Review of War is the H Word

This episode just aired in the UK. I'd already downloaded it and seen it, but after seeing it on the normal-sized screen, I just had to post a review.

I've been a massive Simpsons fan for 7 years and a futurama fan for as long as it's existed, and I've never laughed so hard at any episode of either series ever.

If you say that futurama is in it's prime at the moment, then I think it's fair to say that futurama is a little wacky, especially if you compare it to the simpsons at the same point in it's life (I'm talking about stuff like war being declared just as Fry and Bender sign up, and any scene containing Zapp Branigan). This episode continued the futurama theme perfectly, being spontaneous, hilariously funny and varied.

The storyline of all three main characters joining the army was typical, Leela joining disguised as a man and Zapp still being attracted was valuable, as was all of the ball references. The funniest parts were the humorous doctor, Zapp's 'Surprise!', the winding-up of the guns!, and Bender's top 10 was just classic. I feel it lost some of it's humor in the last third, but still very much an A+++ episode.

Paul Turner wrote:

I thought "The Cryonic Woman" was funnier myself.

For the love of god don't tell me you didn't get that reference.

[email] wrote:

The Cryonic Woman was my favorite episode of the season so far. I'm not sure if it's the humor that stands out for me as much as the incredible plot and storytelling. I would rank H Word last in the season, with Honking in the middle. I loved the atmospheric animation in Honking more than anything. H Word on the other hand represented the lower, more sophomoric side to the show. It pushed the limits of how far a smart show could go into the realm of tasteless humor without losing its intellectual credibility. It was only one "ballsack" joke away from living up to the legacy Married with Children has left on current comedy.

I'll make these statements having only seen one full episode, but from what I've of the other two I'll make my rankings.

The Honking wasn't a joke a minute, but it was very well-written, and I think was done in a more witful manner with many amusing, but funny ones.

War Is The H-Word, I'll admit, was pretty sophmoric, but it's sort of comparable to "Insane Clown Puppy" on the Simpsons. Both were a bit low in direction, but were very funny and they set out what they achieved to do. The plot line and development for the episode wasn't that great, but it was very funny despite it's tone.

The Cryonic Women was probably the most organized episode, but as some of you have put up with what I've said too much, I don't like the J. Stewart Burns episodes. Most of his are actually some of the ones which I considered the worst (Mars University, A Head In The Polls, The Deep South.) None the less, the Cryonic Women showed some improvement on his part and did showcase some good jokes (The Mongol invasion, Zoidberg's social gain, some of Bender's awakening tricks, Pauly Shore's line, "I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it." and some others.) However, the episode didn't really have a full ending, and I thought after his Atlanta episode, the LA commentary was just a bit dumb.

In all, I think the episodes this season have shown all three spectrums, from the low-brow funny, to the slightly normal, to the intellectualist funny.

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