FUTURAMA Season 8, Episode 10: ALL THE WAY DOWN

Written By:

Sol Harris

All the Way Down is Futurama’s Season 8 swansong. And it’s safe to say that they saved the best for last. It’s a poignant, thoughtful episode that veers into true science fiction perhaps more than the show ever has before. Echoing past series highlights like The Late Philip J. Fry, the primary focus is less on laughs and more on exploring a genuinely fascinating concept.

When The Professor creates a simulation of the entire universe, it prompts a series of conversations regarding whether or not we all live in a simulation. After Bender (of all characters) convinces The Professor that, ethically speaking, he must do everything within his power to keep the simulation online (not to mention blissfully unaware of their artificial status), the crew sets about finding a sustainable energy source. Meanwhile, the simulated crew conduct an experiment to test whether or not they actually exist.

It’s a refreshingly domestic storyline for an episode of such scope. The obvious way to go when coming up with a season finale for a show like Futurama is some sort of epic space opera adventure that spans planets and galaxies. All the Way Down, on the other hand, mostly consists of sequences where the crew sit at their office desk and talk. This is exploration on a deeper level than space travel; it’s a philosophical exploration of the very nature of what it means to exist.

The episode manages to lay out some compelling scientific arguments that we’re all in a simulation with such breezy, entertaining ease that some of the cooler university lecturers out there will no doubt start using it as a teaching aide. It’s also deserving of praise for one major plot point towards the end. Without wanting to spoil things, it’s handled with a degree of ambiguity and nuance that cartoons like Futurama rarely employ, trusting that the audience is capable of putting two and two together for themselves.

While some of the visuals in Season 8 have been somewhat lacking, the animation here is also absolutely top-notch stuff. As well as the fun art design employed for the pixelated simulated world, the episode doesn’t skimp on showcasing the majesty of the cosmos either. It’s one of the nicest-looking episodes of the entire revival.

So, where does that leave Season 8 as a whole? It’s been a strange ride for a number of reasons. Despite being the series’ protagonist, Fry has felt largely sidelined to a small, supporting role throughout. In a season that’s given us a Hermes episode, an Amy episode, a Zapp Brannigan episode, a Zoidberg episode and even a Nibbler episode, it’s somewhat bizarre that the closest thing to a Fry episode is one where he’s confined to a robotic cocoon for most of the runtime.

It’s also noticeably the first season since Season 4 not to feature Futurama’s trademark emotional gut-punch ending montages, first seen in Jurassic Bark and repeated many times since. Perhaps this was a conscious effort to avoid relying on a formula, but it has to be said that the majority of Season 8 feels closer to the easily dismissable sitcom end of the spectrum than the epic, sci-fi stuff fans have come to expect from the show as it evolved.

Given that Season 8 is only ten episodes long, it’s difficult to fully compare it to past outings (Seasons 6 and 7 both contained 26 episodes each, for instance). In all honestly, it’s undeniably the weakest season of the show to date, but the fact that this is even up for discussion is a testament to how strongly the show has managed to return after a decade. Season 8 feels in many ways like a warm-up, and we truly hope that’ll be reflected in Season 9 next year. Until then, All the Way Down stands as the show’s biggest argument in favour of the revival, and it’s a pretty good one.