Rate & Review "Decision 3012"

[Jims]

Get to it!

[Kayla]

best of the new ones so far. the obama and palin jokes were predictable but the plot twist made it worth it, and i enjoyed the references to terminator and the ending. not as good as a head in the polls though, that one was a little more general in its satire so it holds up better. B+

[Flimpson Tide]

I didn't like the beginning too much (Bender jumping for free beer and drinking it all was too much like Homer), but it definitely got better. The candidate from the future was a great twist, but then the fact that he also disappeared because he won was quite clever (and made a lot of sense at the same time). My three favorite moments of the night were Nixon watching the squirrels on the powerlines while muttering "Fall! Fall!", the giraffe breaking the window open, and Bender sucking Leela's hair into his mouth.

It was obvious Fry and Bender were going to join Leela on the trip to Kenya. Think we're ever actually going to get an episode where an unusual pairing of people go off together instead - say, Leela, Hermes and Kif? I just randomly threw that trio out there...that really wouldn't make a funny episode.

[That Don Guy]

So let me get this straight...Nixon was elected President, and as a result, the robots took over, so the humans sent Travers back to defeat Nixon. However, Travers won, so the robots never took over, and Travers was never sent back in time, so Nixon did win...so the robots do take over, and they do send Travers back, so Travers does win, but then the robots don't take over, so they don't send him back, and Nixon wins after all...how soon before all of the robots (except for Robot Santa) have their heads explode from the paradox?

[Shaunbadia]

A pretty fun outing, much better than I expected it to be. Loved the callbacks to "Bender's Big Score" and the intro was amusing.

Best lines of the night were "Leela don't stereotype, why are you yokels doing this?" and Zoidberg's "I'll stick with the evil maniac I know thank you!"
Most amusing visuals were the septic tank and Bender using the giraffe to break in to the hospital.

Decision 3012 gets a solid vote of 4 from me.

[That Don Guy]

Were there any scenes where adult Travers met baby Travers? I have a feeling they intentionally made sure they would never meet, since that usually results in the time traveler's death somehow.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Ah crap I knew I forgot something...

[Shaunbadia]

Were there any scenes where adult Travers met baby Travers? I have a feeling they intentionally made sure they would never meet, since that usually results in the time traveler's death somehow.

Adult Travers was sitting next to his mother as she gave birth, he even held his baby self.

[Lionheart]

Meh. Predictable and obvious jokes, but I like that they referenced Bender's Big Score. This episode got a little bit better as it went on, but overall it was kind of annoying. 3/5 C+ for now.

[D DEBBS]

^
Another M-E-H.

[irvine_11]

I really liked this! The plot was interesting (even if it had been done before), Bender was back in his old hilarious form, and the plot twist was genuinely surprising. As for this vs. A Head in the Polls, I liked this one better. This one was funnier and had a more captivating plot. Don't get me wrong, though - A Head was good, too. My only complaint is the lack of explanation regarding how Nixon keeps getting reelected, since the "two terms max" rule is still in effect in the future. Still. if this rest of the season reaches this quality, I'll be willing to forget that these last two seasons ever existed. Best of the season so far. 4/5 (B+)

[Dark Homer]

It was really hacky and bad... there's a spot of cleverness when Not Obama is watching his own birth but it's not enough to make up for the rest

Now I'm going to haul ass to Lollapalooza

[lolcats]

Yeah, no.

2/5

[Mr. Krikt]

I think they need to stop doing parody of modern day (pop) culture like the iPhone, Prop 8 and um, the American presidency. It feels dated and lazy.

[irvine_11]

I think they need to stop doing parody of modern day (pop) culture like the iPhone, Prop 8 and um, the American presidency. It feels dated and lazy.

They spoofed AOL and Y2K back in the year 2000. How is this any different?

[Kayla]

They spoofed AOL and Y2K back in the year 2000. How is this any different?

they may have made jokes about napster, y2k, global warming, etc. but it seems that's what every other new episode has been. when they did satire such as voting and politics in a head in the polls, global warming in crimes of the hot, that satire was more generalized and still relevant. this episode was funny, hence why i gave it a good score. just compare simpsons episodes like politically inept, e pluribus wiggum, boy meets curl, mypods and boomsticks to sideshowbob roberts, last exit to springfield, or two cars in every garage and three eyes on every fish. it makes fun of something relevant to modern society but would've been relevant in the 70s, 80s, 2020s, etc. it's when it gets too specific is when it gets dated and less funny. i liked the iphone episode and proposition infinity when they first aired, but some of the jokes haven't held up and i don't care to watch them when they're on, compared to episodes like the late phillip j fry

[Dark Homer]

I'll grant you the iphone and birther episodes but disagree on proposition infinity

same-sex marriage is a relevant issue that's not going to go away anytime soon, it's not too specific to proposition 8 (much apu about nothing, also inspired by a california proposition, holds up remarkably well), civil rights has been a long-standing theme of the show (fear of a bot planet comes to mind), and there's quite a bit of precedent for it (there's a throwaway joke about robosexuals in the very first episode). it's pretty on-the-nose and far from the best episode but I don't think it's insta-dated

[Kayla]

the gay marriage issue has only been a hot topic in the media for the past decade or so, but i do remember reading about marriage laws made before that. i kind of clumped those satirical episodes in together due the renewal, it covered something other shows like simpsons, family guy, and south park did years before, so i was thinking about the plot. i'll take american dad's homeland insecurity over mypods and boomsticks any day because of when the episode was made. i will stand corrected dark homer, i wasn't thinking about that when i made the post and you've got a good point. i completely forgot about the robosexual thing. i think i dated a robot would've been a classic if not for that napster shit

[Cartoonnetwork]

I thought this was hilarious and the story had enough sci-fi elements to work on its own without the real life references.

[Jims]

I forgot to review this earlier because last week was kind of a mess, but better late than never.

I agree with the general sentiment that whenever Futurama gets overly topical with the current events, it doesn't generally end well. When you do these kinds of things, they should generally be done with restraint, and not whack the audience over the head with the satire. Unfortunately, Futurama's usual shtick is to hang lampshades on every single joke, so a current event episode turns into reference after reference after reference of, "OH LOOK, IT'S JUST LIKE THIS OTHER THING." The whole premise with the Earth certificate was already pretty shlocky, but did they really need to bring Kenya into it? The only thing they were missing was to bring out Barack Obama's head-in-a-jar to comment on how familiar the situation is.

That being said, the payoff is an excellent one and almost makes up for how on-the-nose the satire is. Having the guy be a time traveler (allowing him to witness his own birth) is really inspired and is a very Futurama-ish twist. And they brought in that great continuity stuff from Bender's Big Score as icing on the cake. There probably isn't one bad thing in Act 3, actually. The whole time travel logic of it does get a little messed up in the end, but that's always been an inherent problem with Futurama time travel. Even Bender's Big Score, with it's "self correcting" time travel, still doesn't quite make it out unscathed.

It's one of those rare episodes that I can't really identify how it could be fixed. You can't have the big payout without the shlocky premise, but there's got to be a better way to execute a Birther parody to make it seem fresh. Tricky stuff.

3.5/5.

[zach]

weak. 1.5/5

[Mr. Krikt]

They spoofed AOL and Y2K back in the year 2000. How is this any different?

I specifically worded my post so that it didn't sound as if the show never reflected pop culture back on its original run. The difference here is that it's boring; it's not producing new episodes. I'm not amused by them.
I can't help but feel they're limiting themselves.

I'll grant you the iphone and birther episodes but disagree on proposition infinity

same-sex marriage is a relevant issue that's not going to go away anytime soon, it's not too specific to proposition 8 (much apu about nothing, also inspired by a california proposition, holds up remarkably well), civil rights has been a long-standing theme of the show (fear of a bot planet comes to mind), and there's quite a bit of precedent for it (there's a throwaway joke about robosexuals in the very first episode). it's pretty on-the-nose and far from the best episode but I don't think it's insta-dated

I'm not saying that they shouldn't touch on anything related to modern-day, although for example, Zapp Brannigan talking about CSI: Miami and making an enhance joke was dated and out of place. It is of course a very large issue but tying it into one instance is a fault, I feel. Turning the "8" on its side isn't that clever.
That said, that's not the only or main reason I dislike the episode.

The biggest question with these sorts of episodes is, will it hold up years from now, perhaps with someone unfamiliar with the material? This episode has some interesting ideas but I feel like it's too far hooked into its source, without enough substance of its own. In regards to the Napster episode, they picked something that is always going to be around (illegal filesharing) and tied it too closely to real life.

[Cartoonnetwork]

The biggest question with these sorts of episodes is, will it hold up years from now, perhaps with someone unfamiliar with the material? This episode has some interesting ideas but I feel like it's too far hooked into its source, without enough substance of its own.

I don't know, I think this will hold up just fine. Even if we didn't know anything about the real story the plot is still perfectly understandable. Maybe it wouldn't be a political or social commentary anymore, but as a story that begins with politics and ends with a sci-fi twist I think it will make perfect sense in years to follow. That's not to say that I don't think they should maybe 'mask' these things a little more, but I think the plot is interesting on its own, especially in the last part.

[The Angry Animated Comedy Nerd]

I freaking loved this one.

A 4.5/5 rounded up for the polls.