Season 2 Wrap Up

Image found on Wikipedia. I do not own it.

So, that ends Futurama Season 2. When I first started reviewing this season, Stephen Harper and Tony Abbott were Prime Ministers of nations. Boy, how times have changed... and how lazy I was until, January-ish.

Seriously, though, let's analyze this season.


If Season 1 of Futurama set up the immediate world and analyzed the three primary characters, than Season 2 expanded on said world and gave some depth to the secondary characters. We had Farnsworth get some pathos with self-regret over his perceived failures, we had Hermes deconstructed and shown to be completely neurotic, Zoidberg's backstory and patterns of behavior were expanded upon as alien even on his own home planet, etc.

Also, we got some more development around the trio. Not a whole lot, but it does show that there is a sense of continuity and that our protagonists are multi-dimensional. For example, Bender, despite his loudmouthed egocentrism and many, many vices, also has flashes of having a heart of gold, as well as not really having too much genuine malice, prefering to be more of a jokester. Fry moves out of his "Arthur Dent" fish out of water persona into more of a quirk (and, arguably, a bit more of an idiot). Leela probably remains the most static character, remaining the only sane man in an eccentric trio. Even then, there are jokes that make her come off as just as loopy as Fry and Bender.

Otherwise, most of Season 2 can be summed up in two words - Star Trek.

Season 2 largely stuck with the concept of Futurama being a parody of Star Trek. This was coming at an age where that franchise was starting to go off the rails - Deep Space 9 had ended, and Voyager was not necessarily critically acclaimed. The time was right for Futurama to mock the franchise, and mock they did. While the impact can't really be measured, I can say that it wouldn't surprise me if this show played a role in the underperformance of Nemesis and Enterprise.

As far as continuity goes, Season 2 did allow for the introduction of elements that will be followed upon later. Fry's ties to the year 1999, the Mutants, the Robot Mafia, and Nixon's role as President of Earth will become a larger part of the show later on. Otherwise, most of the episodes were virtually self contained, such as "The Deep South" and (to a slightly lesser extent) "Raging Bender"

As it stands, the sophmore season of Futurama's original run serves mainly as an extension of Season 1 - building up the world and it's characters.

Now that the base has been built up, how does Season 2 stand?

In my opinion, it's probably the weakest of the FOX Seasons. It's not bad by any means, the show just hasn't hit it's stride yet.

With that out of the way, new for this season, I present the following awards.

• Most continuity driven:
• "I Second That Emotion", because of the introduction of the Sewer Mutants.
• Best "Standalone" Episode:
• "Anthology of Interest I". No continuity is really required for this to make sense.
• Best Secondary Member of Planet Express* Episode:
• "Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?" Zoidberg. Rocks.
• Best Freela Episode:
• "XMas Story". While "Bicyclops" showcased Fry and Leela more as confidantes, I really liked how "XMas" showcased their friendship.
• Most Awesomely Produced Social Commentary:
• "A Head In The Polls". Given what's going on in the US elections, it's more poignant than ever before.
• Least Memorable Episode:
• "Raging Bender". Bor-ing.
• My Least Favorite Episode:
• "The Cryonic Woman". Sorry, but Michelle dragged the episode down that much for me.
• Most Memorable Episode:
• "Brannigan, Begin Again".
• Best Episode:
• "War Is The H-Word".

Un-Averaged Final Score: 7.75. While nothing was really bad, this season probably contained less memorable moments compared to Season 1.

Onward, Season 3. May it be as good as I'm imagining it to be.