FUTURAMA
Billy
West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio
Created by Matt Groening
The
Curiosity Company/Rough Draft/30th Century Fox
One
thousand years and the day after tomorrow, the fate of the universe lies in the
hands of a man so stupid, he thought The Breakfast Club was a piece of
Cro-Magnon cutlery.
Futurama
is the story of Philip J. Fry, erstwhile delivery boy and sometime space bum,
frozen in time on the eve of the Millennium, and revived in 31st
Century New York City. Leaving behind a disappointing life, a treacherous
girlfriend and a dead-end job, Fry greets the new dawn with glee and wonderment.
Befriending an alcoholic automaton and a beautiful cyclops, it soon seems that
Fry has fallen on his futuristic feet �until, that is, he gets his old job
back.
Fry
ends up working for his Great-Greatn Nephew, Professor Hubert
Farnsworth, a post-centenarian mad scientist prone to Wandering Bladder and wild
belligerence. And while he takes to the future like a duck to red wine sauce,
Fry soon discovers that the World of Tomorrow� is stranger (and frequently
more terrifying) than he could possibly have imagined�
If
there were any justice in the world, you wouldn�t need me to tell you about
Futurama. A sci-fi love-letter that manages to appeal to younger viewers without
compromising its rather adult humour, Futurama takes every trope of the sci-fi
genre, from alien invaders to amazon planets, and pokes fun at them until they
bleed laughter. From monsters reading the news to cloned teenage geniuses,
there�s hardly a science fiction stone left unturned.
The
cast are, themselves, sci-fi clich�s, but are played off-kilter enough to be
both believable, rounded characters and rich veins of gag potential. Fry is a
cheerful stumblebum with poor hygiene and a heart of gold. He�s also given to
fits of quite inept heroism. Leela is the ultimate space pin-up: tall, curvy,
and � huge single eyeball aside � really quite sexy. She�s also as big a
loser as Fry, in her own way. The chemistry between the two drives Futurama,
from the first episode to the last frame.
Bender
(full name Bender Bending Rodriguez) is the obligatory �50�s-style robot,
all striated metal arms and antennae. He�s like most fictional robots, except
that he�s sleazier than a hundred football managers, with his addictions and
predilections. Bender is the character that gets away with everything, from
robot pornography to juvenile slavery, and it�s amazing (and lampooned within
the show) that parents are so comfortable exposing their kids to his peculiar
brand of broken bottle humour.
Futurama
hangs on the relationship between Fry, Leela and Bender, but such is the
layering of the show, that every character, from the luckless lobsteroid Doctor
Zoidberg to Tinny Tim, the Dickensian droidbaby, pops off the screen with a life
and energy all their own.
The
scripts and stories churn with the same relentless rhythm as The Simpsons. But
whereas The Simpsons was (and is) pitched towards a family audience, Futurama
has an acerbic, adult edge that belies much of its wider appeal. Some of the
episodes are quite dark, with characters seemingly at greater risk to their
�lives� than any animated character before or since. The humour is
machine-gun fast, and every scene has visual or verbal gags to spare.
That
said, Futurama occasionally gives in to the American Sitcom Disease. This is
where, apparently feeling massive existential guilt at being involved with
something as lightweight as a sitcom, the writers decide to inject some
mawkishness into proceedings. These episodes, while still funny, also bear the
taint of forced sentiment. With two notable (and tear-jerking) exceptions, these
forays into Serious Territory fall on their shiny metal asses.
However,
when Futurama is on form, it is side-splittingly funny. Lampooning everything
from society�s obsession with celebrity to the sci-fi fan�s obsession
with�everything else, Futurama crosses land, sea, air, space, time and reality
to make us laugh.
As with
The Simpsons, Futurama is beset on all sides by guest-stars galore, from the
cast of Star Trek (with Scotty replaced by Welshy) to former US Vice President
Al Gore. Steven Hawking makes his obligatory appearance, as do supermodels and
singers like Claudia Schiffer and Beck. None of these take anything away from
the core cast, however, and there�s a spirit of good-natured abuse that runs
though each cameo.
Matt
Groening�s attempt to make a commercially viable, grown-up animated science
fiction sitcom was, ultimately, just that little bit too clever for a TV mindset
that thinks that Late Night Hollyoaks is risqu�. Fortunately, such anencephaly is defeated by the DVD revolution, and all four seasons of
Futurama are out there, waiting for you to bring them home.
You�ll
laugh. You�ll want to watch it again. You�ll spit trifle out of your nose.
You�ll probably feel really guilty letting your kids see Bender in the jacuzzi
with three prostidroids. But I guarantee that you will love Futurama, and that
you will come away from it just that little bit more eager to welcome the World
of Tomorrow�
Series
highlights include:
HELL IS OTHER ROBOTS: