Never seen Squid Game so to me it seemed more like a riff on the Star Trek episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion".
I liked it all right, though weirdly, the best version of ultra-powerful aliens forcing a bunch of Futurama characters into death games is from the otherwise god-awful "Neutopia".
Another resounding meh.
I don't get why They keep retconning Fry's parents to be less awful
Plus it was obvious from the deaths in the second game that they weren't going to stick. Even the cast seems to know it. Because their reactions did not scan for real deaths even if they're not in on it.
As For Leela: "as a women you sometimes claim to love", are we going back again on them being a steady loving couple? Really?
This episode felt so formulaic. It felt they wanted another Luck of the Fryish or Jurassic Bark, but they've run out of interesting stories from Fry's past.
Also agree that I'm getting sick of both them making Fry's family less bad and going back and forth on him and Leela being in a happy relationship.
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At the very least, Fry showed Leela the location of the last baseball as a form of self sacrifice, even if it wasn’t the right thing ultimately. Still a weird thing to say though.
But yikes, the ending hits hard and in a quite mean-spirited way. Just birthday trauma after birthday trauma.
Edited by HoloMew151 on Aug 5th 2024 at 8:36:27 PM
Is this a complaint about gradual "Less awful-ness"...?
Because the first the parents were ever shown to be bad and worst they were ever shown was in "Jurassic Bark".
Neutral otherwise.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.Who else never watched the show but went to the Honest Trailers and Screen Rant Pitch Meetings and looked up to see is there was a How It Should Have Ended of it to understand it?
Yeah, we're not mentioning CinemaSins or TV Sins in this case.
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She could've been lying though...
Outside of Game of Tones...
None of the flashback episodes with his parents really made them "less awful"...like they have some pretty flawed parenting habits and the dad especially never hides his disappointment.
But the idea was always to show that they did care about Fry...
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I wouldn't be surprised if Katey Sagal hated saying that line.
The key words there are "well meaning", there's a long speech about how much his mother loves him and how they are trying to make him happy.
That's a far cry from the neglect and apathy they showed previously.
eta: @randomness4, there's zero indication Michelle was lying, Fry immediately agrees it was plausible and it was the same reason that they kept him out of school.
Edited by dcutter2 on Aug 6th 2024 at 9:26:19 AM
The "indication" would be that she immediately used it to manipulate him by affirming his thought that nobody cared he was gone.
And then tried to make it seem like she cared.
The retcon from the first movie doesn't matter as much, but that's a thing to note.
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I don't get how this premise of Fry hating his birthday could never have come up, despite living in the future for years now. How old is Fry supposed to be now, anyway?
There's so much plot armour on all these characters, it's obvious all the deaths are going to be fake. Like You Would Really Do It, indeed.
I have no idea who the dorky kid competing with Fry is supposed to be. The wiki says he is Josh Gadgie, from a 2009 episode. Could have used a bit more introduction.
Kid Fry sounds like adult Fry, which is to say he sounds like an old man whose voice is going bad.
Is this supposed to be a Halloween episode? Because it kind of reads like a Treehouse of Horror episode.
This episode is really trying to pull heartstrings, but it just feels empty and manipulative, since it is perfectly clear no one will actually die anyway.
Fry's parents are cheating in ways that should be glaringly obvious to all the other children. It's kind of hard to believe no one noticed.
This episode feels like it is just playing with our emotions. I can't say Fry's sudden aversion to cheating rings particularly true either. It smacks of that plot point in Back to the Future where Marty is suddenly super susceptible to dares when he gets called chicken. Even if there are no explicit counter-examples (and I would be surprised if there aren't), it just doesn't ring very true to the character. Since when is Fry such a stickler for Honor Before Reason?
Edited by Redmess on Aug 6th 2024 at 2:33:31 PM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesKid Fry always sounded like adult Fry...
He never really tried putting on a voice since he was already quite aged when the original series came out anyway.
The closest thing he ever did was just making Fry's voice crack when the entire cast was de-aged and over enunciating his words.
Edited by randomness4 on Aug 6th 2024 at 11:07:25 AM
Rules of the Internet 45. Rule 45 is a lie. Check out my art if you notice.I think the ep would have been better if they'd reversed things around:
Fry as a kid loses badly at all the party games, and (because Fry's parents are obliviously awful) give out cake and presents as rewards to the kids who win the games. So Fry's left as the only kid at their own birthday party with nothing, while everyone else has a great time without them.
But while Fry sucked at those games in the past, in the future Fry's the only one who's ever played them before, and so dominates at the aliens' death games. And Fry gets really into the joy of winning for once, even though it means the people who lose are all being killed. Pretty standard character arc of learning friendship is more important than winning, nothing groundbreaking, but dealing with feeling like a loser (and getting wrapped up in anything that makes them feel not a loser) is much more on-brand for Fry.
Did I mishear it, or did young Fry mention his grandmother is in Hell. Hmm...I wonder which one he's talking about

Bump. Okay, today’s episode was an oddly bittersweet throwback to Fry’s past and a reminder of how well meaning his parents could be. It was also a parody of Squid Games so have fun with that.
Edited by BigBadShadow25 on Aug 5th 2024 at 9:01:45 AM
You’re Gonna Carry That Weight.