‘Futurama’ Returns From Cancellation a Third Time, as Worthy of Binge-Watching as Ever

Ten years after its second cancellation, “Futurama” boasts, “We’re back, baby,” streaming on Hulu in America and Disney+ abroad, beaming up new episodes packed with sci-fi parodies, nerdy jokes, and quotable banter that endear the series to fans who refuse to let it die.“How does a show get canceled this many times by this many networks?” the robot crewman, Bender Rodriguez, voiced by John DiMaggio, asks of “All My Circuits,” a defunct soap opera featured on the show. “It got canceled ten years ago. TV shows don’t come back after that. No way. Not on broadcast or cable.”“What about Fulu?” Mr. Farnsworth asks. “They’ll bring back any old crap!” The self-deprecating bit is classic “Futurama,” taking digs at itself and the fictional allegory of its new network just as it did on its previous homes, Fox and Comedy Central.Creator of “The Simpsons,” Matt Groening, launched “Futurama” in 1999, setting it not in an average American town or in contemporary times, but in the “New New York City” of 1,000 years hence, following the misadventures of a slacker pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, voiced by Billy West.Mr. Fry falls into a cryogenics chamber on New Year’s Eve 1999 and awakens as the year 2999 ticks into the 31st Century. Once there, he finds a soft dystopia where jobs are mandated by subdermal chips, a system where he doesn’t fit any better than he did in 1999.After tracking down a distant nephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, also performed by Mr. West, Mr. Fry joins his relative’s intergalactic delivery service, Planet Express. A classic mad scientist, Mr. Farnsworth’s running gags relate to his extreme old age, but his name is one of the series’ many homages, invoking the pioneering TV inventor Philo Farnsworth.The name “Futurama” is also a deep reference, taken from an exhibit and ride at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, as is the resident alien, Dr. John A. Zoidberg — Mr. West again — a lobster-like Decapodian who is the nephew of a “silent hologram” star, Harold Zoid, a parody of Harold Lloyd, whose dangling from a clock high above traffic in 1923’s “Safety Last!” is one of cinema’s most iconic images.“Futurama” doesn’t mind if punchlines like these are missed on the first viewing, reveling in mining humor from such rare subject matter as scientific equations, quantum physics, and historical figures, including American presidents — whose heads, including a leering President Madison, are kept alive in jars.Serialized rather than episodic, “Futurama” planted plot points in “Space Pilot 3000” that weren’t resolved until later seasons. Those long story arcs helped invest viewers in the adventures of Planet Express, but after its long hiatus, there were concerns about the show finding its space legs again.“Don’t reboot a show if the quality isn’t going to be there,” Mr. Fry says in the final scene of the new outing. “Any TV show that truly cares about its audience, that loves and respects them, should — no, must — be canceled every few years. It’s simply the right thing to do.”This dedication is reflected in a reboot that hits the ground running as if no time has passed, helped by bringing back the full original cast: The bureaucrat, Hermes Conrad, voiced by Phil LaMarr; Katey Sagal as Captain Turanga Leela; and Lauren Tom’s heiress, Amy Wong, whose parents own the Western Hemisphere of Mars.Mr. Groening’s team wrings humor out of every opportunity. For example, there are timely jokes about the Writers Guild, now on strike, and since streaming allows viewers to pause, “Futurama” packs a fast-scrolling TV guide with gag titles like “Grey’s Alien’s Anatomy,” and “CSI: Ceti Alpha V,” a nod to the 1967 “Star Trek” episode “Space Seed,” itself revisited 15 years later in “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”With its third act, “Futurama” achieves a rare spot in animation history, and while Hulu may be behind streaming giants Netflix and Amazon Prime, the misfits of Planet Express have packaged the service as a hit, delivering laughs of galactic proportions for fans that the show seems to love as much as they love it.

‘Futurama’ Returns From Cancellation a Third Time, as Worthy of Binge-Watching as Ever

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