Futurama has accidentally become a fascinating document of social change
independent.co.uk
I've just found this article about Futurama on The Independent, a UK newspaper. It comments on the changes in Futurama reflecting the changes in society in general.
The satirical show has to change with the times. It's true. Some of the jokes do get dated. It's hard to write ageless satire. Satire only exists inside of a context. Which is time-bound.
I'm hopeful they're going to find a nice stride this season. The first episode seemed like a rehash of previous ideas. I'm looking forward to some deep satire and thinking coming forward
I'm hoping it gets better. The last time they got canceled and came back they made a few jokes about it then moved on. This time it seemed to be a whole episode focused on the joke.
Are they still the most educated writing staff on TV? IIRC the original writing staff had a bunch of PhD peeps.
I noticed the same thing! It seems like Hulu was really keen on making the first episode all about Hulu, which was annoying and a big red flag for me. Last time I remember they made a "we're back on a new channel" joke it was a bit more subtle and all of 15 seconds long. This new episode just felt like one long eternalized ad.
To be fair the episode was centered around streaming so it makes sense to have some Hulu jokes. Although that might just be an excuse to include more Hulu jokes
There were several Hulu jokes in the Animaniacs reboot too. I wasn’t too put off by them. I guess its trendy these days. Netflix OC Black Mirror is full of meta.
Wait, Futurama is back?!!!
Yes
Sadly
Everytime I see headlines about documenting periods with TV productions the Simpson kick in.
A single blue collar income capable of buying a house, two cars and food for a family of 6.
Did not realize it was a fantasy show.
Homer has a union job — he was literally head of the union — and Marge got to keep all that Pretzel Wagon money after the Investorettes hired the Yakuza to take out her mafia protectors.
^^ This guy simpson
6? Are you counting Hugo or something?
It's mentioned various times that they're paying for grandpa's stay at the retirement home, so I imagine that's the sixth.
Yup I was counting Abraham
Fish heads aren't cheap nowadays
Tbf, blue collar jobs at nuke plants can pay very well. I knew a tradesman who worked at a plant near me that was paid very well to essentially just always be on call on site in case something in his area of expertise needed fixing, which really does remind me of Homer sleeping on the job because most of the time nuke plants just run themselves.
"Changes aren't permanent.
But change is."
-Stoner Headbang
I just recently started rewatching and I was amused by the “gender neutral pac-person” arcade cabinet in the first season, a gag that became even more topical over time.
Zeitgeist / Hegel.
He argued that art reflects the culture of the time in which it was created.
Suspect this is especially true for larger productions, where you have numerous people influencing the production, writers, producers, actors, the studio, director, etc.
Star Trek is the same way. Look at the newer series and how many of them reflect contemporary issues.
The first episode was very meh. No moments where I actually really laughed. Not a great start to the reboot.
It wasn't strong, but I felt like it was to rebase the whole thing. Because it retcons part of the previous end and sort of set expectations for going forward. Like drawing a line in the sand. This is Futurama and this is Hulu's Futurama
This is a VERY good way to put it. I imagine its hard to start where they left off with so much time in between. Writing styles and comedy have changed within the last 10 years. We're in the age of attention on top of that.
Im not saying that it wont be Futurama. It will be. It just wont taking off running with the steam they left off at.
And i think thats exactly what the first episode encapsulated. It wasnt bad. But it didnt really have any juice to it. To me it felt like it was because they were more focused on shoving the 'idea' of futurama down your throat more than anything else.
With that said, I really do hope the next couple of episodes are better.
So far only one joke made me laugh in every episode. Hopefully it will get better. We need some crazy bender episode. 😇
Aha! Thank you for reminding me that the new season had started. I just downloaded the first ep (fuck hulu).
I found it horrendous that they placed their name in the title.. Fuck Hulurama, it's Futurama. I like it more than The Simpsons so I hope they won't fuck it up like The Simpsons.
Are you really complaining about the title sequence gag?