Futurama

[Mr. Luffy]

Just caught up, but I agree that this is a very strong season opener. It actually felt like the show pre-cancellation with the focus on bizarre plotting, reasonably emotional character scenes, and a good mix of dumb and clever humor. Gives hope that the series is finding its footing with the new production season.

The geek in me was squeeing every time there was a callback. The martians, the stemcell machine, number 9 man...thats' one of my favourite things about Futurama, that they're not afraid to introduce a little continuity every now and then.

I hear ya. For me, it was doubly fun since I haven't really watched the episodes from the first 4 seasons since before the movies were released. Seeing the 9 "the end is near" guy reappear was a treat. Sure, it treads close to being post-golden era Simpsons over-exposure of bit characters, but he fit very well in Wednesday's episode and was still a bit character.

Also, the first episode interested me the most because I remember old continuity confusions on where robot babies came from back in the day, and the explanation in this "Bender's Son" episode was so hilariously stupid, yet somehow fit in continuity, I couldn't help but to enjoy it.

Next week's looks pretty slippery though. Political elections and animated sitcoms lately usually lead to pretty generic Straw Man Party vs. White Knight Party sorts of one sided jokes that are often pretty stale and groanworthy. Though I don't think a plot on a "birther" controversy plot has been tried before. "The only real interest is that it will likely affect continuity if Nixon (and the cloned, headless body of Agnew) loses the election, and who the opponent will be (Obama's head? Obama-bot? Horrible Gelatinous Blob?). Will the dream of the founder of Dick Francisco come to an end?

[Demon Rin]

Good episode of Futurama, had quite a few laugh out loud moments. For some reason the "Zebra Entrance" joke was a side splitter for me. I like the call backs to older stuff like Bender's Big Score... but.... I know Im probably reading too much into this but, isn't the Machine-Language Time Code supposed to allow paradox-free time travel?... That's how Hermes was able to have the frontbutt body despite the fact that Bender had to kill him to get it, and how Lars even existed... Suddenly the entire logic behind the Time Code is different?...

[RobbyBevard]

but, isn't the Machine-Language Time Code supposed to allow paradox-free time travel?... That's how Hermes was able to have the frontbutt body despite the fact that Bender had to kill him to get it, and how Lars even existed... Suddenly the entire logic behind the Time Code is different?...

The opposite, in fact. It was a MAJOR plot point was that it *DIDN'T* do that. They can exist together for awhile, but eventually, the copy HAS to die. It was started several times and Lars missed hearing it each time... until right before the wedding, when he realized he was doomed to die, which is why he called it off. All redundant copies in there were killed before the end. (And also when they had a forward moving time machine last season.)

And then the end with the multiple benders fractured reality and led into the second movie.

Anyway, what erased the politician was different. He *changed* his timeline to create one where he never traveled back at all. Which is different from going back and doing what you always did. (Fry being his own grandfather or pushing himself into the cryo chamber, for instance.)

[wolfwoof]

Ungh. The ha ha it's just like Obama get it ep sucked so bad

[RobbyBevard]

Ungh. The ha ha it's just like Obama get it ep sucked so bad

It wasn't terrible but... it won't age well either.

[Nobodyman]

Yeah, the episode wasn't as bad as I thought it would, but......god, could they please stop doing these current-event-of-the-week episodes? Leave that to South Park.

[RobbyBevard]

It's funny when South Park does it because they do it the same week so its an actual commentary on current events, and so it ends up being a record of what happened that month... any other show its just sort of something that was gagged on and put into production for a year and is super dated by the time it airs and doesn't seem relevant anymore.

[Demon Rin]

The opposite, in fact. It was a MAJOR plot point was that it *DIDN'T* do that. They can exist together for awhile, but eventually, the copy HAS to die. It was started several times and Lars missed hearing it each time... until right before the wedding, when he realized he was doomed to die, which is why he called it off. All redundant copies in there were killed before the end. (And also when they had a forward moving time machine last season.)

And then the end with the multiple benders fractured reality and led into the second movie.

Anyway, what erased the politician was different. He *changed* his timeline to create one where he never traveled back at all. Which is different from going back and doing what you always did. (Fry being his own grandfather or pushing himself into the cryo chamber, for instance.)

You're right, Lars never did that.

But Nudar did. He was the first to time travel, and he met himself and prevented him from going back in time so they could share a "Magical" night together. And when the Paradox was corrected, he just died like all the other clones did. Noboddy every in the course of the movie faded out of existence nor did everyone forget them.

[RobbyBevard]

You're right, Lars never did that.

But Nudar did. He was the first to time travel, and he met himself and prevented him from going back in time so they could share a "Magical" night together. And when the Paradox was corrected, he just died like all the other clones did. Noboddy every in the course of the movie faded out of existence nor did everyone forget them.

At 4:00 Futureman travels two hours back in time. At 2:00 PM Futureman meets himself, Pastman, and they hang out (Because they always hanged out for those two hours) until 4:00PM, where Pastman becomes Futureman,and then travels back in time, and completes the loop, and creates a situation that always happened. Timetravel allows that, that's Paradox free, and Fry and Bender have done a ton of that.

However, if at 4:00 PM Pastman becomes Futureman, but gets caught up in things and DOESN'T travel back into the past, thats when the Paradox starts, because it's broken the loop, and at 4:01, the universe kills the copy in order to avoid a Paradox from happening, but still allows the events to have occurred. That was the entire trick to the "Paradox Free timetravel." It allowed wiggle room, and assured that loops work out fine, and a little bit of leeway to ignore the loop rules... but if you broke the loop you'd be killed.

Politician only traveled backwards in time once. He never went back to the future, he never interacted with himself (baby photo aside) to *create* a situation that would lead to him traveling back... he didn't make it back around to another version of himself. He didn't complete the loop. He changed decades of an entire timeline that would have led to him ever travelling in the first place. He made it so that he didn't even *start* the loop. No minor paradox correction, it just wiped out that timeline entirely, and him with it.

[The Daz]

Well, this was pretty much as I had feared. A lazily written episode of the "Killer App" "Proposition infinity" and "duh vinci code" mold. I had expected some references but hot damn

Ungh. The ha ha it's just like Obama get it ep sucked so bad

Word. It wouldn't be so bad if EVERYTHING wasn't so transparantly Obama. He's the senator from Hawaii, born in Kenya, has a foreign sounding middle name good god enough is enough.
I'm pretty dan liberal to the point where I'm a filthy socialist by american standards, but even I felt this episode was horribly preachy.

[Hekti]

Politician only traveled backwards in time once. He never went back to the future, he never interacted with himself (baby photo aside) to *create* a situation that would lead to him traveling back... he didn't make it back around to another version of himself. He didn't complete the loop. He changed decades of an entire timeline that would have led to him ever travelling in the first place. He made it so that he didn't even *start* the loop. No minor paradox correction, it just wiped out that timeline entirely, and him with it.

But when the politician disappeared and Nixon got re-elected wouldn't that lead to the future the politician need to travel back in time to prevent that happening?

Nonetheless good episodes. I hope there'll be more Zoidberg focused episodes.

[RobbyBevard]

But when the politician disappeared and Nixon got re-elected wouldn't that lead to the future the politician need to travel back in time to prevent that happening?

Nope, he created a paradox, in spite of the "paradox free time travel". You can go and do "what always happened" and you can interact with yourself for a bit, but you can't change your entire life and the thing that caused you to go back in the first place, not without doing something to set up a loop.

Now, if he'd travelled back in time to the day he was born, and then taken the baby on a timetravel trip to age super fast, then brought the baby back to present day as an adult, it would have been the same as what happened with Hermes 2 and "Lars", and would have just resulted in a paradox duplicate and probably would have worked out.

Or he created a timeline where Nixon ran unnopposed, so that alone is enough to change... something.

Failing that. The thousands of Bender's broke reality at the end of the movie, and since then, the proffessor, fry and Bender traveled forward in time through three cycles of the universe. Can just say the rules are broken are different now, if you really need an alternate explanation.

Or. Its the usual philosophy of a joke being more important than exact continuity, its just a show and we really should relax.

[Demon Rin]

It would have not been confusing and would have resulted in exactly the same outcome if they had just had something big fall on him and kill him. They declare that a President-Elect dying before being swore in results in a re-election by Year 3012 rules (this has never actually happened, so there isn't an existing rule for it) and hand wave Nixon winning this time. Then they get what they want (Nixon still being president) without having to mess up their pre-set up law of Paradox Free Time Travel.

[RobbyBevard]

Yes, it would have been easiest if he just got crushed by something and more in line with what they've established, though at that point they'd have to hammer in the "paraodox duplicate always dies" thing during the episode instead of just the last 15 seconds, (can't just ASSUME everyone watching has seen the previous 120 episodes... though that's likely largely the case.) and that would have completely given away the end.

But it wasn't, so... have to figure there's an exception for some reason. Probably for the sake of comedy.

[Ubiq]

They declare that a President-Elect dying before being swore in results in a re-election by Year 3012 rules (this has never actually happened, so there isn't an existing rule for it)

Actually, the Vice-President would just become President in that situation. That's the entire point of having a Vice President actually.

Now, what would happen if both of them died is a bit of a dicey issue; if it's prior to the Electors casting their votes, then they can just pick whoever. If it's afterwards, then there would most likely be a new election.

[Demon Rin]

Actually, the Vice-President would just become President in that situation. That's the entire point of having a Vice President actually.

Now, what would happen if both of them died is a bit of a dicey issue; if it's prior to the Electors casting their votes, then they can just pick whoever. If it's afterwards, then there would most likely be a new election.

"By Year 3012 Rules".
The fact that this is 1000 years into the future and he's president of Earth, not the US means they have that kind of wiggle room.

[Ubiq]

Kind of stupid for them to actually go backwards on the issue though seeing as how they still have Vice Presidents.

[RobbyBevard]

Probably why they never introduced a running mate character for the Obama stand in, because then they'd have to deal with exactly that. (Even though Nixon has a clone of Agnew).

really, I kinda wish they had gone somewhere else with it though... I get that someone on staff has fun doing a Nixon impression, but... they've had him in that role for 12 years. A little change of pace wouldn't hurt.

[Nobodyman]

Last night's episode was pretty good. I'm glad they took it in an interesting direction, rather than just the whole episode criticizing the paparazzi.

[Mr. Luffy]

I thought it was pretty good as well, if a bit on the average side. Like last week's, Bender was pretty much the biggest highlight of the episode. Langdon Cobb's secret was certainly not what I expected and led to some pretty fun and bizarre scenarios.

Spoiler:

Bender and Zoidbergs calm reaction to Fry and the others being reduced to husks was most amusing, as was Calculon (who actually gave a good performance for once) dying for nothing and nobody caring afterward.

Though I'm guessing he is not "permanently" dead considering there is an upcoming 2013 episode entitled "Calculon 2.0"