Rate and Review: "Mobius Dick"

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Leela becomes obsessed with hunting down a space whale. Discuss!

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

Was more interesting than funny, though I liked a lot of the little touches like the ELO spaceship and the Pirates of the Caribbean reference.

Solid 4/5

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

Also, the Doctor for a second straight week

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Now this is more like the Futurama I've been looking for. Far superior to the last two episodes, and probably my favorite since Ghost in the Machines. I really liked the story here and there were many jokes that hit as well, though the episode did start out kinda slowly. I really liked Leela throughout, and Zoidberg had multiple funny moments as well. Scruffy's line about the explanation to the whole thing was probably my favorite moment, but yeah on first view alone I'd give this a 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5. Might change on a rewatch, but hopefully the show can keep up this standard for the remaining episodes this year.

[arii]

That was so cool to just watch.

This one felt a lot more balanced out in its pacing compared to most episodes from this run as well. A lot of things happened but it didn't feel like it was rushing through them in the slightest and I really got the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy.

So, so cool.

[TriforceBun]

My favorite thing about tonight's episode is its pervasive spirit of mystique and adventure. I found the whole story to be oddly compelling, and it was particularly atmospheric to boot, making for an extremely memorable tale. And I thought handling the first crew's disappearance with a sort of haunting reverence added to the weightiness of things (although I would've loved to see more time spent on the derelict PE Ship). As a bonus, the first half in particular was extremely funny, with too many great little one-liners to name, and one of my favorite parodoxial visuals (Bender getting slammed into the wall first, then the rest of the crew, then Bender) along with some nutty four-dimensional stuff ("Poop. Haha. Poop.").

The only quibble I have is that the third act didn't really work as well as I think the writers wanted it too, with somewhat vague exposition taking the place of meaningful character development. But even so, the rest of the show was strong enough to be my favorite of the season, and a solid 4.5/5.

[Muskrat]

Was this the episode where we learned about Zoidberg and Farnsworths' past together? Because we really didn't get much of that. Oh well, the episode was still great. Very trippy, too. Like last week, this one wasn't so much funny as it was just interesting and centering around a crazy, creative idea. However this was a bit funnier and more creative. Definitely one of the best so far this year. I just hope soon we'll get some episodes that focuses more on humor.

[Semaj]

"Just like that guy from the Bible who was swallowed by a whale...Pinocchio!"

This was definitely an improvement over the past few episodes. Lots of interesting mishaps in this adventure.

4.5/5

[DotheBartman]

Was this the episode where we learned about Zoidberg and Farnsworths' past together? Because we really didn't get much of that.

I'm pretty sure that's "Tip of the Zoidberg," airing in a couple weeks.

I'm not really sure anything other than "holy fuck that was cool" could really sum up my thoughts right now, so I'll just say "holy fuck that was cool" and leave it at that.

Holy fuck that was cool.

[cloneasaurus]

"Maybe if I move the compass like this, it will somehow kill the whale"

That line was hilarious. As for the rest of the episode, it was just... cool. The 4-dimensional space was cool, inside the whale was cool, and the ending was cool (even if it did go slightly over my head, the whole 'obsession' thing). Not much else to say. 4/5.

[Postmaster]

Yeah that was fun episode, interesting, atmospheric story and very funny too. Leela's sudden obsession with the whale was a little too underdeveloped, but it's still within character to be like that, so I bought it. Although the whole Leela is the whale metaphor didn't quite play as well as they'd intended, it still just about made sense, but wasn't quite handled quite as deftly as it could have been.

Also I'll just say it's the fact that they don't do episodes like that all the time that makes them stand out, so quit whining that they don't do a space adventure every week, even if it means some failed experiments like the last two shows.

[Shaunbadia]

This episode was by far the best of the season so far (I'm just referring to the current season as season 7 so that my brain doesn't explode).

The visuals were amazing, I got a lot of solid laughs, it was interesting and Zoidberg got a happy ending

[D DEBBS]

Capt. Ahab with purple hair and one eye...M-E-H!

[arii]

hey d debbs what isn't M-E-H!

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

a-r-i-i

[Mira]

kind of awesome

[DotheBartman]

MINOR CONTINUITY ERROR ALERT:

In this episode, Zoidberg has apparently been working for PlanEX for about 50 years. But in "Insane in the Mainframe," he celebrates his 10th year with the company.

Boy, I really hope someone got fired for that blunder.

[hughes]

I knew something was kind of niggling at me about zoidberg having been there for 50 years, thanks for pointing that out. i don't really care, though, i'm fine with him there for 50

hey, maybe he took 47 years off or something

[Semaj]

How old is Zoidberg?

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

he was fired and came back 41 years later, thus making it 10 aggregate years

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I guess Zoidberg had to go without mating then for a loooooooooooooooong time huh? At least with his own species right?

[HMS pinafore]

this episode felt more like a proper si-fi epic then a comedy program. still it kept me laughing throughout and had some of the best animation in the history of the show
also loved the 4th dimention stuff

also the more popular the episode is the less thread replies it gets

[Jims]

I didn't really post anything earlier because I didn't really know what to make of it. There is a lot of interesting stuff in the episode, and in that sense makes it a memorable one, but the plot failed me in a few disappointing places.

This plot is probably one of the most ambitious ones they have ever attempted. In the span of 21 minutes, they have to 1) establish the mythos with the original Planet Express Ship (and Bermuda Tetrahedron), 2) establish Leela's obsessiveness in general, 3) transfer her obsessiveness to a focal point (the whale), 4) make the connection that Leela's obsessiveness is the whale, and then 5) have her overcome the whole thing. Thematically, this is a pretty tall order for any 21-minute episode of anything.

I'll brush #1 aside, since creating mythos is something Futurama does pretty well in general. You just have to trot Farnsworth out there and he'll pretty much do a good job setting the stage.

With Leela, I can buy her obsessiveness in general, because she has indeed always had that trait. I wouldn't exactly call it her defining characteristic, but it's prevalent enough throughout the series that it's not a huge stretch to dial it up for an episode.

What I don't exactly buy in the episode is the shift to obsess over the space whale. To begin with, there's a little bit of Horror Movie Logic going on when they first get in the Bermuda Tetrahedron. They establish that Leela really really really wants to get that statue back to Earth on time, so badly that that's the reason why she takes the shortcut through to begin with. But then they see the old Planet Express ship in there, and it's almost immediately, "Never mind this delivery and the INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS SURROUNDINGS we were just talking about... Let's go explore!". So they build up Leela's obsessiveness over the statue and then drop it for an exploratory mission.

But, wait, the whale attacks and destroys the statue. Now the whale must pay!

...Well, gee, Leela, maybe you guys shouldn't have ran off to explore that giant spaceship for a half hour.

Leela's obsessiveness seems to have attention deficit disorder in this episode. First she gets petulant about the spelling of "its" (which was an amusing joke), then she realizes she's late and gets obsessive about the delivery, then she switches her obsessiveness to space exploration, and then finally back to the whale. Her desire seems to hop around from place to place that when she finally settles on the whale, it rings rather hollow and arbitrary to me. If she's going to shift that dramatically to stopping the mission to chase the whale, then you really have to build up her motivation. And "he ruined my delivery" (in the way they portrayed it) doesn't quite cut it for me. Leela's obsessive, but she's not "Oh look, shiny object, I want" obsessive.

So then they have to sell us on the whole Moby Dick analogy about Leela being the whale. It's an analogy I don't completely buy (because of her motivations from before) but I'm willing to accept the symbolism behind it... Because, after all, Leela is obsessive. So fine, I buy it. What bugs me about it, which Ryan O articulated to me, is that they just beat us over the head with a hammer with it in Act 3. It almost turned into a Shakespearean drama, the way Leela would just constantly soliloquy about her feelings of obsession.

Hey, guys, did you hear that Leela is the whale?
Oh you did?
Just making sure you got it.

And then they have to end with Leela overcoming the whale and overcoming obsessiveness (or maybe she didn't and she was just stronger?)... I honestly don't remember now what their explanation was. The point was they had to get them back on Earth and they did it. The fact that they did it THIS TIME, WITH SYMBOLISM is a bonus, I suppose.

I realize this review is probably coming off more negative than I mean to, so I should probably back-pedal a little about the plot. Like I said, the plot was extremely ambitious in its thematic arc, and I actually do appreciate the episode for trying something new.

(Oh, and have I mentioned yet the episode was gorgeous? No? Well, it was. One of the best-looking Futurama episodes ever, if not the best. That's how good it looked at some points.)

One of my biggest problems with modern Simpsons is that they don't ever try something new and don't do anything ambitious. So I have to give Futurama props for trying something unique. I don't think they completely succeeded in stitching everything together in 21 minutes (an extra 10 minutes and this probably would have been flawless). But it's at the very least going to be a memorable episode that I'll rewatch several times.

For me, it's a little like "The Principal and the Pauper". It's flawed, but it's thought-provoking and interesting. 3.5/5.

(I apologize for rambling on for so long. I was actually going to make this relatively brief, and then realized I couldn't articulate my biggest problems with the episode without digging into the plot for two or three paragraphs.)

[Gatorgod]

One of my favorite sci/fy takes on Moby Dick was the the serialized graphic novel "Abraxas And The Earthman".. (anybody else familiar with?)
Not sure if anyone else has done Moby sc/fy style beyond Rick Veitch and Futurama?

[Jesse Pinkman]

didn't laugh a whole lot, but the animation was really amazing. i would have liked to laugh more, but animation alone gets this a 4.5/5 or so

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

For what it was, and what it was trying to acomplish story-wise I thought this one was almost perfect.

4/5