Thanks for watching folks, and again, I'm sorry that these weekly breakdowns will be moving to Patreon for the time being. If you want to keep up with them as the season progresses, you can sign up here! www.patreon.com/johnny2cellos/ And there WILL still be a compilation at the end of the season! EDIT: The $1 slots filled up SO fast so I opened up 50 more!
Dude this feels like a bad idea. It’s kinda like when The Try Guys wanted more money so they put their content behind a paywall. And then backpedaled hard.
@@mattyaboi1653 the try guys did do something similar but they still upload on RUclips about once a week, i think you are thinking of watcher who also have a streaming platform but originally planned on no uploading at all to RUclips anymore and at one point thought about removing content already on RUclips.
I couldn't agree more with some of the opening minute comments. I literally had no idea futurerama was out until I got curious and looked for it myself and saw that the first episode had already released and then I immediately came to your channel and RUclips hand't even recommended me your video.
I’ve noticed a reoccurring issue with the new eps in how Leela is characterised and seems dumbed down. In particular, the scene in this ep where Leela breaks down and begs Fry to cheat for her felt super ooc and was hard to watch/had no impact for me because of this (especially when the solution to the puzzle was in the fridge right next to her). Leela has always been a smart, capable character and a fighter - I couldn’t believe that she’d give in so easily and not try and outsmart the aliens or at least give them a piece of her mind and not show the impact the game is having on her.
100% agree, idk why they’re making Leela the dumb one now. She was always the smartest out of the group even more so than the professor in some situations because he’s a senile old man. Her being a crybaby and not looking in the fridge right next to her. Just so weird.
@@Johnny2CellosYeah Leela didn’t feel like the confident, logical and badass woman we’d come to know and love anymore. Early Season (Fox Era Leela) Leela would be embarrassed. 😞
Seriously. This episode didn't really care about canon or characterization. They just did a thing and shoved a whole bunch of characters as easter eggs
@@awaasproductions there is cheating in a game that makes your friends hate you, and then there is playing the system in order to get something out of it, not everyone considers every version of cheating to be the same.
@@10tailedbijuu that’s fair I suppose, but they paint this as an all or nothing with him. I can’t imagine he’d not consider using the F ray to see the slurm cans, reading minds in poker, etc isn’t cheating. Obviously the answer is this is a new development they came up with for this episode. I normally am not the buggiest stickler of continuity when jokes are involved, but when a plot centers around it then I do.
I'm weirdly able to forgive his dad more than his mom for this. Probably because his dad recognized that this HAD the potential to go wrong, he just didn't seem to realize it DID. Which...yeah seems pretty in character for him.
It’s a great touch because us parents that really try for our kids sometimes end up screwing up because we don’t allow them to live and let live in CERTAIN instances. We don’t realize we screwed up until later or if at all ever… which sucks especially when you really do love your kid or kids.
Yeah it seemed to fit with the fact that they never totally understood him. Even at the end they thought it was great even though he was clearly devastated. And if they'd paid attention to the party, they could have noticed the other kids were getting upset and stopped interfering before it ruined the party
@@merchantfan I wouldn't say they never understood him, more like they could have rigged a game or two in order to give him confidence, but that was all that was needed.
imo the whole fry being worried about being seen as a cheater makes sense, since hes living the same traumatic experience but with his "new" friends it kind of makes sense of him suddenly remembering his fear and going on that tangent again.
It might even be that although Fry knows he personally wouldn't have cheated against his friends. The stress and pressure clearly make him doubt whether or not he believes in himself to be telling the truth. As if deep down he knew something wasn't right but didn't have the guts to speak up about it to his parents.
This. He's found family in his situation in the future, and he doesn't want that to get ruined just like it did when he was younger. People are made to see patterns and his paranoia is understandable. I also get the birthday trauma, having had a lot of things go wrong on my birthday. I just got comfortable with my mother driving again after she had a horrible car accident on my birthday about 11 years ago.
This episode spoke to my experiences as a child and I really liked it. It's not uncommon for parents to believe they're doing what's best for their children, but it actually hurts them in the end; and just like this episode the parents often don't even realize they did any damage.
I think the best way to describe this entire revival is "bonus/epilogue content". Meanwhile was THE ending for Futurama. Season 7B solidified core aspects of every single character - Fry's relationship to his mother, a definitive caring friendship with Bender, committing to a long term, loving relationship with Leela, and now we are seeing the aftermath or extra details for all of those things. We're getting new unconventional character pairings, seeing the payoff for what-ifs like Kif and Amy's kids, and while it feels very worthwhile I wouldn't say it feels necessary or important. Futurama truly will be the show that did everything without jumping the shark when this revival is over. Also, this reference felt a little more timeless? Like, as timeless as parodying Survivor or something. Not like NFTs.
I honestly feel like with how time passed the writers just had so many ideas they wanted to use Futurama as a platform to write jokes around, though I will say despite some setbacks, the characters are being moved forward and if Fry and Leela can get married without any hiccups this time, it would feel complete
I also like the parallel of his friends slowly turning against him in the past, and his friends slowly dying off in the future. At the end, in both cases, he's all on his own, at no fault of his own
I never really thought about how the best that Futurama has to offer almost always revolves around very heartfelt stories around Fry, specifically. They really did make the perfect relatable goofball that speaks to all of us.
It's also a critique of the attitude of some parents that manipulate their children and shield them from reality in the name of love, without realizing that they're directly or indirectly hurting them.
Fry’s whole ‘I would never cheat’ thing in this episode kinda reminds me of Marty McFly’s ‘nobody calls me chicken’ thing from BTTF2. Like, in both cases, I can’t say that it feels completely out of character for them but it does feel like they suddenly added it out of nowhere and laid it on super thick as if it were a part of them the entire time to a degree where it feels unnatural
I think that's a decent comparison. Marty was called a Chicken in the first BTTF but he didn't react the same way. Feels a little more natural for Marty imo.
He lost all of his friends, his family doesn't know where he is, and his dog waited for him for the rest of his life until he died. Fry deserves a hug.
I am Of Two minds when it comes to that final scene; While I DO appreciate that Fry's Parents care for him; and WANT him to feel like he's NOT a loser; It's just depressing that their "help" to help him feel like a winner had cost him his friends; and turned his former best friend; into his Bitter Rival
I felt like it was showing how they were kind of disconnected and clueless in their affection. A more present parent would have noticed that the other kids and Fry were getting upset and stopped, most of that stuff would have been easy to not do after that point
I didn’t know it was back yet, I actually found out through you! We couldn’t afford Disney anymore so we kinda forgot about the show, but I watch the breakdown every week!
I didn't realize the episode was inspired by Squid Game until I read the original title. I just assumed that it was Futurama's spin on the Deadly Game trope.
@@liviolangella2777 agreed. I had a feeling knowing the name, the masks the aliens wear might have been a reference, but even then “ceremonial” “creepy” masks on bad guys is a pretty common trope so even then it’s not super specific to it.
Yeah I didn't realize it either since apart from the childhood games they didn't have any of the other stuff like the giant creepy doll, the big filling bubble of money, the screen of people that get eliminated or the uniforms. Which I think is fine - it felt more like a very dark Star Trek to me than Squid Game
I'm shocked at how many fans don't even know about the current series! I was the volunteer handler for Billy West at the Bell County Comic Con, and a lot of people that I talked to in line didn't know.
Something I noticed about this episode - Fry isn't able to blow out the last candle on the cake, causing Zoidberg to die. This makes sense in hindsight, as he wasn't able to blow out the last candle on his cake when he was a kid either, cuz his mom blew it out for him 😭 Also, slightly unrelated, but this also reminded me of how he could never get the last ship in Space Invaders either, cuz his brother always got it for him... lol
Nice review! I don't get why some people dislike this episode tbh? Maybe the humor didn't hit as hard which I get, but in terms of the serious backstory I don't understand how people don't like it also. Fry has always been a tragic character to me. I'm also really glad this episode didn't just paint Fry's parents as perfect angels like some fans do. The entire point of them as characters is that they were not the best parents to Fry but had good intentions. All this episode did was make his backstories in the 20th century much more tragic and bittersweet. So i personally don't see the hate. And at least Fry doesn't lose all his friends in the 31st century. It also definitely makes Fry's dilemma of missing the past a lot, but not wanting to go back to it at all and repressing his memories due to how much better he is rn all the more sadder. Lol
I think the hate comes from the poor execution in this episode. Moments like his mom excitedly going to get the presents and then not commenting on how all the kids left creates dissonance between what the episode was trying to do/mean and what we got
Every flashback episode always makes me sad because it makes me think about the fact that to everyone he knew in his pre-future life, he just vanished. No trace, no note, nothing to give them any closure. He's just gone.
Also, you get that infuriation from his parents being 2 feet away from him when Seymour leads them to Applied Cryogenics.... But then you realize Futurama wouldn't exist if they saw him.... But then you realize it's a fictional show and you're overthinking things
@@fuzzvalley It really is and I find that the more the newer Futurama runs try to pull on our heartstrings, the more the power of diminishing returns sets in
@@fuzzvalley I feel like it's worse for his family than Fry. Fry never saw them again but he got to go on amazing adventures. They just had a missing persons case that was never solved
@@Johnny2Cellosi completely get the reasoning but unfortunately I'm not much of a compilations guy and will probably unsubscribe so it doesn't impact your algorithm views per subscriber.
This episode really hit me like no other! Sometimes parents do things they think are the best for their kid but have no idea how negatively it affects them! I had trouble in school growing up so my parents sent me to all sorts of special programs and schools not realizing how it made my social life and development total hell! I have a hard time not being mad at fry’s parents despite the fact that they had the best of intentions for fry! I had the Luxury of being able to hash this out with my parents later on and basically letting them know how much that stuff messed me up and I feel sad fry never gets that conclusiveness despite being in a better place currently and genuinely wonder how he’d respond if he knew. I love my parents but damn do I resent them for that a lot.
For some reason the ending reveal just felt really hollow to me, l feel like seeing his mom just not notice that he is miserable and all his friends are gone, just smile like everything is alright and she did great rubbed me the wrong way and maybe that’s just a me thing. I just feel like if they had her smile turn into a look of concern or even confusion it would have made it a bit more palatable to me. I just felt like there was an emotional beat missing
I hated how Leela reacted during the baseball part. To me, it showed that she'd rather live than be honorable to Fry and take the loss with him. Like, she literally begs Fry to cheat so she can live. If it was the other way around, we all know Fry would sacrifice his life for Leela (which he's done multiple times ie Rebirth, Martian Calendar, etc) or not want to live without Leela (jumps off the vampire state building). It honestly adds more fuel to the "Leela doesn't love Fry" fan theory where she only ends up with him because he's all that's left and she settles. The guys she dated were either not interested or she wasn't interested, and we've seen in the past she doesn't like Fry's childishness and seen multiple times to turn him down on dates. It really seems like she just doesn't wanna be alone and just picks Fry cuz he's there. She also didn't believe in their relationship and went off to sell space real estate. I dunno, I feel like Leela's parts aren't very well written in this season so far, and even last season. She doesn't even feel like part of the crew and more like a guest character.
@@videogamer596 that completely breaks the whole point of them lol, I love this channel but this is a massive hit to me wanting to watch the content. What is the point of watching all the breakdowns at once in a compilation? The whole point of them is to watch them after the episode. I was already really sad that he decided to move them to Tuesdays because apparently idiots complained about "spoilers" and watched the breakdowns before the episode (why???). Now I'll not even get to see them unless I pay for them, and I have to watch them on Patreon rather than RUclips which is a much worse platform for video content. I'm all for supporting creators, but this just rubs me the wrong way.
I’m worried for next week’s episode because in the description it says “A mysterious temp worker takes over Fry’s job…as well as his life” hope we don’t see “leela crushes on another man. Then get back to together with Fry”. I hope it’s a sci fi explanation like a brainwashing parasite/alien
@Johnny2Cellos Thank you!! What you said is very reassuring. And as a huge fan of Fry, I'm very concerned for how he's gonna react to the temp taking over his life. And I hope he'll be okay. But your assurance that it's a good episode makes me feel a lot better. And now, I'm really looking forward to seeing this episode. :)
@Johnny2Cellos is an amazing guy with amazing content for the past years I've seen. It's been nothing but leonardio da Vinci type of videos. it's truly a blessing to have a goated youtuber like you making content like this for many years
Really enjoyed this episode and the twist at the end is so messed up, I actually think it's more messed up then the Seymour reveal. At least with that it's just a straight sad feeling, with this one I can't even be mad at Fry's Mom cause she just wanted to make him feel good on his birthday which is something any parent would do and that makes the fact that she ended up traumatizing him so crazy and kind of darkly funny.
when i was watching the past two episodes, it did feel somehow different from quote-un-quote 'normal' futurama, like a lot of other people. but when watching the old episodes again i still felt the same way. i think its a mix of nostalgia and watching best of compilations that make the old ones seem unfairly good in comparison? idk but i liked the motivations joke at the very least
Yeah, but that was a recontextualization/retcon of Fry's entire lore, and is something the series has largely ignored since Fry being present as Lars in the past doesn't make canonical sense.
I guess Fry who is still around wouldn't had experienced it himself, so he still never got to go back and only knows what he still does up to this point
I shall await for that video eagerly! Sorry you had to do it that way, but I greatly appreciate the effort you put in to still give us the breakdowns regardless. Thank you most kindly!
9:42 this line from Fry bothers me mostly because his best friend is Bender. If he cheats, I feel like it would be out of character for Bender to care.
Absolutely love watching your content J2C! Really REALLY bummed about the Patreon exclusivity for the rest of the season though... I really look forward to watching the episode and then getting to hear your breakdown of everything and your thoughts. I truly hope the video performs better than you expect because it feels like you'll wind up with less views if everything is just crammed into 1 video. I'm sure lots of people dont want to watch a super long compliation and would prefer to watch them episode by episode
I'm sorry you're bummed! My compilation last season actually performed better than every single individual breakdown and still gets solid viewership. And I opened up a lot more $1 slots on the Patreon to make it as cheap as possible for the people who don't want to wait for the end of the season.
8:25 you're right, i wasn't with you until this time stamp, but yeah, is it all Fry ever wanted?? Either way, this episode make me feel so much. and to me it was a home run.
Great video as always, Johnny! One thing I really liked about this episode is it takes a running gag about Mrs Fry and turns it on its head. Most of the times we’ve seen Mrs Fryer she is watching sports and yelling at the TV, at increasingly inappropriate times. Surprisingly she’s giving Fry’s party her full attention, which is really endearing. And clearly she loves games and appreciates winning, so I can imagine why she’d be so happy to give that gift to her son. To her, this is the best gift she can give him, so it really is sad how well-meaning this tragic event was. I agree I wish they were a bit more subtle with Fry’s trauma over this. They could have still made it funny without hammering the word cheating so hard, but oh well.
Really weird thing: i didnt know you were doing these rundowns of the season because they were not recommended to me although im subscribed, i saw in the news a new season came out so i manually searched the channel to see if there was a rundown, i guess the algorithm sucks right now
Honestly, I didn't even realize the new season came out but while I wasn't too big of a fan of the first episode, I really liked this episode! The Quid's Game part was pretty funny and the ending felt like a kick in the teeth (in a good way lol)
this episode hit me right in the feels. the ending felt so abrupt and perfect. i'm old af and whenever i talk to my mom, she's like "he's my baby boy." despite all the problems i've gone through, she thinks she's right in the way she interacts with me.
Tbh, I hadnt watched any new futurama yet. Your compilation from last year popped up and it got me on board and willing to watch. Now that i caught up today im watching this, one day after upload.
I didn't even know the new season was up until I saw your last breakdown in my feed. Then of course, I had to watch the episode first and THEN the breakdown
To be honest, I didn't really like this episode. Why? Because it just didn't feel like Futurama to me. It just didn't have the same real charm the show typically does.
@@HectorEvilmanagreed, it unfortunately gave away too early that none of the consequences of the characters “dying” were going to matter. That meant it had to be more based in the emotion, which fell flat for me as well as Fry being miserable as a kid and adult lost my interest.
Please PLEASE don't move these to your Patreon. I understand early releases on Patreon but I come for these weekly breakdowns on RUclips. And I'm not particularly stoked at the idea of watching a 2-3 hour breakdown video in a couple of months when all but the last episode are no longer going to be fresh in my mind
I'm sorry but bc of the viewership I can't justify releasing them on RUclips weekly. I opened up a ton of $1 spots on my Patreon to make it as easy as possible for people who don't want to wait until October.
@@Johnny2Cellosare you going to be releasing content on your channel in place of these breakdowns because if not, then saying its because the algorithm isn’t good is pointless. Content of any kind is better than no content.
@@Johnny2Cellos it is still a limited amount of spots, it's still 1 video a week spanning more than 1 month, it is still something that used to be free and now isnt
I get why you will only post for patreon, and I respect that. Won't be able to help and I'll wait with others because I know you will make a great job. We support you, even if some of us can't do it monetarily
I also didn't watch Squid Game, but there's so much "The Gamesters of Triskelion" DNA in this episode as well that I didn't even care if I had missed Squid Game references. I think you left a few digits off Fry's age there... The thing that makes the ending to "Quids Game" feel different for me from the likes of "Jurassic Bark" is that we see Fry's parents thinking they did right by Fry even as he's devastated. There's nothing like that in the other episodes. It kinda makes the elder Fries feel like sociopaths in a way they never have before.
So I just watched this (after your video served as a reminder that it was up) and I'm still crying You built up the expectation with what you said last week and boy did it deliver! The mom thinking she gave him a great birthday memory and never knowing the truth that she gave him the worst birthday of his life is a sad fact of parenting that most partents never realize when they are responsible for some of the most traumatic memories of their life. "For me it was a formative and traumatic memory but for you it was a tuesday" is the line it makes me think of but only to a diffrent degree because this isn't "a tuseday" for her- this is her thinking she gave him a happy memory when she failed misserably on that.... Neither of them will ever know the truth and that is probably the harshest truth of all
everyone always talks luck of the fryish but dude no pain hits me as deep as game of tones when fry finally gets to say goodbye to his mom😔 when Nibbler says "but this isn't your dream... it's your mothers dream, make it count", always makes me shed a tear, he finally gets closure on his old life and it's sort of bittersweet because after that she slightly wakes up looks at a picture of him and smiles as if it's mothers intuition... he's okay🙏
This episode is easily amongst the best of the hulu run. Futurama's only issue is that it's been running long enough to be inconsistent, and I have been watching long enough to become jaded.
Yh thats true, with loads of diff writers and decisions over the yrs i can see they struggle to keep it consistent (they lowkey always have, but its a lil more glaring with another revival)
As a parent this episode hit hard, because while we do our best to raise our child to be as well-adjusted as possible, balancing spoiling them with providing exposure to boundaries and consequences, sometimes doing what you think is the right thing can make things much worse for them, in some cases not even realizing. On that note I can't help but imagine that when Frys parents re-entered the room and realized all of his friends were gone, they would know for sure they screwed up, and it makes no sense that fry wouldn't know about it at that point, unless his parents covered it up somehow, then you're getting into this whole other thing.
Still not entirely sure how I feel about this episode. Fry as a character felt kinda disconnected from what we’ve seen from him in the past. I get that’s kind of the point so we understand how much he is affected by his awful birthday, but it did feel almost OOC in terms of temperament. Even the whole ‘I would never cheat’ thing feels more like an asspull to make this story work more than something I could genuinely believe that Fry would have as a personal code. Having said that, the episode certainly was fun and I liked that they really did have a lot of creative uses for games. The aliens were surprisingly really funny and I was actually genuinely interested to see which characters would end up surviving. I wonder if this episode would have worked better if they leaned more into the comedy angle of it rather than trying so hard to sell this traumatic past Fry dealt with. The emotional point of Fry’s parents unintentionally ruining the party by having him win every game was a pretty grounded and interesting route to go. Futurama in general has always been good at having tragic/emotional backstories for characters without going too far to the point they feel cliche or unbelievable. The emotional bits of the backstory worked for me, although I felt like they kinda tried too hard at points where it felt almost like a soap opera. The scene where Leela begs Fry to cheat just feels really out of character for both of them and like they were trying to pay off something that never felt like it had a lot of weight. Since this whole ‘Fry never cheats at games’ thing feels so out of nowhere, it didn’t really feel like a big deal that he would help her find the ball despite it counting as cheating. And Leela being so desperate and quick to give up feels extremely weird for her character as well. I feel like if this was classic Futurama, Leela would have stopped at nothing to find the ball without help but then Fry would secretly cheat and help her find it without telling her. Something similar to the ‘You leave me breathless’ scene
This felt a lot like DS9's Move Along Home, and its ending had shades of Futurama's Lethal Inspection in its compilation. As to the popularity of the video, I didn't know Futurama was back until I saw a thumbnail of this very video. Hulu dropped the ball.
I personally thought that the twist was going to be that all the kids at the party were in on it and intentionally throwing (because they were paid off by fry's parents or something), and when Philip finds out, he loses all faith in his abilities (and maybe in close friends). This could have then tied into his performance in the quids games, not being able to trust his own judgement. Just where my head was at while watching. Still enjoyed and was very shocked at the first crop of deaths
I think the series is gonna start doing much better after this episode, They showed us they've still got it just as much as they did in the mid 2000s. This was the first episode I felt sits along the original series perfectly naturally. Not to say I didn't like the first Hulu season, I really did. But it was obviously a bit, different?
I actually liked this episode quite a bit. I don’t know if I liked it more than the other flashbacks, but I think the relationship between him and his mother is more fleshed out than you’d think at a surface level in this episode. For example, after seeing the ending, I think it’s interesting to wonder whether Fry would have actually won these games if it wasn’t for his mother stepping in for him. Even if he doesn’t win in a conventional way, Fry proves in the future that he could win at all these games his own way. For what Fry lacks in, say, dexterity and hand eye coordination in pinning the tail on the donkey, he proves that he’s capable of winning through the big strengths in his kind of personality that focus more around his creativity and out of the box thinking. Granted, he may not have won the donkey game intentionally (I count his as a win because we had no way of knowing the episode would throw a curveball with a gag for the old lady), but he did managed to get there all on his own without her. In that sense, it shows a lack of confidence between their relationship that Fry’s mom wouldn’t think he’s capable of making it in life if her idea of success is formed by the idea of this nuclear family kind of life where she’s the housewife to this big macho man. It shows a very normative thought process in her character where she wouldn’t appreciate the creativity as much. Which, of course, is tragic, because her own idea of success got in the way of what Fry wanted and needed in his life, which was just to be appreciated and liked for who he is, and his mom will never know how badly she accidentally hurt Fry. Also, I thought the song itself was an interesting choice in the end too. I’m trying to figure out from whose point of view it would be playing from because of the lyrics they play for a bit during the credits: When I think about what you've become I feel sorry for your mum You say we're all having fun Do you know you're the only one? My guess it’s from the point of view of Fry’s friends, where they all walk away thinking he’s a cheater and are thinking “Wow, I bet your mother would be ashamed of you for growing up to be a cheater”, which is sad because she was the one who cheated for him, in return making a judgement from his friends toward her parenting style. I dunno. I liked it. I don’t know if it’s a Luck of the Fryrish for me, but I think the episode does leave the viewer with a lot to think about if you care to look into the kind of relationship these people had.
Johnny just something to consider about the futurama breakdowns, even if this one does very well on RUclips that might be because it’s a fry flashback episode breakdown cause as you said they’re fan favorites. Just the view count on THIS breakdown may not be indicative of the futurama breakdowns view count going forward.
I feel bad that you aren't getting the viewership you were expecting with this season. Like other commenters, your Episode 1 video was how I found out that the season had started airing (I had no idea it was coming, at all). When I found your video and started it though, I closed it quickly hoping to find the episode to watch first, but discovered that I as a Canadian can't make a Hulu account, so I couldn't watch the show until it was on pirate sites, which was very slow to happen. It took me days after before I watched your analysis, and if others were like me, we probably didn't help your video's performance. While I won't be joining your Patreon because I'm in university and can't exactly afford leisure the same way as some others, I'm excited to hear your opinions on this season in whatever form it comes in. Best of luck!
incredible breakdowns as usual!! you have the best podcast voice, i love how sincerely you talk about these shows. will be continuing to watch on patreon!!!
Thanks for watching folks, and again, I'm sorry that these weekly breakdowns will be moving to Patreon for the time being. If you want to keep up with them as the season progresses, you can sign up here! www.patreon.com/johnny2cellos/
And there WILL still be a compilation at the end of the season!
EDIT: The $1 slots filled up SO fast so I opened up 50 more!
Delayed uploads are much better since there is still an incentive to buy and you still get yt revenue
Lets all like the video so maybe he will continue these videos, I really enjoy his content and want to see more without joining his patreon
Dude this feels like a bad idea. It’s kinda like when The Try Guys wanted more money so they put their content behind a paywall. And then backpedaled hard.
@@mattyaboi1653 the try guys did do something similar but they still upload on RUclips about once a week, i think you are thinking of watcher who also have a streaming platform but originally planned on no uploading at all to RUclips anymore and at one point thought about removing content already on RUclips.
I couldn't agree more with some of the opening minute comments. I literally had no idea futurerama was out until I got curious and looked for it myself and saw that the first episode had already released and then I immediately came to your channel and RUclips hand't even recommended me your video.
I’ve noticed a reoccurring issue with the new eps in how Leela is characterised and seems dumbed down. In particular, the scene in this ep where Leela breaks down and begs Fry to cheat for her felt super ooc and was hard to watch/had no impact for me because of this (especially when the solution to the puzzle was in the fridge right next to her). Leela has always been a smart, capable character and a fighter - I couldn’t believe that she’d give in so easily and not try and outsmart the aliens or at least give them a piece of her mind and not show the impact the game is having on her.
It was just so weird how much she was impacted by it just out of the blue compared to basically everybody else
I agree and wish I had talked about this a bit more.
Yeah I’ve noticed that too
100% agree, idk why they’re making Leela the dumb one now. She was always the smartest out of the group even more so than the professor in some situations because he’s a senile old man. Her being a crybaby and not looking in the fridge right next to her. Just so weird.
@@Johnny2CellosYeah Leela didn’t feel like the confident, logical and badass woman we’d come to know and love anymore. Early Season (Fox Era Leela) Leela would be embarrassed. 😞
Zoidbergs line of “I’m so sorry for your loss can I have their cake” in one continuous breath had me belly laughing
In his defense there’s never really a good time to ask that
Fry: I’m not a cheater
Also Fry: Universal Poker Championship, with my mind reading I can’t loose
Seriously. This episode didn't really care about canon or characterization. They just did a thing and shoved a whole bunch of characters as easter eggs
also getting the slurm factory bottle cap
@@Jack-sy8mr also cheating to get the gum out of the army discount
@@awaasproductions there is cheating in a game that makes your friends hate you, and then there is playing the system in order to get something out of it, not everyone considers every version of cheating to be the same.
@@10tailedbijuu that’s fair I suppose, but they paint this as an all or nothing with him. I can’t imagine he’d not consider using the F ray to see the slurm cans, reading minds in poker, etc isn’t cheating. Obviously the answer is this is a new development they came up with for this episode. I normally am not the buggiest stickler of continuity when jokes are involved, but when a plot centers around it then I do.
And not to mention that his parents never realized they actually messed up while trying to help him.
I'm weirdly able to forgive his dad more than his mom for this. Probably because his dad recognized that this HAD the potential to go wrong, he just didn't seem to realize it DID. Which...yeah seems pretty in character for him.
@@SuperSwordman1 Yeah, her mom is not exactly the brightest crayon in the box
It’s a great touch because us parents that really try for our kids sometimes end up screwing up because we don’t allow them to live and let live in CERTAIN instances. We don’t realize we screwed up until later or if at all ever… which sucks especially when you really do love your kid or kids.
Yeah it seemed to fit with the fact that they never totally understood him. Even at the end they thought it was great even though he was clearly devastated. And if they'd paid attention to the party, they could have noticed the other kids were getting upset and stopped interfering before it ruined the party
@@merchantfan I wouldn't say they never understood him, more like they could have rigged a game or two in order to give him confidence, but that was all that was needed.
imo the whole fry being worried about being seen as a cheater makes sense, since hes living the same traumatic experience but with his "new" friends it kind of makes sense of him suddenly remembering his fear and going on that tangent again.
True
It might even be that although Fry knows he personally wouldn't have cheated against his friends. The stress and pressure clearly make him doubt whether or not he believes in himself to be telling the truth. As if deep down he knew something wasn't right but didn't have the guts to speak up about it to his parents.
This. He's found family in his situation in the future, and he doesn't want that to get ruined just like it did when he was younger. People are made to see patterns and his paranoia is understandable. I also get the birthday trauma, having had a lot of things go wrong on my birthday. I just got comfortable with my mother driving again after she had a horrible car accident on my birthday about 11 years ago.
This episode spoke to my experiences as a child and I really liked it. It's not uncommon for parents to believe they're doing what's best for their children, but it actually hurts them in the end; and just like this episode the parents often don't even realize they did any damage.
I think the best way to describe this entire revival is "bonus/epilogue content".
Meanwhile was THE ending for Futurama. Season 7B solidified core aspects of every single character - Fry's relationship to his mother, a definitive caring friendship with Bender, committing to a long term, loving relationship with Leela, and now we are seeing the aftermath or extra details for all of those things. We're getting new unconventional character pairings, seeing the payoff for what-ifs like Kif and Amy's kids, and while it feels very worthwhile I wouldn't say it feels necessary or important. Futurama truly will be the show that did everything without jumping the shark when this revival is over.
Also, this reference felt a little more timeless? Like, as timeless as parodying Survivor or something. Not like NFTs.
Also, Fry's brother is Yancy Jr. So, I choose to believe the name of his mother is Phyllis.
I honestly feel like with how time passed the writers just had so many ideas they wanted to use Futurama as a platform to write jokes around, though I will say despite some setbacks, the characters are being moved forward and if Fry and Leela can get married without any hiccups this time, it would feel complete
Hell, Season 7 even gave Zoidberg a girlfriend.
If it wasn't for the name I wouldn't have realized it was a Squid Games parody.
I also like the parallel of his friends slowly turning against him in the past, and his friends slowly dying off in the future. At the end, in both cases, he's all on his own, at no fault of his own
I never really thought about how the best that Futurama has to offer almost always revolves around very heartfelt stories around Fry, specifically. They really did make the perfect relatable goofball that speaks to all of us.
I’m genuinely so sad you aren’t gonna do the weekly breakdowns I feel like that would have also helped the show
It's also a critique of the attitude of some parents that manipulate their children and shield them from reality in the name of love, without realizing that they're directly or indirectly hurting them.
Fry’s whole ‘I would never cheat’ thing in this episode kinda reminds me of Marty McFly’s ‘nobody calls me chicken’ thing from BTTF2. Like, in both cases, I can’t say that it feels completely out of character for them but it does feel like they suddenly added it out of nowhere and laid it on super thick as if it were a part of them the entire time to a degree where it feels unnatural
I think that's a decent comparison. Marty was called a Chicken in the first BTTF but he didn't react the same way. Feels a little more natural for Marty imo.
He lost all of his friends, his family doesn't know where he is, and his dog waited for him for the rest of his life until he died. Fry deserves a hug.
I am Of Two minds when it comes to that final scene;
While I DO appreciate that Fry's Parents care for him; and WANT him to feel like he's NOT a loser; It's just depressing that their "help" to help him feel like a winner had cost him his friends; and turned his former best friend; into his Bitter Rival
I felt like it was showing how they were kind of disconnected and clueless in their affection. A more present parent would have noticed that the other kids and Fry were getting upset and stopped, most of that stuff would have been easy to not do after that point
I didn’t know it was back yet, I actually found out through you! We couldn’t afford Disney anymore so we kinda forgot about the show, but I watch the breakdown every week!
I didn't realize the episode was inspired by Squid Game until I read the original title. I just assumed that it was Futurama's spin on the Deadly Game trope.
@@liviolangella2777 agreed. I had a feeling knowing the name, the masks the aliens wear might have been a reference, but even then “ceremonial” “creepy” masks on bad guys is a pretty common trope so even then it’s not super specific to it.
@@awaasproductionsthe big hint was childhood games which since it was Korean childhood games a lot of people probably missed.
@@LlamaNinja I mean none of those games would be out of place for an American kid in the 80s party either, so regardless it works!
@@awaasproductions I meant the games in Squid Games.
Yeah I didn't realize it either since apart from the childhood games they didn't have any of the other stuff like the giant creepy doll, the big filling bubble of money, the screen of people that get eliminated or the uniforms. Which I think is fine - it felt more like a very dark Star Trek to me than Squid Game
I'm shocked at how many fans don't even know about the current series! I was the volunteer handler for Billy West at the Bell County Comic Con, and a lot of people that I talked to in line didn't know.
They don't do go ads.
Something I noticed about this episode - Fry isn't able to blow out the last candle on the cake, causing Zoidberg to die. This makes sense in hindsight, as he wasn't able to blow out the last candle on his cake when he was a kid either, cuz his mom blew it out for him 😭
Also, slightly unrelated, but this also reminded me of how he could never get the last ship in Space Invaders either, cuz his brother always got it for him... lol
Nice review! I don't get why some people dislike this episode tbh? Maybe the humor didn't hit as hard which I get, but in terms of the serious backstory I don't understand how people don't like it also.
Fry has always been a tragic character to me. I'm also really glad this episode didn't just paint Fry's parents as perfect angels like some fans do. The entire point of them as characters is that they were not the best parents to Fry but had good intentions. All this episode did was make his backstories in the 20th century much more tragic and bittersweet. So i personally don't see the hate. And at least Fry doesn't lose all his friends in the 31st century. It also definitely makes Fry's dilemma of missing the past a lot, but not wanting to go back to it at all and repressing his memories due to how much better he is rn all the more sadder. Lol
Yeah this hate is ridiculous
I think the hate comes from the poor execution in this episode. Moments like his mom excitedly going to get the presents and then not commenting on how all the kids left creates dissonance between what the episode was trying to do/mean and what we got
@@MinorKey135 I thought it was just fine though 🤷 I guess I understand why not everyone will like the approach, so agree to disagree
Every flashback episode always makes me sad because it makes me think about the fact that to everyone he knew in his pre-future life, he just vanished. No trace, no note, nothing to give them any closure. He's just gone.
Also, you get that infuriation from his parents being 2 feet away from him when Seymour leads them to Applied Cryogenics.... But then you realize Futurama wouldn't exist if they saw him.... But then you realize it's a fictional show and you're overthinking things
@@mikeydflyingtoaster I forgot about that scene! Really is a tragic story for Fry
@@fuzzvalley It really is and I find that the more the newer Futurama runs try to pull on our heartstrings, the more the power of diminishing returns sets in
Yeah considering how abruptly he disappeared I feel like they would have thought he was lying dead somewhere and they couldn't find him.
@@fuzzvalley I feel like it's worse for his family than Fry. Fry never saw them again but he got to go on amazing adventures. They just had a missing persons case that was never solved
Absolutely tragic, i cant afford paying monthly for these weekly breakdowns but i enjoy them so much
I'm sorry! There will still be a compilation at the end of the season! And honestly I almost certainly will release my breakdown of the finale.
@@Johnny2Cellos Thanks to you i can see those episodes without buy
@@Johnny2Cellosi completely get the reasoning but unfortunately I'm not much of a compilations guy and will probably unsubscribe so it doesn't impact your algorithm views per subscriber.
Fry: I am not a cheater
Yivo: Just gonna ignore me then?
It’s not that kind of cheating Yivo
Don't forget him copying Gunter's test in Mars University.
@@tobydipaola1302 he doesn't like to cheat in games, but doesn't mean he won't cheat in a test.
This episode really hit me like no other! Sometimes parents do things they think are the best for their kid but have no idea how negatively it affects them! I had trouble in school growing up so my parents sent me to all sorts of special programs and schools not realizing how it made my social life and development total hell! I have a hard time not being mad at fry’s parents despite the fact that they had the best of intentions for fry! I had the Luxury of being able to hash this out with my parents later on and basically letting them know how much that stuff messed me up and I feel sad fry never gets that conclusiveness despite being in a better place currently and genuinely wonder how he’d respond if he knew. I love my parents but damn do I resent them for that a lot.
Say what you will about this episode, but it’s nice to see Fry’s parents *acting* like parents and showing they love him instead of just saying it
I loved that the aliens from the pizza place were in this episode honestly
It makes sense. Fry genuinely wanted to help them keep their restaurant afloat, and they instantly connected.
@@Chigger yep, and theyre just across the street from the PE building right? So they probably go there a lot
Zoidberg, what happened?
Ziodberg: *SQUID GAMES!*
For some reason the ending reveal just felt really hollow to me, l feel like seeing his mom just not notice that he is miserable and all his friends are gone, just smile like everything is alright and she did great rubbed me the wrong way and maybe that’s just a me thing. I just feel like if they had her smile turn into a look of concern or even confusion it would have made it a bit more palatable to me. I just felt like there was an emotional beat missing
Yeah. This episode felt weird to me. Especially when you take episodes like Cold Warriors and Games of Tones into account.
With the happy music playing in the background lol. It’s just such a miss.
I hated how Leela reacted during the baseball part. To me, it showed that she'd rather live than be honorable to Fry and take the loss with him. Like, she literally begs Fry to cheat so she can live. If it was the other way around, we all know Fry would sacrifice his life for Leela (which he's done multiple times ie Rebirth, Martian Calendar, etc) or not want to live without Leela (jumps off the vampire state building).
It honestly adds more fuel to the "Leela doesn't love Fry" fan theory where she only ends up with him because he's all that's left and she settles. The guys she dated were either not interested or she wasn't interested, and we've seen in the past she doesn't like Fry's childishness and seen multiple times to turn him down on dates. It really seems like she just doesn't wanna be alone and just picks Fry cuz he's there. She also didn't believe in their relationship and went off to sell space real estate.
I dunno, I feel like Leela's parts aren't very well written in this season so far, and even last season. She doesn't even feel like part of the crew and more like a guest character.
Babe wake up, new Futurama vid by Johnny 2 Cellos just dropped 👀👀👀
Last futurama vid by Johnny*
@@deirfed ain't the last he's gonna make them one by one and then release them to this channel as a compilation.
@@videogamer596 that completely breaks the whole point of them lol, I love this channel but this is a massive hit to me wanting to watch the content. What is the point of watching all the breakdowns at once in a compilation? The whole point of them is to watch them after the episode. I was already really sad that he decided to move them to Tuesdays because apparently idiots complained about "spoilers" and watched the breakdowns before the episode (why???). Now I'll not even get to see them unless I pay for them, and I have to watch them on Patreon rather than RUclips which is a much worse platform for video content. I'm all for supporting creators, but this just rubs me the wrong way.
must be dating some kind of 6 eyed monster person
@@videogamer596i like the shorter videos myself and normally don't watch compilations.
I’m worried for next week’s episode because in the description it says
“A mysterious temp worker takes over Fry’s job…as well as his life” hope we don’t see “leela crushes on another man. Then get back to together with Fry”. I hope it’s a sci fi explanation like a brainwashing parasite/alien
I've seen the first 6 of the season, and next week's is one of my favorites. I think you'll enjoy it.
@@Johnny2Cellosthanks for sharing
@Johnny2Cellos Thank you!! What you said is very reassuring. And as a huge fan of Fry, I'm very concerned for how he's gonna react to the temp taking over his life. And I hope he'll be okay. But your assurance that it's a good episode makes me feel a lot better. And now, I'm really looking forward to seeing this episode. :)
@@Salza02 I think it might be a crazy psychic shapeshifter or something. It’s not just some Joe, it’s called mysterious for a reason.
Mr. 2cellos
I really like your content
Thank you, keep up
Johnny 2 amazing ‼️
ty :)
@Johnny2Cellos is an amazing guy with amazing content for the past years I've seen. It's been nothing but leonardio da Vinci type of videos. it's truly a blessing to have a goated youtuber like you making content like this for many years
"Its really clear that this is a parody of squid games"
Yeah, I didn't even make the connection until you said it.
Really enjoyed this episode and the twist at the end is so messed up, I actually think it's more messed up then the Seymour reveal. At least with that it's just a straight sad feeling, with this one I can't even be mad at Fry's Mom cause she just wanted to make him feel good on his birthday which is something any parent would do and that makes the fact that she ended up traumatizing him so crazy and kind of darkly funny.
You know a parody episode is well made when years after you have people saying "that was a reference???". Same with good covers.
when i was watching the past two episodes, it did feel somehow different from quote-un-quote 'normal' futurama, like a lot of other people. but when watching the old episodes again i still felt the same way. i think its a mix of nostalgia and watching best of compilations that make the old ones seem unfairly good in comparison? idk but i liked the motivations joke at the very least
didn't Seymour get a chance to spend time with Fry when he returned back and became Lars
Yeah, but that was a recontextualization/retcon of Fry's entire lore, and is something the series has largely ignored since Fry being present as Lars in the past doesn't make canonical sense.
I guess Fry who is still around wouldn't had experienced it himself, so he still never got to go back and only knows what he still does up to this point
I shall await for that video eagerly!
Sorry you had to do it that way, but I greatly appreciate the effort you put in to still give us the breakdowns regardless.
Thank you most kindly!
Why does fry gotta have so much trauma seriously
I think some trauma is fine. Gives good character/backstory and gives another reason why Fry wouldn’t want to return to his original century
His amount is average, 80% of the stuff Fry went through are things I went through aswell
BC THE FRY PAIN NEVER ENDS
is he secretly spiderman?
the best characters are the ones abused by the writers
9:42 this line from Fry bothers me mostly because his best friend is Bender. If he cheats, I feel like it would be out of character for Bender to care.
Bender wouldn't care if Fry cheats FOR him but Bender is also a hypocrite and would have a problem if he cheats AGAINST him
I’m sad that you’re not gonna have your weekly breakdowns but I understand why. Still sad though
Absolutely love watching your content J2C!
Really REALLY bummed about the Patreon exclusivity for the rest of the season though...
I really look forward to watching the episode and then getting to hear your breakdown of everything and your thoughts.
I truly hope the video performs better than you expect because it feels like you'll wind up with less views if everything is just crammed into 1 video.
I'm sure lots of people dont want to watch a super long compliation and would prefer to watch them episode by episode
I'm sorry you're bummed! My compilation last season actually performed better than every single individual breakdown and still gets solid viewership. And I opened up a lot more $1 slots on the Patreon to make it as cheap as possible for the people who don't want to wait for the end of the season.
Truth be told your breakdown last week is the only reason I knew Futurama was back. I understand the change, good luck.
Disappointed that you won’t be released them on your RUclips channel i like these breakdown of Futurama as you got some good knowledge of the series
The breakdowns of futurama and southpark are a big part of what I love about this channel but I am happy to wait for the big video when that is ready!
8:25 you're right, i wasn't with you until this time stamp, but yeah, is it all Fry ever wanted??
Either way, this episode make me feel so much. and to me it was a home run.
I like this season a lot so far. It reminds me a lot of the first run of Futuruama.
I didn’t know Futurama season started till your review last week popped up
Great video as always, Johnny! One thing I really liked about this episode is it takes a running gag about Mrs Fry and turns it on its head. Most of the times we’ve seen Mrs Fryer she is watching sports and yelling at the TV, at increasingly inappropriate times. Surprisingly she’s giving Fry’s party her full attention, which is really endearing. And clearly she loves games and appreciates winning, so I can imagine why she’d be so happy to give that gift to her son. To her, this is the best gift she can give him, so it really is sad how well-meaning this tragic event was.
I agree I wish they were a bit more subtle with Fry’s trauma over this. They could have still made it funny without hammering the word cheating so hard, but oh well.
When I saw Fry's old house, I could feel the impending emotional gut punch
Really weird thing: i didnt know you were doing these rundowns of the season because they were not recommended to me although im subscribed, i saw in the news a new season came out so i manually searched the channel to see if there was a rundown, i guess the algorithm sucks right now
Honestly, I didn't even realize the new season came out but while I wasn't too big of a fan of the first episode, I really liked this episode! The Quid's Game part was pretty funny and the ending felt like a kick in the teeth (in a good way lol)
It's a shame a lot of people haven't realized that season 12 is out
At least here in the UK there was basically no promotion for it. It just unceremoniously appeared on Disney+
@SinisterPixel in the US the only promotion I saw for it was a trailer in my RUclips recommended and featured on hulu
There was barely any marketing. Don't blame the audience for the creators/studios lack of actually telling people there's new episodes
this episode hit me right in the feels. the ending felt so abrupt and perfect. i'm old af and whenever i talk to my mom, she's like "he's my baby boy." despite all the problems i've gone through, she thinks she's right in the way she interacts with me.
Watching this video in its entirety at 0.9× speed so that the retention time is 111%
Tbh, I hadnt watched any new futurama yet. Your compilation from last year popped up and it got me on board and willing to watch. Now that i caught up today im watching this, one day after upload.
We love the breakdowns! I come here right after watching the episode each week!
I didn't even know the new season was up until I saw your last breakdown in my feed. Then of course, I had to watch the episode first and THEN the breakdown
To be honest, I didn't really like this episode. Why? Because it just didn't feel like Futurama to me. It just didn't have the same real charm the show typically does.
Yeah idk what's different about it other than it just not as funny
Some of the episode was just each one of the massive cast just saying forgettable one-liners which just doesn’t feel right.
I think this one was lacking in good jokes and Leela was super ooc
@@HectorEvilmanagreed, it unfortunately gave away too early that none of the consequences of the characters “dying” were going to matter. That meant it had to be more based in the emotion, which fell flat for me as well as Fry being miserable as a kid and adult lost my interest.
@@Mooncupcake83 I honestly thought the whole thing was a hallucination by Fry after Leela was acting very strange.
Please PLEASE don't move these to your Patreon. I understand early releases on Patreon but I come for these weekly breakdowns on RUclips. And I'm not particularly stoked at the idea of watching a 2-3 hour breakdown video in a couple of months when all but the last episode are no longer going to be fresh in my mind
I'm sorry but bc of the viewership I can't justify releasing them on RUclips weekly. I opened up a ton of $1 spots on my Patreon to make it as easy as possible for people who don't want to wait until October.
@@Johnny2Cellosare you going to be releasing content on your channel in place of these breakdowns because if not, then saying its because the algorithm isn’t good is pointless. Content of any kind is better than no content.
Yes of course I’ll be releasing other videos on my channel
@@Johnny2Cellos it is still a limited amount of spots, it's still 1 video a week spanning more than 1 month, it is still something that used to be free and now isnt
It will literally still be free at the end of the season dude.
A great analysis, as always!
I get why you will only post for patreon, and I respect that. Won't be able to help and I'll wait with others because I know you will make a great job. We support you, even if some of us can't do it monetarily
I also didn't watch Squid Game, but there's so much "The Gamesters of Triskelion" DNA in this episode as well that I didn't even care if I had missed Squid Game references.
I think you left a few digits off Fry's age there...
The thing that makes the ending to "Quids Game" feel different for me from the likes of "Jurassic Bark" is that we see Fry's parents thinking they did right by Fry even as he's devastated. There's nothing like that in the other episodes. It kinda makes the elder Fries feel like sociopaths in a way they never have before.
Socoipaths is very extreme and clealry untrue. Sociopaths wouldn't go searching for their son or even care if he had a good birthday or not
Thank you for doing the thing. I do hope the algorithms recognize the quality of your work and the quality of Futuerama
I'm sad to see the patreon paywall but I 100% get it. I dident know their was another season till I saw this in my feed
So I just watched this (after your video served as a reminder that it was up) and I'm still crying
You built up the expectation with what you said last week and boy did it deliver!
The mom thinking she gave him a great birthday memory and never knowing the truth that she gave him the worst birthday of his life is a sad fact of parenting that most partents never realize when they are responsible for some of the most traumatic memories of their life.
"For me it was a formative and traumatic memory but for you it was a tuesday" is the line it makes me think of but only to a diffrent degree because this isn't "a tuseday" for her- this is her thinking she gave him a happy memory when she failed misserably on that....
Neither of them will ever know the truth and that is probably the harshest truth of all
everyone always talks luck of the fryish but dude no pain hits me as deep as game of tones when fry finally gets to say goodbye to his mom😔 when Nibbler says "but this isn't your dream... it's your mothers dream, make it count", always makes me shed a tear, he finally gets closure on his old life and it's sort of bittersweet because after that she slightly wakes up looks at a picture of him and smiles as if it's mothers intuition... he's okay🙏
I will make sure to be here for any Futurama video
This episode is easily amongst the best of the hulu run. Futurama's only issue is that it's been running long enough to be inconsistent, and I have been watching long enough to become jaded.
Yh thats true, with loads of diff writers and decisions over the yrs i can see they struggle to keep it consistent (they lowkey always have, but its a lil more glaring with another revival)
Jurassic Bark is kinda loses its sadness when you remember that Fry went back in time and spent those 15 years with Seymour during Bender's big game!
As a parent this episode hit hard, because while we do our best to raise our child to be as well-adjusted as possible, balancing spoiling them with providing exposure to boundaries and consequences, sometimes doing what you think is the right thing can make things much worse for them, in some cases not even realizing. On that note I can't help but imagine that when Frys parents re-entered the room and realized all of his friends were gone, they would know for sure they screwed up, and it makes no sense that fry wouldn't know about it at that point, unless his parents covered it up somehow, then you're getting into this whole other thing.
1:07 weird you say this because I never consume content similar to this but was recommended and obviously love futurama
Good news Johnny! You're all good and your real fans are happy to see you take a needed break
Omg i never knew this show was having another season I use to love futurama as a kid, this just was recommended to me after years of
I dont know if this was my favourite episode but im loving the reviews. Hope you get the views you need johnny
Definitely glad I have a membership, hope this encourages others to support
Still not entirely sure how I feel about this episode. Fry as a character felt kinda disconnected from what we’ve seen from him in the past. I get that’s kind of the point so we understand how much he is affected by his awful birthday, but it did feel almost OOC in terms of temperament. Even the whole ‘I would never cheat’ thing feels more like an asspull to make this story work more than something I could genuinely believe that Fry would have as a personal code.
Having said that, the episode certainly was fun and I liked that they really did have a lot of creative uses for games. The aliens were surprisingly really funny and I was actually genuinely interested to see which characters would end up surviving. I wonder if this episode would have worked better if they leaned more into the comedy angle of it rather than trying so hard to sell this traumatic past Fry dealt with.
The emotional point of Fry’s parents unintentionally ruining the party by having him win every game was a pretty grounded and interesting route to go. Futurama in general has always been good at having tragic/emotional backstories for characters without going too far to the point they feel cliche or unbelievable. The emotional bits of the backstory worked for me, although I felt like they kinda tried too hard at points where it felt almost like a soap opera. The scene where Leela begs Fry to cheat just feels really out of character for both of them and like they were trying to pay off something that never felt like it had a lot of weight. Since this whole ‘Fry never cheats at games’ thing feels so out of nowhere, it didn’t really feel like a big deal that he would help her find the ball despite it counting as cheating. And Leela being so desperate and quick to give up feels extremely weird for her character as well. I feel like if this was classic Futurama, Leela would have stopped at nothing to find the ball without help but then Fry would secretly cheat and help her find it without telling her. Something similar to the ‘You leave me breathless’ scene
Love this show and your breakdowns
I love your videos RUclips just hasn’t been pushing you for a while and I been missing. And I have notifications on too which is the mad thing
Love how Amy doesn't address her parents dying but cries over Kiff.
This felt a lot like DS9's Move Along Home, and its ending had shades of Futurama's Lethal Inspection in its compilation.
As to the popularity of the video, I didn't know Futurama was back until I saw a thumbnail of this very video. Hulu dropped the ball.
I personally thought that the twist was going to be that all the kids at the party were in on it and intentionally throwing (because they were paid off by fry's parents or something), and when Philip finds out, he loses all faith in his abilities (and maybe in close friends). This could have then tied into his performance in the quids games, not being able to trust his own judgement. Just where my head was at while watching. Still enjoyed and was very shocked at the first crop of deaths
I’m glad you’re gonna compile them, I do love these videos lol. Although I guess I could just watch the episodes. Hope your plans come together!
I think the series is gonna start doing much better after this episode, They showed us they've still got it just as much as they did in the mid 2000s. This was the first episode I felt sits along the original series perfectly naturally. Not to say I didn't like the first Hulu season, I really did. But it was obviously a bit, different?
I’m going to have to jump on the patreon cause watching the episode then watching your video has been my way of consuming the series recently.
Love your content johnny! Your futurama videos are awesome
I have not been keeping up with this season yet, but appreciate the breakdowns nonetheless!
I had absolutely no idea the new season was out until I saw this video in my feed
I get the scheduling/Patreon thing. I really appreciate the transparency in the changes 🙏
I actually liked this episode quite a bit. I don’t know if I liked it more than the other flashbacks, but I think the relationship between him and his mother is more fleshed out than you’d think at a surface level in this episode.
For example, after seeing the ending, I think it’s interesting to wonder whether Fry would have actually won these games if it wasn’t for his mother stepping in for him. Even if he doesn’t win in a conventional way, Fry proves in the future that he could win at all these games his own way. For what Fry lacks in, say, dexterity and hand eye coordination in pinning the tail on the donkey, he proves that he’s capable of winning through the big strengths in his kind of personality that focus more around his creativity and out of the box thinking. Granted, he may not have won the donkey game intentionally (I count his as a win because we had no way of knowing the episode would throw a curveball with a gag for the old lady), but he did managed to get there all on his own without her.
In that sense, it shows a lack of confidence between their relationship that Fry’s mom wouldn’t think he’s capable of making it in life if her idea of success is formed by the idea of this nuclear family kind of life where she’s the housewife to this big macho man. It shows a very normative thought process in her character where she wouldn’t appreciate the creativity as much.
Which, of course, is tragic, because her own idea of success got in the way of what Fry wanted and needed in his life, which was just to be appreciated and liked for who he is, and his mom will never know how badly she accidentally hurt Fry.
Also, I thought the song itself was an interesting choice in the end too. I’m trying to figure out from whose point of view it would be playing from because of the lyrics they play for a bit during the credits:
When I think about what you've become
I feel sorry for your mum
You say we're all having fun
Do you know you're the only one?
My guess it’s from the point of view of Fry’s friends, where they all walk away thinking he’s a cheater and are thinking “Wow, I bet your mother would be ashamed of you for growing up to be a cheater”, which is sad because she was the one who cheated for him, in return making a judgement from his friends toward her parenting style.
I dunno. I liked it. I don’t know if it’s a Luck of the Fryrish for me, but I think the episode does leave the viewer with a lot to think about if you care to look into the kind of relationship these people had.
I found out the show was back by accident. The day of the first episode airing I randomly decided to open Disney+ and saw it sitting there
Johnny just something to consider about the futurama breakdowns, even if this one does very well on RUclips that might be because it’s a fry flashback episode breakdown cause as you said they’re fan favorites.
Just the view count on THIS breakdown may not be indicative of the futurama breakdowns view count going forward.
I am definitely taking this into account! Appreciate the concern :)
I actually really liked watching ur reviews after watching the episode on my own id see ur video in my subscription and then watch it.
"You don't have to end up like your parents, look at me, my parents were honest, hard working people."
I feel bad that you aren't getting the viewership you were expecting with this season. Like other commenters, your Episode 1 video was how I found out that the season had started airing (I had no idea it was coming, at all). When I found your video and started it though, I closed it quickly hoping to find the episode to watch first, but discovered that I as a Canadian can't make a Hulu account, so I couldn't watch the show until it was on pirate sites, which was very slow to happen. It took me days after before I watched your analysis, and if others were like me, we probably didn't help your video's performance.
While I won't be joining your Patreon because I'm in university and can't exactly afford leisure the same way as some others, I'm excited to hear your opinions on this season in whatever form it comes in. Best of luck!
incredible breakdowns as usual!! you have the best podcast voice, i love how sincerely you talk about these shows. will be continuing to watch on patreon!!!
Going to watch the video in its entirety a second time at 0.75× speed so that the viewer retention time for me specifically is over 244%
I love seeing your Futurama breakdowns!!! ❤
This episode reminded me more of David Fincher's the Game, because of the birthday and twist at the end
Always love the scenes with showing how his mom loves him but this one hit differently because it was sweet but sad.