Season 3 Retrospective (Long)

    Now that season 3 has come to it's pre-mature end
(leaving 5 episodes un-aired) it's time to look back on this
short but nevertheless worthwhile season.
    To say that season 3 is the worst season ever is unfair,
as the show is still relatively new, but I did think it was
somewhat below the level of season 2 and season 1 (my
personal favorite, still.) It had it's great moments (War Is
The H Word, Luck Of The Fryrish, Parasites Lost), some
clunkers (Bendless Love, That's Lobstertainment) but overall
didn't change the Futurama format too much.
    Part of the reason this season seemed so short was
because it got a late start in early November, with "The
Honking," a spookily-themed episode in which Bender fought
the curse of the werecar. It ended tonight in mid-May with
"I Dated A Robot," in which Fry becomes romantically
entagled with a robot duplicate of Lucy Liu. In between
there were all kinds of high points, slip-ups and new
revelations about the year 3000 and it's people. Here are
the episodes, in order from best to worst:

• War Is The H-Word
• Luck Of The Fryrish
• Bendin' In The Wind
• Parasites Lost
• Insane In The Mainframe
• The Cryonic Woman
• I Dated A Robot
• The Day The World Stood Stupid
• Time Keeps On Slippin'
• The Honking
• The Birdbot Of Icecatraz
• The Cyber House Rules
• Amazon Women In The Mood
• That's Lobstertainment!
• Bendless Love

...and, with implied ratings:

The Honking: B+ War Is The H-Word: A+ The Cryonic Woman: A- Parasites Lost: A Amazon Women In The Mood: C Bendless Love: C- The Day The World Stood Stupid: B+ That's Lobstertainment!: C The Birdbot Of Icecatraz: B The Luck Of The Fryrish: A The Cyber House Rules: B+ Insane In The Mainframe: A- Bendin' In The Wind: A Time Keeps On Slippin': B+ I Dated A Robot: A-

Two things different from the other seasons: No musical number. (Hell Is Other Robots, How Hermes Requisiitoned His Groove Back) No Mom (Boo!)

== Mike Reed

Mike Reed wrote:

No Musical Number? What about "Your Broken Robot Friend" ? That was technicaly a musical number.

I think she was in an episode that got cut for hold over wasn't she?

"Mike Reed" wrote in message news:[email]...

Re-ordered, worst to best, according to my opinion:

What surprised me was just how good I considered most of the list to be. The only real stinkers were Lobstertainment and Time Keeps On Slippin'. I'd say the season was 45/45/10 between sucked/good/home runs.

One of my favorite season 3 episodes is "Amazon Women in the Mood". I'm surprized to see that you rate it so low. I thought it was one of the best for the season. Most of the episodes I like have Zapp Brannigan in them. He is so full of himself that it is hillarious. Other than this one episode I would not change your ratings for this season. I wouldn't have rated "Insane in the Mainframe" as high. It seemed a bit dark for the humor I expect in a Futurama episode.

"Mike Reed" wrote in message news:[email]...

In article , [email] says...

And this is my order (keeping your numbers for comparison of tastes):

• best -
• Amazon Women In The Mood
• Insane In The Mainframe
• Parasites Lost
• Luck Of The Fryrish
• Bendless Love
• The Cryonic Woman
• The Cyber House Rules
• I Dated A Robot
• War Is The H-Word
• The Honking
• The Birdbot Of Icecatraz
• The Day The World Stood Stupid
• Bendin' In The Wind
• That's Lobstertainment!
• Time Keeps On Slippin'
• worst -

I love the "broken friend" sung by Bender and Beck.

I now have it at the start of one of my CDs so i can listen to it on the way to uni and not be tired/grumpy/pissed off in the morning.

Mike

What the heck - here's my list

• best -
• Luck Of The Fryrish
• Insane In The Mainframe
• The Day The World Stood Stupid
• Amazon Women In The Mood
• Parasites Lost
• War Is The H-Word
• I Dated A Robot
• The Birdbot Of Icecatraz
• Time Keeps On Slippin'
• The Cyber House Rules
• The Cryonic Woman
• The Honking
• Bendin' In The Wind
• Bendless Love
• That's Lobstertainment!
• worst -

Willie

"Willie" wrote in message news:[email]...

• Bendin' In The Wind
• Bendless Love
• That's Lobstertainment!

Interesting how these 3 consistently end up at the "worst" end of everyone's list.

On Tue, 15 May 2001 11:12:03 -0400, "LooseChanj" wrote:

Bendin' in the Wind and That's Lobstertainment both seemed aimed at a narrow audience. Zoidberg's Uncle was funnier if you are familiar with old silent movie people. Since most people aren't into the silent movie era, that fell pretty flat. Even if you are, some of the jokes were funny, but the premise was still weak.

Bendin' in the Wind was far better, but still pretty narrow in scope. If you've never followed a band that fans tour with (Phish, WSP, Grateful Dead, TOO etc.) then quite a bit of the humor will be lost. For me, the parody of the parking lot scene before the show was great. But I'm well aware that I'm, in the minority there.

Bendless Love was just a weak episode all around. Oh well.

--Larry

<Bendin' in the Wind was far better, but still pretty narrow in scope. If you've never followed a band that fans tour with (Phish, WSP, Grateful Dead, TOO etc.) then quite a bit of the humor will be lost. For me, the parody of the parking lot scene before the show was great. But I'm well aware that I'm, in the minority there.>

I really don't think the topics were that locked up. I got a lot of the jokes, and even then, there were some non-band jokes (Especially the Holland Tunnel joke), and frankly, I thought Beck was the perfect artist to guest star for Futurama.

~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

On 17 May 2001 13:13:34 GMT, [email] (Dartheodore Maximillian Arada III) wrote:

I wasn't familiar with Beck before the episode, however I have spent a bit of time in various parking lot scenes. Someone unfamiliar with that scene can certainly get the jokes, however I think they were funnier if you are. Based on some of the negative comments posted here, that seems to be the case for at least some people.

For his part, Beck was a great guest because he didn't take himself too seriously. The same cannot be said for The Who on The Simpsons. They insisted that they be redrawn to look younger. Thus neutralizing the who aging rocker humor. They have violated rule #5 by taking themselves too seriously.

--Larry