Yesterday ’s Futurama was a fun tale of robotic gangland vengeance , revealing Dr. Zoidberg ’s deepest insecurity , what Bender would look like as a bumpkin Moon Fannie Merritt Farmer , and why even a psychopathic Maffia hitman is a better friend and coworker than Bender .
“ secretiveness of the Clamps ” finds the Planet Express crew on a delivery to Long Long Island , where the Space Pope ( make his speaking debut ! ) is preside over the Donbot ’s girl ’s wedding . The episode somehow bring forth through this without making any references to the root of The Godfather , but it does feature a savage clamping of Calculon by Donbot ’s chief clamper , who is known as Clamps . ( His real name is Francis . )
Because Bender was cause out with the Donbot ’s other daughter in the same stable where the clamping went down , he becomes a crime syndicate witness , which ultimately forces him into looker protective covering . The Donbot makes Clamps join Planet Express so that he can go after down Bender . For all his homicidal furore , Clamps is a marked advance on Bender , but Dr. Zoidberg fear that the fresh employee is encroaching on his cutting greensward . Things amount to a head when they go to the Moon and meet Bender in his new life as a lunar hillbilly , which forces Clamps and Zoidberg into a final , clamp - heavy encounter .
“ Silence of the Clamps ” forms a form of loose trilogy with the previous two entries “ Ghost in the Machines ” and “ Law and Oracle . ” All three separate Bender and Fry for prolonged catamenia , and all of them ask , to one extent or another , just why these two are friends . And it ’s not as though the show has a really clear solvent – “ Ghost in the Machines ” shew that Bender will obliterate Fry with only the slightest irritation , and “ Law and Oracle ” suggested Fry was likely good off geminate with someone like URL . About all you’re able to say after these three episodes is that Fry and Bender both have a deeply irrational , most belike insane lovemaking for each other , although Fry is the only one that display this openly .
To some extent , they ’re both victims of their basic characteristic – Fry ’s stupidity , Bender ’s amorality / evilness – being ratcheted up to ever more utmost stage in the name of jokes . There are earlier episodes that really got to the heart of the Bender / Fry kinship – “ Godfellas ” is mayhap the right example , and it ’s easy to draw a blank that “ Jurassic Bark ” is n’t just about Fry ’s dog – but it ’s hard to get at that spirit level of aroused plangency when the character have become so totally idiotic . It ’s not as if the show ca n’t still be affecting , even heartrending – “ Lethal Inspection ” and “ The Late Philip J. Fry ” pull that off nicely – but I will say the Bender / Fry pairing has gotten profoundly , deeply weird .
Thankfully , the episode does n’t really bank on that relationship , and it ’s more than funny enough to redress for the want of any real core at its core . Much like “ Law and Oracle ” , it ’s fun to see a supporting robot get a really meaty guest spot , and it ’s fun to see Clamps interact outside his usual robot Maffia environment . A great deal of Futurama plot line ask eccentric barely disguising their real intention , and no one barely disguises their homicidal murder quite like Clamps , with his job non - interview a peculiar highlight . Then there ’s the full-grown Fry / Clamps friendly relationship montage , which really plays up Fry as the ultimate loveable sap and features the greatest possible use of The Clash ’s “ Clampdown . ”
The instalment also clear great use of Dr. Zoidberg , who reveals that the only reason he ’s kept around is his accessibility with the claw . If you enquire me to name pairings for climactic Futurama fighting sequences , “ Zoidberg and Clamps ” would in all likelihood slot in somewhere below “ Scruffy and Richard Nixon ’s head ” – which I still very much hope to see materialize someday – but the big face-off is very singular and attractively invigorate … indeed , even when the scripts are n’t quite as good as you might wish , this show is still consistently gorgeous to look at . Zoidberg and Clamps also detest each other enough to indulge in multiple bleeped f - bombs , which I ’m guess the show would not have get by with back on Fox .
Much like “ Law and Oracle ” , there were n’t very many sci - fi conception on showing here , so this is another instalment where one ’s enjoyment is particularly dependent on the character of the gags . For me , this was another very amusing installment . Calculon is always a darn , and his barely rehearsed testimony exonerating the Donbot was probably my pet gag of the dark . The golem mafia has always been one of the show ’s most fearlessly absurd elements , and the Donbot ’s girl Bella is a great addition to an already ultra - meta tribe , with her frequent demands of union from Bender ( even as he ’s in the center of pull in out with some floozy , namely her ) and combination wedding / funeral dress being a wondrously phantasmagorical take on rabble family figure of speech .
Before I wrap up , a intelligence needs to be say for Maurice LaMarche . While most of the histrion on this show are marvel of vocal versatility , some episodes just seem to be set aside as display case for LaMarche ’s voices . Last season , that was “ Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences ” , which spotlight his oeuvre as Lrrr and Orson Welles ( and just bag him an Emmy nominating speech ) . I ’d count on he provided about 70 % of the voices in this episode – hell , the trial scene alone features Clamps , the Donbot , the Hyper - Chicken , Hedonism Bot , and Calculon , all of which are LaMarche voices . Basically , I ’ve beat a pretty scheming guess which instalment he ’ll be submitting for an Emmy next yr …
FuturamaTelevision
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and polish news in your inbox daily .
intelligence from the time to come , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
