These analyses are all my humble opinion, and as such, um, don't kill me =).
I made up OFC for Our Favorite/Futurama Crew just to make life easier for me...
Fry: Okay, he's the pizza delivery boy and main character in every episode except 1ACV04, which is fine I suppose since Futurama _is_ about Fry. The problem is that Fry seems to actually get stupider every episode. In 1ACV01 he merely seemed like a confused individual, in 1ACV02 still quite amazed at the future, and in 1ACV03 sort of inconsiderate, but perhaps not overly so. Fry was reduced to something of a minor role in 1ACV04, and as such there wasn't much to show his idiocy, perhaps thankfully. 1ACV05, however, was sort of out of the general consistency, because it actually showed a Fry that wasn't a complete idiot, and even saved OFC by threatening to breathe fire on the elders. This was the Fry that _should_ have been portrayed in every episode, but alas Fry made up for lost stupidity the following week, this time spending millions of dollars for a can of anchovies and a 20th-century apartment in which to escape from the world until he announces his PIN number to some goons that might have overestimated his cranial capacity. This brings us to 1ACV07, in which Fry lowers himself to new depths of idiocy, almost having his lungs taken out by a street dealer and then telling Leela to never help him again when, of course, he'll need it quite soon. The pattern in most of these episodes is that Fry is inconsiderate of Bender/Leela and only in the last 30 seconds of the show realizes it, making up for his stupidity by gathering with OFC on the proverbial couch and watching the proverbial All My Circuits. The problem is, Fry never seems to learn from his mistakes, alienating Leela or Bender once again the next week.
Fry has evolved in only 7 episodes into a Homer Simpsonesque character, completely oblivious of any common sense. Fry truly needs to lose the serious stupid and arrogant streak of his in order to become a lovable character on Futurama. Fry doesn't necessarily need to be a genius, but Fry should have at least a little bit of common sense if he doesn't want OFC to stick him into an escape pod and jettison him into space when he screws something up for the 500th time.
Leela: Okay, she basically sits around and looks nice, and maybe kicks ass once and awhile. There's not much that's known about her besides the 5 second character analysis we heard in 1ACV01, and the tidbits from 1ACV04. Leela truly needs some character development, because as of now she's portrayed rather 2-dimensionally as the generic space-babe-ass-kicker. What we DO know about her is she was abandoned on Earth as a child and always felt alienated because of her huge nose (and maybe something about her eye too). This could open up some good plot devices so the writers could flesh out Leela a bit more, perhaps providing some sort of background into how she was raised (Leela the Catholic Boarding School girl?), her motivations, first loves, et cetera. Leela never gets any of the good lines, either (give me a good Leela quote!).
Possible subjects for a good Leela episode would be:
- Leela, in flashback form, takes us back to the days of her youth in a Catholic Boarding School.
- Leela, in flashback form, takes us back to the days of her youth with her foster parents.
- Leela, with the Planet Express ship at her disposal, decides to search for her biological parents.
- Leela finds her soulmate who is promptly killed/decapitated/dematerialized/irradiated/unfaithful/moves to Neptune
Then again, anything with Leela not being simply the voice of reason for Fry and Bender to bounce jokes/sentimental expressions off of is fine by me.
Bender: An enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a paradox encased in a shiny metal outer coating. He's a sociopath, yet at the same time the most caring, he's bad yet good, in-your-face yet subdued, mechanical yet somehow more human than them all. Bender doesn't seem to be an actual bad character, and actually shows more emotion than a lot of the other characters. Bender's secret desires to be both a chef and a folk singer are both funny yet also bring a sense of humanity to an otherwise rather predictable comic relief element (although he IS comic relief much of the time, and damn funny at that). Bender seems to be travelling on an upward spiral where we see less and less of his sleazy ways each week and more of a new and improved Bender, still a bit rough around the edges yet also with a heart that just might not be so cold and mechanical. This pattern seems to want to continue for at least 2 more episodes, when Bender abandons his sinful ways altogether to recapture his robot faith, with the robot devil being played by Dan Castellanta, which I believe might not suit the prince of darkness as much as if it was played by the voice of Ned Flanders (the Devil from "Bart Gets Hit By A Car".)
Hermes: Well, he exists, and he says maybe a couple lines each episode. There's really no need to flesh him out any more, though, just keep that Jamaican accent and he's good to go.
Amy Wong: Annoying little intern. Her sappishess reminds me too much of certain college girls that I can't stand to be around. Amy's 'duh' variants get old rather quickly, too.
Prof. Farnsworth: I like this guy, he's 149, he's eccentric, and people cringe when he chimes in with the words "great news, everybody!" The fact that he's Fry's relative also opens up some interesting possibilities, perhaps with flashbacks to the "young" Farnsworth looking just like Fry.
And thus this small little essay concludes, we now resume the regular barrage of inane alt.tv.futurama posts.