The One Amigo

As everyone is noting, centering an episode of anything around NFTs in 2024 is ludicrous. Especially since many of us believed from the first weeks that NFTs were a hyped up flash in the pan that could never get past the ludicrousness of the concept.

But the other issue is that this episode only makes sense if NFTs were just reinvented in the year 3000. Because otherwise, how could no one understand how the blockchain works? At this point the blockchain would be old technology, like the steam engine. You wouldn't have to have kids explain it to you.

In its younger, smarter days, Futurama, if they had done something like this at all, would have created an NFT-like system and perhaps tossed in a joke about the collapse of NFTs in the 21st century.

The main writer of this episode appears to be someone who's been with the series since the start, so I think this represents the way old people become so out of touch they are no longer funny. I saw it with people like Bob Hope when I was a kid.

The other story thread, about Mexico, is not bad. Not great, but not bad. But overall, this is a huge embarassment for the series.

The theme of the episode is very simple but not familiar to the show because the show was not about today's issues going into the future, no, it was about how the characters live, not the future.

Another thing that made the show popular was that the status quo was broken a lot and that was a charm of the show that could be more than just comedy but also touch the heart.

While there were episodes that did not break the status quo, the ending also abruptly closes the issue of Bender's Mexican family in an ugly way and focuses more on the NFT.

Overall, it seems that the series still has the potential to please its long-time fans, although it will have to work hard to fully regain its former glory.

Honestly, I do have a problem with all these extremely topical episodes. Everything centering around pop culture in the original run featured mainly timeless references and science based references. Now we have... short lived internet trends. Wow. It doesn't help that they used almost exclusively talking to explain the workings of the blockchain. Like, you couldn't have thought of a nice visual representation for the system? That's kind of what animation specializes in. BUT, the humor and plot took a big step up this episode compared to the previous season. Still not OG levels of hilarious, but they're getting there. Decent episode.

P. S. Please, writers of Futurama, if you read this, I need to tell you that it's ok to let a joke simmer a little bit before the punchline. Don't rush your jokes!

As a founding fan of Futurama this one fell really short. I felt like the writing could be entirely interchangeable between characters, which is a sign of AI written scripts. Not saying that's what happened but it definitely did not have any character personality. I'm honestly not sure what it was exactly that made it feel so empty but it fell short of its entire appeal. Very stale and soul-less.

Aside from the episode making little sense about the NFT and Mexico link, I really hope this season is an improvement from the premier. Happy to have seen this show received twice, Futurama is a classic and hopefully they go back to writing the actual characters and not bland scripting without any personality or story.

At least it's funny again! Some pretty good, dare I say, slighty witty gags here, especially in the B plot art heist. The voice acting seems more confident in this season compared to the last, while the animation also seems less "flash"-animated than the last.

But boy. The writers are scraping the absolute bottom of the plot barrel. Mixing a dated topical reference with yet again, another "Bender loses and finds himself" plot. There is no energy, no excitement, no suspense, no twists.... The whole thing comes off as unnecessary and tepid. I will support this show till I die, but this is just Futurama asleep at the wheel, lost in dreams about better, smarter seasons.