Rate and Review: "Ghost in the Machines"

[DotheBartman]

See, you're reading much more into this joke than there actually is. Funny idea, yes? Writers' intention, no. And that doesn't excuse it from being lazy.

Oh no, I acknowledge that, I just personally found it funny for that reason.

There were a lot of these sorts of jokes in older seasons too, but it does seem like they've increased some. And that the older examples were a bit more likely to be specifically acknowledged as relics from the past that seem strange in the 31st century. They definitely don't work quite as well.

[Adam723]

Am I really the only one who saw the epic plot hole in the story? Ummm... Bender could possess electronic devices, including the Robot Devil's body, so why couldn't he just go back into his own body. We even see the Robot Devil go into another body after he "dies". Everything that happened after Bender realized he could go into machines was completely unnecessary. The episode was still funny though.

[Jims]

<David X. Cohen voice>

Well, you see, that was because Bender's previous body is not functional anymore due the release of the robot soul. His previous body is now no more of an electronic device than a paper weight or a trash can. He would be able to go inside his old body but not actually do anything in it.

</Cohen>

Or it's just arbitrary nonsense. Either one.

[Adam723]

^I'm going to go with the latter, because even if the former were true, Bender could have just possessed a new bender unit. I suppose you could argue that those units are now obsolete (Since robot 1-X was introduced and I believe Flexo said something about it briefly), but hell, worst case scenario he could just get himself a shiny new body.

[hughes]

yeah, but I just can't see Bender adopting another bending unit's body. i think he'd want his body and ONLY his body

[Dark Homer]

funny as h*ck... better than last week's episode for sure

kinda wish they'd spent more time in amish homeworld and robot heaven

getting kind of annoyed by the constant complaints about the current references. it's literally just one joke per episode, in a show where they have heads in jars primarily so they can feature Today's Celebrities making cameos. just mentally put "space-" in front of everything if it bothers you

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Regarding Bender's body I just assumed it was dead/damaged beyond use(except for the crew as novelty items like stress balls) so he couldn't go into it anymore whereas the Robot Devil bodies were perfectly functional, just not possessing any "soul." I did wonder why Bender didn't just go into one of the other spare Robot Devil bodies though, but it all happened so quickly he probably didn't have time to before going to Robot Heaven.

[Semaj]

The single funniest moment in this episode was when Scruffy uttered Bender's catch phrase. His deadpan delivery carried the entire joke.

They once again breezed thru Act III, taking us to two worlds that aren't given enough development. What would've been more interesting was the prospect of Bender actually going to Robot Heaven instead of Robot Hell, and determining if there actually is a Robot Heaven (since we already know that even humans can literally go to Robot Hell), rather than a cop out fight with the Robot God. They also could've explored a bit about the ghost world, since apparently there are ghosts in the future.

3.0/5

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

I don't mind the present jokes, and I even laughed my ass off at the Obamacare line... I just found it a bit nonsensical.

RE: Bender's body: presumably it was damaged beyond repair. Compare with a human... you couldn't just posses your own body after you've been brutally murdered because the body itself is dead.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Ghost in the Machines

Futurama seems to be getting better and better with each episode this broadcasting season. After a meh episode and a good episode, we get a great episode which has an interesting premise, good jokes and an all around fun atmosphere.

The premise behind whether or not a Robot life means more then a Human life is an interesting premise for an episode to take and the episode manages to execute that premise well... With everybody taking a Robot life like it was nothing and taking a Human life for granted. I was surprised that Bender managed to commit suicide (abiet in the form of Murder) after all of these times and the suicide booth that turned out to be his girlfriend in the past was clever.

I did enjoy Bender as he floated around confused about why nobody was noticing him, unaware that he was a ghost. The moments he had with the Robot Devil and Fry are absolutely priceless and it actually manages to be a good gagfest while at the same time showing was Fry was managing to go through. I have to say. Danny C was good as the Robot Devil, I'm guessing it's the fact that he's playing a different character that makes his performance so entertaining, and he never got tired just appearing throughout the episode at times...

it was actually genius that Bender was able to take over electronics, it provided visual fun as well. Though this isn't a gagfest all the way through, Bender does manage to scare Fry to a heart attack and well, it's a nice sweet moment in which Bender realizes that a robot life does matter to them. The Amish homeworld was a nice way to advance the plot and seeing Fry speak in amish-slang and do some amish stuff porly was both sweet, touching and entertaining. It was sad to see Bender as a ghost accompany Fry all the way through despite the fact that he couldn't see him, and he does redeem himself at the end of the episode and gets into Robot Heaven (which is something we haven't seen before but it was nicely portrayed despite issues.) before being sent back to Earth and manages to end in both a sweet and a funny note.

All in all, I have to say that this was a really great episode of Futurama. It was touching, it was funny, it was entertaining and it was a really nice way to waste 30 minutes of my life. They took an interesting premise and manage to execute it to the best of their abilities; there was not one moment where it fell flat. (though Parade Day was only okay at best.) This is an episode you'll wanna place in your Futurama Episode Collection folks.

8.5/10

[Flimpson Tide]

An old lady bitching, "Put on four episodes of The Office," is a fuck of a lot funnier than something awful like, "Put on four episodes of "Robot Space Battles."

[jordan]

I finally just saw this one

There was some funny jokes, but what really bothered me was...

Uhh...Bender is trying to literally kill Fry? I mean, did that not bother anybody else? Aren't they friends? I know this show can play a bit loose with things but it especially seems like since getting to Comedy Central they've had an almost South Park-like purposeful fucking with the characters just for a joke....It kind of scares me because I don't want the show to lose the realness of the relationships between everyone.

It just seemed a bit harsh that we have an episode where Bender is trying to kill Fry. Even despite the sudden turn around. I just didn't like it.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

I finally just saw this one

There was some funny jokes, but what really bothered me was...

Uhh...Bender is trying to literally kill Fry? I mean, did that not bother anybody else? Aren't they friends? I know this show can play a bit loose with things but it especially seems like since getting to Comedy Central they've had an almost South Park-like purposeful fucking with the characters just for a joke....It kind of scares me because I don't want the show to lose the realness of the relationships between everyone.

It just seemed a bit harsh that we have an episode where Bender is trying to kill Fry. Even despite the sudden turn around. I just didn't like it.

It's reasonable. Bender didn't see much mourning from Fry about his passing, he's still pissed they care more about a human life then a robot life, therefore the motive to kill and the sudden resolve once he admits that a robot life is just as important.

[Agent Polar]

Saw this last night, and I also had some problems with it. I agree that the fact they're on comedy central is allowing them to do... weird stuff. The themes seem too strong sometimes, and they resort to them straight away. I just wanna say that I think it was because of this every time I saw a female on screen I expected something sexual. And it got them to use the suicide thing too quickly or in the wrong way and Bender immediately wanting to kill Fry. To me if this was done right, the attempted killing of Fry could have used some Robot Devil trickery and a bit more time would have been devoted to the time prior to the death of Bender or it could been done in a different way.

Oh yeah and the "Bender not possessing an extra robot devil body" thing and Fry never noticing a Parade Day... well I noticed it but I didn't mind too much, but would be nice if they could fix up some of that stuff.

Otherwise, it's Futurama, it's normally enjoyable for the most part, same tonight, 3/5.

[hammster]

Literally my only complaint about this episode is the fact that Bender was ready to kill his best friend. I didn't like it. I mean, he could have atleast questioned it abit more or something.

Other than that, it was pretty funny and I bought into the whole concept really quickly.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

My only gripe about this ep. is this seemed like something you would save for a final season towards the end... so the audience might actually think Bender is actually dead for good during the episode and not going to come back at the end.

4/5.