Good news everyone! Futurama is returned once again to satirize the future and the present, and it’s only slightly out of date doing it. There are a few things to say about the show, but let’s get this out of the way first: it’s still Futurama, and if you liked Futurama before then you are likely going to continue liking Futurama now. The sense of humor remains much the same; the characters are still on point and well-performed, and the animation style is great. Most of the things you love about the show are there, and I think you’ll probably like it.
A Problem of Timing in Futurama Season 12
That being said, this new season is not exactly a perfect return to form where the writing is concerned. Of the episodes that I have seen -the first six of the season, the first of which has already aired- there aren’t any real duds, but there aren’t any all-time classics either. There are some great ideas, sure, and in particular, I liked one episode that is a mashup of Squid Game and a classic Star Trek episode, but that also betrays the main problem with the season: almost every reference feels at least a year or two out of date.
This is at its worst in the episode that you have already seen, a stale riff on NFTs. Don’t get me wrong, NFTs are ridiculous and deserve to be mocked, but dedicating an entire episode to that pursuit feels too late in a world where the NFT market has already crumbled. Luckily, this episode also has Bender on a trip to his homeland where he meets a relative voiced by Danny Trejo, so there’s plenty to laugh at, and when the jokes land they still land pretty hard.
The show retains its trademark continuity as well, which is both meticulously kept -Any and Kiff’s kids are still here!- and loosely adhered to as well. A side character floats off into space in one episode and returns in the following one, with no explanation given. The writers know exactly which parts matter and which don’t, and in a world of cinematic universes and furious online discourse about franchise minutiae, it’s nice to watch a show that understands not just where the rules can be broken, but where they can be thrown out entirely.
Similarly, the show continues to attract a high caliber of guest stars. In addition to Trejo, a trip to the head museum brings Cara Delevigne and Tim Gunn into a fashion-centered episode, among others.
What really makes the show work is the characters we’ve come to love over the last 25 years. They’re the same bunch of misfits, and they’re played by the actors we love. Those actors had a fairly public pay dispute with Disney when this revival was announced, and it’s great to hear their voices once more given that the show could gone in a different direction.
And so that’s where we land. The show is still Futurama. It’s still weird and silly and occasionally irreverent in just the right ways. Whether it’s questioning the morality of bullfighting or doing a riff on Frankenstein, there’s a baseline level of quality you can expect from the show that is still being maintained, so while none of the episodes I’ve seen are classics, none of them are bad either, and sometimes a reliably good comfort show is just what the mad professor ordered.
Futurama Season 12 is now streaming on Hulu.
Learn more about the show, including how to watch, at the Hulu site for the title.
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