i_c_weiner

For a series pilot, this ranks among the best for intriguing and grabbing an audience. As an overall episode of the series, it's pretty good.

The pilot sets up the series pretty well as neither a utopia nor a dystopia but just a society like today. That's a reoccuring theme of the series as a whole: the 31st Century is just like the 21st Century. Sure, you have crazy looping tubes instead of subways, but mass transit is still tedious and annoying with long lines and delays.

It also sets up two reoccuring elements: Heads in Jars and the night of December 31st, 1999. The former sets up hilarious situations, as, although this is 1000 years in the future, any celebrity of today or even the past can show up. Great examples in future episodes include the return of Nixon and Chester A. Arthur falling down. December 31st reappears in almost every major episode of the series and sets up what's referred to as the Origins story arc, along with "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid", "Roswell That Ends Well", and "The Why of Fry". These episodes make up the core of Futurama's sci-fi roots. It's also touched upon in episodes such as "Love's Labours Lost in Space", "Jurassic Bark", "Bender's Big Score", and "Into the Wild Green Yonder" due to it's relations to the shadow and the ramifications of time travel.

The gags were light in this episode otherwise, and the voice acting wasn't up to par of the performances in Season 2 and beyond. Bender and the Professor sound off in this episode. The guest voices of Leonard Nimoy and Dick Clark were fantastically fun, especially as Nimoy becomes reoccurring later in the series.

Proposition Infinity signals the return of "Classic 72" Futurama humor.

The scene that truly made me feel like Futurama "was back" was when Bender was listing all the types of marriage allowed on Earth. You had your recent call-back (Fanny), your geeky reference ("Let That Be Your Battlefield" black-and-white aliens), your not-so-highly-regarded episode call-back (Michelle and Pauly Shore), popular peripheral character (HGB), and finally the purely random character that sets up a joke soon enough (the ghost). This was a true "Original 72" form scheme, and the Star Trek reference was truly one of the geekiest moments of the new run.

The plot sped along at a nice pace, finally getting out of the long-form style of the films and back to episodic format. All the character interaction made sense as well. Amy's always had that bad girl edge to her, so her attraction to bad boys has both been known for a while and is understandable for her character. This episode also makes a return of good ole fashioned whorish Amy, which is only a good thing.

Bender's character seems odd until the final scene when he realizes marriage to Amy means monogamy. In true Bender fashion, he ditches that idea immediately. When has Bender been fully committed to monogamy in the past? Sure, it wasn't his usual scheming self, but he still made sense.

The Professor's doubling back from previous opinions (against robosexuality in "I Dated A Robot", for it in "Rebirth", and now against it here) seems odd. The Professor is usually the kinkiest and farthest from sexual norms of the entire crew, so his initial disdain for their robosexuality seems to just be degrading him to the stock senile old man character. His then final role reversal at the end makes sense for his character because that position make sense for him, but it still irks me.

The episode also featured quality lines from Hermes and Zoidberg. Of note are Hermes' "We're talkin' 'bout a lot of things!" and the exchange between the two of (paraphrasing): Hermes: It shouldn't be nobody's business what goes on in private between two consenting adults. Zoidberg: Or one!

However, it did feature some loose-end plots. Circusitis, while funny, was just left there and wasn't referenced ever again. The visit it Planet Tornadus was likewise. It wasn't referenced before or after, although a hilarious scene. It's only purpose was to set up the reveal of Bender/Amy to the crew, but that could've been done anywhere, or their mission could've been better set-up in the grand scheme of the episode.

Takei's appearance also had some good lines, but it's always a disappointment to me when a guest is relegated to being a minor background B-character when his appearance is tooted about in the press. I always enjoy whenever a guest can appear either as an original character or himself in a deprecating manner; at least this appearance was basically the latter. Much more akin to Beck than to Pamela Anderson. Takei's a good sport, and his appearance is definitely relevant given the episode's theme.

When I first heard the episode title "The Duh-Vinci Code", I cringed. It reminded me of a late-seasons Simpsons episode title. Actually, I'm quite surprised they haven't used that one yet. However, once I watched this episode, my opinion could not have taken more of a reversal.

The plot's theme is around being smart. Fry's stupidity has become a running gag on the show, especially in comparison to the Professor's genius, but it has not been tackled as much as it had been in this episode. The opening scene sets the stage for a look at Fry's stupidity, with Farnsworth then making fun of Fry throughout the first two acts for his idiocracy. Finally, in the third act, when Farnsworth's dream of being on a planet full of geniuses comes true, he realizes it's not all it's cracked up to be. Hubert finally feels how Fry does; he's the stupidest person on the planet. When they leave the Planet Vinci, they have a whole new understanding of each other.

Not only does the episode display some of the show's signature heart, but it also features a nice B-plot (if we can call it that?) of a Da Vinci Code parody. For me, this was great and produced plenty of quality one-liners and gags (Most indeededly, My doctorate's in Art History, Didn't we used to be a delivery company, Bender's arm coming off). And let us not forget the nail hammering a nail running gag! And the geek humor on Planet Vinci!

One detraction is the Professor's maniacal laugh. It felt totally off.