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Futurama Reviews: S10E03 -"Fifty Shades of Green"

Fry and Leela have had their ups and downs as a couple or would-be couple over the years, but it’s been a while since an episode was entirely devoted to their relationship (and not in a poignant season finale kind of way). For the most part this Hulu run has been content to depict them as cute and stable; which is nice, but “Fifty Shades of Green” addressing their dynamic as a couple seriously was an important move. And though I wish it had done a little bit more and been a little more fresh in its themes, the acknowledgement is appreciated and the episode is a mild step up for this season so far.
I like that the show didn’t feel obligated to do another XMas episode for the sake of it, beginning here at the end of XMas and the awkward week between it and New Years. The writers were clearly attentive of the fact that this is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the series and consequently in the show of Fry and Leela meeting -though Fry isn’t sure which anniversary (“Who knows” says the Professor, “it’s impossible to say with all the time loops we’ve been through”). While Leela spends the week with her parents, Fry plans an elaborate surprise anniversary party, complete with fireworks, a cryogenic tube, and virtually the whole city being in on it. But it all goes to hell before even taking off when Leela notices Fry forgot to water her plant despite being told to; her frustration over this undercutting Fry’s attempts to impress her otherwise -reliability quite fairly meaning more to her than gestures. This leads to her starting to reconsider their relationship and giving Fry the cold shoulder at work.
Of the manufactured ways to break up Fry and Leela for a time, this is a better one, and allows the show to look at their relationship as a relationship -something that it hasn’t done a whole lot. Leela pointing out the plant as a metaphor is a harsh if cogent one, and it is good to see the show stressing that Fry has to work for their relationship (it would be more interesting to see this from Leela’s perspective, but it’s good nonetheless). However this gets a little bit lost by the episode taking on an elaborate soulmate conceit. Once again invoking modern A.I., it’s revealed that the dating app market crashed in the twenty-first century as a result of A.I. determining soulmates with perfect accuracy. The technology now exists in black market magic mirrors, which the gang manages to get a hold of to confirm for Fry that he and Leela are meant to be together. You can see where this is going. While Leela is unsurprisingly Fry’s soulmate he it turns out is not hers, and so he endeavours to seek out the stranger Branch Woodsman, an arborist in Central Park.
He turns out to be a modestly normal guy, passionate about the plants he takes care of and protects from the monster-like invasive species, and he and Fry get along as they fend these off. The plant in particular that he cares about has a purple bloom and a big white bulb. The two both wind up in the hospital from this, where Leela there to reconcile with Fry locks eyes with Branch before Fry falls into a month-long coma. All of this is relayed very abruptly -again the pacing through this and the last couple seasons has been very hectic as plots are made sometimes needlessly elaborate. Of course upon waking, Fry is quick to believe that Leela and Branch are a couple now, in line with the Magic Mirror’s determination.
It is in finding Branch again that Fry is confronted with his moral lesson of the episode, relayed again as a metaphor through plants, as Branch reveals that the Creeping Willows they were fending off before were actually the male of the species he was tending to, saying directly “all she really needed was for me to step out of the way”. It’s blunt enough that it can get through even to Fry, and he makes the tough choice to recognize that he ought to give Leela up for her own happiness. It is a somewhat awkward fit -he was not possessive or over-protective, his flaw was his lack of dependency where it concerned the little things in a relationship; considering the big gestures over the small virtues. Apart from that, Fry has been here before -there have been several instances through the series where he put Leela’s needs and her future selflessly ahead of his own, it’s part of what has made their romance so endearing. Here it does feel notably more contrived, especially with Branch being such a non-threatening entity. And sure enough, Leela rejects Fry’s giving her up -considering Branch merely a friend (and one who talks about plants too much), thereby invalidating the Magic Mirror and deciding that Fry’s willingness to let her go makes him her true soulmate. It doesn’t totally make sense but we get a cute Fry and Leela ending out of it.
“Fifty Shades of Green” slots well in the mediocre category of Futurama episodes. I admire what it strived for, but it didn’t do a whole lot with the potential of its mature themes. There absolutely should be more episodes like it though, analyzing the nuances of Fry and Leela’s relationship, if indeed there is still time.
Now, some more stray observations:
  • Poor Charlie indeed. I wonder how many other temporary employees Planet Express takes on and loses between episodes.
  • Across the border from Earth we return to The Beast With Two Bucks, the skeezy alien contraband shop first introduced in “Spanish Fry”. I get that it works for the premise here, but I’d really like it if Futurama started introducing new places and characters again instead of just calling back on all the old ones.
  • “Nobody needed Rudy Giuliani anyway”. Not in their time, not in ours -a fitting tribute I think.
  • The Head of Kenny G playing at Fry’s party for Leela really feels like the show stretching to afford special guests. I mean no disrespect to Kenny G, he was relevant in the 90s -but he hasn’t been since and it’s doubtful anyone under thirty potentially watching this show even knows who he is. Especially in this context of a grand musician to serenade Leela, he’s a very obscure choice.
  • You know things are at a serious risk between Fry and Leela when she starts referring to him by his first name.
  • “USB: I think it was the new name after the collapse of the USA” -first good joke of the season.
  • Nice to have the confirmation that Amy and Kif are indeed soulmates. Can’t be wrecking that relationship, they got kids now.
  • The way Fry inadvertently starts setting up Branch with Leela is dumb but kinda fits Fry’s level of dumb. That is refreshing given how often the show has lately made him so much thicker than he used to be.
  • Branch Woodsman really is a dull figure to be Leela’s next love interest. I thought he might be another guest voice given his prominence but no, it’s just David Herman in probably the most natural voice he’s used on this show. I kind of wonder if there’s a quota in place for Herman, Maurice LaMarche, and Tress MacNeille -who don’t voice regulars- in terms of giving them enough to do each episode. And if that in any way has an adverse effect on the story or casting.

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