Yesterday ’s Futurama gave us an erstwhile - fashioned story of golem haunting man , complete with the return of the Robot Devil , the introduction of the Space Amish , and payback from beyond the tomb … or , in this case , from beyond the global wireless web .
While attending the Parade Day parade , Fry becomes a hero for keep launch the life of a nerdy human . However , Fry was forced to let a nerdy golem croak during his bravery , and Bender demands to know whether Fry considers robot life equal to human life . When Fry tells him he does n’t , Bender decides to kill himself once and for all . His software gets stuck in an unnumberable loop on the world ’s wireless connection , become the automaton equivalent of a ghost … and only the Robot Devil can see him .
Both Bender and the Robot Devil need revenge on Fry , so the Robot Devil makes a deal with Bender to give him his trunk back once he literally scares Fry to death . Bender grapple to scare Fry almost to death , and his former admirer flees to the political machine - free Amish home world to escape all the obsessed technology . Bender realizes the computer error of his ways and goes with Fry to keep him company , albeit in a ghostly , unsubstantial sort of way . But the Robot Devil still wants his revenge …
This is a decent enough instalment of Futurama . It features a great return appearing from Dan Castalleneta – Homer Simpson himself ! – as the Robot Devil , and he ’s as fun as ever in the function . There are some nice callbacks to the fantabulous first season episode “ Hell is Other Robots ” – include a brief reprise of that instalment ’s big song – and the Fox serial publication finis “ The Devil ’s Hands are Idle Playthings . ”
Indeed , a key plot point takes Bender right back to his foundation in “ Space Pilot 3000 ” , as he finally complete his dealing at the Suicide Booth … who , it should be point out , he used to date , in yet another fun exemplar of Bender romancing things that are kind of physically impossible to romance .
Then there ’s the Space Amish . They ’re a fun concept – I ’m a sucker for a cavalry - eviscerate , wooden spaceship – and they offer an interesting take on what a religious order already a couple centuries behind the times might be like a thousand year from now . The episode did n’t feature a gross ton of great jokes , but the Professor beat in a duo nice one - ocean liner , particularly in his reaction to the robot psychic . I enjoy the half - hour I spent watching this episode . However , I remember you all love there ’s a “ but … ” coming here , so rent ’s get right-hand to it .
But … this installment felt just a little too ordinary . What I entail by that is this entire episode could be rewrite so that it take plaza in a show set in the present day – albeit one with supernatural element – and the whole thing would still more or less study . The Robot Devil does n’t do anything the human dickens ( or whatever we ’re calling him ) would n’t do in a fantasy episode of some contemporary sit - com , and the fact that he and Bender are robot feels wasted to the fib being told . ( And while I did have sex the Space Amish , they could jolly easily have been displace back to Lancaster County without really affecting anything . )
That , I would argue , is a trouble . What set Futurama apart , on some grade , is the uniqueness of its setting , and for all the popping cultivation reference to 20th and 21st century poppycock ( which I could do without , but I ’ve learn to live with ) , the best Futurama episodes are single that could only ever run on this particular show . For what it ’s worth , I think you could also level much the same review at other debile episodes like “ That ’s Lobstertainment ” , “ A Leela of Her Own ” , and “ Attack of the Killer App ” , all of which could more or less be go under in the 2000 ’s without much difficulty . When this show steps too far forth from the thirty-first century , the story tend to hurt .
That ’s part of why I liked last week ’s “ Neutopia ” and “ Benderama ” – neither of which are classic – more than “ Ghost in the Machines . ” While neither is perfect , their stories of sexuality - swapping , rock stranger , hoary goo , and quad giants could only really be observe on Futurama , and would have to be altered probably beyond realization to make them equip on any other show . At the endangerment of being horribly vague , there ’s something inherently Futurama - y about them that I just did n’t find with this calendar week ’s instalment .
“ Ghost in the Machines ” is manifestly not an episode grounded in realness – it is a ghost story , after all – but it does n’t really feel like a Futurama spin on a spook chronicle . ( For a good model of that , I ’d channelize you towards “ The Honking ” , in which the crew go to the robot eq of Transylvania and Bender becomes a werecar . ) Instead of offer up a twisted , sci - fi spin on the tired specter tale , this just sort of matte like a tired onetime ghost story .
in the end , there ’s three basic things that can make a Futurama episode compelling to me : the humor , the sci - fi concepts , and the reference , in roughly that order . Personally , I did n’t determine the episode all that funny – obviously , comedy being subjective and all , some of you may disagree , and you might have liked the episode more than I did as a result . I did n’t see a lot of big sci - fi idea on display here , although I will say that I quite like the Space Amish and Bender ’s relationship with the Suicide Booth . So that just leave the fiber … and that ’s my other problem with this episode .
It ’s absolutely possible to work up a compelling episode around Bender ’s fiber . “ Godfellas ” is the cock-a-hoop example , but there ’s also “ 30 % Iron Chef ” and even last week ’s “ Benderama . ” Still , his gross amorality and purposefully inconsistent personality makes it more hard to find excited sonorousness in him than with , say , Fry . The legerdemain with Bende , I ’d say , is to zero in on one particular aspect of his character and stick with it for the episode .
Here , I guess that scene would be his homicidal furore towards Fry , which perhaps intelligibly the writer did n’t need to place too front and heart . But we do n’t get much of a sense of who Bender is here , and the proceeds of some overused catchphrases like “ Oh , this guy rope ” and “ I ’m back , sister ! ” do n’t assist the sense that the writer do n’t have a strong handle on Bender in this episode . He feel like a zippo , and not a peculiarly compelling one .
Again , I enjoyed “ wraith in the Machines ” well enough . I ’d rate it a slightly below - medium episode , but a slightly below - median sequence of Futurama is n’t such a terrible thing . But I do think the show has lost a bit of the impulse it had at the ending of last season , and I ’d care to see them pick up the rate a bit in the coming weeks . Looking at the descriptions for coming episode , I ’m optimistic . If this ends up being the worst episode of the time of year , that wo n’t even remotely be a bad affair .
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