Futurama

     Futurama is, in my opinion, one of the best animated sitcoms of all times. First aired on FOX between 1999 and 2003 then canceled to only have reruns on Adult Swim. In 2007, four really good movies came out until 2008 when Comedy Central started to air new episodes and now episodes are scheduled to air at least until 2012-13. 

Why do I like Futurama so much ? Because it gives an interesting point of view of our own society but with an imaginary perception from the future. Not only that, it's a pretty funny show with touching characters. 

Not too much touchy-feely, but a cute subtle twist at the end of most episodes like in "Where the Buggalo Roam" S03 E10, when Kif and Amy kiss and Kif writes in his diary with his particular voice "Dear Diary, I just made love for the second time". I like that little touch of cuteness because it isn't overbearing, yet keeps the show in the Sitcom tradition. 

     The songs and music are really good and I admire Christopher Tyng for bringing the series alive with such awesome tunes. 

      The character balance is... interesting. The Gender Equilibrium is a bit off and like in many animated sitcoms, main characters and secondary characters change from one episode to another. It is true that the big picture depicts only two female characters, Leela and Amy, against Fry, Bender, the Professor, Dr. Zoidberg and Hermes. But let's look at it in a different way : Amy is an intern at Planet Express and studies Advanced Physics at Mars University while Leela is the captain of the Planet Express ship. Now Fry is a dim-witted delivery boy, Bender is a bending robot fueled by booze, the Professor is a senile mad scientist, Dr. Zoidberg has no medical training and Hermes gets off while bureaucrating. 

     The male characters have much more erratic behavior than the female characters. So the female characters, even if they balance each other out, also contrast with the male characters giving them a righteous place in the balance of the show. 

     Futurama also has a lot of Guest stars, just like the Simpsons, and of course often lets Al Gore on the show. Futurama does have a certain environnemental message to convey and, according to me, any message is best given through humour. If we laugh at ourselves, we might see how we should change for a better future. 

Obviously, and I know I'm not the only one, one of the greatest guest stars is the Robot Devil voiced by none other than Dan Castellaneta, aka Homer Simpson. I just love any episode where he appears and this brings me to what I really wanted to say about Futurama.

     My favorite episode of Futurama and of the whole Sitcom Universe is "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" S04 E18. Actually, this was the last episode to be aired before the show was canceled on FOX, I believe. I have a soft-spot for shows depicting opera, not that I like opera that much. I mean I really loved "Homer of Seville" (the Simpsons S19 E02) and "Dewey's Opera" (Malcolm in the Middle S06 E11), but Futurama did something outstanding in this episode. People talk a lot about Shakespeare doing a play in a play, well Futurama did the same thing : an opera in an opera. The episode was nominated for several awards just for the music and lyrics and especially for the song "I want my hands back". 

      Taking what is stereotypically "operatic" and adding it to a sitcom gives an edge to the episode making it much more intense and honestly emotional. The plot was somewhat based on the story of Doctor Faust and has a typical element of the Tragedy genre which is the Dilemma. Indeed, Fry must choose between keeping the Devil's hands that made Leela fall in love with him but losing Leela to the Robot Devil or giving the hands back and lose his musical abilities and therefore the love of Leela. 

    I strongly recommend everyone to watch this episode. 

         These are some of the reasons why I appreciate Futurama so much. There are plenty more that I'm sorry not to be able to put in this post. Soon though, I will talk about Futurama again and try to reference it more frequently in future posts.

That's it for today,

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Thank you,

TRJ