I just finished re-watching the first 10 seasons and I am rooting for this new season to do well.
Notes watching this episode:
Wondered for a moment if the producers put plot points and character profiles into an LLM blender to churn out script. That would have been quite the meta social commentary.
As is, this episode phones in its topicality; the passage of time may give it a nostalgic patina that helps it seem funnier in the future. There are some good moments on first watch -- Bill Nye's first line got a laugh. So did Dr. Banjo (now a podcaster) barging to the front of the news conference blustering in self-righteous outrage, "Am I the only journalist who bothered to bring my own facts??"
I reflexively grimaced at the micro-chipped vaccine BS, but then I agreed with the decision to lean into it. I figured that, well no, I do not want this to reinforce the conspiratorial hypotheses already out there, but by now everyone has already made up their minds, and anyone who does latch onto this joke as any kind of confirmation isn't likely to be swayed otherwise. (If everyone already knows what your ass looks like, might as well party naked.)
Got excited when I thought this was going to be a LaBarbara episode. Ruefully funny that, even in making the plot point introduced one personal to LaBarbara and expanding her dialogue a bit to tell it, they still make the plot point a Caribbean stereotype.
Leela's miniature video self smooshing a miniature pie in Fry's face in 3D through the video screen was clever and unexpected -- I enjoy moments that remind you they're animation because they work best as animation. The subsequent scene when Fry joined Leela in quarantine was succinct and poignant, good use of the advantage of well-established characters.
I am still confounded by the helmets (force field collars?) on all the alligators: why and how?
I appreciate that they went to the trouble to explain NOLA's existence despite the sea level rise while including a call-back to submerged Atlanta, rather than just retconning that earlier detail.
This plot feels less silly, less organic, less interesting. Maybe because it hews so drearily to real life at the moment. But I'm also noticing, whereas in past episodes the main characters split up on concurrent subplots that parted from what usually remained the main plot line, in this episode every scene is just the next step of the one plot -- oppressively linear. I keep getting restless. I've been pacing a lot.
I paused this episode shortly after Barbados Slim appeared so I could write down my notes so far. Hermes is still standing. I don't know what they are going to say, but it'll have something to do with voodoo and the virus.
Yep!
LaBarbara comes back! Her character still needs more to do.
The Omicron variant bit was a low point, but gets a pass for being obligatory.
Hat tip for the voodoo shots concept and the winking, layered, 'a-rose-by-any-other-name' irony. The larger plot service by the voodoo motif relieves its earlier impression of stereotypical gratuitousness. "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science." Nicely done.
This episode is uneven and needs to be watched all the way through to be fully appreciated, needs that shoe-drop at the end to redeem itself.
Notes watching this episode:
Wondered for a moment if the producers put plot points and character profiles into an LLM blender to churn out script. That would have been quite the meta social commentary.
As is, this episode phones in its topicality; the passage of time may give it a nostalgic patina that helps it seem funnier in the future. There are some good moments on first watch -- Bill Nye's first line got a laugh. So did Dr. Banjo (now a podcaster) barging to the front of the news conference blustering in self-righteous outrage, "Am I the only journalist who bothered to bring my own facts??"
I reflexively grimaced at the micro-chipped vaccine BS, but then I agreed with the decision to lean into it. I figured that, well no, I do not want this to reinforce the conspiratorial hypotheses already out there, but by now everyone has already made up their minds, and anyone who does latch onto this joke as any kind of confirmation isn't likely to be swayed otherwise. (If everyone already knows what your ass looks like, might as well party naked.)
Got excited when I thought this was going to be a LaBarbara episode. Ruefully funny that, even in making the plot point introduced one personal to LaBarbara and expanding her dialogue a bit to tell it, they still make the plot point a Caribbean stereotype.
Leela's miniature video self smooshing a miniature pie in Fry's face in 3D through the video screen was clever and unexpected -- I enjoy moments that remind you they're animation because they work best as animation. The subsequent scene when Fry joined Leela in quarantine was succinct and poignant, good use of the advantage of well-established characters.
I am still confounded by the helmets (force field collars?) on all the alligators: why and how?
I appreciate that they went to the trouble to explain NOLA's existence despite the sea level rise while including a call-back to submerged Atlanta, rather than just retconning that earlier detail.
This plot feels less silly, less organic, less interesting. Maybe because it hews so drearily to real life at the moment. But I'm also noticing, whereas in past episodes the main characters split up on concurrent subplots that parted from what usually remained the main plot line, in this episode every scene is just the next step of the one plot -- oppressively linear. I keep getting restless. I've been pacing a lot.
I paused this episode shortly after Barbados Slim appeared so I could write down my notes so far. Hermes is still standing. I don't know what they are going to say, but it'll have something to do with voodoo and the virus.
Yep!
LaBarbara comes back! Her character still needs more to do.
The Omicron variant bit was a low point, but gets a pass for being obligatory.
Hat tip for the voodoo shots concept and the winking, layered, 'a-rose-by-any-other-name' irony. The larger plot service by the voodoo motif relieves its earlier impression of stereotypical gratuitousness. "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science." Nicely done.
This episode is uneven and needs to be watched all the way through to be fully appreciated, needs that shoe-drop at the end to redeem itself.