by Sol Harris
Related to Items You’ve Viewed brings us to the halfway mark of this batch of new Futurama episodes, and it finally feels as though the show has fully hit its old stride again. While the previous episodes have all been good, they’ve all felt ever so slightly off in one way or another. Related to Items You’ve Viewed. however, feels as though it could slot imperceptibly in amongst everything that came before it.
The episode is being sold to us as an Amazon satire using Mom’s new endeavour, Momazon (making a surprising transfer over to the main show from the 2016 Futurama mobile game Game of Drones). The real selling point here, however, should be the subplot in which Leela finally moves in with Fry (and, by extension, Bender). There were fears that Fry and Leela’s relationship might feel stale in the revival now that they’re firmly established as a couple – what if the thrill was just in the chase? Those doubts are now put to rest. Watching the characters fight as they adjust to their new lives before seeing them turn the fight into something sincere and tender should prove there’s plenty of life left in their dynamic yet. “This is just the standard moving-in-together fight”, says Leela at one point. “Well, I’m glad I get to fight it with you”, replies Fry.
While audiences should get a kick out of the pair finally moving their relationship forwards, Bender unsurprisingly feels jealous and, rebelling against his new third-wheel status, decides to quit Planet Express for a job in the Momazon warehouse on the Moon. While the emotional backbone of the episode is what really makes it purr, the A-plot is very much a one-to-one Amazon spoof. Don’t worry if that doesn’t sound particularly interesting, though, because it’s a launchpad for the hardest sci-fi storyline of the revival so far, involving an existential threat caused by nanobots and artificial intelligence run amok in the form of Invasa (the show’s take on the Amazon Alexa).
The episode showcases the welcome return of David A. Goodman, who wrote one of the all-time great episodes of the original run, Where No Fan Has Gone Before, a love letter to Star Trek: The Original Series. He didn’t return for the show’s previous revival on Comedy Central as he was busy working on Family Guy, but he’s back for this revival, and it’s safe to say that his previous episode wasn’t a fluke. Not only has Goodman been honing his sci-fi chops by writing for shows like Star Trek: Enterprise and The Orville since he last worked on Futurama, but Related to Items You’ve Viewed is the funniest episode of the revival so far, too. While the Amazon jokes are mostly fairly low-hanging fruit, they’re all sandwiched between big laughs about everything from Fry’s inability to grasp mathematics to confused werewolves.
Without giving things away, the episode’s ending plays out spiritually similarly to past episodes The Late Philip J. Fry and That Darn Katz! It seems like the show’s writers love the idea of pushing things so far in one direction that they essentially come out the other side. It’s also yet another episode of this new run to shake up the show’s status quo permanently. It’s exactly the sort of thing that will help to keep it fresh for hopefully many more years to come.
