Review: "Amazon Women In The Mood" (Season 3, Episode 1)

Airdate: February 4th, 2001.

Synopsis: Kif is unable to ask Amy out on a date, due to his eternal shyness. Zapp takes advantage of this, and manages to wind up on a "double half-date" with Leela, Kif, and Amy at Le Palm D'Orbit, an orbiting restaurant. There, Zapp tries to get Kif to use his boorish pick-up lines, and when Kif finally tries to show his true colors in a song, Zapp blocks it by "singing" his own tune. The restaurant abandoned by all except the four, the captain's attempts to pilot it back home end with them crashed on Amazonia, a matriarchal planet that has effectively eliminated all men.

Fry and Bender attempt to rescue them, and it ends with the crew arrested. After a tour of the planet, they are brought to the Fem-puter, the leader of the planet. There, Fem-Puter is infuriated by the fact that there are men that trespassed on the planet, and sentences them to die.

Review (SPOILERS): As far as I can recall, Season 3 is going to focus quite a bit more on continuity and the development of plot elements introduced in Seasons 1 and 2. Indeed, the season premiere, "Amazon Women In The Mood", fleshes out Kif and Amy, all while serving as a parody of sci-fi pulp, mocking both genders, and analyzing hypocrisy in radical politics. For the most part, the end result is good - although is the episode overrated?

Kif, in many ways, is probably more qualified to be commander of the DOOP than Zapp ever could be. He's intellectual, sensitive (for the most part), un-egocentic, and tries to be genuinely kind to everybody. The thing is, he lacks a spine, and doesn't often showcase what we associate with leadership qualities - bravado, machismo, etc. Those go to Zapp, a sexist, idiotic, selfish buffoon who's idea of diplomacy is committing a terrorist attack on Neutropolis.

Even worse? Kif's directly under his thumb. And the dude is so spineless, and so unsure of his romantic abilities, that he's practically forced to take Zapp's advice at the restaurant. The end result is that he comes off as a royal ass, and almost alienates Amy and causes her to become sympathetic to the Amazonians. It's only as Kif is about to die that he confesses everything, and finally gets enough courage to evade one of the Amazonians about to participate in his death penalty.

Also, if "War is the H-Word" didn't do it, than this episode really shows just how crass the Zapper's attitudes to women are. Even the most sexist TOS episodes were only on par with Zapp. On a good day. He thinks of women as sex objects, thinks that the best way to attract them is making crass comments about them, and even believes that women will fall for anything men do, up to and including sing. (This doesn't work with him.) The end result is some hilarious lines from the biggest lout in the show.

Speaking of which, the gender politics of Amazonia, and in general, this episode.

This episode largely serves as a comedic mockery of gender politics and roles. Thus, while the women come off as prudish and more misandristic, the men (sans Kif) come off as misogynistic, sex-crazed, and idiotic. Even though the men did get more mockery than the women, neither side really dodges a bullet here. The jokes, though they relied on stereotypes, were rather well-woven into the episode.

That, and the planet of Amazonia was portrayed to be sexist as possible. Men that so much as encroach on the planet are, for lack of a better way of putting it, raped to death. The amazonian view is that of obnoxious, with their best use as sex objects. Thankfully, this episode does seem to give off the impression (at the very least) that, beyond the jokes in this episode, Amazonia is not a pleasant place to live if you're a man. Fry, Zapp, and Kif are horrified at the fact that they will be sentenced to death, and at the very least, Kif is mortified by the prospect of that being his punishment.

On a grander scheme, though, it does take some time to analyze the hypocrisy of some opposing sides.

The climax of the episode has Bender discover the origins of the Fem-puter - in reality, a Fembot (voiced by Bea Arthur). She explains that she was driven to become a leader of an Amazonian planet because of her history - she grew up on a misogynistic planet led, ironically enough, by a male computer who was really a manbot. In effect, the Fembot took on the personality she hates the most, except with the genders reversed.

So, if you are to take anything from gender politics out of this episode, it's that sexist gender views, no matter what side you claim to represent, are ultimately toxic. We are all people, and we all should understand that. We are, however, also capable of messing up, no matter what gender you are. Even further, taking a radical stance on anything is ultimately detrimental, and can often turn you into the person you dislike most. And when radical views become law, it can only end badly.

I generally like the idea of this episode. In fact, I would even go as far as to say that it was funny - funnier than "The Cryonic Woman".

However, I am also a bit neurotic. Therefore, I must nitpick. Besides the (in my opinion) rather squeamish fact that two of the characters were raped (although the show, again, did indicate the darkness of this) I do have, in my opinion, a rather sizable complaint with this episode.

Fry.

I know that both genders had their more sexist tendencies exaggerated for comedic effect (sans Kif). However, I just didn't feel like that it was necessarily in character for Fry to be as sexist as he was here. Was it in character for Bender? Yes. Zapp? As mentioned above, oh, hell yes. I think, though, they went a bit far with Fry - closest he came was his endorsement of the macho atmosphere in "War is the H-Word", and even then, he didn't seem too aggravated when Leela outed herself as the woman in drag.

That, and while I did find the episode funny, I didn't find it "funniest episode in the show" funny - not by a longshot. I will say that the jokes still revolved around gender stereotypes, which is hard to pull off. Admittedly, most of them were actually rather original, twist around otherwise stupid jokes, or at least are rare enough in how often they're used in sitcoms. The rest of the gender stereotype jokes, however, did fall flat.

(Believe me, I will get to some rather bad execution of these jokes later in the show's run.)

While "Amazon Women In The Mood" was a good episode, I certainly wouldn't rank it among my favorites. Still, it's far from unwatchable - it kicked off the Kif/Amy romance, provided for some great Zapp lines, and did provide new twists on some old cliches. The best word to describe this would be "overrated". Even then, that's more my opinion, and even if it is overrated, it's not by much.

Tidbits:

• Star Trek did have (as far as I know) two episodes set in all-female societies: TOS's "Spock's Brain" and TNG's "Angel One". Neither of them are considered good - amongst other things, both are considered sexist.
• Honestly, everything at Le Palm D'Orbit was gold, but the karaoke was on another level. Not only did we get Morbo singing "Funkytown" but there was Zapp's standout interpretation of "Lola" - amusingly, a song about a transgendered woman (even better, given "Put Your Head On My Shoulder"). Oh, and Zapp "sings" like William Shatner. I rolled.
• There's also a subplot of Zoidberg losing his shell. It's filler, but it's funny filler. I also like how, despite his ambitions, his health care plan only allows him one replacement shell - a white one with a barcode.
• Poor Kif continues his status as the universe's punching bag in this episode. I did like how this contrasts with his position of power in "War is the H-Word", where he snaps and abuses Fry. The dude needs his own command, and will never get it. Thankfully, he does get together with Amy. Yay for them.
• Remember that Bender was assembled in Mexico. It will come up later.
• I also loved the fact that Fry knows how to pilot the ship (probably got trained after getting rehired), albeit wildly.
• Oh, and as you'll see below, as of now, I'm going to try and go without a "least favorite scene" for now. I've replaced it with a "best character".

Favorite Scene: I could pick many lines from Zapp, but the king has to be... "L-E-E-L-A, Leeeelaaa!"

Best Character: Probably the Femputer. She's actually rather well-developed for a one-off comedy antagonist.

Memorable Quote: "You win again, gravity!" - Zapp, showing his awesome piloting skills.

Score: 7.5. A bit overrated for my tastes, but still a pretty good episode.