'FUTURAMA' 6.1 & 6.2 - "Rebirth" & "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela"

Geeks know the history: ignominiously cancelled by Fox in '04, revived for a quartet of DVD adventures (repurposed as a fifth season by Comedy Central) in '07, Futurama's now been fully reprised by the aforementioned network. It's been a turbulent decade for Matt Groening's follow-up to The Simpsons (which is frustrating because Futurama eclipsed its jaundiced sibling immediately upon arrival). As The Simpsons behemoth plods into its third decade, Futurama still has a youthful spring in its step -- probably because infinite Time and Space is naturally a more diverse sandpit to play in.

"Rebirth" continues from the climactic ending of fourth DVD adventure "Into The Wild Green Yonder" (which I'd totally forgotten about, such was its awfulness), with the Planet Express crew dying after being spat out of a wormhole to crash-land on Earth. Fortunately, Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) survived in a protective sphere, allowing him to resurrect his dead employees using stem-cells and a vat of pink goo. However, cycloptic babe Leela's (Katey Sagal) resurrection isn't possible, and her death prompts a grieving Fry (West again) to build a robotic version of his inamorata, only to wind up with two rivals for his affections when the real Leela wakes up during her own funeral.

It was classic Futurama silliness of doppelgangers and knockabout larks, delivered with enthusiasm but nothing we haven't seen before, done better. In contrast to The Simpsons, Futurama's ideas are its most successful ingredient, as I only have fleeting love for the characters. Absent-minded Professor Farnsworth makes me giggle and Fry's a likeable everyman, but I don't find dissolute robot Bender (John Di Maggio) particularly amusing, Leela's actually quite dull, and the supporting characters are just... well, there. I don't dislike the Planet Express crew, but I certainly don't settle down to watch Futurama with anticipation about what Fry, Leela and Bender will say or do each week... just what sci-fi tropes the writers are going to fool around with, in-between spotting trivia and sight gags.

In fact, a problem Futurama has is how it's so thick with detail and throwaway lines that I barely remember anything substantial about episodes afterwards. It's a problem shared by many "wacky" US comedies, even the live-action ones. When Del Boy fell through the bar in that Only Fools & Horses episode, a classic British TV moment was born. The cast of Scrubs pratfall every two-minutes, eliciting a half-smile and instant erasure from your mind.

If "Rebirth" was a fine but forgettable season opener, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" was a genuine misstep; a Zapp Brannigan (West again) adventure where he partnered Leela in trying to defeat a "Death Star"-like fusion of two old satellites now calling itself "V-GINY" (a riff on Star Trek The Motion Picture) that's intent on censoring planets of nudity and foul language. Sounds like great fun, right? Sadly, what could have been a witty and insightful commentary on puritanical censorship was abandoned in favour of scenes with Leela and Zapp as a modern-day Adam & Eve after failing their mission and crashing on a primitive planet, giving Zapp the opportunity to impress an injured Leela with his gentlemanly kindness.

The show can afford to push the envelope on Comedy Central in ways it never could on Fox (the channel is the home of South Park, lest we forget), so why did an episode about censorship feel so limp and gutless? Certainly they have to keep in mind the younger fans, so I'm not expecting full-frontal cartoon nakedness, but it was still disappointingly conservative. In addition, the love-hate relationship between Leela and Zapp has totally run out of steam, and there wasn't much else going on worth remembering. The biggest laugh for me was a blink-and-miss-it sight gag that a planet called "Urectum" has been discovered orbiting the Sun. Those astronomers never learn.

Of overall note, the quality of animation appears to have dipped now Futurama's on a network with less financial clout. There appears to be online disagreement about how the budget's been reduced (some say the use of a live orchestra has been ditched for the music, others say the entire process now cuts corners to pay for the expensive voice actors), but I noticed a lack of fluidity with the animation in these two episodes -- particularly bodily movements, which could appear quite jerky, as if the animation was missing some key-frames. It gave movements a staccato "flick-book" feel whenever they tried to do something more ambitious than arm gestures. Thankfully, Futurama's general aesthetic and CG-enhancements were exactly as I remember them.

It's a shame there's been cutbacks, because Fox-era Futurama was the most visually appealing animation I've ever seen on TV. Naturally, it's the story, dialogue and characters that truly matter, not the visual splendor (or lack thereof), but these episodes weren't Futurama operating at full capacity... feeling more like reheated leftovers. There was enough pace and panache to keep you watching, but when the dust settles you'll probably feel disappointed. Regardless, it still makes current Simpsons episodes look like the irrelevant pop-culture carnival it's become.

WRITERS: David X. Cohen (story by David X. Cohen & Matt Groening) (6.1) & Carolyn Premish (story by Carolyn Premish & Matt Groening) (6.2)
DIRECTORS: Frank Marino (6.1) & Dwayne Carey-Hill (6.2)
TRANSMISSION: 24 JUNE 2010: COMEDY CENTRAL, 10PM