Futurama - "Attack of the Killer App" - Talkback [7/1]

Well that was a waste of a perfectly good slave army. They would have been dumb enough to by the next generation version of the eyePhone.
 
Although this ep had some funny moments, not really a great ep overall.

Kinda disappointed, I liked the first two eps. This one was average.
 
Yeah, but even then, those episodes weren't focused completely on blatant references. Before, those type of references were in the background and didn't force the actual story to take a backseat to them. To me, this episode felt like "Apple! iPhones! Twitter! Susan Boyle! Laugh at us, we're culturally relevant!".
 
Maybe I'm overanalyzing things, but this season feels a bit off thus far. A lot of the jokes seem forced and lean more towards toilet humor just for the sake of toilet humor. For me, Futurama's humor has always been in its smartness.
 
You know, that episode was a bit freaky and weird. Kind of felt sorry for Flexo. I was expecting that part was going to lead to the main plot with Bender. Did find it a bit gross that they were literal eyephones. You know, Leela's reaction to that video being out was not exactly what I was expecting. I was thinking Fry was going to get the beating of a lifetime. I guess that means that Leela is starting to ease up on him. I was hoping that the heroes would stop Mom's plan with the twit-worm, which incidentally, wasn't what I was expecting either. I mean, going through all that trouble just to get them to buy an upgraded phone? I was thinking it would be more of a 'conquer the world' thing. Oh, well, at least Fry and Leela weren't taken in this time.

I must say, I don't know whether it's because it's now because Comedy Central is running it, I haven't seen new episodes for awhile, or because I've never actually seen the previous episodes air, but these new episodes don't exactly feel like the others I'm use to seeing. Then again, when I watched the fourth season of Kim Possible, it didn't exactly feel like the other three seasons (probably because of the added element of Kim and Ron dating), but I found it good (although I do wish they had more K/R romance in it). Perhaps I'll warm up to this new series. Next week's episode is very interesting (though I wonder how this will effect things with Amy and Kiff).
 
There was plenty of smart material in this episode -- the opener on the Third World Planet is exactly what happens to E-waste, and nobody's doing anything about it.

It's just that the potty stuff was a lot louder this time. I join the rest in hoping that's not a trend, because it's not funny.
 
Yes, that was the joke, and it was a pretty funny one. At least to me it was. Every episode doesn't have to be an epic struggle between good and evil. Some stories can just bring the laughs. One thing that I've always liked about Futurama is how the series never takes itself too seriously.

I also thought that it was really funny how the EyePhone was called that because it was literally installed inside the eyes. That's probably where this iPhone technology is headed; Apple will just attach the device to your brain so you won't need to carry it around with you. :D
 
The ending was...annoying. Leela and Fry can't be that blind to notice the people.

It would've been better if they think they were just going somewhere.

Also, it doesn't looks like they're in a lovely relationship. Don't tell me they're suddenly "just friends" again...

As for other potty humor, other than the goat, I don't think I noticed most other stuff that was in the potty humor territory. Thing is, are any of Comedy Central's animated shows ever been clean?
 
Truthfully, the goat didn't seem out of place - it's not like they wouldn't make similar joke on Fox. In fact, don't forget that the original run included a giant toilet as a central gag in one episode, and that Slurm is slug doo doo. Futurama has, as such, always been a mix of high and low brow humor.

That said, the opening section on e-waste was devastating. That really is how it's done, except the other planet is China. In fact, that photo spread doesn't even show how bad it is, lets try this 60 minutes report instead. The next time you want to throw out or even recycle your perfectly functional/maybe needs a 5 dollar battery from eBay, don't.

The apple jokes are a bit easy, and dare I say - the Simpsons did it, but truthfully, it's nice to see no punches pulled. Every last jab was well earned, and the jokes about dropped calls and reception trouble seem particularly valid as of late. The only obvious joke the missed would've been Bender making a joke about getting an Android phone (ha robots,) though at the time they likely wrote and animated this episode, that OS was still in it's infancy. Maybe they can do that in a future episode.

The viral video/twitter part might be the most likely part of the show to feel dated, but we could argue the same for anything Futurama has mentioned in regards to pop culture. I mean, have you heard a new Beastie Boys song on the radio lately? What the last movie you saw staring Lucy Liu? AOL humor? If we're going to pick on Futurama for skewing current trends through Sci-Fi, well, that's undermining with one of the classic elements of Sci-Fi - using the distance the future or other worlds provided to produce social commentary about the real world.

Besides, I'd say the few moments of lazy backgrounds and odd character animation is the more Comedy Central related problem. The low budget has definitely dropped the overall amount of Cel-CG and the level of refinement in the animation. It's not bad, but it's becoming pretty clear that it's not just an issue of getting the staff warmed up again - they just don't have the same budget, and this is the new average for the show. Especially against the recent Simpsons episodes, many of which seem to go nuts with surprisingly detailed shots as of late, it's clear Futurama is operating at a bit of an animation handicap.

It's still very funny though.
 
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