The eighth season of Futurama has not been a stellar return to form after a decade away. It has struggled in both ideas and humour, fumbled some of its characterization and commentary, and its best episodes have merely been okay by the standards of its classic run. Overall, the season has done little to justify its renewed existence. There was a point in “All the Way Down” where, in light of last week’s episode, I worried the entire show was going to be another style gimmick of the minimalist Minecraft-like pixelated format introduced as the reality for a miniature universe the Professor has created. But David X. Cohen, Futurama’s executive producer, architect, and the credited writer on this episode, let sharper instincts prevail. Surprisingly intellectually captivating ones in fact. I still don’t know that Futurama has earned this revival, but “All the Way Down” demonstrates there are still rich and compelling ideas for the show to mine.
When I heard that this episode was going to be about simulated reality, I was very curious. It’s one of those staple sci-fi ideas that Futurama hadn’t really engaged with yet (there is of course the artificial reality of the internet in this universe, but it’s not the same). I don’t know why I expected it would be some take on The Matrix in 2023; but I certainly didn’t expect it would bypass The Matrix for a conversation on the kind of Baudrillard philosophies that inspired it.
Though punctuated by jokes and silly reference points, a lot of the episode is weirdly concerned with assessing the nature of reality. The Professor’s miniature simulated world and the obliviousness of its counterpart denizens is a jumping-off point for the gang to consider their own reality, for Bender to find empathy with other beings that are artificially made, and ultimately for a confrontation of what reality means and whether it should even matter. Even for a show like Futurama, it’s some heady material –with Amy pointing out each “real” scientific theory that corresponds to a constructed facet of the Professor’s universe. And it’s hard not to take note of the conscious and unconscious meta commentary too. As the Professor keeps the simulation running on Bender’s insistence, increasing resolution and allowing the simulation to evolve, we see some familiar story beats (and I love the probably unintentional insinuation that “The Impossible Stream” and “The Prince and the Product” could be artificially constructed plots). The reality of Futurama is its own simulation, and this script touches on that without going so far as to break the fourth wall.
Bender’s latest existential crisis is hard to take stock in, as he’s been through this ringer a few times already related to the finer points of his automaton nature. Cohen has always been very interested in exploring Bender’s agency even where it flies in the face of established continuity. His last writing credit for the show was season seven’s mostly forgettable “Free Will Hunting”, and Bender’s conundrum is mostly the same here. Yet John DiMaggio gives an authentic performance, and while the purpose of Bender’s existential quandary might seem initially to just further the discussion, it’s ultimately imbued with a lot more pathos than any episode that has gone down this road since “Lethal Inspection” back in 2010.
For what is mostly a bottle show, the episode has a lot going on. There’s a very brief visit to a robot strip club, a briefer underground dig to a sewer pipe. And it’s not a very tight or particularly well-constructed. At the end a Fry and Leela romantic beat comes into focus, and for as sweet and heartwarming as it genuinely is, there was no lead-in to it. It’s really nice, but also kind of shoehorned out of the series’ obligation to leave its audience on a Fry and Leela moment. And I feel it’s worth bringing up that while the episode is funnier than most this season, there are still a few real duds of jokes –both Bender’s elongated scream as he leaps in front of the reality-powering generator, and the completely tedious explanation for why it took him so long to collide with the Professor being the biggest examples.
As the principal storyline plays out, the simulated Planet Express crew, as monitored by their ‘real’ equivalents, come to the same existential problem when their Professor creates his own simulated universe which begets another simulated universe and on and on (“turtles all the way down”). They make the choice to manipulate a Magnetar explosion, theorizing that the sheer scale and improbability will expose any glitches in their universe –which the original Professor concludes will happen. Bender’s consciousness is downloaded into the simulation Bender’s body so he can tell them the truth instead. Before he can however, he experiences an epiphany courtesy of the simulatiuon Fry. “I think it makes no difference at all,” he says. “Either way, the laws of the universe are way beyond our control, so what can we do: we just make the best of it.” He continues by once more professing his unending love for Leela, stating that “that much is real, even if we’re not.” It’s the best Fry moment this season, coloured by a beautiful recontextualization of Descartes: I feel, therefore I am. What is more real than that? It moves Bender considerably, and then curiously he returns to his reality with a plan that the Professor puts into action. The simulated reality will continue running, but at a hyper-slow, easy to manage speed; and gradually, over some millennia in our time, that Planet Express crew watch the Magnetar beautifully explode, revealing to them the nature of their universe; to which they react not in hopelessness or fear, but wonder -Fry and Leela in each other's arms.
And honestly for the emotional, thoughtful tenor of this ending alone, “All the Way Down” is a notch above anything else done this season, regardless of what cracks it does have. Perhaps it doesn’t fully engage with the meta-physical, philosophical complexes it raises, but it expresses them aptly and comes out with a wonderful conclusion to the issue regardless. Through its meta-text it has something to say about Futurama as well. Simulated though it is by a bunch of animators in Korea, a team of writers, directors, and voice actors in L.A., the feelings it evokes are real.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it does justify the reboot just a little bit…
Now once more, some stray observations:
- The Space Italy sequence is funnier than anything from “The Prince and the Product”. It actually does take advantage of the minimalist brick style to the animation -the Leaning Tower of Pisa gag especially.
- The episode also lampshades a certain lack of creativity when it comes to naming places in Futurama, where the Professor notes it’s hard to come up with creative names for everything in this universe -referencing the Robot World from “Fear of a Bot Planet”. It’s not the best example though because that planet does have a name: Chapek 9. Space Italy for the record, is only marginally less dumb than the Prince of Space.
- I like to think that Bender’s intense concern for the Professor caring about the miniature universe he created is because of his own experiences being a God to a microscopic civilization in “Godfellas”.
- One of the show’s better memorable gags came back in this episode: the Professor sharing a scientific breakthrough with his staff in an incredibly inappropriate setting -in this case on the toilet where he apparently does his best thinking.
- Really appreciate that one cut to black on the successive gasps of the nested Planet Express crews -and permitting the audience to join in as well. There’s no need for mid-act “commercial” breaks on streaming, but I’m glad the show maintains the format for reasons like this.
- When the ship is tunneling under the city to generate more power, there are a few easter egg references to be found: the wreck of the land Titanic from “The Mutants Are Revolting”, the albino humping worm from “The Futurama Holiday Spectacular”, and road signs to Sewer City and Robot Hell.
- “New evidence was presented and I changed my mind” says the Professor on reaching the opposite conclusion from a few minutes before. “I’m a scientist not a politician.” Bender interjects this line with “idiot” which is wholly unnecessary -we already get it.
- In this episode where the Professor creates another universe, there’s no acknowledgement to the last time he did that in “The Farnsworth Parabox”. Seems kind of relevant to the discussion of the nature of their reality. I wonder whatever happened to that box containing their own universe.
- So if you noticed, this episode does quietly confirm that the primary Futurama reality is a simulation. When Bender's consciousness was downloaded into the simulation he was told he could never come back, and that each successive Bender would be pushed into the next universe in infinite regress. At the end of the episode Bender brushes off how he managed to reboot (in the same manner the simulation did) or where he came up with the solution, subtly implying that this Bender's consciousness is from a reality above theirs. I can only presume that this means the Bender we see at the end of the episode (and going forwards) is literally John DiMaggio.
- I like any time Futurama chooses a song to go out on. Makes for some of the show’s best moments honestly. And it works well here to give the episode’s touching end that extra bit of gravity. Like “Baby Love Child” by Pizzicato Five and “Manchild” by Eels, it’s a nice indie gem called “Satellite” by the band Tea.
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