Rate and Review: "Cold Warriors"

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Disaster ensues when Fry inadvertently reintroduces the common cold to the future.

I know the thread is early, but I've seen earlier and the board is gonna be down until after the original showing so whenever it comes back up I guess this will officially open to discuss the episode....or not, whatever we'll see.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I thought it was pretty good, but again the story felt rushed near the end. Oh they just happen to go find that cold sample before the city was tossed into the sun and they just happen to tell everyone the professor can make a vaccine, and they just happen to put everything right back where it was in the end. Also, I'm beginning to think they're overdoing the episodes with a past story being told at the same time as one from the present which will eventually pay off in the present. Despite these two complaints I did like the episode though and the ending was rather nice with Fry and his dad. 4/5

[HMS pinafore]

Futurama needs to have an extra 2 minuets to each episode to explain the story. Also would have been better to not show this straight after tip of the z. But i still enjoyed most of this and i liked the end with frys dad even though it felt tacked on and zap was in it so over all i guess i will be giving it a solid 4/5

[Mr. Krikt]

The premise is pretty weak when the "common cold" is caused by dozens upon dozens of different viruses. Apparently Fry was just carrying the one which only awoke years later?
Also, the effectiveness of the past/present interleaving was weakened by the fact that it's the second episode in a row to use it. I was not interested in the past-Fry in the slightest. There was a turnaround in the last minute to try to make it emotional but it felt completely tacked on and lacking the capacity of earlier episodes.

I'm Facebooking right now.

Wow, this is straight out of the Simpsons. "Facebook!" Hey guy, is it funny yet? "Twitter, Skype!"

[Postmaster]

I thought this was more effective than last week's episode at doing the flashback thing, since the stories connected in a nice way, but I agree it was diminished slightly by the fact that they did the flashback thing last week. Similar deal with the music montage, this week's was the funniest in a while, but they've done it too much lately. I agree the ending scene just felt tacked on, it didn't feel like they'd built towards it at all.

Still I liked the music for the scene. Felt weird that they were using that guitar picking thing rather than the orchestral music they'd usually use. Might have been a case of budget cuts forcing them to be more inventive and in the process doing something that was more effective.

So yeah a very sweet, but flawed episode that probably would have seemed better if it had been placed earlier in the season.

[TriforceBun]

I generally agree with the sentiment here. Overall, I liked it, and it was a fun, creative premise for Futurama. I also have to commend the writers for not going the super-gross-out route that cartoons usually do when everyone's sick for an episode, Zoidberg aside. The past/present storytelling kept my interest, but it did seem a little derivative of Fryrish and Jurassic Bark, complete with a twist emotional ending. The ending itself was slightly tacked on, but cute enough to work and leave things on a positive note.

The plot progression moved forward at a brisk pace, even if the ending did end up feeling rushed (they just happened to find the exact satellite on the spot they fell through?). All in all, probably one of the better episodes this season and a decent outing. 4/5

[Postmaster]

As the plot was going on I started to think we were going to get a more outlandish coincidental ending and that it would turn out fry's gerbil would be launched into space, placed into some kind of stasis and then just at the right time would arrive intact with the 20th century cold germs they'd need.

[Ryan]

I generally agree with the sentiment here. Overall, I liked it, and it was a fun, creative premise for Futurama. I also have to commend the writers for not going the super-gross-out route that cartoons usually do when everyone's sick for an episode, Zoidberg aside. The past/present storytelling kept my interest, but it did seem a little derivative of Fryrish and Jurassic Bark, complete with a twist emotional ending. The ending itself was slightly tacked on, but cute enough to work and leave things on a positive note.

The plot progression moved forward at a brisk pace, even if the ending did end up feeling rushed (they just happened to find the exact satellite on the spot they fell through?). All in all, probably one of the better episodes this season and a decent outing. 4/5

Yep pretty much agreed here. The "twist emotional ending" did not work for me at all. A heartfelt little speech from Fry's dad only elicited Full House memories than actual tears, which is what I'm guessing they wanted. (the horribly forced seven-leaf-clover inclusion did not help things at all either)

Up until the end it was a fun, cute episode and I do have to admit I like the realism of the science fair results. It was also nice to see Zapp and Kif again, they've been oddly missing a lot from this run.

4/5

[irvine_11]

An improvement over last week's episode. The plot was well developed and executed and it was nice to see Fry's family make a return. Also, we got a genuine feeling of sentiment for the first time in a while. 4/5

[jbauer]

Another home-run for Dan Vebber. This episode really nailed Fry to the core as a character, and his ever-lasting desire to overcome the "loser" label. Quite a poignant story. And the idea of unleashing the flu on the 3000's is surprisingly original for Futurama. It gave room for some terrific flu-related jokes, although I was surprised how Amy could actually topple Leela in terms of anger management.

I also loved seeing the Nimbus level NNYC. Great visual gag, and it's always nice to put Scott Vanzo to work, especially given the show's reduced budget this past season.

Also, kudos to Crystal Chesney-Thompson. The animation on this episode deserves special mention. A+++ for effort, right down to the simplest character poses and movements, not to mention creative framing in several scenes. Having Fry colored Simpson yellow and Smurf blue didn't hurt either.

I think I can safely say Futurama found its very own Lauren MacMullan, and that's Crystal Chesney in a nutshell. She nailed every single show she's directed this past year, this being her finest home-run, surpassing even Rich Moore, Bret Haaland, Dwayne Carey-Hill and Peter Avanzino. She's definitely learned a few lessons from The Simpsons Movie and brought them to the weekly TV grind somehow.

5/5 - Another highlight of a stellar season.

[NoOneFamous]

Despite some problems, I enjoyed this a lot more than the last several episodes. Interesting plot, and the twist with Fry not actually winning was well done. Despite doing the past/present thing last week, I find that anything about Fry's past is more interesting and reminds me of the pre-movie seasons.

Negatives:
-I wish they would stop doing jokes like the "Facebook!" joke. Its "new Simpsons" lame and feels out of place on the show when they don't give it some sort of "future version."
-I agree that they are still trying to cram in too much plot into 21 minutes. I like that it shows they are trying hard and aren't just producing a bunch of half-assed BS, not seriously, the show could slow down a little.
-It was discussed in the last episode's thread and this episode did it too - I wish they would stop having jokes about the characters being so eager to kill each other and whatnot.

[Gatorgod]

Put a plastic tarp over an undesirable town and throw it into the sun,..
hmm, the Simpsons Movie could've learned a thing or two from this episode.

[Charlie]

And the idea of unleashing the flu on the 3000's is surprisingly original for Futurama

So original that Futurama writer Patric Verrone used Fry unleashing the flu on the 3000's as the basis of one of his Futurama Comics stories nine years ago.

[Postmaster]

Nobody cares about the comics.

[Charlie]

Nobody cares about your opinion, so shut the fuck up.

[Postmaster]

Calm down, I'm just messing around.

[Jims]

Man, this episode is confusing. So what exactly did Fry's relationship with his father have to do with the main plot again? Even if we're just talking thematically, this story seems like a weird place to mesh that part of Fry's backstory.

Hey, Futurama writers, next time you're going to write a story about Fry learning to be strong and overcome adversity... Uh, maybe you could put some adversity in the 3000s for Fry to overcome?

[Shaunbadia]

It's a little odd that we get one flashback episode after another this week, but bare in mind that Comedy Central has been airing this run out of production order (Aside from this week's episode which is correctly followed by "Overclockwise" and "Reincarnation"). If these had been aired in production order, "The tip of the Zoidberg" would have been the 5th episode of the run.

As for "Cold warriors" itself. I liked it, the stuff with Fry and his dad was funny, but the ending was so damn sweet I can't even call it tacky. It felt real..."Luck of the Fryrish" real (And I'm not just saying that because of the seven leaf clover callback).

The story with everyone being quarantined had some good moments, Bender and Fry were all that kept it amusing though. Zoidberg's gross-out jokes were just so damn predictable and not only was I reminded of "The Simpsons movie" with the city being covered but "The Farnsworth parabox" also came to mind when they were about to be tossed into the sun.

The ending brings this one up to a 4/5.

"I don't want you getting frozen" is one of my favourite moments in the series now.

[Cartoonnetwork]

Man, this episode is confusing. So what exactly did Fry's relationship with his father have to do with the main plot again? Even if we're just talking thematically, this story seems like a weird place to mesh that part of Fry's backstory.

Hey, Futurama writers, next time you're going to write a story about Fry learning to be strong and overcome adversity... Uh, maybe you could put some adversity in the 3000s for Fry to overcome?

Yeah, I kind of feel this way too. So far most of the other "flashback" episodes had been similar in themes/tone both in the past and the future. This one made sense in the way that the facts from the past have consequences in the future but the "moral" of the story was totally unrelated. One is a mundane story about young Fry's goals and his relation with his father and the other is about the dangerous consequences of common cold in the future. So in a way it seemed like "two episodes in one", which is not a bad thing, but the future story looked a little underdeveloped, considering the scale of it, while the past story was developed well enough, though Fry's dad finally being kind to his son wasn't related to his previous acts in the story. I guess that was part of the idea, though, to show that the old man was usually very harsh with his boy but there was the rare moment when he showed some love to him. I sort of liked it, anyway, cause his usual attitude is a little too extreme and stereotypical, and unless they are delinquents or mad people, even the worst parents usually have some love for their children.

I guess the adversity Fry overcomes is the same he caused. He found out how to solve the problem and Leela considers he should be proud, that's the part that connects this with Fry's father at the end, but it was a little tacked on. The future story is not really about Fry's goals or about his memories of his father or anything like that, it's about the wacky things that are different in the future, like common cold being the worst of the problems.

I'm unsure whether I liked this one or Tip of the Zoidberg most, cause this was more distracting for the reasons already explained, and I kinda liked the novelty of the Zoidberg/Fansworth flashback more, though that one had some problems too like the exaggerated wackiness of some of the illness, including the Yeti flu.

But anyway, both of them were good enough to get at least a 4/5, I guess.

[TriforceBun]

I feel like an idiot for missing the double meaning of the "I don't want you to get frozen" line.

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

Fry was cryogenically frozen

[Jims]

Here's the nerdgroupies review.

Considering I'm the only 3/5 vote on this poll, please don't yell at me.

[D DEBBS]

Caught it about two nights ago (missed it Thursday)...1/2 way decent ep.

Gawd, I thought my filthy Mudblood father was bad (poor stupid Fry).

[Mira]

twas a decent episode. I felt the premise wasn't very strong or captivating, but it still kept my attention for the most part. no major nitpicks or complaints.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

It was really good.. Gedigi out!

5/5.