I'll give a dissenting opinion. I've loved the Comedy Central reboot. The material is quick and snappy in a way that the earlier seasons weren't, packing in rapid-fire jokes. And it still consistently throws in bits of real science and mathematics, like the famous brain-swapping problem and solution. The movies were uneven, but season six hit a new and sustained peak starting with the fourth episode.
I often felt like the earlier seasons got too caught up in their own worldbuilding and forgot the funny. "The Why of Fry" was my personal least favorite, retconning the entire premise of the show and Nibbler's nature, and straining on a single joke of Fry's stupidity for the entire episode. Other low points included the forced Amy-Kif relationship that had little comedy content and less meaning, Leela's retconned family, and any time filled by Zapp Brannigan's one-note attempts at jokes. Futurama can't credibly do gross-out or shock humor in a world where Family Guy cranks it up to eleven every week.
Futurama is best as a joke turbine playing off the future setting, and IMO strains for misguided impact whenever it brings up how Fry's family lost a son. I never bought in to the heartstring-tugging. The characters are too broadly drawn and fantastical to care about, unlike the Simpsons. The Comedy Central seasons seem to have figured this out, realizing that it's too late in the game for any more meaningful character material. Instead, the show has seriously stressed the pacing and density of the comedy, which for me really shines now.
retconning the entire premise of the show and Nibbler's nature
Opinions on humor are subjective, but I'd like to point out that this was set up from the beginning and not at all a retcon. For example we can see Nibbler's shadow in the first episode: http://theinfosphere.org/Nibbler%27s_shadow
The problem with Futurama's character-building was that they never had a precise plan on when to end the show, nor a precise plan on when to progress the characters. So the Leela-Fry pairing always has to remain on-again, off-again. Amy always has to remain a ditz and never end her internship (though I'm glad they finally let her have her PhD). The Professor is never going to actually die. Fry is never going to mature to the "Lars stage" of adulthood we saw that once.
You could call it Simpson's Syndrome: a comedy show without planned story-lines or definite end-dates will have a distinctly hard time developing its characters.
Comments
I'll give a dissenting opinion. I've loved the Comedy Central reboot. The material is quick and snappy in a way that the earlier seasons weren't, packing in rapid-fire jokes. And it still consistently throws in bits of real science and mathematics, like the famous brain-swapping problem and solution. The movies were uneven, but season six hit a new and sustained peak starting with the fourth episode.
I often felt like the earlier seasons got too caught up in their own worldbuilding and forgot the funny. "The Why of Fry" was my personal least favorite, retconning the entire premise of the show and Nibbler's nature, and straining on a single joke of Fry's stupidity for the entire episode. Other low points included the forced Amy-Kif relationship that had little comedy content and less meaning, Leela's retconned family, and any time filled by Zapp Brannigan's one-note attempts at jokes. Futurama can't credibly do gross-out or shock humor in a world where Family Guy cranks it up to eleven every week.
Futurama is best as a joke turbine playing off the future setting, and IMO strains for misguided impact whenever it brings up how Fry's family lost a son. I never bought in to the heartstring-tugging. The characters are too broadly drawn and fantastical to care about, unlike the Simpsons. The Comedy Central seasons seem to have figured this out, realizing that it's too late in the game for any more meaningful character material. Instead, the show has seriously stressed the pacing and density of the comedy, which for me really shines now.
retconning the entire premise of the show and Nibbler's nature
Opinions on humor are subjective, but I'd like to point out that this was set up from the beginning and not at all a retcon. For example we can see Nibbler's shadow in the first episode: http://theinfosphere.org/Nibbler%27s_shadow
Edit: link corrected thanks to meandthebean
Corrected link: http://theinfosphere.org/Nibbler%27s_shadow
The problem with Futurama's character-building was that they never had a precise plan on when to end the show, nor a precise plan on when to progress the characters. So the Leela-Fry pairing always has to remain on-again, off-again. Amy always has to remain a ditz and never end her internship (though I'm glad they finally let her have her PhD). The Professor is never going to actually die. Fry is never going to mature to the "Lars stage" of adulthood we saw that once.
You could call it Simpson's Syndrome: a comedy show without planned story-lines or definite end-dates will have a distinctly hard time developing its characters.