Comedy Science Fiction Animated Web Series Episode Review: Futurama - The Impossible Stream

Futurama has returned from the dead yet again with the broadcast of the first episode of the eleventh broadcast season, or the eighth production season. Yes, the season numbering is weird, but blame the Cartoon Network executives for that because that channel's two seasons of Futurama were broken up into four parts.

I'll admit that I'm a huge Futurama fan. I briefly changed my screen name from Lopantu to Bender followed by Flexo, both in 2000, before settling with MetaFox the next year when I got my first arcade cabinet with a Seta game of the same name. I'm not the rose-tinted glasses type though, so I was cautiously optimistic about this episode but prepared for a possible letdown since the series has been off the air for 10 years. That's a long break, so I wasn't sure if the showrunners would be able to get back in the groove right off the bat. 

I didn't have to worry, as it managed to hit the mark with its usual dose of satire relating to today's world, as well as jabs at itself and the executives who cancelled it. The episode starts off right where the series ended in 2013 with "Meanwhile". The Planet Express crew learn that the time-stopping shenanigans of that episode messed with time itself, pulling the world ten years forward into 3023. Fry is distraught that he has been in the future for twenty-three years but has nothing to show for it. He decides to watch every television show ever made. This leads to some funny names of shows that are parodies of popular television and streaming shows, callbacks to previous shows-within a show such as their Twilight Zone parody The Scary Door, the Emeril Lagasse parody Elsar, and a surprisingly funny jab at Netflix's anti-trans comedy specials from Ricky Gervais and Dave Chapelle.

The episode truly kicks off when Fry decides to binge all of the episodes of All My Circuits, Futurama's parody of soap operas which is more like a telenovela parody today as those are the only variation of shows of that type that remain popular. The professor puts Fry into a binging suit, while the rest of the staff gets All My Circuits renewed so that Fry can keep watching episodes before he runs out of them.

I'm not going to say more, as it's definitely worth watching. So far Futurama has all of the humor and wit of its predecessor, reminding me a lot of the humor of the Comedy Central run of the show after the release of four films which ran for four years from 2009 to 2013. The voice actors step into their roles perfectly as well. This aspect of the show especially feels like it never went off the air in the first place. Time will tell if the series retains the heart of the show as well, but as Bender says about Futurama is definitely true. It's back, baby!

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

Freemium Social City-Building Video Game Review: The Simpsons - Tapped Out

The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a free-to-play social city-building video game for mobile devices that defied the odds by having constant updates by EA Mobile for over ten years.

It is really no surprise that it is a popular game as it is based on the popular adult animated comedy television series, The Simpsons. That show has five generations of fans, from baby boomers to zoomers, as it has been on the air for nearly thirty-five years.

The game lets gamers create their own Springfield with characters and buildings that are unlocked as the player collects experience by buying and collecting rent from various buildings from the show such as Kwik-E-Marts and Krusty Burgers.

It's a fun concept that works well because there are hundreds of different pieces of content that can be added since the television series has been on the air for over thirty years.

One thing makes it a bit of a hard sell, however. At this point, it's easy to earn premium currency through collecting experience and leveling up, as well as collecting from donut-producing buildings. However, this is only true for players that have been with the game since near the beginning. New players will have a hard time collecting donuts past the first few levels.

Update March 20, 2023, adding more information: A free-to-play video game should have lots of content and updates, and The Simpsons: Tapped Out has that in spades as it has been consistently updated for over ten years. It's fun to build your own Springfield, and there are a lot of characters available for no charge through the level-up feature. However, there are only voice clips for some of the characters, and some of them aren't even interactable as they just wander around your Springfield. Another bummer is that some of the characters don't have outside jobs, so if you send your Springfielders away to earn money and experience so that you can buy new things as well as level up, some characters will remain hidden. There are unlimited levels, however, the level stories are not unlimited. 

After a while, all you get is premium currency and experience, which isn't a bad thing, but it's not enough to buy most of the premium items in the game, especially in the game's events, as they are usually vastly overpriced. If you have played the game for years, it's likely you have ways to get donuts more easily through quick level-ups due to lots of buildings, and possibly even through donut-producing buildings. If you haven't played for years, however, you'll probably find it harder to farm for donuts. Thus, it's a fun game that's ridiculously unbalanced. Because of this, it's hard to recommend the game to anyone but the most die-hard fans of The Simpsons.

Final verdict:
3 out of 5