Futurama (Parody of Cyberpunk)

SSJKamui · Keyboard Samurai Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 853

I understood now, if I post a review, it's pretty much senseless becauseit seems that Mr.Roboto doesn't want to upload anything written by me. So, I shouldn't have written my reviews. It was all completely senseless.

Nevertheless, I already started some reviews which aren't completed. I think it's the best to complete at least these because then, this work isn't completely for the thrash can. (And perhaps, some people on the site could like it.) One of these reviews is this:

Futurama
Year: 1999 - ?
Developed by: Matt Groening, David X Cohen
Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Low
Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Very High
Rating: 8 out of 10

Overview:
Futurama is a Comedy Cartoon Series by Matt Groening who also created the Simpsons. Unlike the Jetsons, Futurama is no “continuation of it’s predecessor in another time frame” but a plot wise unrelated series.
Groening said that the series should not be as utopian as the Jetsons, but not as dystopian as Blade Runner. (To be honest, I don’t understand this opinion completely because Blade Runner didn’t seem to me that dystopian.) Nevertheless, in the story, there are many Cyberpunk themes and references to many Cyberpunk media.

Plot
the delivery boy Phillip J. Fry “accidently” falls into a cryogenic chamber and wakes up again in the year 3000. (the “accidently” is a theme later in the show.) In the future, many things are different (the planet Uranus was renamed “Urrectum” due to political correctness, advertising is now even used on your dreams, there are alcoholic robots etc.) but many things didn’t change at all. (Earth is a government like the US with a cloned head of Nixon in a jar as a president, there are energy problems and there are some big criminal corporations.)
In the future, Fry becomes an employee of a delivery service (controlled by one of his ancestors which is now physically much older than Fry.)

the story has got many parody elements of a wide range of science fiction (For example, personally, I think the back-story of Fry is a caricature of the Buck Rogers pulp series) and of the Science Fiction Fandom. (Fry is more familiar with the fictional Federation of Star Trek than with the actual United Nations, for example.)

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes:
Futurama features a vast majority of typical Cyberpunk Themes. For example, there is a discriminated minority of poor workers forced to live in a closed disctrict. (In case of Futurama, this majority is also a caricature of B Movie Sewer mutants.) They also have androids (although not very human like), evil megacorps (momcorp), a cyberspace (with such a complicated network that you need a very long time to configure your own connection), Robot Rebellions, brain uploading, layered cities and cybercriminals.
Some episodes also depict computer controlled societies, but these episodes are stylistically more similar to old Episodes of Star Trek TOS.
the part of Fry as a Delivery Boy loser could be interpreted as a kind of “Focus on the underground”.
There are also touched some themes which are rarely seen in Cyberpunk Movies but are important for the Cyberpunk Community, for example the “Apple consumers as mindless brainwashed people” stereotype or the topic of illegal downloading on the internet. (I must admit, personally, I found that episode rather stupid.)
There are also several direct in jokes about Cyberpunk movies. For example Terminator, Alien (with Space Bees), Metropolis and the Cyberpunk Precursor “Rossums Universal Robots”.

the Visuals
the Visuals of Futurama are more “the Jetsons” like Raygun Gothic. Because of this, the series doesn’t provide many Cyberpunk visuals. (Personally, I think the most Cyberpunk looking part of the show is the habitat of the Sewer Mutants. )
Nevertheless, the Cityscape and Architecture of Futurama looks pretty cool. If I do research about 1950s-1960s style Sci Fi to get visual inspiration, I often watch some episodes of Futurama.
Some spaceships like the Nimbus commanded by Zapp Brannigan look rather stupid on some occasions, but some other ships like the Planet Express Ship sometimes look so elegant you wouldn’t expect from a ship with this kind of style.

Conclusion:
Futurama is a very good parody of most classic Cyberpunk elements. So, for Cyberpunks, it’s an interesting different take on the typical Cyberpunk tropes. I wasn’t sure how I would rate the series because it’s not directly cyberpunk but a parody of Cyberpunk, but on the other hand, the Series has more “Correlation to Cyberpunk themes” than many other truly Cyberpunk media. Then, I looked at the “Movies Ordered by Star Rating” page to help me with my decision. I think, I would give the Series 8 Stars because while I think the Series is very good, I think from a Cyberpunk perspective, it’s not on par with these Cyberpunk classics which are higher rated.
In comparison with the Simpsons, I think Futurama is much better. It has a wider variety of plots and a better continuity.

Kovacs

SSJKamui · Keyboard Samurai Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 853

Patashnik · Meat Joined: 09 Apr 2011 Posts: 19 Location: wales, cardiff

incidentally enough just picked up the first series of futurama as something to keep me entertained while I was at a holiday lodging nearly a month ago, ( though I believe many people say that season 1 doesn't quite do the series justice as a whole apparently) wondering if any1 knows which season I should get next, as I've watched a few episodes here and there on sky1 but never really got into it ( friend online beseeched me to start watching futurama in its entirety so wondering which season would show the better highlights of futurama's sense of humor?)

SSJKamui · Keyboard Samurai Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 853

Thanks. I don't have a favourite season. On TV Films, the movie Benders Game is my favourite, although this is more Lord of the Rings like Fantasy than Sci Fi.

peter9091 · Meat Joined: 02 May 2013 Posts: 1

Nice surprise about this shorter form. Can you tell us what it is you are talking/writing about?
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Peter