X-mas worth it?

So who thought this episode was worth the one year wait? I thought it was sub standandard, right down there with "The Honking". And a disappointing "only episode until Football season ends" for me with the shitty Affiliate.

On Mon, 24 Dec 2001 03:06:42 GMT, "Michael Zaite" wrote:

It was so-so to ok at best. Not a bad episode, but certainly not worth the wait or postponing.

The irony of "fear brought us all together", which was only coincidental, was the most memorable part.

Bender did have a great line with: "Santa's right, what we need is some kind of robot. Ah crap, I'm some kind of robot."

And Leela: "Usually when I do stuff like this, the ship moves"

I think the story moved too fast, we never got to see the characters interact. It seemed like they really had to trim too much to fit the time frame.

--Larry

Oh man, how can these two be given such a bad rating? The majority of the third season is under those two

~Paul Melnyk, too Laozi to come up with a witty nickname. "An autocrat is a facist that's loved, a dictator is a fascist that's hated."

"Darth Arada" wrote in message news:[email]...

third

Because there seem to have evolved 2 types of futurama fnas, one who liked episodes like The Honking, and ones who did not. Some like the thin ploted joke loaded shows and others like shows where the plot takes more precident then trying to stuff every joke you can into 30 min.

=v= I liked a number of things in this one:

o The bicycle gun (but I thought Y3K bikes uses flame propulsion instead of wheels) o The shrimpy Neptunians (very _Life_in_Hell_esque) o It had one of the better songs o Bender looks good when painted red o Kwanzaabot (and Hanukkahbot and the Chanukkah Zombie) o Zoidberg dressed as Jesus

=v= I liked the previous Xmas story a lot more, though. It had a plot that hung together better, an emotional component, a tribute to Harold Lloyd, and John Goodman. Santabot had much better lines last time. This story had its moments, but it doesn't quite all hang together like the other one, and I think all the smashing and such (the violence that Fox objected to?) wasn't animated so well.

=v= The voices seemed slightly off, too, especially Professor Farnsworth's (or maybe it's because I'm home for the holidays and watching a different TV). And no John Goodman. :^( <_Jym_>

P.S.: Weird coincidences with tonight's _Simpsons_, which had a Santa running amok and jokes about "chicks."

I'm almost certain that was John Goodman...

"Jym Dyer" wrote in message news:[email]...

Whups... I stand corrected.

"Doug Tabacco" wrote in message news:M4BV7.4125$Sa5.20402@rwcrnsc53...

John DiMaggio did a good job on Santa's voice. What really surprises me is that New Orleans was mentioned. Probably a line intended for Goodman (who lives here). I figured that the Big Easy would have gone the way of Atlanta by 3001.

Robert J. Muldoon wrote:

IMO it has to do with the Simpsons' "New Orleans Affair" (they defamed NO and had to apologize one episode later). Late revenge.

Well, it wasn't the best episode ever, but it was the "season premiere" here in Washington. And it was worth the wait.

Now, if we can just get the playoffs out of the way!

<< IMO it has to do with the Simpsons' "New Orleans Affair" (they defamed NO and had to apologize one episode later). Late revenge. >>

Ah, I hadn't thought of that. However, I still say that that description was the most accurate this city has ever been given. Seriously. The "Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores" line clinched it.

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: X-mas worth it? [3ACV03]" thread, Robert J. Muldoon wrote:

Nah -- too good of a party town. People will probably fight to protect it from the space aliens, or whatever. Atlanta was sunk because it had the opposite problem. People of the future thought it was too boring and nondescript, so the city moved to an island loaded up on tourist attractions until it sunk beneath the weight.

<< Nah -- too good of a party town. People will probably fight to protect it from the space aliens, or whatever. Atlanta was sunk because it had the opposite problem. >>

I meant that because we're twenty feet below sea level. We look UP to see ships go by on the Mississippi River. A major hurricane would decimate the city and kill thousands. Well, I guess they'd fight for it anyway. We humans seem to adore sex and drinking, and that's what this city is all about.

Maybe people had high expectations built up over all this time that the episode couldn't live up to, but my expectations were measured going in. I knew this was writer Bill Odenkirk's first episode and that the usual sense of humor in his work does not quite meet the high intellectual standard set by Futurama. He's more in line with Ben Stiller. So I'd say this one met my fairly low expectations in the humor department but I was possibly more thrilled than ever by the great animated action scenes. There were worse episodes last season that may not have been any less funny than this one but were snooze-a-ramas in the entertainment department.

It sure was exciting and satisfying to finally get to see this episode after knowing its fate and that some people already saw it at the San Diego Comic Con months ago. I'd say it was about as good as the first Christmas episode, both of which were about or slightly below average for the series, as high as that average may be. Although I was very entertained by the pyrotechnics of this one it didn't have much of the kind of humor that makes me laugh out loud. The plot was thinner and more action-oriented than in some of the great episodes, like this season's premiere, and the humor was based more on sight gags and shock value than on satire, with some notable exceptions like the random number generator countdown. It's funny that the best gag in the previous Christmas episode also had to do with a clock, where Fry is trying to hang on to the bars of the giant digital clock's numbers as they change form. Those were both moments where the show's bold visual style met with the futuristic theme and parodied action movie cliches at the same time.

But those were rare moments in these episodes. The barrage of quick, violent shock gags in this one wore out its welcome for me sometime before Bender knocked down the little girl with the bicycle. I was impressed that this episode didn't try to fit in an emotional side story, like the first Christmas episode did rather awkwardly, and instead just went for an all-out action plot. It's impossible not to love stuff like the rocket getting stuck in the elevator and Santa grabbing onto the ship only to get melted into the ice by the engine exhaust, but the jackhammer pace of it all got a bit repetitious and wore me down after a while. It was one of those Futuramas where it has so much fun being an actual action/adventure story that it sometimes forgets to be a parody of one, making it an enjoyable episode but lacking the multi-layered brilliance of the classic episodes.

On a side note, all through the episode I kept thinking how cool it would be to have a Santa Robot action figure. A whole line of wind-up Futurama robots like the Bender they already made and the upcoming Url would be awesome too, with Robot Santa, the Devil Robot, Clamps, etc.

In alt.tv.futurama, on the "X-mas worth it?" thread, Michael Zaite wrote:

Really? I liked it better than "The Honking." The minature Neptunians were a hoot (I expected more to be made of the constant hand-holding, though), and I liked all the action sequences. I don't know if any episode could be worth a one-year wait, but I'm glad that Fox did eventually get around to showing it.

I thought it was a terrible episode. Very mean spirited. No wonder Fox held off so long in airing it. Let's get back to the fun, good spirited episodes now that this crap is out of the way.

On Thu, 27 Dec 2001 13:36:17 -0700, OmegaMan wrote:

I expect Bender to be totally heartless, but not Leela. The way she treated the neptunians seemed very out of character. Also, when Fry is mean it's usually because he's stupid and thoughtless, not intentionally mean.

I think they could have made the episode with them being more in character and it would have worked better.

--Larry