Futurama’s return from the dead still feels like something of a miracle, but fans that adored the show’s original run and rewatched its episodes countless times can tell you there’s still a bit of a difference between the new and old portions of the series. Its first season back saw a deluge of very topical and pop-culture targeted episodes that almost always felt forced and like someone had replaced the characters with dumbed down clones of themselves going on adventures that tied into the latest fads or movie crazes. It was a mistake for the series to veer so far from its original flavor in the 5th volume, but if the 6th volume is to be believed, the writers are starting to remember the core elements that made Futurama a fan-favorite all those years ago. Mostly gone are the heavy-handed attempts at pop-culture tie-ins, and back are countless geeky references and plots that once again start pushing the characters forward.
Futurama: Volume 6 includes the episodes:
“The Silence of the Clamps” – Bender goes into the witness protection program to escape the Donbot.
“Mobius Dick” – Leela becomes obsessed with the death of a warping space whale.
“Law & Oracle” – A Minority Report spoof that sees Fry attempting to prevent Bender from committing a crime.
“Benderama” – Bender begins to exponentially self-replicate, and eventually his numbers threaten all life on earth.
“The Tip of the Zoidberg” – The story of how Zoidberg wound up as Planet Express’s “M”D comes to light.
“Ghost in the Machines” – Bender dies and comes back to haunt Fry in a petty agenda with the help of the Robot Devil.
“Neutopia” – The entire Planet Express company and a few others get a lesson in the value of gender (or lack thereof).
“Yo Leela Leela” – Leela creates a children’s television show that gains huge appeal.
“Fry Am the Egg Man” – Fry raises a monster hatched from an egg he saved from being eaten.
“All the Presidents’ Heads” – Fry and Professor Farnsworth discover a disgrace to the Farnsworth name and go back to the days of the Revolutionary War to fix it.
“Cold Warriors” – Fry exposes the future to the Rhinovirus starts a pandemic.
“Overclockwise” – Overclocking Bender’s hardware makes him incredibly smart and puts the Planet Express crew in violation of Bender’s End-User License Agreement.
“Reincarnation” – The story of how the Planet Express crew discover a diamondium comet, blow it up, and anger aliens that worship it plays out in three different styles of animation.
Yes, the season has been cut down from the series’ original 20-something runs to fit into a 13-episode package, but now that the show has remembered where it came from, the truncated dose is a bit easier to take. On top of that, Futurama plays with its own format in a few interesting ways that perfectly reflect the show’s sense of humor. It’s final episode, “Reincarnation”, splits its time between three shorts with animation in the styles of early, black-and-white Disney, old-school videogames, and anime. The different styles are not only expertly done, but the writing takes great pleasure in mocking many of the tropes that are all too familiar to fans of each particular medium. And, as is a tradition within the show, a few of the episodes in the sixth volume take advantage of the show’s now extensively explored timeline. It’s these episodes that resume the fleshing out of Futurama’s characters and it’s one of the qualities of Futurama that make it distinctly unique and one of the best and smartest adult-oriented cartoons today.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Like always, each episode has an audio commentary that usually features the likes of David X. Cohen, Matt Groening, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, John Di Maggio, and more. Peter Avanzino, the director of the epsiode “Reincarnation” explains the episode and its in-jokes, while another FAQ featurette covers other topics within the Futurama universe. Rounding out the set are deleted scenes and a break-down of a scene’s creation, from the page to the screen.
"Futurama: Volume 6" is on sale December 20, 2011 and is not rated. Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi. Directed by Dwayne Carey Hill, Peter Avanzino. Written by David X. Cohen, Matt Groening, Aaron Ehasz, Ken Keeler. Starring Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Maurice LaMarche, Phil LaMarr, Tress MacNeille.
