Rate/Review "The Bots and the Bees"

[HMS pinafore]

Season 7 Premier. Planet Express gets a new soda machine and Bender impregnates it.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Didn't Smitty retire in Law and Oracle?

It was good. 4/5.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

The better of the two episodes for me, it was a fun Bender heavy outing with a nice resolution reminiscent of 300 Big Boys but not as good. The robot tape felt like good old Futurama. I hoped to see the Robot Devil even in a single shot and seeing Bend as a little kid in between the two ages we saw would've been cool but they only had so much time. 4/5.

[Jims]

with a nice resolution reminiscent of 300 Big Boys but not as good.

Haha, yeah. I doubt there was a Futurama fan anywhere who didn't watch this and think, "Huh, this reminds me a lot of Fry's coffee binge." The payoff definitely didn't seem as central to the story, and felt very tacked on in some regards. Wasn't bad or anything, though.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

I certainly didn't until you brought it up.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

It was pretty good.. it's biggest problem was it probably could have been a two part episode and then it would have had much more impact and time to play around with the idea of Bender having a son and exploring all of that instead of it being so streamlined into a 21 minute episode.

It was a big story... but so was "Farewell to Arms", and it worked on almost all levels.

Overall: 4/5.

[cymek]

A very good episode, although the idea of Fry constantly consuming Slurm seemed a little bit forced to me. 4/5

[Shaunbadia]

Very good episode, Fry's slurm thing seemed pointless and at first I didn't like the way Ben aged so quickly, but oveall those are very minor complaints.

Highlights were
"To the employment cave!"
The sex ed video
Bender's goodbye to Ben (Which actually got me misty eyed....DAMN YOU FUTURAMA!)

4/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Heh, 4/5 across the board.

[Flimpson Tide]

Yup, 4/5 from me too. Easily would have been a 5, but the first act wasn't too great, although my favorite part was Bender videotaping the vending machine dousing the sluts in soda. The act as a whole also had me worried about the episode. But once Ben(d?) was born, it got way better. I think any episode with a "Me, Bender" line automatically gets raised a point because I find it so funny for some reason. Leela telling the cops Bender is a good parent was pretty nice. And Bender drawing the happy face on the back of his head to hide his sadness was so bittersweet I almost cried.

[lolcats]

''SHUT UP AND GIVE ME A SLURM!''

[irvine_11]

Well, this was a lot better than I expected it to be. This is the kind of Futurama I'm used to - the perfect blend of comedy and sentimentality.

I remember reading the premise and expecting to hate this one. I mean, a robot getting a vending machine pregnant felt like the same thing as that stupid episode from last year with Bender becoming a ghost. However, I'm glad they tied up loose ends for this one by not even having Bender be aware of his ability to reproduce, as well as the video explaining that robots can reproduce as well as be built on an assembly line. I thought Bender's son was just cute during his baby stages and he was also a pretty good character when he reached his teen-hood. The ending genuinely made me sad too, with Bender having to sacrifice his son remembering him in order for him to get his bending talent. Bender feeling heartbroken at his son not remembering him was one of the most well done sentimental moments they did in a long time. I also liked how they made the predictable moments not so predictable, like the teen robots laughing at him and his son trying to bend the grate.

The episode was far from perfect, however. There were a few cringeworthy elements that were common in the CC Futurama. Amy stealing Randy's car to get to work was highly out of character and not funny and I didn't much care for the sub-plot either. I did like that it helped at the end, but I still found it to be a useless time filler. I'll give this a 4/5 (B)

[D DEBBS]

It was okay, better than the 2nd ep...Fry's over-uasge of Slurm was overdone (like beating a dead horse).

[Mr. Krikt]

I didn't enjoy this episode. I just couldn't help comparing Fry's Slurm addiction to the episode where his coffee obsession also reached its zenith and he was able to save the day. The real problem is how poor it looks in comparison.
I did not care for the Bender's son plot at all even though I was prepared to overlook the fact that he already gave up a son to the devil. I saw the ending twist coming a mile off, thinking it would be a convenient way to get rid of the son. Apart from that, it was a really weak episode with the characters being just mouthpieces to progress the plot, apart from the sassy black vending machine which the episode required, but I could have easily done without.

[cloneasaurus]

3/5 Marginally funnier than the other one but more dull.

[NoOneFamous]

4/5

Good episode. I think with these two new episodes you got both ends of the Futurama spectrum - the more "down to earth" (although still pretty wacky) episodes like this one, and the ridiculously over the top ones like the 2nd. Kind of weird to introduce the fact that robots can be created as babies this late in the series, though.

[Flimpson Tide]

Maybe it's a recent 3012 development.

I find it a little weird that they actually have the series' years correspond with our years, and thus have to deal with the characters not aging. They would have been just fine keeping everything set in the year 3000 because...you know, it's not like having a show set in the present where you have to change year by year if you want to incorporate current events and iPhones and whatnot. When I heard them mention in a Comedy Central episode that it was 3010 or something I thought, WHAT? I thought it was always the year 3000. So the characters aged a decade...but they didn't?

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

"The Bots and The Bees"


Bender with his new-born son, Ben


This was a nice little episode. It is nowhere near a classic but it had a nice story, some good jokes and a sweet ending. I could believe the relationship between Bender and Ben so that really helped further the story and give much more impact in the last few scenes. I'd probably compare the ending to that of "Leela's Homeworld", not really recognized for its sweet ending but it still chokes you up.

While the main story was sweet, it did not really supply many jokes and I do think that is why the writers used Fry even-though his story had been done before. While this may not be the funniest episode there were a fair few great moments, including...


* The over-the-top opening
* "Wipe my tiny metal ass!"
* The montage was sweet
* "Quit whimpering or you won't get kidnapped"

Narrator: "Meet Gerald, he is a maturing young robot..."
Teenaged Robot: "Hey, he looks like me!"
Narrator: "... His hideous appearance is a by-product of his hardware gearing up for an important mission ... REPRODUCTION"


While it may not be the most memorable or funny episode I still very much enjoyed it. Characters were used well, nothing felt out of place, it was good. If the Fry subplot had dealt with something else (or if there was no subplot at all) then I'd probably have raised the grade slightly but it didn't take up too much of the time and was mostly seen during Bender's story so it wasn't too bad.


15/20 (B+)

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

That was pretty good! 3,75/5 or 4/5 in the poll.

[zach]

wow that was way better than i expected. had some good jokes. i give a 2.5/5. (so i guess i voted 3 in the poll)

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

hahaha

[zach]

watching the other episode right now.

[ManiacalRoboKiller]

Was a great episode! 4/5 It was funny and had that good emotional spot too! The Planet express crew going to work was hysterical especially Zoidberg and Scruffy! XD