Last night ’s Futurama oppose Planet Express ’s cut intern and a openhearted cute alien against cute – but vicious ! – unknown in camouflage . Maybe it was all just too cute : the Earth - menace game fell on the wrong side of silly .
This may not be an exclusively fair criticism , but I really bid “ That Darn Katz ! ” was a slightly dissimilar character of Futurama instalment . Based on the promos , I was all set for another big invasion instalment , which has produced some potent episodes and setpieces in the past , like “ The Day the Earth Stood Stupid ” , “ A Taste of Freedom ” , and the mediate section of The Beast with a Billion Backs . In particular , the persuasion of Nixon or Zapp Brannigan dealing with an all - out pot encroachment seemed like a lot of fun .
So I was disappointed to name I had misread the preview , and the alien invasion did n’t carry much beyond the Planet Express construction . I think there was a more general trouble here , actually – the episode in the end spin a taradiddle that stretched back thousands of years , traverse half the galaxy , and put all human beings on the verge of experimental extinction … and yet everything remained incredibly self - contained .
Futurama has drop a decennary building up a brilliant larger universe of supporting characters , and much as it was fun to see Wormstrom and Bubblegum Tate again , this episode could have benefited from expand its graduated table , if only to make the massive stakes – apparently , the survival of an entire major planet – seem a little more real . But perhaps such a human beings - span installment is n’t really possible for Futurama anymore .
I ’ve noticed a caboodle of this time of year ’s episodes have pick two or three characters and focused on them almost exclusively ( Bender and Hermes in “ A Lethal Inspection ” , Fry and the Professor in “ The Duh Vinci Code ” , Amy and Bender in “ Proposition Infinity ” ) , with the eternal rest of the cast get little more than a compressed b - story and some scattered one - liners to call their own . This has afforded the show an chance to analyze closely some unbelievable pairings and has made for some great character moments , although the scope and tempo of the show have suffered as a result . And it did n’t help that tonight ’s pairing was one of the strangest , and aboveboard one of the least interesting : Amy and Nibbler .
As a universal rule , I ’m not too worried about continuity on Futurama . The serial is first and foremost a clowning show , and I do n’t think it does too much harm to now and again sheer out of character or offend established backstory for the saki of a salutary joke or even a particularly clever idea . As such , it does n’t particularly bother me that Amy is now the professor ’s grad student when I could have sworn she was inaugurate as the Planet Express interne , or that this explanation for the Pyramids of Egypt seems to conflict with the one given in “ A Pharaoh to commemorate . ”
But I ’m less well-fixed with things that go against the overall anatomical structure of the series , and giving Nibbler a major speaking function in this episode without any explanation seems to fit in that category . In the past times , the Nibblonians have been kept in stockpile for only the more dreaded , universe - jeopardize peril , and so watching him suddenly shriek up because Leela was n’t providing him stimulating enough conversation seemed a second … off . ( I recognise that this more open family relationship with the crew was do up in the videodisc picture show – I just do n’t think it ’s a impregnable instruction to take Nibbler base on what ’s work well for his character reference before . )
regard he did n’t really have much to do with the settlement of the episode ( other than the cute terpsichore , I guess ) , I believe the episode could have done just as well without him . Although I will admit the line about watch over his good champion die in that sailor suit was a stroke of twisted wiz , and there was an extempore brilliance in his declaration that the human puppets made for wienerwurst to copy people had been steal by cat .
answer it to say , I ’ve got my problems with “ That Darn Katz . ” And yet … I kind of liked it , or at least specific parts of it . The possibility section was a lot of fun , with more strange drinks and unbelievable Bender hook - ups . ( Seriously , an alarm clock ! ? ) The feeling of Amy wassail herself to failure out of anxiousness over her big dissertation presentation was a refreshingly relateable little plot line , and the payoff at Mars University had some good here and now as well . Professor Katz ( or , as I should more accurately say , “ Professor Katz ” ) was a wonderfully sardonic quality , and like I enunciate before , I always receive the return of Wormstrom and the Harlem Globetrotters .
And , as we ’ve seen before this season , when the show could n’t total up with big caper , it sub big ideas . Although Futurama was never locomote to beat the ultimatesecret story of cat , the troth of the feline major planet was a superbly strange little write up with some funny reflection ( “ It seemed everlasting – foresighted nights for sleeping , and then retentive twenty-four hours … for sleeping ! ” ) , offbeat ideas ( the cats would have put down Earth long ago , if Egyptian pampering had n’t made them faineant and domesticated ) , and , yes , cunning moments ( I loved those two cat uranologist ) . There ’s also something oddly pleasing about the estimate that the Earth now whirl backwards . ( Here ’s hoping they keep that consistent in future episodes , although as I suggested originally , I wo n’t be to a fault vex if they restfully ignore it . Besides , how often does the Earth ’s rotation add up up anyway ? )
I ’d put “ That Darn Katz ! ” in the same family as “ The Duh Vinci Code ” , another instalment with a fun fundamental melodic theme but not enough strong jokes ( and a far too wander plot ) to keep up the momentum for 22 minute . It ’s not a unsuccessful person by any means , but it palpate disposable , a pleasant enough way to pass a half hour but not something I ’d actively look for out to look on again . That ’s not really such a bad matter , but I have to admit I ’m a fiddling foiled I ’m saying that about Futurama .
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