Season 3 Reviews

Just for fun and boredom...

"The Honking" A somewhat weak effort, looking back. Sure, it had it's moments (the scenes in the castle, "Damn the expense!") but there should have been more of the real Bender and less of werecar-Bender, who, for obvious reasons, didn't provide many laughs. Still, a below average Futurama is better than the average for just about any other show, so (B.)

"War Is The H-Word" Should've been season premiere, IMHO. Everything we've come to love about Futurama was here, with character development (primarily on Leela) great jokes (Bender's top 10) and a solid plotline. I'd call this the second best episode ever. (A+)

"The Cryogenic Woman" Not the best ever, but a good episode for pure laughs, nonetheless. I liked Michelle's character, and the idea of seeing the year 4000. LA satire was nice, but I wish the writers could've came up with a way for Fry to get his job back. (B+)

"Parasites Lost" Now here's the best episode ever. Non-stop laughs front to back, mixed with some excellent characterization of Fry, and a well-thought-out plot. I don't know how they'll ever top this one. (A++)

"Amazon Women In The Mood" Not as good as the last one, but still a great episode. Zap's karaoke alone makes it worth an A, and the rest of the episode was pretty good, if a little risque. (A-)

"Bendless Love" Probably the season's weakest. The plot got a little boring somewhere around the middle, but still, it had the robot mafia, so I can't give it any less than a (B)

"The Day The Earth Stood Stupid" A hilarious episode, definitely. I liked everything about this one, really. Just seemed a little light on plot, meaning no A+. All hail the hypno-toad! (A)

"That's Lobstertainment!" Unlike some people, I really liked this episode. Zoidberg had some good characterization. He's easily my favorite bit character. Harry Shearer also did a great job as Harold Zoid, too. (A-)

"The Birdbot Of Ice-Catraz" Proves again that Futurama is the most bizarre show on television. Where else could you see a drunken robot mimick a penguin, or a spaceship caught in the tentacles of a space squid? Loved it! (A)

== Mike Reed

For me, this is THE best episode of futurama !

On Sat, 10 Mar 2001 22:13:20 -0700, Mike Reed wrote:

You should consider rating episodes at www.planetexpress.dk :-D

I might as well post mine below. First off, I really think that right now the show's in a bit of a decline around the 3rd Season production. Re-watchings might help, but there isn't the urge to, and if it's good, it'll attract me to it. I think the first season was annoying, and self-important, but Season 2 established itself really well, with good characterization, and based jokes, and intelligent humor/dialouge. It's one of those types of non-mainstream shows like "MST3K" or "NewsRadio". The 3rd Season has gotten a bit conventional, sometimes a little low-brow, and in all, poor. I'm not sure what's going on, maybe it's new writers. Recently, I've considered some Simpsons episodes better, which is a first. Anyway, here they are:

The Honking: Thanks to FOX, I missed it, and thanks to the piece of shit RealPlayer is, I only saw the first half, but what I could make out was a funny, well-written episode.

War Is The H-Word: Though a bit juvenille at some points, it made it all the funnier. Many jokes hit their mark. This is probably one of the funniest episodes to grace the show in my mind.

The Cryonic Women: This was a bit dull. Some of the jokes were pretty good (Mongols in 3001, The usual Pauly Shore language ["My interest peaked re: Cryogenics"], the Hebrew counting), but everything had the feel of an after thought, and the story wasn't signifigant enough to support many of the jokes.

Parasites Lost: A very good episode, definately one of the better ones, which has many a good joke, and a gold-mine for sci-fi lovers like me with the Fantastic Voyage 3K. The Holophone montages will count as one of the more memorable moments in the show's history, but I do stand by my opinion of how a lot of the dialouge was tacked on, and I couldn't feel much emotion during the key parts of the Fry-Leela relationship.

Amazon Women In The Mood: I really think David X. Cohen and Lewis Morton over-sold it, but still a fun episode at how far they went. Bea Arthur was a great guest, and much of the third act was plain-as-glass hilarious. Great job on Billy West with Zapp's kareoke (sp?) song (Which I can't name since I'm not hepped up on referential knowledge).

Bendless Love: A big dissapointment, and it marks probably one of the first Futurama episodes I didn't laugh at. Especially the follow-up to "A Lesser Of Two Evils", one of the S2 greats. Of course, the format by then was a bit tiresome with having romance for the third consecutive episode.

The Day The Earth Stood Stupid: One saving grace this Season, I'll admit. A lot of good jokes were to be found as well as writing, especially the rather interesting climax, as well as the Hypnotoad's sound. The downside was the cheap Niblonian Revelation.

That's Lobstertainment: I don't know, I thought this was a bit of a pointless episode. The Hollywood shtick was already done in "Beyond Blunderdome", and nothing much was done with the future. Everything was just so negative in the episode, and made it depressing.

The Bird Of Icetraz: I thought this was a low. While Bendless Love was just boring, this was both boring and likewise annoying. Although Leela cares for the environment, it just randomly popped up for the episode, as well as "Flying within 3 feet of Pluto". The enviromental groups weren't done as well, and the nature destroying nature ending was done with even better comedic timing and value on "Hey Arnold".

I'm going to re-watch "Luck of the Fryish" for now.

~DarthArada~ "Snuh!" Homer Simpson "We have all the time in the world..." ~George Lazenby/James Bond "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" MUSSOLINI TO EMBARK ON CHEST EXPANSION CAMPAIGN ~The Onion