Written By: Eric HorstedDirected By: Peter AvanzinoDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential Fun story: this is an episode I haven’t revisited much, not because there’s not much to it but because my season two DVD got scratched and that … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Thirteen, “Bender Gets Made”

Written by: J Stewart BurnsDirected By: Bret HaalandDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential This is actually one of my favourite episodes and one that I’ve revisited a lot, and it’s useful as a further refining of the ‘bad/nonessential/essential’ scale … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Twelve, “The Deep South”

Written by: Bill OdenkirkDirected by: Mark ErvinDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL This is one of the most famous Futurama episodes, and I would argue a perfect example of how many of its best episodes come not from an … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back”

Written by: Patric M VerroneDirected by: Rich MooreDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential This is one that has a kind of dodgy reputation but I like a lot. One of the fundamental issues people have with it is that … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Ten, “A Clone Of My Own”

Written by: Eric KaplanDirected By: Susie DietterDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I am so excited to get to this episode. Arguably, it’s the first real attempt at serialisation and character development the show has gone in for; obviously, … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Nine, “A Bicyclops Built For Two”

Written by: Lewis MortonDirected by: Ron HughartDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential This one was better than I remembered on several different levels. I’ve probably said this before, but this really feels like the point where the writers have … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Eight, “Raging Bender”

Written by: Ken KeelerDirected by: Chris LoudenDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential Absolutely the worst thing about this episode is the fact that it successfully sells me on a Fry/Amy relationship and then pulls it away for no good … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Seven, “Put Your Head On My Shoulders”

Written by: Eric HorstedDirected by: Chris SauveDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential I feel bad calling this nonessential when it contains one of the two most famous things to come out of this show, but it’s one that I … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Six, “The Lesser Of Two Evils”

Written by: Eric KaplanDirected by: Brian SheesleyDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential Dr Zoidberg is one of my favourite characters on Futurama, which puts him in the running for being one of my favourite characters of all time. And … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Five, “Why Must I Be A Crustacean In Love?”

Written by: David X CohenDirected by: Peter AvanzinoDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I honestly went back and forth on how to categorise this episode before landing on ESSENTIAL – it never fully manages to come together in a … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode “Xmas Story”

Written by: J Stewart BurnsDirected by: Bret HaalandDN’S Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL There are so many levels on which this is an essential episode of Futurama. Of course, there’s the fact that it’s one of funniest half hours … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Three, “A Head In The Polls”

Written by: Lewis MortonDirected by: Jeffrey LynchDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I will admit that the ‘nonessential/essential’ categorisation of episodes is a bit messy and intuitive to me; I know for a fact that there are definitely episodes … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode Two, “Brannigan, Begin Again”

Written by: Patrick VerroneDirected by: Mark EvrineDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I was thinking about this before watching it and was surprised to realise that I would put it in the ‘essential’ category with no qualification. The less … Continue reading Futurama, Season Two, Episode One, “I Second That Emotion”

Written by: Lewis MortonDirected by: Ron HughartDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential Some of us have said how we can relate to Fry and see ourselves in his problems, and how they’re larger-than-life exaggerations of relatable problems. Certainly, I … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Twelve, “Fry And The Slurm Factory”

Written by: Ken KeelerDirected by: Brain SheesleyDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I knew going in that I would call this one essential but I wasn’t sure how I was going to justify that – I usually take subjective … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Twelve, “When Aliens Attack”

Written by: J Stewart BurnsDirected by: Bret HaalandDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential There’s been occasional discussion in the comments on how, for being done by the most overeducated cartoon writers’ room in history, Futurama rarely churns out sophisticated … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Eleven, “Mars University”

Written by: Eric HorstedDirected by: Peter AvanzinoDN’s Ranking: Bad / NONESSENTIAL / Essential This is a great one to explore the concept of a ‘nonessential’ Futurama episode, because it’s funny without its main ideas quite sparking to life. If I … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Nine, “A Flight To Remember”

Written By: Eric KaplanDirected By: Rich MooreDN’s Ranking: Bad / Nonessential / ESSENTIAL I’m genuinely shocked this one comes so early! I knew Futurama found its feet relatively early compared to most television comedies, but somehow I always missed that … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Nine, “Hell Is Other Robots”

Written By: Lewis MortonDirected By: Susie DietterDN’s Ranking: ESSENTIAL Here we go! This is the first truly great episode of the show. The ones building up to it are good and even moving, but I don’t revisit them anywhere near … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Eight, “A Big Piece Of Garbage”

Written by: J Stewart BurnsDirected by: Jeffery Lynch and Kevin O’Brian We’re still in an era of firsts, and I would call this the first middling-in-a-good-way episode. Unlike The Simpsons, I do feel comfortable ranking episodes of the show based … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Seven, “My Three Suns”

Written By: Ron HughartDirected By: Gregg Vanzo I remember this as a mediocre episode, not because it wasn’t that funny, but because it was the most major example of the show not quite finding its feet yet. Fry’s defining trait, … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Six, “A Fishful Of Dollars”