Futurama's Season 12 Premiere Continues A Major Complaint From Last Year's Revival Episodes

The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 1, "The One Amigo," now streaming on Hulu

Summary "The One Amigo" features dated jokes, a recurring flaw in the revival seasons.

Season 11 relied on topical commentary, lacking the timeless charm of earlier episodes of Futurama.

To succeed, Futurama needs to properly blend satire with character-driven storytelling for a return to form.

The premiere of Futurama season 12 suffers from a consistent flaw of season 11 that doesn't bode well for the future of the beloved series. Futurama has worked best when it blends emotional storytelling, ridiculous comedy, and inventive sci-fi. This larger-than-life approach to comedy allows the show to touch on all sorts of topics. However, not every episode is quite as timeless as Futurama's best episodes, and can suffer from dated elements that take away from the timeless sci-fi ideas.

This was an especially prevalent flaw with the first season of Hulu's modern revival of the show, with Futurama season 11 suffering from several parody episodes that felt particularly dated. This was something that also impacted the previous revival of the show, but the show eventually rediscovered the tonal balance that made the show so memorable in the first place. However, the debut episode of Futurama season 12 suffers from the same problems that hurt season 11, underscoring the need for the show to rediscover the heights of the show's best episodes.

Related I Really Hope This Futurama Season 12 Episode Title Means Revisiting My Favorite Storyline From 21 Years Ago One of Futurama season 12's episode titles immediately caught my eye, as it suggests my favorite episode could be revisited more than 2 decades later.

The NFT Heist Is A Bland Part Of Futurama's Season 12 Premiere

Futurama's "The One Amigo" already feels dated with a series of jokes poking fun at NFTs, which has been a consistent problem with the current iteration of the animated series. "The One Amgio's" plot is set in motion by the children of the Planet Express Crew getting involved in the world of NFTs. The episode pokes fun at the confusion surrounding the digital art trend, as well as the generational divide over the concept. The explanation of ownership of NFTs leaves even Professor Farnsworth frustrated. It's a consistent beat, but it's also one that feels dated.

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During 2020 and 2021, interest in NFTs spiked. However, the prominence of NFTs began to subside. This means that all the gags about the NFTs feel tired and dated when Futurama makes them in 2024. There's little actual commentary baked into the references, instead using them as set up for minor gags. The best elements of the NFT subplot have nothing to do with the actual content of the story, as the comedic highlights are the bizarre jokes like Professor Farnsworth's exact replica of an art museum. The NFT elements are completely forgettable, and it's part of an unfortunate trend.

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Futurama's latest revival has suffered from a lot of topical commentary that, by the natural of animation taking time to produce, feels dated by the time of premiere. Season 11 of Futurama was full of topical satire that dragged down the episodes, as they relied on cultural trends for comedy that didn't land. While some animated shows like South Park are famously capable of using their fast production turn around to be extremely topical, episodes of Futurama are produced at a far slower rate.

The best episodes of Futurama season 11 were the ones that focused on character relationships like "Children of a Lesser Bog" or heady sci-fi like "All the Way Down." The more specific satirical episodes, like the Dune parody in "Parasites Regained" or the societal commentary in "Related to Items You've Viewed" and "Rage Against the Vaccine" were considered lackluster by audiences and critics alike. The biggest challenge of season 12 was proving Futurama could move beyond the topical criticism of season 11, and "The One Amigo" suggests that this flaw is still prevalent in the latest batch of episodes.

Related I'm Glad Futurama Season 12 Is Promising More Of My Favorite Part Of The Show I was hoping to see something very specific when I watched the Futurama season 12 trailer for the first time, and I wasn't disappointed.

Blending Timeless Characters With Tight Sci-Fi Satire Makes Futurama So Memorable

Image via Hulu

There have been plenty of satrical episodes of Futurama, but the best ones have a timeless quality that gel well with the outlandish sci-fi comedy inherent to the series. Episodes like "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz" and "Crimes of the Hot" take direct aim at pollution and climate change, but fuse them with enough unique energy and character beats that they stand out on their own divorced from the real-life inspirations. This is something the revival has faltered with, and that needs to be addressed if the show wants to reach the heights of the previous seasons.

Even specific parodies of earlier seasons, like the riffs on Ally McBeal in "When Aliens Attack" or Titanic in "A Flight to Remember," were rooted in the idiosyncratic aspects of the series. They weren't entirely tied to modern topics and are more character-driven. "The One Amigo's" character arc for Bender is almost entirely removed from the NFT elements, highlighting how little that satire was to the core of the episode. If Futurama season 12 is going to overcome the flaws of season 11, it needs to rediscover the proper balance between the satire and the elements that define the show.