I loved the pre-cancelation seasons of Futurama. Back then the vast majority of the episodes were original stories with humorous pop-culture/current event references in the form of talking about them as though they were important historic events a thousand years ago.
But there's two main problems I have with the newer seasons that have come out. For starters I just think most of the episodes are only "meh" at best as it seems Matt Greoning is struggling to recapture that golden formula that turned Futurama into a cult hit that had people demanding that it be brought back from cancelation. But the fact that he hasn't recaptured that magic actually ties directly into what disgusts me the most about the newer seasons: too much political bullshit.
It's no secret that Matt is a liberal, a pretty big one at that. But where as the old seasons might have an Al Gore reference about how he's some kind of environmental hero, it seems now we're past the point of references and have reached the point where episodes are coming out as 30 minute propaganda opportunities.
Such as the most recent episode which pretty much has the theme of "Obama is the greatest man alive, he is a fantastic leader and the best president this country has ever had. All criticism of him is hateful, ignorant, and entirely based upon lies and rumors."
As I said, I don't mind a cartoonist weaving in their political views into their cartoons, but it has to be done with a delicate touch as it was before in pre-cancelation Futurama. When you make episodes like the one from last night, you're just completely alienating half your audience. Does Matt honestly believe a conservative will watch that episode and suddenly think "He's right, all my disagreements with Obama's policies and the current state of the nation under his administration are just ridiculous. He's a wonderful man and I should be thankful that he got elected"? Because if that's the aim, it's not going to happen.
It's as though Matt got into a competition with Seth Macfarlane for who could make the most liberal-agenda-pushing show. The difference is that Family Guy at least still has some funny gags, Futurama is just getting lame.
But there's two main problems I have with the newer seasons that have come out. For starters I just think most of the episodes are only "meh" at best as it seems Matt Greoning is struggling to recapture that golden formula that turned Futurama into a cult hit that had people demanding that it be brought back from cancelation. But the fact that he hasn't recaptured that magic actually ties directly into what disgusts me the most about the newer seasons: too much political bullshit.
It's no secret that Matt is a liberal, a pretty big one at that. But where as the old seasons might have an Al Gore reference about how he's some kind of environmental hero, it seems now we're past the point of references and have reached the point where episodes are coming out as 30 minute propaganda opportunities.
Such as the most recent episode which pretty much has the theme of "Obama is the greatest man alive, he is a fantastic leader and the best president this country has ever had. All criticism of him is hateful, ignorant, and entirely based upon lies and rumors."
As I said, I don't mind a cartoonist weaving in their political views into their cartoons, but it has to be done with a delicate touch as it was before in pre-cancelation Futurama. When you make episodes like the one from last night, you're just completely alienating half your audience. Does Matt honestly believe a conservative will watch that episode and suddenly think "He's right, all my disagreements with Obama's policies and the current state of the nation under his administration are just ridiculous. He's a wonderful man and I should be thankful that he got elected"? Because if that's the aim, it's not going to happen.
It's as though Matt got into a competition with Seth Macfarlane for who could make the most liberal-agenda-pushing show. The difference is that Family Guy at least still has some funny gags, Futurama is just getting lame.
For the record, when I said the bit about a competition with Seth, I didn't mean that the format/jokes were trying to become more like Family Guy. What I meant is that Family Guy, too, has been pushing a political agenda in a lot of the newer episodes that come out. Futurama is now doing the exact same thing. It doesn't matter to me what you're political views are...I watched Futurama for entertainment because I liked what the series used to be...I didn't watch it because I was eager to see propaganda.
