Saturday, June 23, 2012

Futurama - Farewell to Arms


While searching for Fry's (Billy West) lucky, and only, pair of pants the Planet Express crew uncovers an ancient Martian calendar predicting that the world will end in 3012 (along with fires, earthquakes, and sharksplosions). A little scientific investigation by Professor Farnsworth (West) discovers the cause of the recent unstable weather patterns is the onset of a catastrophic sunspot cycle which is also responsible for the short circuiting off all electricity on Earth.

Amy (Lauren Tom) further translates the Martian tablet and uncovers a way off the planet in the form of a Martian spacecraft which the group only thought was an underground pyramid, but Zapp Brannigan (West) stops the crew from leaving before a lottery can be organized to determine who will be allowed to go to Mars. Sadly, one member of the Planet Express crew doesn't make the cut (although it's not who you might think).

You know I'm in favor of any episode Brannigan appears in (even if he only really gets slightly more than a cameo here). We get another romantic gesture from Fry which turns out to have unintended consequences, an unexpected twist, the most ridiculous name for a Martian city ever, the return of Amy's parents, a nice jab at Tron: Legacy, and a gross but romantic final shot of severed arms floating hand-in-hand through space.

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