Review: "A Big Piece of Garbage" (Season 1, Episode 8)

If only they played pool with the meteor.

Airdate: May 11th, 1999

Synopsis: Farnsworth botches his Academy of Science presentation twofold; first by planning to introduce an invention he presented a year prior- the Death Clock- than sketching something else he made a year prior- the Smell-o-scope. (He loses to former student and rival Ogden Wernstrom, who invents a "reverse scuba suit" for fish.) However, said smell-o-scope detects a mass of garbage headed straight for New New York City.

Thing is, back in 2000, to solve a crisis in pollution, Mayor Giuliani kicked a barge of trash out to sea, hoping other countries would take it. They didn't. Instead, scientists shot it into space. Now, it's back. On impact, Farnsworth fears it will take take out the entire city. Compounding matters is that few in the 20th century know what garbage actually is- everybody recycles now. The mass of garbage too gooey to shoot out with a missile, the Trio are sent up into space to blow the garbage mass up.

It goes as well as you would expect.

Review (SPOILERS): Much like "My Three Suns" and "Fear of a Bot Planet", "A Big Piece of Garbage" follows Futurama's trend of ripping on cliche science-fiction plots- what if a meteor were to begin falling to Earth?

Replace meteor with garbage mass, and you get the answer.

This subtle twist allows Futurama to not only send-up a B-plot, but also send up many "environmental" shows and films produced during the 90s... up to and including Captain Planet and the Planeteers.


For those unaware, Captain Planet revolved around a bunch of teens from all areas of the planet who fought against a bunch of unethical idiots (mainly in the realm of science), up to and including sending out a muscular being who is the manifestation of all their powers.

While it's not as awful as many claim it to be, it's definitely cheesy and preachy. Bizzarely, a chunk of the problems seemed to be the fault of the United States- yet Wheeler, with his flawed yet lovable personality, became the most liked Planeteer.

"Garbage" sends up Captain Planet by having much of the second act have Leela blast everybody in the 20th century for being complete slobs... despite the fact that the 30th century solutions involve recycling food. Possible, but a tad bit gross for those unawares. Later, this episode manages to turn the lesson on "recycle TO THE EXTREME" on it's head while not completely wiping it off the map- pollution is the solution, albeit only for the short term.

Indeed, the lesson here is less obviously "please recycle" and more obviously "for the love of god, don't send your problems somewhere else!"

More than anything, however, this episode serves to build a hell of a lot of pathos for Professor Farnsworth. Previous episodes seemed to have him develop a callous to his crew, sending them on missions where they were likely to die.  This episode shows him at his most pathetic- apparently drawn out of ideas, he's rejected even when he is correct. Sure, he sends his crew on a mission with a high risk of death- but it's done in the defense of New New York City.

Dr. Ogden Wernstrom is hysterical in how he manages to game the system. Not only does he make ageist remarks, but he manages to take everything and leaves. Yet the city still buys into his arrogance. Just because he's young and happened to invent a product that is pretty damn pointless... so far, at least. (cough*"TheDeepSouth"*cough)

There wasn't a whole lot of development between the three main characters. Their roles seemed to keep them to their characters seen in the previous few episodes- Fry does something boneheaded, Leela tries to keep him in check, and Bender rebels all the way. This is more than forgivable- if it's the price to pay for Farnsworth development, it's well worth it.

So, what have we learned today? Don't kick your trash out to the ocean, act before you have a problem, and most of all, don't cut cheques until you know the personality of the person you're making the deal with. Seems fair enough.

Tidbits:

• Kinda strange to see Rudy Giuliani personally ignoring the garbage by pushing the barge away, given how heroised he became after the World Trade Center attack in 2001. Not diverting away from his actions on 9/11, but Giuliani was sorta disliked by New Yorkers before the attacks due to the various scandals.
• Also kinda awkward to see the World Trade Center so prominently at the start of the film.
• Seeing City Hall seemingly leased out to CitiBank continues to add to the dystopian image that Matt and David created for Futurama. Or maybe I'm reading too deeply into a pun.

Favorite Scene: Gotta be the meetings at Citihall.

Least Favorite Scene: The end of the episode. A tad bit on the nose, eh?

Memorable Quote: "Let's get looting!"- Bender, upon learning that New New York is toast. Cue him taking a TV from the observation room.

Score: 8.5