Futurama (1999-Present)

You may have watched Futurama, you may have heard of it, you may have no idea what Futurama is, what it's about, or why anyone would want to talk about it. Well trust me, if you haven't seen it by now, you're missing out.

Futurama is a show by creators Matt Groening (Creator of The Simpsons) and David X. Cohen (Writer, Producer, Show Runner on The Simpsons), and is about a team of misfit delivery company employees, and the adventures they get into. The shows main focus is Phillip J. Fry (Billy West) who accidentally stumbles into a cryo chamber freezing him for 1000 years. When he awakes, he finds himself in the 31st Century. He quickly finds a relative of his, Professor Farnsworth, who runs a delivery service. Fry becomes a crew member of Planet Express delivery and so begins the tale of zany, crazy, idiotic things he and the other crew members will do.

I could discuss the show for hours and hours and hours, but I'd really like to touch on something the show brings that you really don't find in most cartoons. The show has many touching and heartfelt, award winning episodes. A few of the best episodes are: Naturally the first episode, which explains how fry get's to the future; which, while not heartwarming, is hilarious. 'The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings', where Fry makes a deal with the Robot Devil for his hand to play the instrument the Holophoner (Instrument makes music and animations to create beautiful works of art, but in the show is very difficult to play, let alone master). Fry writes an amazing piece about his love interest and co-worker Leela, but in a horrible turn of fate, the Devil prevents her from enjoying it. Finally, the episode  'Jurassic Bark', perhaps the saddest episode of a cartoon ever made. The episode based on the movie Hachi, where Fry discovers his fossilized dog and pleads with his shipmates to help him clone the beloved dog. I make the episode sound a little lame, but it's one I avoid watching, because it's just too sad to sit through. I would easily consider it the best episode of the series so far though.

The entire series so far, including the 4 made for TV, straight to DVD movies are available on the instant queue on Netflix. If you haven't seen this series, if you aren't watching the new episodes, if you missed it's original airing on Fox or the reruns on Adult Swim, I highly recommend you start now. You will not be disappoint with Futurama.

Futurama is rated TV-PG and contains foul language, sexual references, drug references, violence and partial nudity. Amounts vary from episode to episode.

I leave you with the best trailer I could find which is for the Season 1 DVDs. Netflix does not offer the special features listed on instant queue, but if you'd like to seem them, they will be on the DVDs that come in the mail.