Review: "A Tale Of Two Santas" (Season 3, Episode 3)

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Airdate: December 16th, 2001. Yes, you read that correctly.

Plot: It's Xmas time again. Time to set the shutters, arm yourselves around the fire's glow, and pray to god that Robot Santa doesn't blow you off the face of the planet. For our favorite trio, they get the worst possible mission - delivering letters to Santa. On Neptune, attempts to finally destroy Santa are futile, but they do trap him in some ice. Bender, being the only robot there, takes up the mantle of Robot Santa. However, old fears die hard... and by that, I mean that Bender gets locked up.

Review: 

Back in September (of all months), I reviewed "XMas Story" - the introduction of Xmas which showed it as one of the most dystopic holidays possible. The bringer of joy to us is now a robotic bringer of destruction and hell. "A Tale of Two Santas" really drives home just how ingrained the terror of XMas has become to the populace of New New York, where even a benevolent Santa (bizarrely enough, Bender) can't change it.

Yup, Bender becomes Santa. Admittedly, this does give me some negative vibes because of the "Jerkass Homer's job of the week" cliche on The Simpsons - one of the many things that helped decimate the show's reputation to the point where people largely talk about "the good old days". Granted, this episode is better at it than those episodes were.

Bender becoming Santa Claus is something that I can buy. Yes, at first glance, it does come off as rather nice for the normally iconoclastic robot to take up what was once a mantle of goodwill. The show works with this by not only putting him in the position by default ("We need some sort of robot... oh, crap! I'm some sort of robot!"), but also heavily implies that he's taking up the position to try and get praised ("Do you want the kids to think that Santa's just a crummy empty-handed jerk?") Oh, and he doesn't really treat the Neptunians that much better than Robot Santa did.

There's also the fact that, when his attempts to deliver the presents result in him getting kicked, torched, and shot, he decides to dump the presents in the sewer. On the flip side, it did result in the underclass Mutants getting some Xmas cheer, but I doubt he was aware of their existence at the time. Interpret that scene how you will.

Robot Santa is a bit of a curiosity here. On one hand, it does appear that he does seem unnecessarily indestructible, what with "paradox crumple zones" and all that. It's actually thanks to sheer luck that he manages to get captured in ice. Also, at first, I was just wondering why any Earthican army hasn't bothered to just send an army in and take Robot Santa out.

There are two reasons.

One, they are more prone to declare war on Spheroids for pure Earthican gain, and kill scores doing so.

Two, there are Neptunians on the planet, with a civilization and all that. Granted, the Earthican army has probably violated the rights of various species and the sovereignty of various planets before, but even then, you could argue that any failures in attempts to free them from Robot Santa's grip would not look good in terms of PR. Earthican politics appears to be very Yes, Minister-esque - forward their own advances. (Remember President McNeal's about-face in the first Omnicronian war?) It's safe to assume that any slip-up that can kill Neptunians could drive Neptunian diaspora to vote for the opposition.

Or, maybe I'm incorrect in my analysis. A lot of the characters in Futurama do come off as rather apathetic.

Still, it's a rather depressing life for the Neptunian residents - practically unemployed, starving, broke, living in a polluted hellhole, and when they do work, it's borderline slave labor at the hands of a sociopathic boss.

Pretty miserable season, right?

Ironically, Fry brings up at the start that Xmas should "bring people together", not "blow them apart". He realizes at the end that, while they fear getting blown apart, they cower close together. These characters are normally out for their own interests, so to see them together in their attempts to avoid a brutal end is both heartwarming and depressing. It takes a rather typical Christmas episode message and gives it a dark, dark twist.

Also, while you would expect the characters to turn nice at the end of any other show's Christmas episode, here, Bender embraces the insanity of Robot Santa, and goes on a spree of death and destruction with him. The world's view of Santa, likewise, isn't changed in the slightest - Bender is abused, arrested, and is only saved by execution thanks to Robot Santa.

The only thing that can be counted as a strike against this episode is that "Xmas Story" worked as a great piece of character development - notably, the interactions between Fry and Leela went on full display there. Here, it's more concentrated on some worldbuilding. It's not bad, but it doesn't make this as much of a "must-watch" like "Xmas Story" was. In fact, for some reason, it comes off as mildly forgettable (except for that hilariously dark song.)

Still, can't complain too much here. It's a dark, rather quirky outing, and it works if you like a Christmas episode that's not "Xmas Story". There's only one other XMas episode, but that will be in Season 6. (That is, if you don't count Bender's Big Score.)

The most notable part of this episode is that it probably got the worst timing ever. It was banned in 2000 because of the more over-the-top violence, especially with Robot Santa and Bender's destruction of New New York at the end. It was pushed back a year, to December 16th, 2001. Three months earlier, terrorists decimated the World Trade Center, causing a huge cloud of debris and smoke to cover Lower Manhattan, and doing heavy damage to much of the area. Not that I agree with censorship, but how this episode didn't get pushed back again is beyond me.

Then again, by that point, FOX seemed to want the show gone. It was already in the "Football Death Slot" - the 7:00 start time often pre-empted by NFL games. Chalk Futurama fans up as another demographic Murdoch has alienated.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, decent episode.

Tidbits:

• A close look at the Neptunian partnerships reveals that, yes, they are all in same-sex relationships. There's a bit of a joke about their "breezy short shorts", but other than that, I liked how their homosexuality wasn't played for comedy. It was just a fact of life.
• This episode marks the second appearance of Futurama's satire of the justice system, represented by two characters.
• The first is the Hyper-Chicken, a lawyer who is very, very, very incompetent, letting his clearly insane client testify and cross-examine the witness (a witness that he bribed.) He previosuly appeared in "Brannigan, Begin Again", which featured his stupid cross-examination of Leela.
• The second is Judge Whitey, a snob who doesn't care about justice and just wants cases settled before lunch.
• Also, the fact that Farnsworth can bring a shotgun into a courtroom. If that happened today, there would be several political debates, mainly expressed in meme form.
• Maurice LaMarche portrayed the Robot Devil for his one line. Dan Castellaneta wasn't available. The difference is obvious.
• Yes, I am aware that Neptune is really a gas planet. It's just a show. I should just relax.

Favorite Scene: I'm going with the song, especially Bender's verbal abuse of the Neptunians. Meet the new boss... same as the old boss.

Best Character: Santa.

Memorable Quote: "We need some sort of robot... oh, crap! I'm some sort of robot!" - Bender, realizing that he's the only one that can take up the Santa mantle.

Score: 7.5.