What the heck happened to Futurama? After a decade away it’s back

REVIEW: While The Simpsons has navigated changing tastes and the cultural landscape on an unbroken run across three-and-a-half decades, Matt Groening’s follow-up animated series has had a far more chequered career.

Although the 31st Century-set Futurama (its name allegedly inspired by a pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair) has won nine Annies and six Emmys, it has also been cancelled twice.

But despite apparently bowing out for good after 140 episodes just under 10 years ago, the series has been resurrected for two 10-instalment runs, the first of which is now streaming on Disney+.

Picking up the action from the exact moment where we left things – the universe unfrozen after cryogenically preserved late-20th Century professional Philip J. Fry (Billy West) and his cyclops Planet Express co-worker/love interest Leela (Katy Segal) had decided to live their lives again – opening tale The Impossible Stream couldn’t really be more meta.

“It feels like we got rebooted,” Leela says, as they discover that the year is now 3023.

However, this news has Fry concerned about what he’s actually achieved since his thawing. “It’s time I set myself a goal,” he tells his colleagues, who helpfully suggest he consider “donating your legs to the legless” or “destroying documents for the shredderless”.

To their horror though, he decides to pledge to watch every TV show ever made. But while consuming such delights as 30 Rock From the Sun, Unexplained Friday Night Lights, Aliens vs. Predator vs. Bluey, Rick and Morky and Frank Herbert’s Name That Dune prove no problem, with the help of “the world’s fourth most-popular streaming service” Fulu, one series poses a potential insurmountable stumbling block.

Fry’s favourite soap All My Circuits might have ended a decade ago, but its final season consisted of 13,020 episodes. His only chance is to binge it, but in 3023 that involves goggles that drill directly into his brain. It’s something Professor Farnsworth (West) advises against. “If he reaches the end of the series – God forbid – his consciousness will be severed.”

Desperate to save Fry, Leela attempts a radical solution – getting the network bosses to reboot All My Circuits. There’s just one problem (apart from getting the green light), they’ll have to make a deal with the devil to get star Calculon back on set (that’s not a metaphor, Calculon is dead – and in hell). But even if they manage that, they’ll then have to potentially produce an hour-long episode every hour – forever.

“If Law and Order can do it, so can we,” Leela defiantly says.

Whether Futurama will be able to maintain the quick quips and zeitgeist-reflecting sensibilities throughout this resurrection run remains to be seen, however, on the evidence of its first couple of episodes, it’s great to have it back.

Like The Simpsons, the delights are in the details, from pithy observations about the importance of TV show writers (never more timely than now) to the inspired titles on Fry’s EPG and Fulu homepage (who wouldn’t want to watch Say No to the Overalls, or Stanley Tucci: Searching for Alderaan?)

The Homer-esque robot Bender (John DiMaggio) is still the undoubted scene-stealer and series MVP, but it feels like he’s used a little more sparingly here giving the series a little more balance – and class – that it sometimes had towards the end of its last, Comedy Central-backed run.

As Fry says towards the end of The Impossible Stream, while you shouldn’t reboot a show “if the quality isn’t going to be there”, viewers must also “binge responsibly – in the same way they smoke cigarettes or drink bleach. No more than 10 episodes in a row – and no less,” he concludes with a knowing nod to the viewer.

The new season of Futurama is now available to stream on Disney+.