So, “Destroy Tall Monsters” had a rehashed plot but strong jokes, and I declared it good. “The World Is Hot Enough” had a rehashed plot and weak jokes, and I declared it bad. Now we come to “Fifty Shades of Green”, which has weak jokes but an original plot.
Not the most original, granted – virtually every sitcom with a Designated Couple has done at least one episode that makes it look like they might split up. And Futurama already sorta did it in “Fun on a Bun”, although a) that plot quickly switched to being an amnesia storyline instead, and b) thanks to how inconsistent the Comedy Central era was about Fry & Leela, Fry didn’t even know they were going out till after they broke up.
Still, “Fifty Shades of Green” absolutely finds its own spin on it. There are any number of things that could drive Leela away from Fry, but I appreciate how this leans into the idea that, while Fry is good at the big romantic gestures, dude kinda sucks at basic, day-to-day attentiveness. It feels like a call-back to Fry’s efforts to “win” Leela during the Fox era, and exploring how that really isn’t solid bedrock for a relationship.
And from that premise, this episode goes in some wild directions. Black market soulmate detecting mirrors. Fry meeting Leela’s soulmate, them becoming pals and fighting tree monsters together. Then Fry falling into a coma for a month, and the plant-as-metaphor-for-relationship thing getting stretched for all its worth.
This episode was constantly surprising me, always finding inventive new paths to take its story down. That kept me interested enough, I almost don’t mind it wasn’t that funny.
It’s not unfunny, don’t get me wrong. There weren’t any jokes that made me groan – just weren’t that many that made me laugh, either. More just gentle amusement throughout. That should spell doom for a comedy, especially since I spent my last two reviews going on and on about how having good jokes is what’s essential.
But, it still kinda worked for me. Maybe ’cause I’m the sort of sucker who comes back for the third revival of a quarter-century old cartoon show, but I’ve got enough invested in Fry, Leela, and the world of Futurama that seeing where their story went picked up the slack that the jokes weren’t carrying this week. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself.
Still, it would be nice to get an episode with an original plot and laugh-out-loud jokes. Can we maybe get at least one of those before the season’s over? Pretty please? Fingers crossed?
Stray Observations:
- Appreciated the nod to how inconsistently Futurama handles the passing of time, mentioning that, with all the time loops they’ve been through, the characters themselves don’t know how long it’s been since they met.
- The whole ending montage of soulmate matches was great – not sure if my favorite is Zapp-with-Zapp or Scruffy-with-Washbucket.
- The shady alien shopkeeper is a decent new character (at least, I think they’re new?) Even Scruffy seems momentarily put off by “How may I pervert you?”
- Branch Woodsman is really a very good creation – someone who could believably be Leela’s soulmate, while also being quirky enough to be entertaining.
- I liked the sad sincerity put into “Don’t you understand that this plant is a metaphor for our relationship?” “You know I don’t.”