

This episode is brilliant and it set up for future brilliant episodes involving Nibblonians, Fry being the chosen one and so forth, too.

Written for That's Lobstertainment! on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:3
Plot:3
Characters:7
Gags:5
Sideplot:3
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:5

Often cited as Futurama's worst episode ever. It's not THAT bad, though it is certainly ONE OF the worst.

This is the second episode to take a shot at using Zoidberg as a central character and it just goes to show that it doesn't work. I love Zoidberg, but he's best in small doses as pure comic relief.

The storyline is fairly dull, opting to parody Hollywood more than tell a story people care about. It's not helped by Harold Zoid who is a relatively dull and unfunny character.

The humour is there, but it's weaker than Futurama's average episode. A lot of the jokes feel a little lazy thanks to them simply making fun of Hollywood.

There's also the minor continuity problem in that L.A. is seen to be a lovely, shiny, clean place here, whereas in The Cryonic Woman it was established to be a baron wasteland. This is only a minor quibble though, one that I'd have forgiven if the rest of the episode had been strong enough.

Written for The Cyber House Rules on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:9
Gags:8
Sideplot:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10

A somewhat bland episode peppered with good humour and a bit of heart.

The plot itself is an interesting idea but doesn't lend itself to anything too interesting. The subplot of Bender taking care of lots of children is also somewhat lacking in the comedy department.

It's certainly a decent offering though. Not bad, but not great either.

Written for Where the Buggalo Roam on 12 July 2010.

Overall rating:3
Plot:3
Characters:10
Gags:5
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:0
Music/sound quality:0

One of the worst episodes of Futurama but still not without merits. The plot is very, very dull and this is exacerbated by the incredibly dull visuals throughout. The color palette is all deserty and everything is a reddish brown. It's a shame because there's actually some moments of fantastic direction in the episode, particularly towards the end, it just suffers from its location. But then, I've never been a huge fan of westerns so maybe that's got something to do with it. The characters are for the most part, quite dull too. The leads are here and great as ever, but we're also stuck with Amy's parents who've never been funny and a number of Martians who are all based on stereotypical native Americans but are all very bland and lacking in interesting personality.

The comedy is a bit thinner than is usual for Futurama throughout the episode too. However, I should mention Zoidberg's running joke about making himself a bit too at home within the Wongs house being absolutely hilarious. "I took the liberty of fertilising your caviar" is among my favourite lines in Futurama history.

Written for Insane in the Mainframe on 12 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:10
Gags:10
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

One of my favourite pure-comedy episodes. You don't watch an episode like this for the story, you watch it to laugh.

That's not to say that the plot is bad, because it's not. The idea of a human being submitted to a robot insane asylum is inspired and the way it plays out is also absolutely wonderful, not only the mild twist which allows Fry out of the asylum but also the climax featuring Roberto (who debuts in this episode).

But as already implied, the episode is downright hilarious. The jokes are on full-form from start to finish -Futurama doesn't get much funnier than this.

The mixture of hilarity with a strong plot makes for a brilliant episode and one in classic Futurama form (interesting twists and turns and very funny in an original way).

Written for The Route of All Evil on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:5
Characters:10
Gags:3
Sideplot:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:7

One of the show's weaker episodes and a strange one at that. The overall premise isn't very Futurama-y at all, it instead focuses on Cubert and Dwight's paper-round. That results in an episode that isn't very Futurama-y at all, but somehow is quite charming in its own way. I'm in a minority that actually doesn't mind Cubert or Dwight, but even so, I don't think they're very suited to being lead characters as they are here. The episode's subplot is another strange one, but is probably one of the better subplots from the show's history. It's very, very sitcom-y -but not necessarily in a bad way.

On the humour front, the episode is lacking. It is funny, but not to Futurama's usual standards. To be honest, that sentiment sums it all up. It's a good piece of work, it's just not up to Futurama's usual standard of output.

Written for Bendin' in the Wind on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:9
Gags:8
Sideplot:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:9

An enjoyable call-back to The Series Has Landed. Not particularly sci-fi, but an enjoyable comedy take on the future of the music, concerts and so forth. The plot itself isn't incredible, but it makes decent use of a celebrity guest without them dominating things -and thankfully Beck can act reasonably well.

On the humour front, this is a strong example of Futurama. Very, very funny in Futurama's usual style. There's also a pretty good musical number (featuring Beck, yay) towards the end.

Written for Time Keeps on Slippin' on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:10
Music/sound quality:10

One of Futurama's best episodes.

The plot is a very unique take on time-travel and marks Futurama's first entry into that particular subgenre. But not only is it original and interesting, but there's a real emotional core to it all. This is another big Fry/Leela episode and it handles things beautifully. It develops Fry and Leela's characters wonderfully and the final moments are hauntingly touching.

The humour is quick-fire, with the episode's plot lending itself to rapid gags and the majority of them being great. There's also brilliant music and even better animation throughout. My only flaw is that if you're really nerdy, you'll spot a lot of minor inconsistencies with the rules of the time-skips, but you'd have to be looking for excuses to not enjoy the episode to let that bother you.

Overall, this episode, like many other episodes of the show, is a masterpiece.

Written for I Dated a Robot on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:6
Characters:9
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:6
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:8

A comedy-centric episode, and a pretty hilarious one at that. The storyline is interesting even if it isn't one of the show's best but the humour is definitely this episode's strong point. It's consistently very, very funny from star to finish.

Every other point throughout the episode is fairly average. The animation and music for example are standard for the show (which means that they're excellent). Overall, it's a good episode, purely because it's so funny.

Written for A Leela of Her Own on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:1
Plot:1
Characters:10
Gags:3
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:1
Continuity:6
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:6

The second worst episode of the original run after The Cryonic Woman and by far the worst episode of season 3.

The plot makes almost no use of Futurama's sci-fi setting and whilst I'm okay with a few episodes per season being of this nature, they have to have something good in the way of character or humour to make up for it. This episode's plot is incredibly dull and reduces Blernsball from a funny 'crazy' sport, to a carbon-copy of baseball where the only difference is the celebration for hitting the ball out of the park. The show's makers nail it as they joke about the episode in the commentary: don't make an episode about sports for sci-fi fans. Or if you have to, make it interesting.

If the episode was really funny, I might forgive a lot of its problems but it's one of the weakest episodes of the show ever in the gag-department. It's not without its moments, it's just not as funny as Futurama should be.

The visuals are bland throughout the episode -the most interesting they get is when they're parodying specific shots from other places. The nail in this episode's coffin has to be the worst guest appearance in the history of the show: Hank Aaron. Not only is the only person to appear in the show who cannot act to save his life (one of the big reasons that celebrity guests began to ruin The Simpsons), but his role is also laboured and unfunny.

All in all, it may still be good entertainment, but it's a terrible episode of Futurama.

Written for A Pharaoh to Remember on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

This episode gets a bad rap. It's a solid piece of work. The plot is fairly interesting and the jokes are all to a good standard. It has very little to make it stand out which is probably why it's so often disregarded.

One thing is does very nicely is to explore the idea of desire to be remembered. This is something television and film rarely touches on and is a brilliant bit of character development for Bender. Another is that it serves as a subtle homage to Star Trek (another planet that just so happens to be exactly like a period in history on Earth).

The episode also features surprisingly nice visuals. It has a very bland setting (it's basically ancient Egypt which basically means lots and lots of sand) but somehow it keeps it looking quite consistently interesting unlike other episodes with similar tasks (My Three Suns). The music isn't half-bad either.

Written for Anthology of Interest II on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:8
Characters:9
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:9
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:8

One of Futurama's funniest episodes ever, if not THE funniest. For my money, this episode is even better than the first.

The first segment is absolutely hilarious and the plot is, whilst derivative of a joke from the first Anthology of Interest, great fun. The character animation throughout this segment is outstanding too.

The second segment hit a soft-spot for me. I love video games, particularly retro ones, and so I found this segment extra-hilarious. I'm probably somewhat biased but I imagine most Futurama-nerds are at least familiar with video games.

The final segment is the weakest, but it's still good. The plot is only a simple parody of The Wizard of Oz, but the humour is still top-notch stuff. The visuals are gorgeous too.

Altogether, it's a brilliant way to spend 22 minutes.

Written for Roswell that Ends Well on 11 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:9
Gags:8
Sideplot:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10

The show's greatest achievement in my opinion. This episode is absolutely sublime.

Taking inspiration from a number of time travel films as well as an episode of Star Trek, the plot sees the crew travelling back in time. I'm already sold as a huge fan of the time-travel sub-genre. But more than simply going back in time, the characters become the aliens that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in the 50s. It's an absolutely brilliant twist on an otherwise fairly simple plot.

Meanwhile, Fry deals with keeping his grandfather alive, worried that if he dies, Fry himself will cease to exist. This leads itself into one of Futurama's more disturbing moments, but also one that set up for a few future episodes too, which is always a bonus. On the comedy-front, the episode is hilarious. Maybe not Futurama's funniest episode of all time, but it's still very funny.

The episode's direction is spectacular. The animation is gorgeous and every little location and movement is stunning to look at or brilliant in a more subtle way (see Leela's behaviour in the diner). The music is also amongst some of the best in Futurama's entire run and there are countless brilliant action sequences throughout the entire running time.

This episode is, as far as I'm concerned, the peak of the greatest show of all time -therefore making it the greatest piece of television ever. It's easy to see why it finally won Futurama an Emmy.

Written for Godfellas on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:5
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:10
Music/sound quality:9

I'm in a minority who doesn't think this is one of the greatest episodes of all time. It's certainly not bad, and I appreciate what the episode was trying to explore, I just don't feel as if it achieves to its fullest potential. A lot of the plot feels dull and certain elements (such as the visual design of the Shrimpkins and Malachi's voice being one of David Herman's stock-voices) just feel bland. Every cartoon ever has parodied The Twilight Zone's "The Little People" and I feel like most other parodies have pulled it off better.

That said, the plot we have here still isn't half-bad and Fry's searching for Bender subplot is very touching. I prefer it to the main story. They tie together well at the end.

The episode has less jokes than usual for Futurama, but that seems like a conscious decision to compliment the story and what jokes remain are fantastic. Fry's delivery of "I've NOT heard of them" is among my favourite lines in Futurama's history.

The character interaction is all very good and the overall animation is jaw-droppingly gorgeous as is a lot of the music. A strong episode, yes, but certainly not one of my favourites.

Written for Future Stock on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:6
Characters:9
Gags:5
Sideplot:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:7

A strange episode. The plot might as well be set in the present, but there are a lot of futuristic touches throughout for the purposes of jokes. The jokes aren't great but they're entertaining enough as is the episode in general. Certainly not one of Futurama's best moments, but still very entertaining and with a few great moments.

It's somewhat bland from a visual and music point of view, but then, given the plot there's not much more they could have done with it.

Written for The 30% Iron Chef on 16 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:6
Characters:10
Gags:5
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

A fun episode but still weak in most departments. It's a nice way of acknowledging Bender's previously established love of cookery and there's a lot of nice futuristic touches throughout. However, the jokes are mostly lacking and there's a larger reliance on humour from parodying specific moments from other film than usual.

Not bad by any means, just not up to Futurama's 'par'.

Written for Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch on 17 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

A very under-rated episode. It's no masterpiece, but it's far from one of the worst episodes as it's often labelled.

The first act is absolutely superb. It just goes downhill as the plot progresses. I've always liked Amy and Kif's relationship and feel as if it gives both characters a lot of depth, basically preventing them from being completely two-dimensional. The first act is also very Zapp Brannigan-heavy which is always a good thing. It keeps it quick and funny.

The overall concept of Amy and Kif having children is horrible and the sort of thing that might signal that a show has jumped the shark, but they're to stay in a larval stage for 20 years so it's fine... so long as we never see them again.

There's a lot of good jokes, but again, mostly all in the first act. The humour dries up a bit as the episode progresses. Altogether, it's not a bad episode at all, even if it's not one of the all time best.

Written for Leela's Homeworld on 17 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:7
Sideplot:5
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:9

A great episode. It's a very plot-heavy one, but in my opinion, that's a good thing. The jokes certainly aren't bad and this has a huge revelation for the series which has been building since the start of the show. On top of the storyline having a fair bit of scope and dealing with the sewer mutants (an aspect of the show I've always liked), there's a gigantic emotional core. It's genuinely very touching at the end, but in a happy way which makes a change for the show as it usually gets emotion through sadness.

The visuals are wonderfully interesting, as is pretty much always the case when the characters go into the sewers. The animation itself doesn't always live up to this, but it's still quality stuff.

It's rare for me to enjoy a Leela-episode as much as this as I find her the least interesting character out of the show's three leads, so it's saying quite a lot that I cared so much for her throughout this one. This episode proves that Kristin Gore was hired for her talent rather than her dad.

Written for Love and Rocket on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:3
Characters:9
Gags:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:9
Continuity:9
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

I'm not a huge fan of this episode. I like the use of the Planet Express Ship as a character, I love Sigourney Weaver's casting (and she gives a great performance); I even love the 2001: A Space Odyssey stuff.

What I don't like is most of the rest of the episode. It starts with a laboured Valentine's Day set up that isn't very funny, then there's very little plot beyond the ship going nuts and Leela shutting it down like Hal in 2001. And it still isn't very funny. The best joke that I remember is a callback to 'I Dated a Robot', but even that's more of a nod and a wink to fans of the show than a real joke.

The animation is gorgeous however with lots of lovely, space-y stuff to look at. Overall, it's bad Futurama, but still great TV.

Written for Less than Hero on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:6
Characters:8
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:9

A very funny episode. The plot really isn't up to much. It's a parody of the super-hero genre, in the simplest way possible (it's worth noting that the episode was created just before the massive boom in super-hero films so the super-hero mocking here is based on comics and old-timey TV shows more than anything). The story does what it does reasonably well though. My only complaints are that it feels somewhat bland given its potential.

The jokes are quick-fire and hilarious though and the episode also features possibly one of the best Futurama songs ever (well, two technically).

For anybody that cares, it also does a nice job of continuing the saga of Leela and her parents after it was effectively concluded with Leela's Homeworld.

Overall, a solid episode, but nothing special.

Written for A Taste of Freedom on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:2
Plot:5
Characters:9
Gags:3
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:5

The 2nd worst Futurama episode of the original run. Terrible.

The plot is dull, but worst of all, it's just not very funny. It's all set in New New York, so no cool alien planets and sexy animation to be found here and whilst I could cope with all this if it was hilarious, most of the jokes fall horribly flat.

That's not to say that the episode is all bad. It has some brilliant gags dotted about, they're just less frequent than is usual in Futurama and when I say it's a terrible episode, that's only compared to the brilliance of usual Futurama.

Written for Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:4
Plot:3
Characters:9
Gags:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:8
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:6

One of Futurama's weaker entries. It's a classic example of an episode that chooses to more-or-less ignore the show's sci-fi setting to tell a more traditionally sitcom-y story. That sort of thing CAN work (see 'I, Roommate'), but here it doesn't. Quite simply, the plot isn't interesting. It's a satire on censorship but the characters don't have many interesting things to do. This would all be forgivable if it was a drop-dead-from-laughing sort of episode, but it isn't. It's less funny than your average episode of the show.

It all combines to make for a rather weak entry into the Futurama canon.

Written for Jurassic Bark on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:9
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:9
Continuity:10
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:10

An episode that has everything. It's hilarious, the plot is character-driven and heartfelt, makes good use of the sci-fi setting and it's genuinely very sad at the end. I know a few people who hate this episode because it upsets them, but I've never understood that logic. If a piece of art can reach me emotionally, then all the more credit to it. The characters are all spot-on throughout the episode, whilst being developed very nicely. The technical aspects are all also on top-form: animation, music, acting. The choice of music at the end is also absolutely inspired. It's perfect. I've seen this episode AT LEAST 20 times now (most likely a lot more) and it still never fails to make me well up at the end.

One thing that's really worthy of praising is this episode's sense of scope. It's quite remarkable considering how little actually happens (for an episode of Futurama). There's no interplanetary travel and most of the episode takes place in the Planet Express building but yet, it still feels like one of the show's biggest episodes -something I put down to its excellent use of characters and fleshing out Fry's backstory.

Written for Crimes of the Hot on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:7
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:5
Continuity:8
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

Far from Futurama's best, but a solid episode all the same.

This is season 4's enviornmental episode (a yearly tradition for the show), this time looking at global warming. The plot is reasonably good, with lots and lots of robots who are always fun characters. The plot's strongest aspect is its humour however. It's not one of Futurama's funniest episodes ever, but it's a strong piece of work all the same. It also has some moments with very sexy animation.

I generally see this episode as a perfect example of Futurama's average output. Excellent entertainment when not taken in the context of Futurama.

Written for Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:0
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:7
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

This is one of Futurama's funniest episodes. The plot is a simple cartoon cliche (everybody reverts to being children) but it's pulled off with such wonderful panache that you really don't care. Somehow, I barely even cared that Bender was shown to have grown up from a little robot (which completely contradicts continuity as we've already seen Bender's birth).

The lack of caring is most probably down to the episode being absolutely hilarious. It's just wall-to-wall gags and they're mostly all great.

This is an example of Futurama when it's in full plot and comedy swing -the only thing that stops it ranking alongside the all time greatest episodes is that they had more emotional depth -but this sort of episode isn't suited to emotional depth so you can't hold it against it.

Written for The Why of Fry on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:6
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

This is a fantastic episode with a reveal of something set up since the pilot (which gave me nerdgasms because that sort of thing does that to me). The story is quite large in scope but never feels as fully epic as it should have done. But that's forgivable because at its heart, this is an episode about Fry's relationship with Leela and that side of things is handled beautifully. It makes excellent use of the show's continuity canon, both building off of the thing set up in the first episode, but also adding onto the events of The Day the Earth Stood Stupid and Roswell that Ends Well. It's also hilarious, as Futurama usually is and the animation and music aren't half bad either.

Written for Where No Fan Has Gone Before on 18 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:10
Continuity:8
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:10

I'm not a fan of shows doing an entire episode in homage to another show, but given than Star Trek is not only a culutral land-mark, but undoubtedly the biggest influence on Futurama after The Simpsons, so it's completely justified. The fact that they got the entire surviving cast of the original series of Star Trek in as guests just amplifies the episode's already high quality. Not only are they all nerderiffic celebrities, but they all have distinctive voices and they're all actors so their performances are great. The plot is wonderful as it's basically a perfect amalgamation of every Star Trek plot ever, but doesn't feel contrived or gimmicky. The gags are also brilliant. It definitely helps to know your Star Trek, but frankly if you don't have a basic knowledge of the show, you've been missing gags on Futurama for years. Every possible joke that hadn't already been made about Star Trek is made here. The jokes are all hilarious and the fact that so many are delivered by the cast of Star Trek whilst being about the cast of Star Trek makes it all better. Add on to that some wonderful animation and some of the best music in Futurama's entire run and this episode is a true gem -to the point that Family Guy attempted to capture the same lightning in a bottle a few years later with The Next Generation... but as usual Futurama was far better.

Written for The Sting on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:6
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:9
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:8

I'm in a minority that doesn't think this is Futurama's best episode ever. Hell, it's not even in my top 20. The plot is very touching and interesting, but the ending is just... I can't award high praise to anything that ends with "then they woke up and it was all a dream", no matter how good a job they make of it. All the same, it's very touching, features a lot of subtle writing and some lovely animation and music. However, some of it just feels like forced representations of madness and the Bee Happy musical number just comes out of nowhere, drags, isn't funny and feels completely out of place. It doesn't get the concept of Leela's madness over as I suspect it was intended.

This is also an episode that gives humour the back seat to plot, but I don't feel as if the plot is good enough to justify that, really.

All the same, it IS a good episode -I just feel that it's quite over-rated.

Written for Bend Her on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:3
Plot:2
Characters:7
Gags:3
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:6

One of all time worst episodes of Futurama.

Its plot is just amazingly dull given the show's sci-fi premise -so much so that something incredibly similar happened in real life last year. This is one of the most sitcom-y episodes of the show ever, but it just doesn't have the laughs that you need to back up doing a fairly boring plot. It's really, really unfunny (by Futurama's standards).

It's not the worst, but it's ONE of them.

Written for Obsoletely Fabulous on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:6
Characters:8
Gags:5
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

I find it strange that an episode so similar to The Sting was produced so closely to it, but all the same this is a fairly average episode. There's a decent plot, there's a decent amount of laughs, but nothing particularly special that stands out to you. The show's best aspect is probably some of its character designs, but that's not really something you remember episodes for. The overall animation and music are of a pretty high standard throughout the episode though, which is probably worth mentioning.

This to me, represents a mid-level episode of the show. Neither bad, nor great.

Written for The Farnsworth Parabox on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:10
Music/sound quality:8

This is my favourite episode of season 4 and my favourite pure-comedy episode. It may well be the funniest episode of the show ever. The plot is based around an absolutely wonderful, yet simple, science-fiction premise and it's pulled off hilariously and with some very interesting art-direction. Everything on is on full-beam here. Animation, music, jokes, even plot. There's even a tiny, weeney, subtle continuation of Fry and Leela's ongoing 'relationship'.

This is one of the episodes I'd recommend showing to people that are new to the show as it's such a strong piece of work without getting too heavy on emotional ties between characters.

Written for Three Hundred Big Boys on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:1
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:7

Amongst a sea of people who either adore or hate this episode, I seem to be alone in simply quite liking it. It's a nice little idea, even if it's borrowing very heavily from The Simpsons' "22 Short Films About Springfield". It's very funny and even though I despise the appearance of Roseanne (one of the worst guest stars in Futurama's history -it adds nothing and is so unfunny it makes me cringe, it's just shoe-horning a celebrity in to the show for no reason), there are enough wonderful moments to make up for it. Most noticably, Fry's story with the coffee climaxes in an INCREDIBLE way. The sequence when Fry drinks his 100th cup of coffee is one of my all time favourite Futurama moments and is beautiful to look at as well as being a beautiful concept and beautifully funny, if that makes sense.

It's quite a hit or miss episode, but given that it's basically a series of sketches all very tightly tied together a plot, that's sort of okay. If you're not enjoying one character's story, in a minute you'll have moved on to a different story.

Overall, a strong episode.

Written for Spanish Fry on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:5
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:6

Not bad, but nothing special. There's a lot of great gags in this episode even if most are quite cheap sex-jokes, I'm fine with that as it's sort of a 1-per-season tradition of Futurama's to make a 'dirty episode'.

The plot is very bland but serves as a vessle for gags to flow through and the episode is quite funny even if it's somewhat hit or miss.

Overall, I'll refer you back to the first line of this review.

Written for The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:9
Characters:10
Gags:10
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:10
Music/sound quality:10

Futurama's first of many 'finale's and a damn fine open-ended-ending too. I've read interviews where David X. Cohen said they tried to end on a show that didn't conclude things (because of the possibility of a 5th season still being there), but rather that they tried to create an episode that sums up everything Futurama is to people and with that in mind, this episode is a triumph. Let's see. It's hilarious, so that's ticked off. Certainly one of the show's funniest. Does it make use of the wonderful setting? There's no sci-fi epic here, but a constant bombardment of sci-fi gags more than make up for that, so again tick. Lastly, it's a wonderful Fry and Leela episode where their feelings for eachother are made very clear. The animation throughout the episode is excellent and it may well be Futurama's finest hour in the musical number department. Fry's opera allows for several songs to be showcased and each and every one is brilliant. There are also countless callbacks to past episodes without things being gratuitous and the Robot Devil makes a comeback! One of the best characters in the show's run and one of the best guest stars too.

It's not the greatest episode ever, but it's up there.

Written for Bender's Big Score on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:9
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:2
Sideplot:5
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10
Animation quality:6
Music/sound quality:10

I'm going to judge each of these films as 4 to be continued episodes rather than a movie because that's essentially how they were produced. With that in mind, Bender's Big Score is excellent and one of Futurama's finest hours (and a half). It features a wonderfully touching story (fun fact: this is the only film to ever make me cry -even Jurassic Bark didn't manage that) with a great amount of science fiction fun that takes a big swim in the proverbial pool of Futurama's established canon without (as some people seem to think) damaging the show's past episodes. In fact, as a time-travel nerd, I can vouch for this episode when I say that its time-travel is flawless. People seem to complain about it being confusing, which it is, but they also seem to complain about it not holding up. Thanks to the 'paradox correcting' aspect of the time-code, it holds up perfectly. I'm happy to explain how it does to anybody who doesn't 'get it'. The only bit that doesn't make complete sense is the paradox of where the time-code tattoo comes from which is clearly an intentionally 'chicken or the egg'-y moment, something you get in almost every piece of time-travel fiction. As for not damaging canon, it's operating with different timelines, like the most recent Star Trek film. Sorted.

Aaanyway. There are a lot of fan-wank moments, but you're a fan of the show right? If you're not, then why are you watching this film? Or reading this review? They're never gratuitous or at the expense of plot like things like this can be, they're just great little callbacks. On a side-note, this film features some of the best Futurama music ever.

After this gushing of praise, you may be wondering why it only gets a 9/10 from me. Well. It's by far and away the most unfunny thing Futurama had ever created up until this point. For me, Futurama has always been a sea of vaguely amusing jokes and concepts that make me smile inside with a fair few hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments dotted around. This film still has the vaguely amusing stuff, but honestly, I don't think there's a single laugh-out-loud gag in the entire 88 minute running time.

Thanks to the great plot, that still makes for a wonderful bit of entertainment, but one that left me bitterly dissapointed after awaiting more Futurama for over 4 years. It's a great comedy, it just isn't as funny as I expect Futurama to be. Once you get your head around that, it's a truly wonderful film and whilst it's far from being Futurama's best, it's among them.

Written for The Beast with a Billion Backs on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:7
Gags:8
Sideplot:4
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:10
Continuity:8
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:10

Just as with Bender's Big Score, I'm judging this as if it were 4 to-be-continued episodes rather than a film, because that's how it was produced and it's too episodic to work particularly well as a film.

I'm of a rare breed that genuinely likes this one. After the bitterly unfunny Bender's Big Score, Futurama's hilariousness was back! There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments to be found here.

The plot is far less focused than in Bender's Big Score, but it's still great fun. Epic enough to justify being a movie, playing on horror movie cliches in the third act (which I love) and then being genuinely, bizarrely original (in a good way) with the final segment featuring the entire universe dating another universe. A lot of people were turned off by the strangeness of the plot, but for me, this is what Futurama should always strive to do. Original sci-fi that's vaguely metaphyisical and thought-provoking whilst being a hilariously odd-ball concept at the same time.

Add on to that, that this features two of Futurama's all time best guest star appearances. Brittany Murphy was wonderful as Coleen, an interesting character that I didn't hate like so many others who seemed to see her as a reason to hate the film. Yes, it takes place soon after the events of Bender's Big Score, but it's not like Fry hasn't made his love for Leela very apparant before only to take what he can get when it comes his way seeing as she isn't interested. It was 100% within the established characters of the show for Fry to give up on Leela momentarily thanks to someone else being dangled in front of his nose. David Cross is even better as Yivo. He has a very distinct voice, and one that suits a cartoon -but he's also an actor so his performance is genuinely good.

On a final note, this episode may well feature the best Futurama music in the show's entire history. Some of the cues are genuinely beautiful and others are just damned cool.

Overall, this isn't Futurama's best work, but it sits happily alongside plenty of the show's reasonably strong episodes from the original run.

Written for Bender's Game on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:9
Gags:8
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:10
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:8

Just as with The Beast with a Billion Backs, I'm in a seemingly tiny minority who thinks this isn't half bad. Hell, the basic premise of the episode is absolutely brilliant, they just didn't pull it off to perfection.

The overall plot is poorly structured, I'll grant you that. What's there is great fun, it just doesn't work as a film and the fantasy segment, whilst a great idea, is purely filler that doesn't serve the overall story at all. But like I said, what is there is great and at the end of the day, this is more 4 to-be-continued episodes than a movie so the meandering structure isn't too much of a problem.

Especially as it's very funny. Probably the funniest of the movies. There's a lot of genuinely interesting new stuff to admire on the art-direction front and a nice reveal of something that I imagine has been building since the early days of the show.

It actually manages to parody the "I am your father" moment from Star Wars V and put an original spin on it that keeps it fresh and amusing. That's worthy of praise in itself.

If this was an episode, it'd be among the strongest. I think most peoples complaints stem from them expecting theatrical quality movies from the show's 5th season. It just wasn't going to happen.

Written for Into the Wild Green Yonder on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:3
Plot:3
Characters:10
Gags:2
Sideplot:3
Voice actor performance:10
Guest actor performance:2
Continuity:10
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:8

For my money, this is BY FAR the worst of the movies (yeah I know you love it, bite me).

Where to begin? It's about as funny as Bender's Big Score, which if you've read my review, you might remember I found to be bitterly unfunny. However, I forgave Bender's Big Score due to its wonderful storyline.

What does this have going for it in the story department? An epic science fiction adventure? Nope, some boring environmentalist crap about bringing a bunch of animals that went extinct and thus "failed nature's test" in Fry's own words back to life. People have argued to me that this is an epic because the dark ones were slowly but surely wiping out all life in the universe. Oh no! You mean that without the events of this film, all life might have ceased to be several more MILLION years down the line? That's a really urgent struggle between good and evil I can get behind. Is there an emotional core to the story? Sort of. There's some nice Fry and Leela stuff but it just feels tacked on to the plot. It doesn't compliment anything else going on and ultimately I couldn't buy into Leela suddenly confessing her love for Fry at the end when you see some of the gestures she's flat out ignored in the past. What about interesting new places for the characters to explore? None of that here. They go to Mars. Mars. The most boring location in Futurama's history. The location responsible for the craptacular Mars University and Where the Buggalo Roam. Great! Animation and music? Well the animation is pretty sexy when they're in space, but a lot of it is wasted on Mars which just looks bland. The music is adequate, nothing special by Futurama's standards.

But my complaints are still far from over. Let's look at the guest stars. Penn Jilette shows up as himself and does a fine job, he's off the hook. Seth MacFarlane sings the opening song which is also very nice; again, he's off the hook. But that leaves us with Snoop Dogg. Not only can the guy not act whatsoever but his appearance is self-gratifying, does nothing to help the story and really only offers to inject a vast number of TERRIBLE hip-hop jokes into the script. We also have Phil Hendrie, the man responsible for the wonderful Free Waterfall family. If you recall A Taste of Freedom, the funning gag of passing the baton from Free Waterfall family members ended with Frida Waterfall running into the fray. Phil Hendrie voicing a woman was fine as a throw-away gag which is basically what it was. However, she returns and is a gigantic part of this film's plot and her voice is utterly grating. It's awful. It's clearly a man doing a sub-Monty Python woman voice and it sounds horrible as well as not fitting within Futurama's universe. Plus the character herself is awful and nothing she says is remotely funny unless you get off on puns.

This film is the most hated by passive fans and viewers in my experience, and yet, for some reason, the most beloved by Futurama's hardcore fans. I will never understand why as for me, it's one of the weakest entries into Futurama's canon of all time. Not quite as bad as episodes like The Cryonic Woman, but I'd certainly watch That's Lobstertainment! over it any day.

Written for Rebirth on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:8
Gags:8
Sideplot:7
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:10
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:4

A great return to the show. The pacing is a little off and the plot seems a bit all over the place, but I put this down to the show having to deal with quite a lot, being a transitional episode from the end of Into the Wild Green Yonder, into new Futurama. The plot has a really, really cool basic premise and for the most part, plays out brilliantly. There's a fantastic twist and it handles the whole Fry/Leela situation quite nicely. The plot does feel a bit messy though and a handful of the jokes are downright terrible -but the vast majority of the humour is absolutely hilarious and more than makes up for the weak jokes, just as the plot's overall strength makes up for the weak elements. It's not an all-time classic episode, but it's a very strong one and a great start to the season and it's nice to see that the voice-work and animation quality are as good as ever even if the music is possibly the worst work in the show's entire run -something I would put down to it now being synthesized if it wasn't for the fact that Bender's Big Score and The Beast with a Billion Backs both had wonderful music.

Written for In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:2
Plot:2
Characters:2
Gags:3
Sideplot:2
Voice actor performance:9
Guest actor performance:2
Continuity:6
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:6

After Rebirth, this is quite a lame way to continue. It's not the worst episode ever, but it's not far off. The first act isn't half bad, with plenty of classic Zapp Brannigan humour. There's a recurring dream-sequence throughout the episode where we see 'The Transcribable Exploits of Zapp Brannigan', a parody of old sci-fi serials which offer a great insight into Zapp's mind. However, the episode gets bad, quickly. Firstly, there's FAR too much sexual humour. I don't have a problem with this in episodes like Amazon Women in the Mood or Spanish Fry because they were actually funny and had intelligence behind them. Here, a space probe is called V-Giny. It's pathetically peurile and Futurama used to be better than that. The probe itself is quite an undeveloped subplot (which should have been the main plot really). Leela acts completely out of character too. Whilst she was 'delirious from dehydration' to begin with, she rehydrates herself with a juicy apple at the end and remains out of character. The ending is awful and destroys a lot of what we know about the characters and so on. Chris Elliott shows up for one of the worst guest appearances in the show's history, turning in a poor performance from an acting point of view, and it's all completely unnecessary. There's also a fucking snake that I hate. It's supposed to be a hallucination, but it's just lame. The episode stinks and is far below Futurama's usual standards. I'm going to attribute it to the writer Carolyn Premish, someone that nobody has ever heard of before and clearly is stupid and shouldn't be allowed to write for the show ever again. I still have faith that the season will pick up however.

Written for Attack of the Killer App on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:1
Plot:1
Characters:8
Gags:6
Sideplot:9
Voice actor performance:9
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:8
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:5

I hate to be 'that guy' but WORST. EPISODE. EVER. I'm not one to use hyperbole when talking about the quality of TV episodes and what have you. I loved the first 3 Futurama movies and Rebirth. This episode is just terrible. One of the biggest problems is the lack of humour. There's a lot of gags, but almost all of them fell flat for me. I did find some of it funny, but much less than I usually find funny in Futurama. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if the plot held up, but it doesn't. The plot starts out slowly, dealing simply with characters getting EyePhones and lots of jokes about social networking and so forth. Then what could have been a great plot begins to unfold with Mom having a conspiracy to turn people into mindless zombies using their EyePhone implants, however, there's a few plot holes regarding how she goes about using this and then the episode just ends. It's ridiculously abrupt, offers no conclusion or satisfaction -to the point that it feels like part 1 of a to-be-continued episode (it isn't) and worst of all, I can guarantee that EyePhones never come back or how they just disappear after this episode won't be explained. I get that the end is a joke, it just isn't funny and plot should always come first, humour second. That's always worked for Futurama in the past, and it's also a rule that Family Guy consistently breaks which leads people to criticise it. Thank God the show picked up after this.

Written for Proposition Infinity on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:5
Plot:5
Characters:4
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:9
Guest actor performance:7
Continuity:7
Animation quality:7
Music/sound quality:7

By far, the most 'classic Futurama' episode up until this point in season 6. Whilst I preferred 'Rebirth' considerably, 'Proposition Infinity' could fit into season 3 or 4 easily which is something I can't say about 'Rebirth', despite liking it a lot. It would be one of the weaker episodes of the season, granted, but wahay! Futurama's back to average classic episode standard which is great! If they keep moving upwards in quality like this, this could be a great season. The pacing wasn't off in this one and there were plenty of background gags and more importantly: some nice nerd humour (there's a fantastic Star Trek sight gag for anyone who cares). I do still have some problems with this episode though. My biggest problem being the characterisation. There's nothing as bad as Leela in In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela, but I don't buy Bender falling for Amy, I don't buy Amy getting over Kif so quickly, and I don't buy Kif having the balls to split up with Amy -plus their break up and getting back together is incredibly rushed, serving no purpose other than to allow this particular episode's story to happen without messing with continuity. The episode's resolution is also somewhat rushed and pulled from nowhere, but it's not as bad as it could have been.

All in all, 'Proposition Infinity' is a very funny episode and sits as an average episode in the show's overall canon -which means it's very good television. The episode was written by Mike Rowe whose previous writing credit is for 'Bend Her', one of the show's worst episodes -so at very least, 'Proposition Infinity' is a huge improvement over Mike's last episode. Hopefully writers will continue to produce their best work yet and Ken Keeler's contribution this time round will be incredible. There's still plenty of time for season 6 to wow us and I'm a lot more hopeful than I was last week.

Written for The Duh-Vinci Code on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:6
Plot:6
Characters:8
Gags:8
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:9
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:9

'Proposition Infinity' was a gigantic improvement from 'Attack of the Killer App' and 'The Duh-Vinci Code' is a gigantic improvement from 'Proposition Infinity'. Firstly, this is by far the episode that resembles classic Futurama the most so far this season. Last week did a pretty good job but the characterisation was off. This week is the same except that the characters are spot-on albeit exaggerated in certain aspects somewhat for the purposes of the plot. Fry is far stupider than usual because the episode requires it from him, but his intelligence and common sense have always been flexible so it doesn't bother me and character traits have always come in and out of play depending on what was needed. 'The Luck of the Fryrish' for example, makes Fry incredibly unlucky -far more than usual -because it's plot-relevant. That remains one of the very best episodes of Futurama ever.

The episode begins with Fry on a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which serves as a lovely segway into duscussion of how stupid he is. A small detail I loved is how Leela actually defends his stupidity -it's a subtle hint at the way that she is warming to the idea of him, setting up their dating for later this season. And whilst we're on the topic of characters, I love the pairing of Fry and the Professor -something we get here -and I adore this episode for finally exploring their relationship as relatives somewhat in-depth -something that they should have done in the first season in all honesty.

The plot itself is nice and fast paced despite a lot of weaknesses and little flaws. It slows down in the final act, but it also gives a nice little sci-fi twist and one that compliments the episode's overall theme of intelligence beautifully. It's very well written in terms of structure. It is a parody of The Da-Vinci Code to an extent, but really -there's very little beyond the basic concept of someone uncovering some sort of conspiracy and Rome being a setting. I haven't read the book and I despised the film (and can't remember any of it) and I was never left not getting the jokes.

It's also a very funny episode. Not one of Futurama's all-time funniest, but on par with their average output. The animation is also top-notch and the music is utterly brilliant. Also, on a minor note, I actually like the title now. At first I hated 'The Duh-Vinci Code' as a name. It seemed incredibly lame, lazy and just a cheap way of referencing The Da Vinci Code, but given that the episode is both about Leonardo Da Vinci and Fry being an idiot, it actually works quite nicely.

If Futurama continues to improve like this, then season 6 could be something special afterall! Here's to the future(ama).

Written for Lethal Inspection on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:7
Voice actor performance:9
Continuity:8
Animation quality:8
Music/sound quality:7

Wahoo! Lethal Inspection continues the upward trend of season 6 after the epic lull of Attack of the Killer App. Unlike Proposition Infinity and The Duh-Vinci Code, I didn't feel that this episode felt much like 'classic' Futurama. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It felt sort of like 'Futurama Redux' or something like that if it makes sense.

The first 5 minutes suck and may well be Futurama's lamest opening, set-up, act-1 gag-fest type section of the episode ever. But soon after that Bender is forced to face mortality and we're given an interesting pairing of lead characters in Bender and Hermes. It's a nice, relatively understated plot concept and one that plays out very nicely -in part thanks to the episode's absolutely outstanding direction. Much of the shots and little, subtle details are just incredible (the sequence when Bender starts punching a wall may well be my favourite 'subtle touch' in Futurama's history. It says so much about the character and what he's going through and doesn't exist to set up a joke or plot-point).

The ending was wonderful. If you're familiar with Futurama, this episode uses the same formula as Jurassic Bark, The Luck of the Fryrish and most similarly, Leela's Homeworld. It isn't sad, but it's very touching and sweet.

The episode's weakest area is definitely its humour. It's probably the least funny episode since In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela and most of the jokes that do work are strange, vaguely surreal or oddly worded little moments -not usual Futurama humour at all. However, I'm a firm believer that comedy built around a strong plot is always better than plot built around strong comedy and the storyline here is definitely good enough to forgive the jokes being somewhat lighter than usual. And the episode is still funny, I should point out -just not as funny as Futurama usually is.

Overall, it's the best constructed episode of the season so far (well, it was when it aired) and comes close to Rebirth for best episode of the season, but I side with Rebirth purely as it was a lot funnier for me. It was nice to see that this upward trend continued on to the next episode.

Written for The Late Philip J. Fry on 30 July 2010.

Overall rating:10
Plot:10
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:10
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:8
Animation quality:10
Music/sound quality:10

There we have it. The best episode of season 6 so far, the first episode to be better than the movies. Wonderful. This episode features the best concept in Futurama's entire history (something I used to say about Roswell that Ends Well) and whilst its execution of the concept isn't as good as some other episodes, it's still pretty sublime work. This episode is a science fiction epic, it's another brilliant entry into the Fry and Leela saga and it's the funniest episode of season 6 so far which evens out to make it one of the best episodes in the entire history of Futurama. I have very little to say which means I have very little to complain about, meaning that they got it pretty much spot-on. When I ranked the episodes to figure out what rating to give this, it sat between my favourite 9/10 episode and my least favourite 10/10 episode, so I thought I'd round up and give it a 10. Oh, and there's a hilarious musical number which I wasn't expecting.

Written for That Darn Katz! on 6 August 2010.

Overall rating:7
Plot:7
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:8
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:8
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:7

I liked it.

It's not one of Futurama's all time greats, but it's a healthy middle-ground episode. Very funny and it addresses the change in relationship between Leela and Nibbler now that she's aware of his intelligence -something I never found satisfactory in Bender's Game. It's also nice to see Amy's degree finally being addressed too. Add on to that, an unusual pairing of Nibbler and Amy -hell, seeing Nibbler in a non-epic episode like this is unusual in itself, but also add lots of great humour (and one terrible can-can joke that we'll ignore) and a lovely concept involving cats being aliens that came to Ancient Egypt and were worshipped as Gods due to their technology and you've got a good episode on your hands.

Written for A Clockwork Origin on 13 August 2010.

Overall rating:8
Plot:8
Characters:10
Gags:8
Sideplot:9
Voice actor performance:10
Continuity:10
Animation quality:9
Music/sound quality:7

A surprisingly good episode!

Very funny. Possibly the funniest episode of season 6 so far. But also, the plot was surprisingly interesting and full of cool science-fiction (and the science that goes with that). It tackled the whole evolution vs creationism debate brilliantly. Offering a decent argument for both sides whilst very clearly sitting on the sane side.

The subplot was absolutely hilarious too. It's rare to get such a good, funny subplot in such a cool, science-y 'epic' of an A-storyline.

To top it off, there was some lovely bits of art-direction and animation.

All in all, one of the best episodes so far this season.