Rate/Review "Attack of the Killer App"

[Ryan]

thursdays in summer are futurama night. so enjoy them.

in tonight's wonderfeast for your eyes and ears, fry posts an unflattering picture of leela online during an ep surrounding twitter, facebook and the iphone of the future.

so, discuss folks.

[Mt. Doom]

I liked this one better than the previous episode, but that damn boil just about ruined what was turning out to be a pretty funny episode. I'm giving it a 3/5 since everything else (except for that disgusting goat) was good

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

That was interesting. I found it funny and the satire was good, but I hate the retconning of the internet and the overload of past (present) references. And the boil thing was utterly unnecessary and stupid.

Also, I guess Leela and Fry's relationship has been reset to "just friends"? What a cop out.

3/5

[Jesse Pinkman]

I liked most of it. The only thing I wasn't keen on was the boil, and the goat, but the rest makes up for it, I thought. I thought Bender and Fry's bet was interesting. Farnsworth's line about "Going to Hell" was funny too, I thought. I thought the end was also funny. Pretty much the only things I dislike were the boil and the goat, which were gross, but i liked the rest too much to care. A low 4/5, because it isn't TOO Great, I just thought it was decent

[Mt. Doom]

I thought

[Magnum]

didn't mind so much the goat thing, it wasn't below fry and bender. laughed at the downshot(upshot?) reveal when he died.

susan boil was um wow, pretty dumb. but not the kind of thing that makes me hate the entire episode.

again the humor is mostly uninspired (but not totally unfunny) and the plots are too packed. but i'm still hopeful that these things smooth out over the rest of the 23 episodes. i'd say i liked it better than inna-gadda-da-leela, and about on par with rebirth.

edit: patrick verrone isn't exactly a bulletproof writer anyway

"A Fishful of Dollars" (1ACV06)
"I Second that Emotion" (2ACV01)
"A Clone of My Own" (2ACV10)
"The Problem with Popplers" (2ACV15) (teleplay)
"That's Lobstertainment!" (3ACV08)
"A Leela of Her Own" (3ACV16)
"The Sting" (4ACV12)

[Alpha]

I really could have done without the boil being a parody of Susan Boyle. It just seemed... I don't know, a little out of character for the series. Kinda lame. Felt like something Family Guy would do.

Other than that, a very amusing half-hour! Loved seeing Mom and her sons back, and the writing felt a lot sharper than last week. Laughed my ass off. I can't say enough how happy I am to have Futurama back!

4/5

[The Robot Devil]

Before I saw this I thought, "Ugh. More iPhone parodies from these guys. Didn't they learn from the myPhone Simpsons episode?" But i enjoyed this parody. This Susan Boyle parody is VERY stupid. I enjoyed the bet between Fry and Bender. But the end of the bet WAS a pretty big copout, aswell as the Twitcher worm ending. But I won't spoil it.

3/5

[Jims]

Whereas the opener last week felt underwhelming, this one felt like solid Futurama.

Generally speaking, the show has a pretty good track record in satirizing today's technology... Stuff like the Napster parody in the Lucy Liu episode or the internet parody in A Bicyclops Built For Two. Doing parodies of Apple products has almost become cliche by now, but Futurama has the luxury of taking the concept to bigger places through advanced technology. The jabs at the Apple drones waiting in line isn't particularly fresh satire, but they had a lot of fun with how the apps interact with their lives... Just stupid little stuff like saying "Send" between sentences, or how Fry could see the image of himself in Leela's eyePhone.

(Although, where does that mean the camera is? Never thought about that at the time.)

That being said, the Susan Boil plot point soured the episode a bit. The plot obviously necessitated some sort of embarrassing secret for Fry to record, but I don't know if this was the right choice. It seemed a bit Flavor-of-the-Weekish to do a straight-up Susan Boyle parody, on top of the fact that the concept of a singing boil is pretty ridiculous. I guess they could explain it away with the fact that Leela's a mutant, but it's odd to accept this as something Leela's been living with the whole time when we're in the 6th season of the show. It would be akin to Marge Simpson actually having those rabbit ears... Revealed in Season 22.

I get that it's supposed to be a secret she's been keeping, but (unlike The Simpsons) Futurama's an extremely detail-oriented show, constantly throwing in small references to previous episodes or foreshadowing new stuff. I mean, this was an episode that had Amy's miniature cellphone from the Amazon episode and an appearance by that cross-dressing guy that dated Zapp Brannigan. Pulling out a random Susan Boyle parody out of Leela's ass (almost quite literally) seems random.

The episode was heading toward 5/5 territory in the first two acts, but the last one made it fall back to a 4/5. I griped about the Susan Boil joke a lot, but it's worth stressing that the episode was still a really solid entry and much better than the premiere.

(Also, of everything in that episode, they had to use the vomit/diarrhea joke for this episode's promo? I guess the Comedy Central suits don't have a high opinion on what turns people's heads.)

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

I mean, this was an episode that had Amy's miniature cellphone from the Amazon episode and an appearance by that cross-dressing guy that dated Zapp Brannigan.

And the annoying scientist from Three Hundred Big Boys.

[Tomacco]

Whereas the opener last week felt underwhelming, this one felt like solid Futurama.

Generally speaking, the show has a pretty good track record in satirizing today's technology... Stuff like the Napster parody in the Lucy Liu episode or the internet parody in A Bicyclops Built For Two. Doing parodies of Apple products has almost become cliche by now, but Futurama has the luxury of taking the concept to bigger places through advanced technology. The jabs at the Apple drones waiting in line isn't particularly fresh satire, but they had a lot of fun with how the apps interact with their lives... Just stupid little stuff like saying "Send" between sentences, or how Fry could see the image of himself in Leela's eyePhone.

(Although, where does that mean the camera is? Never thought about that at the time.)

That being said, the Susan Boil plot point soured the episode a bit. The plot obviously necessitated some sort of embarrassing secret for Fry to record, but I don't know if this was the right choice. It seemed a bit Flavor-of-the-Weekish to do a straight-up Susan Boyle parody, on top of the fact that the concept of a singing boil is pretty ridiculous. I guess they could explain it away with the fact that Leela's a mutant, but it's odd to accept this as something Leela's been living with the whole time when we're in the 6th season of the show. It would be akin to Marge Simpson actually having those rabbit ears... Revealed in Season 22.

I get that it's supposed to be a secret she's been keeping, but (unlike The Simpsons) Futurama's an extremely detail-oriented show, constantly throwing in small references to previous episodes or foreshadowing new stuff. I mean, this was an episode that had Amy's miniature cellphone from the Amazon episode and an appearance by that cross-dressing guy that dated Zapp Brannigan. Pulling out a random Susan Boyle parody out of Leela's ass (almost quite literally) seems random.

The episode was heading toward 5/5 territory in the first two acts, but the last one made it fall back to a 4/5. I griped about the Susan Boil joke a lot, but it's worth stressing that the episode was still a really solid entry and much better than the premiere.

(Also, of everything in that episode, they had to use the vomit/diarrhea joke for this episode's promo? I guess the Comedy Central suits don't have a high opinion on what turns people's heads.)

Agreed with this review. Despite the Boyle thing, this episode felt so much more like a true episode of Futurama than the last two did. I thought there were plenty of funny moments and good satire despite the ironically dated Susan Boyle bit.

[Mt. Doom]

I did enjoy seeing Mom's sons as the dancing Apple silhouettes

[Mira]

i didn't really mind the whole susan boil thing. the episode was about internet sensations, so it's not like it was out of place. yeah it was pretty childish, but i thought it worked ok. and i wouldn't say it was that family guy-ish either; the goat vomit/ diarhea was more like something family guy would do, and coincidentally the only thing I disliked about the episode. a little too gross with that one. maybe they could have drew a little less attention to it and it might not have been so bad. this was a MUCH better and more natural parody of modern technology than the last few simpsons seasons has given us.

other than that, no complaints! i enjoyed everything else the episode. many great lines:

"you're one of those ethnicities that knows about technology"
"oh no the light. I'm off to hell"
"eww, he sneezed in it"

kept me laughing throughout- 5/5

[Capt Hammer]

There were some great lines, and it was very funny futurama. But the plot seemed a little strange to me. I know we've done past references before with Nappster and the Internet but the Iphone is just so overdone and I personally expect better from Futurama. It's a funny, smart show that I go to for something a little more unique then the "EyePhone." I dunno, twitter and apple in the future seems like a bit of a boring concept to me, still it was funny so a high 3/5, 4/5 on the poll.

[Dark Homer]

all the apple store stuff was eye-rolling, then things got pretty funny when they were playing with their phones, then it got crazy-terrible when the susan boil showed up

[Ryan]

sigh

This episode reminded me a lot of "Bender's Game". Overwhelmingly large focus on jokes, too much of an emphasis on the topic and a muddled story with a terrible, jokey loose-ties ending. However, this was better than the aforementioned film in that it was funny. Well, most of it at least. Much of the eye-phone business garnered a decent amount of laughs (especially Bender immediately sending Leela's vid), but I agree that the "Susan Boil" bit must be one of the dumbest things I've seen the show ever do.

However, in regards to the pop culture references, they would often get carried away with making it too relevant to our time and saturating it all with the idea of 3010 is just like 2010 except slightly more futuristic, even down to the famous fads and celebs! I mean, a Jared subway joke? Seriously? At least "I Dated a Robot" used Napster as a simple plot device and kept the references to a minimum. This just overpopulates the episode, and doesn't feel free except for the small time in which they're doing something else with the premise besides timely humor. (even if it is well executed and smart)

And I hated the use of Mom in this ep, moreso because all she does is cackle evilly in a side plot that pretty much goes nowhere. They did this "leading to a punchline" plot idea much better in "Indagaddadaleela" last week, here it just feels like a frustrating ending. Even the Leela/Fry plot is on shaky ground, Leela pretty much doing nothing and Fry having the minimalist payoff. The entire story felt like a weak skeleton to hang these admittedly funny (but soon dated) gags on.

When it worked (mostly in the second half), it was funny, but besides that...damn, Futurama. "The Late Philip J. Fry" better be damn fucking good.

3/5

[Magnum]

...damn, Futurama. "The Late Philip J. Fry" better be damn fucking good.

also looking towards any ken keeler episodes

[arii]

Yeah, what Jamie said.

The satire on this show in regards to technology is still pretty great and spot-on without being too obvious, if that makes any sense. It helps because while they were still poking some fun at the product itself, that really was largely dispersed of in the beginning; afterwards it was their lives and that's what really helps, since these are the characters we know and love and seeing them act is going to draw us in more. This was miles beyond the way The Simpsons approaches it, in which just making a similar-sounding name and repeating it over and over is sufficient. Instead we were actually shown, not so much told. And when it comes to actually watching an episode, it makes a big difference.

Plus the bet between Fry and Bender was inspired (and jumping ahead a little, but they did a fantastic job on that ending too. I was setting myself up for something far more sinister, more akin to Mother's Day, and wondering how it would get resolved and then it just... cut off on a slightly anti-climactic but entirely appropriate tone with a great end point to the satire of the episode).

That's what ultimately lead to the problem for me, though. That fucking boil. Just awful. I didn't even mind the goat, it was kinda cute and the point was for it to be completely revolting anyway, considering the bet (not to mention the fact that PE apparently had it lying around and had named it and everything... And then it died, haha. Poor thing but... funny).

The biggest problem I had with the boil wasn't that it ruined the great parodic atmosphere by being far, far too specific - akin to the facepalm-worthy Apple stuff in the beginning - but because it was a complete joke. And by that I mean, Leela is a serious character with many dimensions to her, etc, and just for the sake of this episode she has a new quality that's just plain retarded but is supposed to be funny because oh, it's Susan Boyle, haha I get it. Do that shit with a joke character or have it a secret that actually adds to her character and then it could tie in a little better with the ongoing arc between Leela and Fry (is that still happening? The "friend" thing seemed off but Leela taking the time to call Fry made me think that they still had some sort of beyond-friends relationship because I can't really recall her randomly calling Fry up in the past; at the least, they've grown closer?). But don't attach a mindless parody to a well-developed excellent character. Not cool and not funny.

It doesn't ruin Leela's character by any means, but it's annoying to think about.

That aside! That would really be my only complaint. I didn't laugh much but I was thoroughly engrossed in the episode the whole time, and it was still fairly funny. At worst it was twenty-ish very solid minutes of pure entertainment.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

i'm extremely confused about the state of fry and leela's relationship. In the first episode, she needs more time. In the second one, they seem to be a couple and she kisses him. In this one, there's no real signs of them being together and she refers to him as a friend multiple times.

I'm going to be very annoyed if they just forget that plot thread.

[Yosemine]

Pretty disappointed with this new season so far.

At the start of the episode, it looked like it was going to be pretty good (gotta wonder about Flexo though), but then it fell apart. I thought the goat thing was, yes, a bit excessive, but I still got a chuckle out of it. But the boil just ruined this episode. It's too ridiculous, and it seems like since the movies Futurama has been heading in this route. I totally agree with arii's comment.

What I love about Futurama is how much I cared for the characters. They weren't just flat reciters of jokes, but actually developed. These new episodes aren't giving me the same feeling though.

Hoping it gets better and that these earlier ones can be overlooked...

[Coach McGuirk]

i would give this episode a 2/5, but it was better than last weeks so i'll let it get a 3/5.

susan boil. are you fucking kidding me. so she was a sensation at one point. what next. a joke about jon and kate plus 8? ah crap. you know what, futurama writers, forget i mentioned that.

the whole thing about teh twitter/i phone stuff was corny.

lelah is becoming annoying as every episode progresses.

i did like the appearances of morbo and flexo.

on the bad side, these episodes suck compared to the first 4 seasons. on the good side, these eps are an improvement from the movies. so hopefully next week will be better .

plus, where was hermes conrad in this episode? at least zoidberg had a great site gag when he threw a shell in the garbage can . i hope futurama doesn't just center around fry/leila/and bender for the rest of the season. they got such great characters. fuck that whole fry/leilah one week they are bf/gf, the next week they are friends, etc.

3/5

[Capt Hammer]

lelah
leila
leilah

*Leela

[Ralph_Wiggum]

i'm extremely confused about the state of fry and leela's relationship. In the first episode, she needs more time. In the second one, they seem to be a couple and she kisses him. In this one, there's no real signs of them being together and she refers to him as a friend multiple times.

.

[qwertyuio]

Just watched this episode.

i don't know if i'm talking out of my ass or not, but the worst thing to me is how the dialogue looks (again, to me at least) like it's becoming swallowed by barely related gags. which is, above all else, the fundemental problem with the current simpsons.

real discussions look like they're becoming nonexistant, except when needed as utilitarian plot forwarders. and the worth-while jokes only exist as set pieces around or in response to the plot, rather than being created organically in the dialogue or events that drive the episode forward. look at season one, the jokes are mostly story elements. that's what seperates the oakley and weinsteins from the al jeans.

this is my biggest problem with adding big b-stories and plot-twists like leela having a sentient growth, that they're often completely unneeded for the basic conflict to develop and only impede it.

And I think this sums up my thoughts quite well. While the two previous ones still had some quality in the writing, even feeling a little off in comparison with the best Futurama, this stands out for being pretty much like a sample of the problems of current Simpsons. I didn't enjoy the Eye-phone, Twitcher things. It's been so overused these days.

And then the dialogues. Not that the plot is actually so terrible, but they sound weirdly unnatural. In every one of Mom's lines, in most of those <insert hilarious reference about the present which somehow is there in the future because the writers firmly believe or want to make you believe that time is cyclical> moments (wow, that was long), but specially in the last part where Leela faces her "popularity", I honestly couldn't believe her appreciating Fry's help to confess her physical defect to the world. Something was missing there, definitely.

Susan Boil... heh. There's nothing to say. It could be much worse, but actually, and giving the fact that it's a terrible idea, it could be miles better. The way it was introduced felt abrupt, at least, and even a bit disgusting.

And the goat. I kind of justified it because it was not really badly-inserted in the episode, but... ugh. Just, ugh.

So what? The episode is entertaining. I enjoy the duel between Fry and Bender for the most views, and specially the second one is brilliant here. But on the other hand there are so many things I find it hard to get used to, that made the experience quite difficult.

5.5/10. Really disappointing, although not as bad as it could have been, I guess.

[Postmaster]

i'm extremely confused about the state of fry and leela's relationship. In the first episode, she needs more time. In the second one, they seem to be a couple and she kisses him. In this one, there's no real signs of them being together and she refers to him as a friend multiple times.

I'm going to be very annoyed if they just forget that plot thread.

I don't think they meant to imply they’re just friends now, she does call fry up from the ship to talk to him about the phone and in general the way they act towards each other just seems a little too affectionate for them to be just friends. I think they probably just don't want to use the specific word "boyfriend" so that episodes can sort of all remain timeless. So a season 1 episode could sit next to a season 2 episode without their being any real difference. But their relationship still seems like it was acknowledged in subtle ways.

Anyway, I was worried about how all the eye phone and twitter jokes would work, Simpsons has an embarrassing history of this in recent years. And the spam e mail and e bay jokes in Benders Big Score were pretty lame. But these were all ok for the most part. I do worry about how the episode will hold up in a few years time though.

This to me felt much more like an episode of futurama from season 1-4, but just not a particularly good episode, I enjoyed it but yeah there were a lot of problems that people have mentioned. All the disgusting jokes about vomit, diarrhoea and the boil are sort of reminiscent of the level of humour with the signoids pizzas in “A Leela of her own” although this was a much better episode.

Like last week the main plot device of the episode just sort of fizzled out, where there's a threat of something that comes to nothing in the end and isn't given a proper resolution. Now obviously that was the point, and it's fine to do stuff like that now and then, but it does leave you wanting an episode with a proper ending where something has to actually be dealt with and then everything is brought back to the status quo. I'm sure there will be though, but it just leaves me wanting to see an episode with a proper structure to reassure me that they can still do it. This definitely was getting closer to it though.

[morbot]

3/5

Woulda been 4/5 if they coulda come up with a decent embarassing video thing for Fry to post instead of the terrible Susan Boyle thing. Seriously... first off a singing boil? Then to tie it in with Susan Boyle of all people... really? How topical!

I didn't mind the eyePhone references pop/culture jokes... pretty much just shows that we're as stupid 1,000 years from now as we are today.

And I don't mind properly done past jokes. Like when Bill Clinton's head talks to Leela and another head says "He gets this way around meaty women"... Yeah, Monica Lewinski was a long time ago, but that joke was funny.

Didn't mind the goat either. Pretty much just the scenes with a singing boil on Leela's ass bring the episode to it's knees. Aside from those 4 minutes, I really liked it.

[Magnum]

i don't know if i'm talking out of my ass or not, but the worst thing to me is how the dialogue looks (again, to me at least) like it's becoming swallowed by barely related gags. which is, above all else, the fundemental problem with the current simpsons.

real discussions look like they're becoming nonexistant, except when needed as utilitarian plot forwarders. and the worth-while jokes only exist as set pieces around or in response to the plot, rather than being created organically in the dialogue or events that drive the episode forward. look at season one, the jokes are mostly story elements. that's what seperates the oakley and weinsteins from the al jeans.

this is my biggest problem with adding big b-stories and plot-twists like leela having a sentient growth, that they're often completely unneeded for the basic conflict to develop and only impede it.

i really enjoyed most of the movies for not trying to be gag vehicles. and i know having the plots move much faster makes a difference, but how can these episodes feel so off? hopefully this season will be as wildly inconsistent as seasons 3 and 4

[Paul]

The Susan Boyle thing did stink. Reminded me of something that belonged more in Family Guy, as Alpha said. However, I really enjoyed the rest of the episode and laughed far more than I did in the first two this season. I also liked that the plot was kept to a minimum with more of a focus on the Fry/Leela aspect. I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying their continued relationship stuff, really. It's a refreshing change to see some true character growth. I'd give it a high 4/5.

[hammster]

It was a fine showing again from the new season. Two gags in particular did put a downer on the episode for me though: that goat and Susan Boil. I'm not gunna go into too much detail about why I hated them as it has pretty much all been said and I won't be adding anything BUT does this mean Leela is always going to have this singing boil thing? This better not recur...

This episode also didn't seem to resolve very well to me either. Unless the streaming site I watched it on cut the end off... But how did it end? The zombies wanting the eyephone 2.0? That's not a resolution. They are in the control of Mom! That just seemed stupid to me.

Aside from the negatives of this episode it was still very funny and pretty solid. The relationship between Fry and Leela was very enjoyable and it was nice to see again. I also thoroughly enjoyed the first act and I was hoping they could sustain that all the way through and I think some of the quality was sustained. It was just spoilt by those two weak gags.

Don't get me wrong I loved many of the gags in this episode and again it was hilarious. I actually found the episode as a whole slightly better than In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela but just a bit worse than Rebirth.

Overall, it wasn't an awful episode by any means and I'm still filled with optimism that the rest of the season will reach the levels of the original series. 4/5.

[Charlie]

It was a fine showing again from the new season. Two gags in particular did put a downer on the episode for me though: that goat and Susan Boil. I'm not gunna go into too much detail about why I hated them as it has pretty much all been said and I won't be adding anything BUT does this mean Leela is always going to have this singing boil thing? This better not recur...

Doubt it (thank god), considering they had a guest star do the voice for it (Craig Ferguson). I know complaining about this part of the story is kind of beating a dead horse now, but I need to say how un-Futurama like I think it is and how it's probably the most embarrassing scene in the show's history. Don't even get me started on the fact that at the end of the episode there wasn't really any sort of resolution with it (or for that fact, the main Mom plot either). It's the kind of stupid twist that the Futurama comic book would make, but I thought the shows' writers were better than thi-- oh wait, it's Patric Verrone, he's churned out some of the most mediocre episodes AND comics. Never mind me.

Apart from that though, I really enjoyed this episode. The whole Apple thing was weird - in a way it was shoved down our throats, but in another way it wasn't annoying like that awful "Mapple" Simpsons episode. The only thing I didn't really like - aside from the Leela thing - was Amy's really forced line in the store, regarding the music (I didn't realise Marge Simpson was guest starring in this episode).

3.5/5. Would have been 5/5 if it wasn't for the boil.