Season 8 Episode 4 - Parasites Regained [Discussion and Spoilers]

A big part of why this season feels stale is that its topical references are several years old. Like Dune and Ivermectin, in this episode. Was this season written two years ago and is only being released now?

We saw this with the last reboot, like the "Earth Certificate" episode. They are writing using then-current references, but because the normal time to produce an episode is so long, the references feel stale. South Park was king of topical references because their production turnaround was 6 days. They were able to put out a Michael Jackson episode the week after he passed. That said, I don't want a Futurama episode that they only worked on for 6 days.
- For some reason, that one didn’t annoy me as much. Maybe I saw that season only after it came out on DVD, and thought “yeah, this is dated, but I see how it landed when it was still fresh. This season, I’m watching the episodes within a day or two of them coming out, so it feels like getting stale bread at the bakery.

I think that this reboot suffers by unconscious comparison to the best episodes of seasons past, and the competition from a lot of great animated shows that have come out in years since. Also, this time around, the writers are much more into sentiment than rapid-fire comedy. We already got hints of that by the conclusion of the Comedy Central run.

Again, I was glad to have this episode, even if it’s not a classic. I feel it’s about on par with The Thief of Bag Head, to pick an example, and just about anything is better than The Beast with a Billion Backs.

Folks enjoying it ?

I think maybe a bit stale. Futurama was my favorite and I recently binged them all last year.

I think there's soo much animation these days that Futurama doesn't do anything new. It was new and exciting when it came out. I love futurology but Futurama doesn't really use it's year 3000 much. It's more humdrum stuff that doesn't even need aliens and robots and stuff

All those other newer animations simply arent level-headed enough. They are too impulsive. Not like old, predictable, dull-as-dishwater Futurama.

/jk

But I wish Disenchantment became more popular, better advertised, and more predictable release scheduled. Because that was imho the same type of humor but with a fresh new twist. This new return of Futurama just feels like a Futurama rerun. Like nothing has changed in 10 years. Still fun though.

They should have done more with Fry and Leela as a couple, I think could add a bit more twist to it while not scaring the more conservative viewers.
- I soooo wanted to love disenchantment. I waited patiently and I've watched it, a few times. It's not good. It's not funny it's pretty dull and they just didn't put that much humour into it. Real let down. I enjoy the animation and the fantasy but it's nothing on konosuba or something similar.
Agreed it feels a bit stale. Most of the jokes are just references to past episodes, this episode in particular felt incredibly missable.
- None have been standouts. Here's hoping they push a bit
I don’t mind the staleness too much, the show had it’s prime years ago. I’m just glad we’re getting new episodes. I just don’t think we’re going to get another Luck of the Fryrish or Game of Tones this time around, you know?
- I would rather it have ended on a high note as it did before the reboot if all the episodes are going to be kind of meh. New episodes for the sake of new episodes don't do it for me. I'm hoping it picks up though
The pop culture references aren't interwoven into a story. Everything revolves around the theme decided for an episode, like cryptocurrency or something.

There arent events from the universe or born of characters emotion... it's just this linear march forward where the writers have x amount of time to cram in jokes surrounding a certain topic.

It's pretty pathetic. I could write better Futurama.
- Can you. I'd love some more original Futurama.
  
  Like when bender lost his arms and became a folk singer
🔥

Well, it's better than the previous ones imo

Yeah, the DUNEg reveal got a bit of a chuckle out of me, and the rest was... Fine. At least it didn't actively undermine existing stories like the Kiff episode.
- I think they're having a hard time walking the line of trying to introduce new people without prior context to the show and catering to long-time fans
That's what I thought. It's the first of the new season that made me smile. But I'm still not saving those, I don't feel the need to watch them twice. It's the equivalent of the late seasons of the Simpsons and I'm not sure it will improve.

I've refrained from commenting much on previous episodes of the new season, but I have to say this one disappointed me the most. Parasites Lost was my favorite episode of the original run, and in that episode at the end the parasites warn it will be easy for them to return.

So they name this episode Parasites Regained. Naturally my expectations are that Fry regains the worms. Instead of doing that, they just used the title as a callback joke but it's mostly unrelated to the plot. It's not even really about the effects from the same parasites, never mind it being about the same character.

As others have commented here, the jokes are stale and slow to fire. I don't think the writing has been strong enough to have resurrected the show again.

At best I've chuckled at this season. The original run - and even most of the Comedy Central episodes - were much funnier than this.

Maybe there will be some better episodes ahead, but I really don't see Futurama getting another season based on the strength of this one.

So they name this episode Parasites Regained.

Not sure if everyone here knows that Paradise Regained is Milton's sequel to his earlier Paradise Lost.
- No, actually I didn't make that connection. All the same, that doesn't sever the link to Parasites Lost.
  
  That is a valuable point though, and I thank you for bringing it up.
It feels like they made an inspiration board of all the best hits of their show and then tried to write an episode with at least 4 callbacks per episode... Maybe it's just producer interference or they felt nostalgic and aren't as sharp worded as they used to be but God I detest this new season for being basically Scrubs Interns but with the same cast which hurts more.
- I could've agree more. I really went into this new season with optimism, but I'm pretty meh on it overall.

Am I the only one who's having trouble processing the fact that Leela and Nibbler casually murdered someone early in the episode? I mean Futurama has always shown a lot of dark or mean humor, but that really threw me. Especially when they followed it up with such a sentimental story. I don't like it when shows try to mix the two. Either I'm watching the show with the mindset that nothing matters, or I'm getting invested in the characters and their arcs. I don't know about other people, but I can't do both at once.

Tbh leela has ruined every single episode for me so far this season its like the writers have no idea what they want to do with her character

I'm still confused Why it is called season 8 when it is season 11🤔

Reposted from https://lemmy.world/post/1904781 by @P34C0CK

Varies on who you ask, but it looks like both agree on Season 8.

Wikipedia:

FOX: Seasons 1-4

Movies: Season 5

Comedy Central: Seasons 6-7

Hulu: Season 8

TheTVdb:

FOX: Seasons 1-5

Comedy Central: Seasons 6-7

Hulu: Season 8