FUTURAMA Season 8, Episode 8: ZAPP GETS CANCELED

Written By:

Sol Harris

by Sol Harris

Hot on the heels of last week’s somewhat tired attempt to satirise COVID with Rage Against the Vaccine, there were worries that this week’s new episode of Futurama, Zapp Gets Canceled, would be a similarly weak attempt to capitalise on current events. When the season’s episode titles were announced, Zapp Gets Canceled seemed like the most worrying, if only because Zapp was already effectively cancelled way back in Season 2’s Brannigan, Begin Again, released in 1999, well before cancel culture was really a thing.

Thankfully, the episodes have little in common beyond the very, very basic premise of Zapp losing his Democratic Order of Planets (DOOP) job. Whereas Brannigan, Begin Again saw Zapp getting a new job working on the crew at Planet Express, Zapp Gets Canceled reverses things, with Leela taking his old job as captain of the Nimbus starship – taking Fry and Bender with her.

Once the episode gets the limp cancel-culture gags out of its system (a mention of Zapp donning ‘greenface’ is probably the most egregious), Zapp Gets Canceled is a surprisingly sweet little adventure to a charming, new alien planet. The episode is extremely, very low stakes, but what it does works well. Leela-centric episodes don’t have the best hit ratio so it’s always nice when the writers find a way to absolutely nail it like they do here, giving Leela some much-needed character development and depth in a season that’s largely used her for comedy and little else.

The episode features a few damp squibs in terms of pacing, direction and plot beats, but for the most part, it’s a fun romp exploring a new air-powered planet with a wonderful design for new character, Dr. Gary Kind (and vocal performance from John DiMaggio to match). We’re also treated to a very welcome (not to mention thematically relevant) guest appearance from Kathy Griffin, who, of course, was ‘cancelled’ so badly back in 2017 that now she can only get work doing guest spots on sci-fi cartoons.

Minor flaws aside, Zapp Gets Canceled is a solid outing of the show that absolutely shatters expectations to prove itself as one of the better Season 8 episodes overall. If something had to be cancelled yet again, we’re glad it was Zapp Brannigan and not Futurama itself.