Author: skoce

Futurama Episode 7

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My Three Suns

My Three Suns is possibly my favorite episode of Futurama.  It has a good balance of characters and some of Fry’s best lines in the series.  This is the quintessential Futurama episode.  All of the shows best traits are present in this episode.  After some down to earth stuff the Planet Express crews goes on a mission to an alien world where they have a hilarious adventure.  It has equal parts Sci-Fi adventure and character comedy.  The episode also has good stories for all of the main character; none of them gets the full focus.  It is about how the characters react to their foreign surroundings and the outrageous situations they find themselves in.
This episode begins with Bender watching cooking shows, but is interrupted by Hermes telling him he needs to do some work to keep his job.  So Bender decides to become the ships cook.  On a trip into town to get supplies, Fry shows his gullibility and Bender his lack of concern over ingredients.  When the get back they find they have a delivery.  In his first attempt at cooking Bender goes crazily heavy on the salt, even in the water and everyone hates it.  He goes to deliver the package, but is so thirsty from the meal that he drinks a bottle of mysterious blue liquid.  He is soon accosted by some watery guards who claim that he has drunk the emperor.  By the laws of their land Fry is now the emperor.  When the rest of the crew arrive Leela berates him about his recklessness, but Fry ignores her and appoints Bender as his Prime Minister.  During the celebrations for the new Emperor, Leela discovers that the emperors have extremely short reigns due to frequent assassinations.  Fry ignores her various warnings and she leaves to go back to the ship.  Fry then recites the inaugural oath.  Just as he finishes the suns go down and the planets inhabitant begin to glow, including the emperor who is still in Fry’s stomach.  Realizing that their Emperor is still alive, they attack Fry and pals to rescue him.  The Planet Express crew barricades themselves in the throne room and tries to think of ways to get the Emperor out of Fry’s body.  They call Leela for help, but she reluctantly agrees.  On her way there she is attacked by the water people.  Bender tells Fry she is dead, and he starts to cry out the Emperor.  But Leela arrives and Fry stops crying.  So the crew takes turns beating Fry until he cries the Emperor out completely.
This is some classic funny television.  Fry is dumb, Bender is greedy, and Leela is responsible but frustrated by the stupidity and greed of her companions.  Zoidberg is a terrible doctor.  All of these stock jokes are at their best in this episode.  I love how this episode starts as a Bender episode with a Fry b-story, but halfway through drops the Bender story and focuses on Fry.  Bender’s story only takes half the episode to conclude, he is a bad cook there is nothing else.  Fry’s quick acceptance of the emperor’s throne and his moronically brilliant parable of “The Grasshopper and the Octopus” is some of the funniest stuff ever animated.  Zoidberg’s centrifuge idea to get the old Emperor out of Fry is the perfect illustration of his incompetence.  Bender’s has his attempt at being the ship’s cook fail horribly.  And Leela tries to keep the rest in line and in the end gets to take her anger out on Fry to his benefit.  The whole episode just flows together perfectly.  This is just one of the best episodes of any television show, ever.
Classic

Unfortunate Situation

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I was watching the NFL Draft earlier tonight and I was disappointed to see Tim Tebow drafted by the Denver Broncos.  Not because I think it was a bad pick, though I do think it was a little early, but because I really wanted to root for Tebow.  And I hate the Broncos.  Not as much as I did now that Elway and Shannahan are gone, but I still don’t like them.  They are one of those sports teams that I will never root for, like the Cowboys and Patriots or the Lakers in the NBA or the Cardinals in baseball.  Due to this animosity, gained during my formative years as a Chiefs fan, I can never bring myself to root for Denver.  I just flat do not like the Broncos.  I also am not a fan of Florida.  There is no reason behind it, its not like I am a fan of one of their rivals, but I generally do not root for Florida.   But Tim Tebow I like.  I did not want to like him.  I watched him play wanting to hate him.  i wanted him to be the villain.  Yes, I consider some athletes villains, not usually because anything they have done, but because they play for teams I do not like.  But everything I’ve ever heard about Tebow makes him seem like such a great guy that I can’t help but want to root for him.   But he had to go and get drafted by the Broncos, a team I can never root for.  I guess my only hope is that things do not work out for him there and he is traded to a team i do like, or a least have no feelings about.

Note:  Tomorrow, or later today I guess, I should have another Futurama review up and my entry into what should become a regular feature here:  Top 5 Friday.

Futurama Episode 5

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Note:  Before I begin today I want to make readers aware that I am now adding a rating system to these reviews.  At first I wanted the written review to stand alone, but upon consideration I have decided that for purposes of keeping track of which episodes I liked and which I loved I will rate them.  The rating system is:  Bad, which means I did not like the episode much, Good, which means that enjoyed but did not really love it, Great being a particularly good episode and Classic, a rating to be given only to select truly unforgettable episodes.  Yes,  realize that three of these are good ratings, but I am reviewing show that I love so I do like most of the episodes.  If I start reviewing shows I do not particularly care for than I will add more bad ratings.

Fear of a Bot Planet

25 Years of NES

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It has come to my attention that that greatest of video game consoles, the Nintendo Entertainment System, will turn 25 this year.  To celebrate this I will post entries on 25 great NES games.  Not necessarily the best games, but a mix of great games and my personal childhood favorites.  Expect the first entry later this week.  I will start with the only logical first NES game.  If anyone actually reads this and want a specific game discussed,  tell me in a comment, because there are a few slots not set in stone at the moment.

A Piece of Forgotten Youth

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A couple of days ago I found a box of books that belonged to me and my brothers years ago.  One from that trove that caught my eye was T. A. Barron’s The Lost Years of Merlin.  That book came out in 1996 and I believe my brother bought it not long after, so I assume that it has been near to 15 years since last I read it.  I remember enjoying it, but it did not make that  big an impression on me, seeing as how I had completely forgotten about it until I found it in that box and I never tracked down any of the other books in the series.  Of course, I might not have known it was part of a series with sequels.   According to the Wikipedia, The Lost Years of Merlin is the first of 4 Merlin novels by Barron.  However, it wraps up in a way that finishes a story but leaves the future open, which I may have assumed to be the tales of Merlin with King Arthur.

I think the reason that the book jumped out at me from a pile of forgotten adolescent reading is the cover by Darrell K. Sweet.  I can’t say the cover is great, the scene it depicts only marginally reflects what occurs in the book, but Sweet has done the covers for my favorite series of fantasy novels, the late Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, and his style is distinctive.  Whatever prompted me, I decided to read this possible lost gem between volumes of Edmund Morris’ Theodore Roosevelt biographies. (Reviews forthcoming)

The book follows Merlin during his early years.  It starts with him and his mother living in a small Welsh village after a frightening sea escape.  His mother knows things about Merlin that she doesn’t tell him, and after some revelations bout Merlin’s magical nature and tragedies caused by that nature, he leaves his mother to find his birthplace.  He starts his quest and goes takes a raft out on the ocean and lands in the magical land of Fincayra.  Here his quest is disturbed by Merlin’s reluctantly joining an attempt to save the magical island from a mad ruler.  All in all, its a magical adventure that is sure to please its target audience of teenagers.

The Lost Years of Merlin is clearly a young adult book, aimed at early teenagers.  Outside of the mythological and mystical elements, the vocabulary is fairly limited and the story is told simply and straightforward.  This is in no way meant to be a bad thing.  While the storytelling is simple, the sense of magic and the fantastic imagery is truly great.  It beats that most popular of YA book, the Harry Potter series, easily.  The magical land of Fincayra is full of the weird and fantastic.  And the plot may be simple, but it moves quickly from one place to the next, keeping the rush of the fantasy high so the reader does not long dwell on the narrative shortcomings.  The titular protagonist is fairly well developed, but the secondary characters, his mother, the girl he meets and the small giant, get little more development than the various characters  and creatures that appear for their little story and then disappear.  They may have gotten more fleshed out in later books, but I’ve never read them so I can’t say.  Still, no part of this book is very bad, but I can’t recommend it to an adult unless they have nostalgia for it.  I am glad to have rediscovered it.