I have recently completed the show Futurama. It was one of the shows that I had seen the occasional episode on TV when it was on the mainstream channels but hadn’t actively consumed, despite one of my past boyfriend’s best friend constantly telling me it was his favourite show. I enjoyed the show and am actually glad that I waited this long to watch it.

As you are probably aware, I enjoy an animated show every now and then. I find that I prefer Anime or American children’s shows over American adult shows. Now I will admit, the American adult shows I’ve watched in the past were mostly the ones that were able to be shown on the mainstream TV channels when at home. When I moved out, because of my prior enjoyment of Anime, I consumed much more Anime than American cartoons when given the choice, so its probably not too surprising that I have only recently watched Futurama.

When I started going out with my current partner he gave me his Family Guy collection to borrow so I watched it all to get his jokes and references but didn’t enjoy it that much. I’d watched The Simpsons when it was on mainstream TV but have never felt like going back and rewatching it. While flatting and we had cable I saw various episodes of American Dad and Cleveland show. Unsurprisingly, as I didn’t really enjoy Family Guy and they share the same style of humour, they weren’t my cup of tea either. Admittedly, I didn’t really give much time of day to other American TV shows like King of the Hill, Big Mouth, Bob’s Burgers or F is for Family, so there is a limited selection of American TV that I would recommend to people. The American TV shows that I have been introduced to and would recommend to others are Metalocalypse, South Park, Rick and Morty and now Futurama.

The reason why I’m glad that I have only watched Futurama recently is that I get lots of the science based jokes that are sprinkled throughout the episodes, and I looked forward to the episodes which spawned many of the memes. If I’d watched Futurama as the episodes were coming out I wouldn’t have the context for many of those jokes, and the adult ones would have probably flown straight over my head too. Since most of the episodes were brand new and not rewatches, and there were a couple of rewatches that I was particularly looking forward to (eg. Naturama), I enjoyed the experience.

My favourite episode was Jurassic Bark but thought that Bender’s Big Score ruined the emotion that was built up behind Seymour’s loyalty and how he spent the rest of his life after Fry was frozen. I think this episode gave me the biggest feels of the series but The Late Phillip J. Fry and Luck of the Fryish, which gave us some flashbacks to the life that Fry left behind, had some decent emotional moments too. Other episodes I liked included A Big Piece of Garbage and Crimes of the Hot for their messages about pollution and climate change, which are still extremely relevant and important to today’s world. The Godfellas, which also gave a commentary on a pertinent issue, that being how people with different beliefs and religions interact, plus I really liked the way that conservation of momentum was shown with Bender throwing away the treasure he had to stop spinning. Naturama, The Farnsworth Parabox and Teenage Mutant Leela’s Hurdles were other episodes which I enjoyed the scientific concepts behind. Who doesn’t enjoy the ideas of animals doing animal things but with a human lens, the multiverse, and how people might behave if they had the ability to go back in time to a younger body (and whether or not their brains were able to retain the maturity and knowledge that their older bodies had earnt).

Spoiler Alert

*If you can call it a spoiler alert for a show which ended in 2013*

It was a shame that the show ended but the way that it ended gave most of the characters some closure or a bit of a break. Fry got to speak with his mother one last time. Zoidberg found a woman who wanted to be with him and his garbage stench after performing a surgery on her that could ruin their relationship. Bender found a partner in crime. Leela and Fry got old together after an accident involving chronitons, but in order to reverse the accident they have to go back in time and forget all that they did together while growing old, giving them a bittersweet ending. That last episode, Meanwhile, really nailed the ending, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time loop paradox that caused Fry to get into the position where he caused time to stop for him and Leela.

Overall, this is probably my favourite animated American Adult TV show due to its themes, the character dynamics, the emotions that it can draw out and the science which it draws upon (did you know that the show caused the creation of a new algorithm, now known as the Futurama Algorithm based on the episode The Prisoner of Benda). If you have enjoyed Rick and Morty and the Simpsons in the past and haven’t yet watched Futurama then this is a show I would recommend you in a heartbeat!